A Day in Nadi Town!

Every day is an incredible new experience.

Today Dar and I took the bus into 'Nadi Town'. It's basically the downtown. And it was an experience for sure.

The day started out with our free hotel breakfast (which was incredithe best croissant of my life. It was super dense, nothing like any I've ever had here. Dar says it probably made from lard. Well I guess I like lard then!

Best Croissant of my life!

And after breakfast and a long Skype with Ryan... we headed out to the road to wait for the bus to downtown.

SO EXCITED TO TALK ABOUT THE BUS!!!!

The busses here run on 'Fiji time' so we were told the bus would be there sometime between 11:30 and 12, so we were pleasantly surprised when the bus showed up at 11:35. $1.50FD (~$.75USD) to ride into Nadi Town, and the bus itself can best be described as a jallopy. And it was the full developing country bus experience. Peeling paint, no door, no windows, and a big tarp on each side to cover the window-hole in case of rain. The pull string for requesting a  stop was a string attached to a bike bell so the bike bell rang when you pulled it. People jumped on and off this bus while it was still moving. And the best part, not only did this bus drive on dirt roads ...

Bus on the BEACH!

I am not exaggerating when I say that on the way back from town, the bus drove ON PURPOSE OFF OF THE ROAD AND ONTO THE BEACH. The bus drove down the beach to reach the next road. And no locals seemed to be bothered at all by this, so I guess it must be part of the regular route. so incredibly awesome.

OK so in the town. There were tons of little shops so we walked around a bit to check them out. There was this incredible piece of clothing I couldn't say no to. I don't think they even fit me but I had to get them anyway:

Yat me the you tan!

"Sweet Love"<- Got that one right.
"Romance... a kiss is slill a kiss" <-Shakespeare or something?
"Yat me the you tan" <- Is this "Catch me if you can"?
"ialine a the Wiante" <- Anyone? Is this English?

One thing here we've both been struggling with is how to tell when someone is being genuinely friendly, and when someone is just trying to get you to buy something from them. Perhaps it just comes with more experience, like knowing in the US not to talk to the people at the kiosks at the mall, but right now it's really hard, because you always have to have your guard up For example in the city there are 'street boys' who stand on the street, say "Bula" to you, and try to get you to talk to them, then try to get you into their store to buy stuff. It wouldn't be such a big deal if there weren't 10 of them on every block, and if your white skin didn't give you away so obviously as a tourist. So you end up just ignoring everyone who even tries to talk to you. But then at the bus stop you see this old lady who says "Bula", asks you where you are going, and you're short with her because you don't trust her, and it turns out she's just trying to help you and be friendly.

View from the bus station

Then again while we were probably approached by no less than 30 'street boys' and 30 taxi drivers asking if we needed a ride, we didn't see one single person begging for money all day.

In addition I'm extremely excited about the fact that 2 people assumed we were from Australia. I'm hoping it's because we looked like we were and not just because most white people are.

Also there are frogs that hop around at night. I finally snapped a picture of one last night.

Frogs!

Oh yeah, and we make our own water here. That is we purify the tap water. So here's a picture of Dar making water, just cuz it's different than what we did not here, and therefore cool to me.