Talked with Kate and Ben from Perth, Australia. They told us all about their shopping experiences in Bali and suggested some countermeasures to avoid being hoodwinked into paying too much for items and services. They also spoke of how sad it was that the economy was devasted after the bombings. People were really hurting for money.

Being on a year-long world journey is an odd balance between helping out people and countries by spending money there but also being on guard against just being taken totally advantage of and limiting the amount of time you will be able to travel. Even at our best negotiated price, we're still often paying more than any of the local people would pay. And that fine with me.

An example of trying to gouge in Fiji is that we taken a taxi for $2 to a location and coming back a driver stopped and offered a ride back for $50!!! His lowest price was $15, still absurd. We declined and got a another taxi for $3.

There are about 25-30 people at the Coral View resort as compared to less than ten when we arrived. Kind of a neat experience at both ends! Very friendly atmosphere. Pretty easy to speak to anyone you would like to.

We went snorkeling today. Saw a beautiful Emperor Angelfish flourescent blue and white on a black background. Later on played volleyball. I also rented a small sit-on-top a kayak and paddled from the other side of the island to the resort and back. There were no backstraps on these kayaks. I found that an hour holding up your own back while paddling was plenty! This was a great day!

We saw a notice at one of the other resorts on Tavewa Island that said, "We have activities, but we don't ask you if you want to do them." This was a major shift from the hectic commercialism of Nadi. Kinda cool.

It sprinkled rain as John and I took a walk on the coral (dead coral) in front of the Coral View resort this morning. We saw "Brittle Star" starfish, a sea snake, and lots of crabs.

Peter and Terry are leaving today. Lots of comings and goings. It's so neat to be in a group of people where everyone is traveling. They've been places and are going places and have lots of stories and plans.

They killed a pig today during our vollyball game. It was quite disconcerting for us and obviously much more so for the pig. John and I are still trying to figure out why they chose to kill it by dragging it to the water and drowning it. I now know first hand what the expression "squelling like a pig" means. It's not a pretty sound. It took four guys to haul it to the water. Later they were dragging it's body by it's feet across the water on a tarp past the volyball game. Some parts of island life are not all that pretty.

We took a trip to a water enclosed cave this morning. The ride out there was an adventure in itself. The waves were quite high and the boat was flying into them and sometimes dropping a considerable distance down to the trough after cresting the peaks. The wooden seats don't provide much cushioning... I sat next to a very attractive girl, Kate, from Finland. She's been traveling on her own for several months now. She appears to be loving it.

The entrance to the cave was from a large pool of water in sunlight open limestone grotto. We only had to hold our breath for a couple of second to make it underwater in the enclosed cave. Once inside you could see the sunlight shining through the bottom of the entraceway from underwater. As a group the Fiji leader led us back into a smaller area of the cave with a small shaft of light coming from somewhere above. As he was telling us about the "boogyman", a co-conspirator has swum underwater and popped out just in front of us to shreiks. We learned a version of ... Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, if you see a boogyman, don't forget to scream!

We took another route back on the leeward sides of the islands, which was much less jarring.

That night, BJ, a Norwegian traveller, showed us some of the awesome photos he had taken over the last 7-months. He had a portable PC with a sharp screen. He had neat photos of lightning over Sydney, pandas, Norway and car racing. He'd take over 7,000 digital photos in that period of time. BJ also helped us out a lot in our planning for China. He had been there twice for a month each.

More Bula dancing in the evening. John swore he tried to avoid it, but the Fiji women "dragged" him to the dance floor (in this case, a sand floor) every time. I have photos. They had the "Snake Dance" this evening. Which is basically like a "Siman says..." Conga line dance. The funniest thing was that their local hound, a German Sherpard - Daschund mix named Snoopy, loved the Snake dance. He would go right in the middle and follow people around as they moved with the line.

Later in the evening before bed I took a shower under the stars. The shower was fenced in but had no roof. It was a neat experience.

After a morning hike over to the Blue Lagoon and some snorkeling, we took a small boat to our next resort, Coral View, on Tavewa Island. There weren't many people staying there when we arrived, maybe less than ten. We met a real nice couple, Peter and Theresa (Terry) from Germany. Peter was going to be traveling for about 6-months though what would become the traditional route - if you start in Fiji then New Zealand, Australia, Bali or Singapore to SE Asia and then to Hong Kong. After that many people would be returning home or going to widely different destinations.

In the afternoon we took a hike to the other side of the Island. There were some incredible volcanic rock formations that we climbed all over and got some great views. Including a look at what looked like a great snorkeling area just beyond huge breaking waves. We got to explore that later on.

We had "Bula" dancing the first evening at Coral View. Then they had the guest join in a "statue" dance. They would start then stop the music and each time it stopped you had to freeze your movement and your facial expression. Quite humorous! Then they would add you had to stop on only one foot and other variations to help eliminate down to the final winners. The Fiji staff seemed to enjoy the dance as much or perhaps even more than the guests.

