My original plan was to visit the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. This orchid nursery was started by the late Raymond Burr, star of the TV series Perry Mason and Ironside, to house his private collection. It's now open to the public. I thought I could come away with lots of lovely photos of orchids.
When I asked the front desk how to get there by public transport, I was told the only ways were by tour or taxi. There are several km between the turn off from the main highway and the garden and it would be infeasible to hike. I asked how many km but no one could give me an answer. I wished I had printed out the Google map. (Looking at it now I estimate 3km which would be 45-60 minutes each way.) The taxi fare quoted was $75 including waiting and return. This was over the top I felt. The lady at the tour desk at the resort suggested signing up for a tour but I didn't want to see the other attractions included. In a way this reflected how Fijian tourism worked; it was all outsourced to private operators. So I gave that up and skipped to the next part of the plan which was to visit Lautoka, Viti Levu's second largest town. I was curious about the shops and produce market there.
At the main road, Fijian resort workers going off shift helped me hail a microbus charging $2 to Lautoka. The radio was tuned to a local Christian station with the DJ reading dedications to listeners for success in the exams and such.
Lautoka market was a gloomy affair and not worth taking photos inside. It was mostly backyard produce, not of high quality. I guess they didn't have access to better cultivars. Local produce included bananas, papayas, taro, sweet potato, kava. Apples were imported from NZ as noted previously.
There was more choice in fish, but of course I had no way to sample these.
There were an awful lot of fast food places serving Indian, Chinese or Western fast food. However I found the Hot Chilli Café where I partook of a decent coffee and cake, and used their WiFi. It was the first time in a week that I had been online.
Fiji is a port of call for sailing craft hence a business like this.
It had been my original intention to have lunch in Lautoka. I might have been able to find decent food but I didn't want to hang around until lunchtime. So I headed back to Nadi Town. I took a stage bus similar to this one which allowed me to take pictures out the window. The bus stopped everywhere so the journey of some 30-40 km took around 90 minutes.
At Nadi Town the produce market was more open so I got better photos.
This vendor was the only one selling soursops, I wonder why.
And there were only a few sellers of breadfruit.
It had also started raining.
This notice explained why there were no cooked food sellers in the market. Not that I would have sampled any, due to hygiene concerns. Also note the Fijian word tabu which gave English taboo.
I took lunch at the Bo Hai, a Chinese seafood restaurant recommended in the guide. The salt and pepper prawns were good but the prawns were not as firm as what I'm used to, probably due to what was harvested locally.
Nadi is not a large town and I had no interest in crafts or duty free goods, so the points of interest were quickly exhausted. I understood why some people flew in, did an island excursion and flew out, bypassing Nadi Town altogether.
It started pouring so I waited out the rain in a café. After that an uneventful return to the resort and a quiet evening packing up to leave in the morrow.
When I asked the front desk how to get there by public transport, I was told the only ways were by tour or taxi. There are several km between the turn off from the main highway and the garden and it would be infeasible to hike. I asked how many km but no one could give me an answer. I wished I had printed out the Google map. (Looking at it now I estimate 3km which would be 45-60 minutes each way.) The taxi fare quoted was $75 including waiting and return. This was over the top I felt. The lady at the tour desk at the resort suggested signing up for a tour but I didn't want to see the other attractions included. In a way this reflected how Fijian tourism worked; it was all outsourced to private operators. So I gave that up and skipped to the next part of the plan which was to visit Lautoka, Viti Levu's second largest town. I was curious about the shops and produce market there.
Lautoka market was a gloomy affair and not worth taking photos inside. It was mostly backyard produce, not of high quality. I guess they didn't have access to better cultivars. Local produce included bananas, papayas, taro, sweet potato, kava. Apples were imported from NZ as noted previously.
There were an awful lot of fast food places serving Indian, Chinese or Western fast food. However I found the Hot Chilli Café where I partook of a decent coffee and cake, and used their WiFi. It was the first time in a week that I had been online.
I took lunch at the Bo Hai, a Chinese seafood restaurant recommended in the guide. The salt and pepper prawns were good but the prawns were not as firm as what I'm used to, probably due to what was harvested locally.
It started pouring so I waited out the rain in a café. After that an uneventful return to the resort and a quiet evening packing up to leave in the morrow.
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