We headed straight for the post office, we needed stamps and we thought this would be a great place to get some bits for the school, and it was we got.....packs of crayons, pens and pencils, note pads, rulars, coloured paper, sharpeners and it all came to just under $10! Which is around £3! Bargain! Then we headed to the shopping center and thats when we wished we were here longer! It was so cheap, both me and luke wanted to get a piece of fijian clothing he wanted a shirt and i wanted a dress and they were so cheap here but we just didnt have time to look, we might head back there later on in our fiji trip! There was also a cinema and we were told that fiji gets the latest films first as they are one of the first countrys to see the sun rise! And it was only $6 (£2) to go! With free popcorn! It was defo worth a day trip there! Anyway back on the bus as we were going to be given a bus tour of suva! It was really good we saw many lovely buildings amd we also saw coaches if cruise ships passengers being transported to the same places we went but they stopped for 5 mins for a picture! It was so funny!
Our next stop of the day was the fijian village, we was really looking forward to experiencing this, the majority of fijians lived in villages and each village had a chief and he or she was like The boss of the community, it was really basic living like the village in the photos i blogged about earlier. When we arrived we were given lovely flower necklaces, and were told to sign in, we also had to wear surrongs at all times as it was a sign of respect, there were villagers there selling locally made jewellary and traditional fijian items and our guide said that if we wanted anything like this we should buy it at the villages as the money goes straight to the people that make it and they use the money to buy living essentials so its like we were helping that village. I had already purchased a necklace and anklet at another resort but luke picked a bracelet for me it had a turtle on it that was a fijian symbol of good luck it was really pretty and only $10 which is around £3,! Bargain!
We were taken into one of the village huts ...quite a large one, this is where we would be involved in there traditional kava ceremony! It was great very very interesting to see there culture, and of course we all had to drink the kava again ! Its not so nice! It tastes like dirt! But it was so good to see all the chanting and the prayers and we were all sitting with the chief of the village it was quite a privilege !
.....a few snaps from the ceremony & me & luke looking all fijian!This went on for a while and after it had finished we shock everyones hand and spoke a little fijian to them and then we left the hut and wrote our comments about the ceremony in there book and then it was time for lunch, they had prepared loads of fresh vegs cooked all different ways and some veg we had never tried before and a tiny bit of meat But it was mostly veg! Which pleased me! There was a lot of spinich cooked in all different ways and it was scrummy :) it was a real feast....
....there was so much food!
....there was so much food!And of course we had to eat fijian style on the floor with our hands!! It was great.
After stuffing ourselves silly on food we were taken to the local village primary school up the road, and when we arrived we were greeted by all of the children singing there traditional welcome song! It was really nice and they all seemed happy to see us, we all had bought gifts and it amounted to quite a lot! The local guide that was showing us around explained the school is free and there transport to the school is free.....but only recently! Before the goverment appointed school buses the children had to walk up to 2km to school and back everyday! And the age range for primary school is like age 5 to 12! So some of them were quite young to be walking that far twice a day! We all signed in again and sat in front of the children and they proceded to entertain us with songs and dance! It was really good and they seemed to really enjoy it! And then we had to stand up and introduce ourselves! The whole experience was great and we would have loved to have stayed longer, at the end when everyone was walking towards the bus i was one of the last to leave and i asked our guide if i could take a pic with the children and he said of course! And the kids were so excited ! All the boys put there hay skirts back on for the photo it was great and they loved it and when the rest of the group saw what i was doing they all quite litrally run back to take pics and then the kids were so excited they all wanted there pics taken and wanted to look at the pics and they all said thanks for coming and some of the older ones shook our hands it was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed it just such a shame we couldnt stay longer.
We were then taken to do some bamboo rafting with the locals! We all boarded a bamboo raft and headed down stream towards the village! It was fun however everyone had maggots crawling all over them! So we all felt a little dirty!! But it was a great experience! We all got changed and said our goodbyes to everyone.
This was a great day and great experience, they actually do homestays and i wouldnt mind doing a homestay its only $40 a night (£13) that includes all your food and activitys! It would be such fun! We were lucky to experience this piece of traditional fijian culture, as feejee experience is the only company that is allowed to visit these villages no other tourist would get to go there, and they visit all different villages not just the one we were at so all the local villages benefit from us, which is nice and we feel very lucky to have experienced it :)
We headed to our next hotel which was raki raki hotel,when we arrived we were greeted very nicely by the staff, our room was fine and even had a tv! We watched a film later that night ! We had a group dinner and we had pizza and they were huge! 
We could not eat the whole thing! We had one each !! But they were tasty, we also got taught by our guide how to open a coconut properly so you get a nice clean edge ! It was really interesting!
We were well and truly falling in love with fiji and luke is already saying every day we must find out how much it costs to come back here!! He is hooked!! And so am i!! Fiji we love you xxxx
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