We started drinking rainwater at Coral View. They collect rainnwater in huge green plastic tanks that are feed from gutters on the roof of one of the buildings.

Took the Yasawa flyer to Nanuya Lai Lai to the Sunrise Resort. It was a gorgeous day, the flyer cruises at 23-knots and is a sleek looking craft. We stopped at a number of the island along the way to drop off and pick up people staying at other island resorts. The Sunrise is one of the more "basic" of the resorts. We had fried rice for lunch (included in resort cost), but bring your own water or buy a bottled water ($3/1.5 litters) or buy soft drinks for about $1.50 each.

We hiked across the island to the famous "Blue Lagoon", the one used as the setting for the movie of the same name. Unfortunately there was a huge cruise boat moared, they own half the lagoon, and it kinda spoiled any semblence of relating the movie to this setting. The Lagoon is still beautiful. We did some snorkeling.

At night our Fiji host welcomed us and asked each of us to share what country we were from, how long we were traveling for and our best and our worst travel experiences to date. We, of course, were able to share our lost luggage experience. Others we like, "we crashed the car we rented 10-minutes after we bought insurance for it!".

Our buree was right on the edge of the beach and we had a strong breeze blowing through it the whole night that we were quite thankful for. The buree had no fan it would have been very hot without it. The views right from our window were truly goreous! Had a beautiful sunrise!

Whew! Finally got something planned other than finding our luggage. We're heading to the Yasawa Islands for a 14-day trip tomorrow by boat, the "Awesome Adventurer". We're spending 1 + 4 days on two islands at the top of the Yasawas, Nanuya Lailai and Tavewa, then on to a middle island, Naviti, for 4-days and finally to Waya for 5-days. Each island has it's own unique characteristics, I'll try to tell you what they are after we visit them. John's excited about caves you can only get to my swimming underneath the water and surfacing inside of them. I'm going to be practicing learning to hold my breath!

We'll probably be out of internet access for the next 15-days. Most of these islands do not even have any permanent electricity.

It took almost the entire day to do the final planning and book the trip. We talked to three different travel agents. The first travel agent appeared to have ADHT, he went through so many possibilities our mind was spinning afterwards. The second was so laid back, she said - "tell me where you want to go and where you want to stay and I'll give you a price and book it". That's what we needed help in figuring out! The third was "just right...". We decided to pay cash for most of it to avoid the 3% credit card fee. Some places also charge their own 5% fee making it a 8% total fee to make a payment by credit card!

We had looked at going to islands off the south and the west coast of Fiji, but the rainy season has begun and all of the agents suggested we avoid these areas at this time.

John did a great job bargaining for flippers and a snorkel today. Two shops started at a price of $100 Fiji dollars and John walked away with them (not wearing them) for $65. That's about $40 US compared to the $60 they asked for.

We both explored our packs to see what we had forgotten we had packed. I am definetly going to get rid of some stuff. When you realize you can live out of a day pack for three days, it makes you think a little more about what you really need to have with you.

I ran into the coconut tree climber today on the beach. He had completely forgotten who I was and was starting his same routine. Guess we foreigners all look alike!

We're feeling like we've learned a lot about traveling in the few days we've been here and have managed to get along pretty well. Like I mentioned in my intro quote on the home page, "the unfamiliar is becoming familiar".

I've took 74-pictures so far, John and I went through them and I deleted over half of them. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to upload very much. So well be having the pics burned to CD and send them to my cousin Ric who will post some of them on the web site.

That's all for now! REaaalllly excited about the trip tomorrow!
-Chris

John and I took a day trip to Taviu island on a reconditioned schooner to finally experience some of the beauty of Fiji beaches. It was a gorgeous trip over to the island. We did some snokeling, had lunch of Long-nose Emperor fish, salads fruits, potatoes and the Fiji Bitter local beer (quite bitter!). The water was quite clear and the beautiful blue color you see in the brochures.

On the way back were caught in a downpour that drenched everyone, but was actualy quite fun. Everyone was in good spirits. We also got to see two neat rainbows as the rain was clearing. We took lots of pictures.

Back at our hostel our backpacks finally arrived, thank God! We were due to stay in the dorms, as that was all that was available, but we ended up moving to a place within walking distance that was nicer and will allow us to repack everything. We had Thai Curry for dinner, I guess some things just don't change!

We're planning a trip to the Yasawa Islands and will be getting with travel agents to work it out. Hopefully we'll be leaving for that in a couple of days.

Aaaahhh! So nice to finally have the packs arrive!

I want to thank friends who helped me moving and packing before I left. Thanks TJ for being the first one helping me get started packing and moving on Saturday! Awesome thanks to Trevor for helping me for the entire last two days to pack, move, organize and not get overwhelmed with all that we had to do!

