Sprawling Suva

Fiji's capital city following the British decision to change it from Levuka way back in 1882. Nowadays it is deemed the most vibrant city in the south pacific where high-rise buildings stand next to proud grand old colonial buildings. It's mixed population dating back to the days of the Raj and the early British empire.

Dare we say we became slightly bored of hotel life on the Coral Coast so we sorted a local hire car and headed for Suva some 100 odd kms east to see what this capital city had to offer. Plus Ryan, the New Yorker who we'd met in the Yasawas islands, was based there with his fiancé so thought it would be good to catch up again if nothing else.

Our hire car was an elderly Toyota estate. No radio but it did have lots of dashboard buttons one being a/c! After negotiating the Fijian traffic we found

 ourselves bang slap in the middle of organised chaos, aka Suva city centre. We called Ryan who pitched up some 10 minutes later. Suva was hot, humid and very busy.

For lunch we met Kelly, Ryan's fiancé, who'd not made it to the Yasawas as she had just taken a job in the city. Lunch was a fantastic Thali meal with some of Kelly's work colleagues. In the afternoon we headed for Suva's Fijian museum, enroute passing the government buildings and the Grand Pacific hotel - the chosen HQ for the ministry in previous coups. Yes the museum contained some things we already knew about Fiji after travelling around these islands for a couple of weeks but never the less it intrigued us. It was well worth a look giving us an insight to the early days of the Fijian Kingdom, the Cakobau government years, the strong connections between the southern ocean isles of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa through customs, beliefs and trade to the tale of 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. HMS Bounty's rudder taking pride of place in the first marine exhibition hall. After much history we decided to have liquid refreshments at the near by Royal Suva Yacht Club. Ryan has been looking for a excuse and we were glad to act as one as she was a beauty, the queen mugshot hanging proud above the bar.

That evening Kelly's office were having a bit of a do. A keg night as it was billed. We were invited to go along and with the tickets at £3 drink all you can, or until the keg is dry, it was a no brainer. We were a little out of practice but we did our best! We met some great local Fijians and heard tales from ex-pats from all over the world regarding their now new home. We were then treated to supper, which was nice as it was much needed to soak up all that Fijian bitter! As
R&K's apartment had a spare room we decided to stay the night and then pop to the market in the morning.

The Suva market pulls most if not all the nearby village folk into the city for one hell of a big weekly stock up.

It takes over a whole section of the centre of the city and on this day it was rammed. There was all sorts of fruits and veg. R&K bought a selection, now locals they needed to figure out how to cook this stuff so advice was taken from some very smiley Fijians. There was also beautiful local flowers and a fish section with all sorts of creatures from the deep!

With time ticking on we had to get our hire car back so we said our goodbyes and got back on the Queens Highway. We were about an hour in when our Japanese piece of tin decided to die! It was in the middle of nowhere and raining. Great! So we jumped out and waited for a passing vehicle that we thought looked ok to catch a lift back in.  After all this time travelling little things that could be deemed as a disaster are now accepted as an adventure! We jumped into a small van and got safely delivered back to base for a small exchange of notes.