The Ferry to Suva

On the morning I left Lavena, there was a glorious sunrise. I was given a mighty send-off, I suppose.

And then it was off to catch the ferry, for a twenty hour journey to Suva.

When I joined the three people on the hike at Vidawa, I heard bad things. One of the women knew the ferry and said that if I had the budget, I should fly. Then at the lodge the last two nights, a guy had come and stayed. His name was Alex. He said the ferries were crap. Literally. He said it was awful and that he really didn't want to go on it, but had no particular choice. So when I got to the ferry, I was wondering just what kind of conditions I would find. It was really quite nice. I guess Alex had been talking about economy class. As a visiting traveller, it is often best to spend just a little bit extra and get the higher class on a travelling option. First class on the ferry got a bed, and didn't have to sleep on deck. The bathrooms, which Alex had told me about, were also just fine. The economy bathrooms must have been atrocious. (But then, they couldn't have been worse than the worst bathroom in the world, which I had both seen and had to use. They were on the Qinghai Plateau in China. So nothing would have surprised me on that score.)

Now it was really just a ferry with some cabins where passengers could sleep, so there wasn't much of interest while the ferry was on its way. There was a pearl farm in Savusavu. But as you can tell, it was riveting to look at. Other than that, there was a lot of water to look at, so not much of interest to take photos of. And at night, there wasn't even that much.

But on arrival in Suva, I watched how they put cars on the upper deck. Cool.

And then it was into Suva itself. That was an arrival back to reality.

I decided that it was best to go on to Nadi that day. The first good bus to Nadi had already gone by the time I arrived in Suva, so I booked the afternoon bus. That left me with a few hours in Suva to look around. I had been asking around about the Bula Art Festival, where Serah in the Solomon Islands had said she would be for May. But everyone seemed to think it was in Nadi. And then I went walking around in town to find an internet cafe, and some breakfast, and maybe some souvenirs. I found breakfast, at McDonald's. I found internet access and caught up on 60 or 70 piled up emails. And I found souvenirs, with the help of a very friendly guy who took me to a couple of shops. He knew the owners. I know I should have been a bit more discerning and shopped around a bit more. I did end up happy with the prices I paid, but it was a bit too easy to get the prices I paid. And then my helpful friend demanded a consideration for his helpfulness. Nope, it wasn't the friendly, helpful environment of Lavena anymore. Then I went looking around the area in Suva. I saw the Parliament House.

I saw an old falling down hotel, that apparently you can just walk in and look around, at your own risk. But I didn't find out about that until just before the bus ride, from a fellow traveller. Oh well, that would have been interesting.

I saw the President's House.

And his guard, dressed in full traditional regalia.

Finally, I found the Suva Museum. Inside they had some historical items that were quite interesting. There was this boat that the old-time Fijians used to travel the south Pacific. And they did it without any instruments. No compasses. No maps. No navigational instruments of any kind. They only used their knowledge of the positions of the stars and the way the swells on the oceans rose and fell. I think that was quite amazing.