Just another beautiful day in paradise with no luggage! Had a good nights rest in our private, air conditioned room. We've splurged a little at first to get our travel legs steadied before launching into the dorm style lodging. Took a walk on the beach, had an encounter with a local coconut tree climber who show me his art and encouraged me to take pictures, climbing a coconut tree, dropping a few down, serving me the milk and meat and then asking for monery for he and his family of three. Gotta make a living some way, I guess!

Saw Thomas and Laura at breakfast, they had stayed in the A/C dorms. They looked totally dazed. They didn't get much sleep. I think we made the right choice in our accomodations for the start of this trip!

John's at the pool right now. We can be reimbursed for another $100 for items we need before our luggage arrives, but don't know if we want to make the trip into hot, sweltering downtown Nadi again. Staying by the pool sounds lots nicer! Hoping to get our luggage tomorrow and move on to a new area.

No big excitement yet, still gtting our travel legs steadied, but we're meeting a lot of nice people.

Greeting to you all from Fiji!
-Chris

Made it to Fiji safely, but our luggage didn't! Oh well, we all need some adventure. We're hoping it comes tomorrow.

Met some neat people on the flights from Atlanta to LA. A lady next to us had recently spent six weeks in Fiji with her husdband and loved it. She suggested some places to visit. I met Chi on the flight from Denver to LA. He's a medical intern in LA who is originally from Camerron (sp?), Africa. He plans to go back there to practice after a few years learning a specialty.

When we were in on a layover in LA John's brother took us out for a great dinner! It was neat to see the two Kuge brothers interacting.

Our first part of our morning in Fiji, starting at 5am, was spent looking for luggage that never arrived and then waiting in line to file the missing luggage report.

We have a fairly nice room with two beds with bunk beds above them. The cold water didn't start working until about 11am. We're starting out easy, after the ten hour flight form LA.

Air Pacific said they would reimburse us for up to $100 Fiji dollars for items we needed to purchase in the next 24-hours before the luggage arrived so we took a bus ride ($0.65) to downtown Nadi to shop for items. It was very hot, congested and had a mixture of low-end local shops and high end shops. We saw swim suits ranging from $10 to $100 Fiji dollars. Ending up buying a couple for $20 which is about $12 US, not bad, along with some other stuff we needed.

We had some really good Indian food for lunch. There a large Indian population here. They own a lot of the shops here.

We met a really nice, young couple, Laura and Thomas who are currently from Vancouver, Canada. Caught the bus with them back to the hostel we're staying at, cooled off in the hostels swimming pool and probably will be joining them for dinner. They're both quite adventurous. We may go with them to one of the nicest beaches in Fiji tomorrow.

To my Mom - I'm fine, the phone system here seems to cut out after about a minute whenever John and some others here have tried making long distance calls. Love yah!
-Chris

It's late on Friday morning, 1:10 a.m. Just finished uploading changes John and I made to the web site, www.notlostdammit.com. So many things left to do! I'm excited about the trip, but exhausted. For me, today was another day of giving away possessions or moving them to storage. Not many larger items left, but lots of little things to take care of. I had a great time at lunch with my friend Inez, Thai food, of course. Moved some things over to my friend Tony's for storage, helped John move some of his things to a storage locker, went to the pharmacy to get last minute items, dropped by Trevor's to borrow a photo scanner.

Tomorrow is a visit to the registry of motor vehicles to "un-register" my car. They still allow you the privilege of paying the ad valorem tax even when it's unregistered! I'm also dropping off some items at my former place of employment, a final visit to the dentist, maybe a trip to the optometrist and moving more stuff. Later in the evening is a "John Voyage" party for my traveling partner, John Kuge, at Apres Diem. Looking forward to that! (Beats moving stuff!) Well, I guess it is time to head to bed. Before I do, I want to express my thanks to cousin Ric for his work on our web site. Without him, it could not have happened! Good night!

One week away! Tickets in hand though India, inoculations finished (thankfully!) and funds transferred to fund this low-budget trip, but still lots to do. Monday I meet with my tax accountant to have my taxes figured out. Friday I'm having dental work done and de-registering my car. In between I'm working on the trip web site with my cousin Ric, www.notlostdammit.com, continuing to pack or give away most of my possessions, trying to make final decisions on what to bring with me, and converting everything I can into a format I can store on a computer hard drive (video tapes, CDs, and paper documents).

Speaking of giving away possessions, I had a great time Saturday. My friend (and pastor) Chris came by with his sons and daughter-in-law to pick up four loads of furniture. What a gift! I think they appreciated the furniture and I appreciated not having to work hard to find a good home for it and move it all. Another friend came by and picked up my 2nd kayak with his nephew, who he's giving it to. His young nephew (about 12) was very excited! Today my roommates sister and brother-in-law are coming to pick up some of his furniture and the rest of mine.

Well, my roommate and traveling partner is cooking breakfast this morning, so I'm going to sign off. More next time!