I recently celebrated a birthday (not a biggie) and a wedding anniversary (a reasonable milestone) on the same day in late April. John decided to take me along on a business trip to Fiji to mark these events a few days after the fact.
We don't really do resorts well, John and I, but it was a relaxing time at the Radisson Blu Resort Fiji Denarau Island. One quickly learns that "Bula" means "hello," while "Vinaka" means "thank you."
We visited nearby Port Denarau for a change of scenery from the row of resort hotels, but the most interesting thing we did from my vantage point was to go into the market in Nadi, where all sorts of produce, fish, Indian spices and kava are sold. Not many tourists seem to venture there (I seemed to attract quite a bit of attention walking around), it's really where the locals shop. But vendors were quite happy to tell us about what they were selling, and what things were used for in cooking.
I'm leading off with the requisite palm tree/beach shot, since as you'll see that really wasn't what captured my eye during our visit!
In addition to the ragged shag carpet above, what was amusing about this was that there were no seat belts in the taxi, nor in most we rode in!
The above is "kava," which is sold in a separate, darkened room at the back of the market, by men only. When John and I walked into this area it had an illicit feel to it for some reason. Kava is used throughout the Pacific Islands for its numbing, relaxing effect. Apparently some medical research is uncovering potential benefit in the treatment of cancer. While a vendor suggested we try some (what's a visit to Fiji if you don't try kava?!), we took a pass!
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