Fiji 2000, Part 3

Last day in Santo Domingo. Spending the time catching up with the diary. One
more day and I will be back in a land where I won'thave to strggle with the
language. Having said that half of Miami is Hisapnic, so...

Anyway, here is the last day of Fiji...  


THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER

Good sleep after Fajar. No trouble finding vegetarian food in Fiji but for
breakfast I went to the same place as dinner. Following it, went for a short
walk around town. Not much happening but didn’t really expect there to be.

We then went to a sugar cane mill, passing some men playing soccer. I took a
picture of them as I thought that they might be the Ba side, the best in the
country. No time to go inside the mill and so we only took photos from the
outside. At the plant met an off duty worker who walked with us back to town.
He not only confirmed that the soccer players were from the Ba side but also
said most of them play for the Fijian national side. It was a very humble
setting.

We left the worker and went looking for a bridge over the Ba River. Couldn’t
find the bridge - it seemed to have disappeared - but found the attention of
some suspicious police officers. They asked what we were doing in Fiji and in
particular why we took photos of the mill. Eventually they were satisfied with
our answers but one of them kept repeating  ‘so you are leaving today, right?’
countless number of times. Were they planning another coup the next day, we
asked ourselves.

Took a bus to Lautoka, the second city of the country. (Saw the bridge we were
searching for on crossing the river via another bridge.) And it felt like the
second city too, there being a hive of activity. It was a sunny day, the first
of all out one in Fiji, so there was a real buzz about the place. It felt like
a happy town. Amazing what the weather can do for a place.

The first place we went to was the mosque. Just missed Zuhr jamaat. I had a
haircut and a beard trim after the prayer. Had to visit it twice as they missed
a bit. Then walked to a Sikh temple. It wasn’t like the normal temples that
look almost like mosques. 

Headed towards the coast, bumping in to Mustafa at the beginning of a man made
spit. (What’s the technical name, oh geographers?) Continued to the end of the
spit where there were some Indians fishing. They mentioned something about a
preacher who’d been there only minutes earlier. 

The fishermen also complained about the raw deal the Indians were getting from
the constitution, particularly with regard to land rights. The Indians don’t
own any land. They were leasing but the Fijians no longer want to extend the
leases. We’d heard the same complaint many times during our time in Fiji.

Returned to the mosque and went to the bus station when Mustafa returned.
Headed back to Nadi. Only one thing to visit in Nadi – the country’s biggest
Hindu temple. Elaborate temple. Elaborate colours. Elaborate decorations.
Walked to the mosque on the other side of the town. Not so elaborate but very
functional, being very similar in design to the other mosques of the country. 
Asr, a wait, Maghrib.

Got the attention of locals and one of them gave us a lift to an Internet
place. It was closed. He then found a cab to take us to the airport. Before
taking the cab, Mustafa checked email at another place whilst I went to have
dinner. The owner of the cafeteria was very funny (as in peculiar). He seemed
quite upset that I’d been in Fiji four days and this was my first visit to his
shop. Even more so when I said I didn’t know when I’d next be visiting the
country. 
    
Collecting our main packs from the hostel of Sunday night, we arrived at the
airport in plenty of time. The cabbie told us how the Indians have corrupted
the once innocent Fijians with their wily business ways. No problem with
immigration. Prayed Isha in the waiting lobby, bought some cheap duty free
films and boarded the flight to the City Of Angels.

Very empty plane. Had three seats to myself for the 10-hour long flight so
slept very well. Can’t remember much about the vegetarian food.