Day 2: Michael Phelps: The Great Uniter.

Sleeping on the ship was surprisingly restful. Despite the loud noises that went on all night I genuinely had my most restful sleep of the trip. We woke up to a delicious breakfast of french toast, omelettes and...spaghetti? Apparently it's a New Zealand thing. Grandpa also tried to make people leave the table they were sitting at by telling people "This is my family's table"....oh Grandpa. There were no assigned tables but we all know Grandpa is possessive. After breakfast we prepared our stuff to head to the island for the day. This island has a beach that is privately owned by Blue Lagoon Cruises, so it was a private beach just for us. It is located just across from Turtle Island which is where they filmed "The Blue Lagoon", the Brooke Shields movie. Since getting on the boat we were treated to the most beautiful water we had seen; the kind of water you picture when you imagine Fiji. See, the water by our resort is sort of murky because it was built on a man made beach. But the water out here at the islands was crystal clear. You could see straight to the bottom with varying degrees of blue depending on what is on the bottom of the ocean, sand or coral.

our view for most of the day.

We made our way ashore via tender and scoped out a spot for the day. Luckily, Early riser McGee (aka Uncle George) had scoped out prime real estate for us. We had several beach chairs on the beach with a hammock strung between 2 palm trees. Paradise. We immediately headed to the water. They called for a glass bottom boat tour and we all headed that way. Since Brandon's hand is broken it was one of his only opportunities to check out the undersea life. After heading out pretty far we floated above some amazing coral and were able to see some spectacular sea life. Returning to shore, Katlyn and Alyssa grabbed 2 spy boards, large skim boards with glass bottoms and started exploring the shore, while dad and I grabbed a kayak and headed out. Uncle George headed out with the snorkel group and everyone else soaked up the rays on the beach. After we returned, Dad took grandma for a ride in the kayak and I took a turn on a spy board. I headed out to the snorkeling area with Robb. I positioned my spy board above an anemone where a larger clown fish was swimming with its two babies. MARLIN AND NEMO!!!!! Then Robb told me that some of the fish were nibbling on him (it was right after feeding time) so i decided to head out of the water.

All of us ROCKIN THE SPY BOARDS!

After walking around the island a bit, reading in my hammock and sunbathing we headed down the beach for the BBQ lunch. The had chicken, beef , some fish, delicious potato salad and a wonderful pineapple coleslaw. We ate on the beach until we were bursting and laid around until about 3pm. We headed back to the boat via tender to shower and freshen up for our Lovo dinner planned back on the island. A Lovo is a traditional Fiji dinner. The meat is cooked in the sand, much like a luau. The hole is dug and rocks are lined on top. The meat is wrapped in palm and banana leaves and placed on top of the rocks. The whole thing is covered with sand and a few hours later....voila! food.

Lovo Pit...delish

After getting changed and chatting with out favorite deckhand, Oni we tendered back to the island for dinner. We started with cocktails and appetizers on the beach. We headed to watch them uncover the lovo pit and then it was time to eat. We had roasted pork leg, chicken and lamb. We were able to try some local favorites: Cassava and Taro root. Both tasted exactly like you would expect a root to taste. We also had a fijian version of ceviche but I have to be honest I stayed away from it.

Buffet style...

As we were in line for dessert there were a group of New Zealanders behind us. Keep in mind that we were the only Americans on the ship. The woman behind us turned to her friend and said "I hear that in America they have fresh whipping cream with every dessert!". Good ole' USA...your selling point is fresh whipping cream. Hell YEA!

Robb is still in detox from lack of Starbucks and Brandon has been attacked by a giant octopus.

