Learned more today, see below: Ron [the guy from CA] and I caught the bus to Suva this morning. It wasn't the express so it stopped a LOT. One of the stops was in this little town at a market. Indians were selling drinks, snacks, a kid came on the bus shouting, "Peanut, peanut, peanut, peanut…" It was $.20 for a little bag of roasted peanuts. I got three. We arrived and locals with wheelbarrows took our luggage to a taxi. The taxi driver was Indian and proceeded to tell us all the inside stuff about the hotels, pools, etc. This place was great, that place was filthy, etc. We ended up NOT going to the Coconut Inn like the guidebook recommended (he said it stunk) and instead stayed at the South Sea Hotel. It was $4 for a dorm [the term for a bunk in a large, communal room] or $11 for a double so we got the double thinking it would be safer.

We walked into town and just like the guidebook said - we had just read it - a friendly native showed up at our side and offered to show us around. He smiled and talked and asked us where we were from. He said he would show us the hand craft market. [Upon getting there] he sat us down and pulled out a pair of swords and asked us what our names were. Before you knew it, he told us we had just become the proud owners of a hand-crafted piece of Fiji art. He claimed to be a woodcarver. In the book [and we didn't read this part until later] it said the going price [for these wooden swords] was $5 [and] luckily Ron only gave him $20 for both. We are such sucker tourists.

Then it was off to the market. This place is huge. Booth after booth of fruit and vegetables and spices. They have little finger-bananas that are incredibly sweet. A bunch only costs $.50-1.00. I got a bunch and ate all afternoon.

Next we checked out the handcraft market. This place really was beautiful, but - it was all run by filthy, lying Indians.

[ASIDE - you will undoubtedly have detected a racial bias in my journal entries by this point. Looking back on the writing in this journal it's kind of embarrassing to read my own words but the situation in Fiji was quite stark at the time of my visit. The most popular expression in Fiji is to be on "Fiji time" which basically means that you'll get there whenever you happen to get there. This casual attitude permeates the local Fijian population. When the Indian population was introduced by the English during their period of colonization, an entirely different attitude, work ethic, etc. was introduced to this country. The Indians were used to having more than one job at a time, to working hard and to bartering for everything. By the time I had arrived, the animosity between the two races was quite high. Indians had taken most of the available jobs - think of the Indian family lampooned in the TV show Living Color - they routinely tried to exploit the tourists and they have this attitude of looking out for number one all the time. Naturally, some locals have sunk to the lowest common denominator and they are giving the rest of the local population a bad name. Hence the tension.]

I got a coral bracelet for $5 that was priced for $7.50 and next door I could have gotten the same thing for $3. We did get good, cheap food at the YMCA cafeteria. Then it was a swim and home to relax. I found 750 ml bottles of Fiji Bitter for $1.50 and got two.

Dinner tonight was PB & J on white Fiji bread. About all they have here is white bread. Five different varieties of white bread.

south coast Hwy