Lecture on Lautoka from evening before.

It will be 26 C temp …65% chance of rain even if it’s on the dry side of island.

Use bug spray. McDs and Starbucks have wifi. 3 kms to town so take the free shuttle bus. LT……metered taxi, LH…..not metered taxi.

Laukota is the 2nd largest city on the island with 90,000 people.

There are lots of places to exchange money.  Botanical Gardens…15 acres…. Lots of orchids.  Garden of the Sleeping Giant.  Flights directly to LA, SF and Vancouver.

Bathing in mud hot springs. Savennie beach…so nice and sandy but filled with trash.  Nadi, is the main beach town on this island.

Don’t drink the water or have ice cubes.  The people that live here don’t have a problem but we just might.

Jack’s still sells cannibalism forks…lol!

333 islands & 522 islets make up the nation of Fiji.

Excursion called “Leisurely Nadi”. Any word that has a “d” will be pronounced as if “nd”, hence Nadi is said like Nandi.

Indians are the 2nd largest population in Fiji with 44% of population. The main source of income here is a giant sugar mill. They also export pine wood chips to Japan. There is also a rum factory. Rum is made from sugar cane…. Rail lines are for sugarcane only, not passengers.

Foreign investors are leasing land for hotels etc. but there is no water on small islands.  Tom Cruse has one island. 

Largest Hindu temple in southern hemisphere in Nadi, where we stopped by the take pictures….from a distant. We are not allowed in. Diwali is coming up, is referred to as festival of light…is national holiday. 2-3,000,000 FJD for Hindu temple built in 1992-94. 4 full time priests now but used to be 7.  The temple is painted every 2 years because sun and humidity bleaches paint.  If you buy a new car they have it taken to temple to be blessed.

Sheep farming not successful because of high humidity so they cross bred with goats.

Tin houses are on built on leased land so that is why they don’t build anything permanent….hmmmm!

5 universities in Fiji…. 2 are run by religious groups.  English is official but 300 dialects for under a million population.  If you don’t pass English in any grade of school, you don’t pass to next grade. Every Fijian is registered to father’s village even if not born there.

Vacant lands that used to be used for sugarcane farms now are now being leased for industrial or commercial. Foreigners can own land if it is owned 5% by Fijians.

 Volcanic islands. There are no dangerous animals other than boa constrictors. “They just squeeze the life out of you. Then they eat you.”

DMC is like KFC but run by Koreans. There are also Burger King, Mcds.

Nadi International airport was built originally as airforce base during WW 2.  Built by NZ navy.  Suva airport can only handle maximum size of 737’s but Nadi can take bigger planes. You can fly non-stop from here to LA, San Francisco or Vancouver.

Base of mountain  is mud thermal pool….mountain of the sleeping giant. The one to the right looks like a woman on her back that is 8-9 months pregnant. Man is to left.

Trunks of trees at the base of the mountains are so wide it take 5-6 men spreading arms to reach around. 3500 years Fiji has been inhabited. 99% Fijian natives are Christian… 73% Indians are Hindus, balance are moslems. “Happy clappers” and “ceiling painters” are what the locals call Pentecostals.

2.80 $Fijian/ litre for gas

Education is compulsory  and free, composing of 3 terms except private religious schools that have 4.

Seafood is necessary in any feast.

End of October to April is monsoon/cyclone season…..so high humidity and up to 33C….must have ceiling fans in homes.

Villager look out for all ……incl children if parents are out, give money to help feed a family. 

50 USD for hotel here.  Rugby is national sport. F$120,000-250,000 (75-155,000 CAD) for very nice homes.  New govt recently moved retirement age to 55.  Now theywant to move it back to 62. Civil servants have housing but have to vacate at retirement but they have pension then.

38% GDP is from tourism.  There are tourist police to protect tourists.

Fiji is still a member of British Commonwealth even if has been booted out twice before.

Drove by Alligator Head mountain.

“Rolling of the golden orange”……the way it used to be to find your life partner. The man lets the orange roll toward the women. The women jump for the orange….sometimes there is a fight for it….lol!

15 mango for 2$… right now.  Later in year they are cheaper.   You can get drunk from the sweetness. Brown coconut used for cooking, green are young…for drinking the milk.

28% unemployed before Covid. But the country has opened up to foreign investors to open businesses and so unemployment has decreased.  Was FJD 2.60/hour income. Now $4.00/hr.   FJD 14-15/ kg for meat. Needless to say they don’t eat much meat. Their protein source mostly consists of fish

Recently police confiscated 3.6 tons of methamphetamine plus another 1.8 tons …..drugs are a problem here (as well as in the rest of the world it seems).

Below are just an array of pictures that I took when I took the shuttle into the town.