After dinner the crew played music and sang. Joe, the cruise director stood up and told us that it was international night and that every country would have to give a little presentation. Now, he had mentioned this before but i thought it was a friggin joke!?! I mean geez...you should be entertaining me! I shouldn't have to work on my vacay dammit! So we quickly put our heads together (meaning everyone turned and asked me what I was gonna do) and I came up blank. I mean think about it...what kind of special songs or chants does America have? I though of singing "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Tobey Keith but didn't really think that would make us any friends on the ship. Finally our three minutes were up. Australia was up first and they sang some weird ass song that sounded like a song you would sing in a pub at like 3am. Then the Canadians (the 2 of them on the ship) played the "We're on our honeymoon" card so they got out of it. New Zealand sang another effing song and then it was our turn. So I stood up, faced everyone at the tables and said:

"As the representative for America we just have 2 things to say...Michael Phelps and Barack Obama"

and sat down. Short and sweet. SCOREBOARD SUCKAS.

After that the Fijians decided to calm things down and sing their national anthem and teach us about their flag. They continued playing music and even brought out some Kava. All of us, except Dad, Uncle George and Lisa, were tired from the long day, so we took the tender back to ship and our comfy beds waiting aboard.

Dad, Lisa and Uncle George stayed on their beach listening to music and drinking with the crew until the last tender carted them off.

Day 1: Car Troubles, Kava and some soccer

We left bright and early for Lautoka, the port where we were to catch our 3 day/night cruise through the Yasawa islands. We all piled into the "limo" with our needed luggage and took off for the 40 minute drive. We drove through the Fijian scenery, past sugar cane fields and little villages. About 15 miles into the trip, our trusty "limo" died. Mid-hill she just shut down. So after a quick pull over we cranked her back up and we were off again. For about 2 miles. She started again but a couple miles later...well you get the picture. The last 20 minutes of our trip were with held breath and all of us praying just to make it to the dock. I guess we figured we'd deal with her when we got back. With tears in our eyes we finally made it to the check in lounge. They welcomed us, assigned our rooms, measured us for snorkel gear and gave us our keys and off we went.


Our boat.

We got on the boat and took our respective rooms and that was when the game of "musical rooms" started. Everyone was switching around, Uncle George ended up on the deck below us, but after all it worked out. We set sail after a few announcements about the upcoming safety drill. While unpacking in our room, Mom and I heard a couple long whistles from the ship's horn. We peaked outside and no one else seemed to be going up so we stayed and finished unpacking. Lo and behold we ran into dad later when a deckhand found us frantic. We had missed the drill. Yep...we were those people. Katlyn told us later that they had called room numbers to see who was missing. Bueller....Bueller...



The boat had 28 cabins. Most of the rooms were located outside on the 3rd deck. The bridge was sunbathing. Below that was the dining area, bar and a lounge, and below that were 2 decks of cabins. The rooms were small but comfortable and the food was pretty bomb. Our lunch that first day was a mix of American food (french fries) and Fijian food (the most delicious beef curry. ever)


in the dining room, the food was delish.

After making friends with the crew and sailing along for about 3 hours we landed in our first port. This was the village of Gumu and we were scheduled to attend a Kava ceremony there. Kava is used by the locals in many different ceremonies. It is a potent drink made of a root and we had read that it made your mouth go numb. I was excited to see the culture, but had prepared myself for a touristy flavor.


leaving the market.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Kava ceremony and the village visit. When we first got ashore, many of the villagers were waiting on the beach to return home from the market. It was an authentic look at what it takes to survive in the Fijian islands. We made our way into the local church where we were briefed about how to carry ourselves during the ceremony and what the local culture is like. We then made our way to the community hall where we asked to be received inside and we were gladly granted access. After being given flower necklaces and removing our shoes we made our way inside. Then the kava ceremony began. The villagers sat on one side of the room while we faced them. The chief then began mixing the root powder and the water into a giant bowl. The villagers all chanted and sang throughout the ceremony. Our elected "chief" then accepted the kava and drank it. Then it was our turn. Those of us who wanted to signal that we would like to try the Kava, clapped and a small bowl was brought over. Dad went first. When the villager approached you clapped once, said "Bula" and then drank the bowl. After finishing you clapped three times with your hands cupped. Dad drank and then it was my turn. The mixture in the bowl appeared like a murky, muddy tea. Me being the stud that I am drank it with no problem. It tasted exactly like it looked: a murky, muddy tea but I got a cigarettey taste to it, like filling an ashtray with water and drinking it (but after consulting with everyone that might have just been me). It did make you tongue feel a little fuzzy but we didn't start hallucinating, like grandma was afraid of. After all of us had our fill of kava (the only 2 not to drink were Grandma and Alyssa) the dancing began. The villagers danced and sang. The music was beautiful with effortless harmonies and songs that didn't need any sort of instruments. They picked people from the crowd to dance with them and of course they read that the Maillos are fun loving people who love to be in front of a crowd (NOT) so of course we were all drug up on stage to dance around. In a last ditch effort to avoid dancing, Dad tried to act like he was taking a picture to no avail. They saw through his crafty ways... After the dance we were invited to visit the local market to look at the handicrafts the villagers made. The candyman reared his head and gave out ring pops to a few of the kids working the stalls.

Making the kava


From Coca to Kava....detox, here we come.

As campy and hoaky as the village visit was, it retained a bit of the villages original culture in the smiles of the villagers faces, the harmonious voices and the laughter shared between them (perhaps at our expense). Standing in front of a crowd of villagers, dancing like fools binds us and brings us together as human beings, regardless of the color of our skin or the language we speak. We hear music, we celebrate and we dance, we laugh when we are embarrassed or when we have fun with our traditions.

this guy walked 45 mins. to dance for us. bangin.

After shopping in the shell market we made our way down to the beach to wait for the tenders back to the boat. The candy man worked his magic and found a few stray ring pops at the bottom of his backpack. The kids loved them, though they had some trouble figuring them out. We helped them open them and showed them how to eat them. While sitting on the beach we noticed a kid climbing a coconut tree about 15 feet high. He climbed it in a matter of seconds and was throwing down coconuts. His mom used a machete to open the coconut and we all drank the sweet young coconut milk inside. The same milk that would cost you $8 at Blue Mango but is a $1 here. We noticed some kids on the beach so we started playing with them. One of them had found a lime and had started a soccer game with Robb. A bunch of us joined in and it turned into all of us running and chasing each other on the beach. I even taught one kid to high five, pound it and "park the car". He got it down no problemo. It is infectious to hang out with these kids. Tattered, used clothes on their backs and no shoes but they haven't a care in the world. The look on their faces when they got the ring pops was priceless. It got me thinking: Is there anything that I get as excited about as those kids got about a simple 10 cent candy? How can we be so hurried, rushed and tired when these kids who have drastically less than us can be totally elated with a ring pop? It just helps to put things in perspective. There were about 800 people per village with 8 villages on the island so basically the entire student body of LMU were the only people living on this massive tropical island, just living off the land.


Impressive, no?

After our impromptu soccer game, we gave our high fives and headed back to the boat. They let us know that they would take us back to the lagoon for a quick little swim. Katlyn and I didn't want to swim but rode along with Dad, Robb, Brandon, Alyssa, Lisa and Uncle George. The took us out to where it was fairly shallow and the swimmers took off. It was shallow enough to stand and it came up to about your waist. Ever the showoff, Jeffrey decided to try and dive back in the water after returning to the boat. Changing his mind midair he proceeded to do, as Brandon called it, a "nut flop". You get the picture. Everyone swam until the boat signaled us it was time to leave. We all changed for the captain's dinner that was to take place that night. We cruised until dinner when we dropped anchor for the night and took our seats in the dining room. It was a delicious meal but all of us struggled to keep our eyes open through the meal. We couldn't wait to get back to our rooms and hit the hay. We threw dinner rolls out the upstairs windows while we ate to attract fish to the boat and we saw schools and schools of them. After dinner we headed to our cabins to rest up before our exciting day at the Blue Lagoon's private island, Nanuya LaiLai.

The Fish Debacle

A diva is female version of a hustla...


The day started off by the pool. We relaxed and swam, finally making it to the far sides of the pool. Alyssa spent the morning getting her hair braided and losing her front tooth! We had all decided today that we would take water aerobics. Every time a new activity starts here, someone bangs on the drum next to the pool. When we heard the pounding drums we swam over to the meeting area. Katlyn, Lindsay, Grandma, Lisa and I jogged across the pool, carried each other on our backs and swam around in circles holding hands. Overall…great class. After that we walked down the beach and laid out. I made a nice dent in my book and I think I see the beginning of tan lines.






I can see the results already!






Workin it with the instructor...what is grandma doing?

We came home and changed and decided we wanted to head to the main town to get a nice fish dinner. First we headed to the grocery Store. It was a good market, with almost everything we wanted. It was much better stocked than the ones we visited in Peru. Although much to Robb’s dismay Frosted Flakes (aka Frosties) were FJ$16 or US$8. We stocked up on supplies for the room for dinner later this week. After the supermarket, we decided to head to a fruit market in our “limo”. We had heard that while they have great fruit at this market, they also have great fish. Dad bought “fiji bread” made from cassava root on the way there. It smelled like rotten cheese, but tasted pretty good. Kind of like a string cheesy textured jelly where we had expected a tamale.



The limo probably on the wrong side of the road.

The fruit market was interesting. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. We passed out our first ring pops to a couple of cute kids sitting in the stalls. Grandma and Uncle George made a deal to buy some fish from these men in the stalls. While everyone else was shopping, Grandma stayed to make sure the fish was being cleaned. A few locals came in and couldn’t believe how much Grandma was paying. They started telling her that she was being ripped off. Only then did I notice that something was going down. We all came back and Grandma was standing up to the vendor. The conversation is as follows:

Grandma: You didn’t tell me when this was even caught!
Vendor: You didn’t ask.
Grandma: okay…fine. When did you catch this fish?
Vendor: I cannot tell you. Give me FJ$70 for it.
Jeff Maillo: WE’LL GIVE YOU FJ$55. THAT’S IT.
Vendor: No only FJ$60
Jeff Maillo: WE’RE OUT OF HERE. LETS GO!

So we left. He ran to the car after us, still trying to swing a deal. But we piled into the limo and burned rubber out of there. No fish after attempt #1.



MENTIROSA!!!! Slime balls...try to pull one over on Dorlene and you end up shanked.

We decided to head to the harbor in the hopes of finding a fresh fish. We drove through the town and back by the resort to the harbor, singing Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers in the back of the “limo”. We pulled up to the Port and walked down the Harbor. Apparently there was some sort of fishing tournament so the harbor was bustling. Still when dad headed down the harbor to the fishing boats there were plenty of fish, but none to be bought because they had to be weighed and cleaned for the tournament. No fish after attempt #2.
So where did we end up? Sitting outside Grandma’s room eating fruit salad and snacks until we came back to the room for grilled cheese.



this was not our dinner...

Tomorrow we leave for a 3day/2 night cruise to the Yasawa Islands. I’m pretty sure there wont be any internet connection but I will be sure to take copious notes and upload the posts to the blog the day I get back. But stay tuned. Now I need to pack.

Bula!
posted 7/24/09 9:04pm

the epic first couple of days.

Sorry for the delayed update in blogging. We are already on Fiji time :) We have been exhausted since the time our trip truly began at 9:30 am on Tuesday (US Time). For our readers, Fiji is 19 hours ahead of the US. We actually lost a day on our flight over here because we crossed over the international date line, meaning we took off on Tuesday and landed in Fiji on Thursday. So I am writing you from THE FUTURE! Here, it is Friday, July 24 at 9:15 am. But let’s get back to the recap of the last 2 days…

After staying up all night packing, worrying about what exactly to bring, or in Jeffrey’s case playing with fake teeth, we woke up Tuesday morning scrambling around with last minute arrangements. Jimmy dropped all of us off at the airport where we sweat bullets hoping our bags were underweight (they were). We checked in and headed off to LA. There were very few people on the flight so we were able to spread out and relax. When we landed in LA we headed to the international terminal to change our money. After a lot of calculations and the help of Robb’s iPhone our wallets were full of the multicolored Fiji dollars. We took the shuttle to the Hilton where we had planned to spend the day relaxing by the pool and preparing us for the flight to come. We walked to Togo’s for lunch, back by my old stomping grounds of LMU, came back and visited with Shaheen. Finally, it was time to head to the airport to check in for our flight. We made our way through the international terminal and were greeted by a hearty “Bula!” We checked our bags and made our way to our gate…3 hours early. Robb had hoped to satisfy his last craving for Starbucks before his greatest testament of will of all time, 2 weeks without his Grande 6 pump no water nonfat Chai. But fate is a cruel mistress and as we walked through the international terminal, not a Starbucks was in sight. Robb is still weeping in the corner as we speak. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle George, Lisa, Brandon, Lindsay and Alyssa met us at the gate before our flight and we all boarded the plane together. We took our seats only to find that Uncle George, Lisa and Alyssa were seated on the opposite side of the plane from us. We spent the next 10 hours trying to sleep, entertain ourselves or in my case ogling Zac Efron. I mean seriously, I would be willing to endure another 10 hour flight AND lose a day of my life again just for the chance to watch “17 Again” twice. Guh.

We never went upstairs...

The announcement was finally made that we were landing in Nadi. Much to Grandma’s delight the landing was smooth and the whole flight uneventful. As we stepped off the plane we were greeted by muggy air with the smell of wet lumber lingering. It was very reminiscent of stepping off the plane in Iquitos (the Amazon) and I turned to Dad knowing that he would be thinking the same thing. We made our way through customs and immigration, stopped off at Duty Free to buy a few things and then went to rent our car. We had arranged to rent a 10-passenger van to get us around while we were here. We knew that the first trip would be packed because of all of our luggage. The van that we were greeted with…well I’ll just post a picture and you can make your own judgments.

Gpa chilling with the van. Gangsta.

So now imagine all 12 of us loading into this van with our luggage in the back but also in the aisles. Now imagine us driving down the opposite side of the road, spewing black smoke and driving on tires that look like the should have been replaced in 1986 and then pulling into a Nadi gas station filled with locals, Americans spewing out of the car or else gagging in the back seat from the smell of diesel fumes. And here I thought I wouldn’t have a lot to write about on this blog…
Making our way around was quite an adventure due to the absence of road signs here. We had to stop several times and ask people walking by for directions. One time Uncle George almost had us in a ditch to the point where Katlyn was scrambling over me to rebalance the car.
We finally made it to our resort. It seemed like a ghost town when we arrived but then again it was 7am. We made our way to our rooms and found out that the groceries we had ordered hadn’t come. So we walked to the store and fruit stand here at the resort and did a little shopping. Of course this was in addition to the convenience store-like amount of snacks that we had packed with us from the states.

The resort

After getting settled in the room we all changed and headed out to the pool. We staked our prime real estate and soaked up the sun. Our resort is home to the largest pool in the South Pacific and it has a swim up bar. There are a million activities going on here and every hour a pounding drum can be heard signaling the start of something new. Today we have all vowed to try the water aerobics. Brandon, Katlyn and Robb and I took a walk down the beach to explore. Robb and Brandon found a coconut and in a testosterone fest decided to open it. When they were successful all they were greeted with was green moldy milk inside. Yum. Mom and Dad met us down the beach in a kayak from the resort. We ate lunch at the restaurant here at the resort and had a drink at the swim up bar. Va is the bartender there and she is very friendly. All of the people are here. Everywhere you walk you are greeted with a “Bula!” and a smile.
Since we were all running on energy fumes we decided to take a nap before happy hour and dinner. We met over at Grandma’s place later that night for a spread of snacks and some drinks before piling into the van to head to the port for dinner.
The port is the touristier, populated place here. There is a Hard Rock Café there and far too much neon lighting for any shopping center in my opinion. We ate at a little pizza place that was delicious, but poor Brandon ended up getting sick. We headed home tired but full and made our way back to our respective places to pass out.
It was an eventful couple of first days. I look forward to what the trip has to hold in the coming ones. But for now…the pool calls me.

This is only half of the pool!

Bula!