"An Around-the-World-Ticket for Two, Please."

Safe Landing

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Saturday, 4 June 2011 21:06

We arrived at Safe Landing and were greeted by a few of the staff. Nai took us up to the bar area and told us all the info about meal times and trips etc and then showed us to our room. It is lovely, nice and big and airy and the shower has hot water!!!! Lunch was really soon after, so we heard the shell horn and went back to the bar/dining area. Lunch was a rice and curried vegetable thing and was delicious and piping hot which was a nice change! I still had a funny tummy and wasn’t too hungry, but it was very nice. We had a look around and then sunbathed and swam in the sea for the afternoon. The beach is very nice and when the tide is in the sea is great for swimming / cooling off in as it is all sandy and nice with no sea weed or rocks! This resort ticks all the boxes which is great as it is our last one! The only thing about it is the noise of the generator, it sounds like a pneumatic drill! It’s on from 11 – 3, and 5 – 10pm and it kind of ruins the whole ‘paradise’ thing as you can’t hear the waves, or enjoy the peace and quiet when it’s on! It seemed so odd for them to have such a noisy one, as all the other resorts had generators, but very quiet ones that we never noticed, however, we found out that it is a temporary one which makes sense now! At about 4pm we took a walk along to a little green hut half way along to the next resort for ‘afternoon tea’. Afternoon tea seems to be very common here, and they told us that a lady serves tea and cakes from 3.30 – 5.30pm every day, so we obviously had to try it! We had not had anything sweet except for fruit for nearly two weeks now, so the thought of cake was too good to turn down. It really is just a little green shack with some tables and benches outside overlooking the sea. However, the cake was great! It was a chocolate cake with chocolate sauce. Not sure how she makes it, as there is obviously no oven, but think it might be in a frying pan, or some sort of steam pudding? It is not the best cake in the world, however, to someone who has not had anything remotely cakey or chocolaty for so long, it was amazing! Really enjoyed my afternoon tea! Came back and had a hot shower which was such a treat after nearly two weeks of cold ones! We headed to the bar for happy hour and Ben had a nice cold beer so he was a happy bunny too! We got talking to the other guests, Becky who is travelling on her own, from the UK, meeting up with friends on her way every so often. She had done a month as a volunteer nurse in Cambodia and so we talked about that for a while, it was very interesting. We also met Sue and Murray, who are from NZ so we talked all about what we had been up to there! Dinner was very tasty and hot again, so much better than at Long Beach! After dinner ‘Dofu’ (pronounced liked Tofu) put on a ‘Polynesian Night’ for us, doing dances from all the islands. He was very good, and then did some fire dancing for us too which was excellent! Afterwards Sue and Murray went back to their room so Las and Dofu and Becky and us played ‘spoons’ which was good fun. Not a late night, I think we had all headed back to our rooms by 10pm.

On Sunday morning I attended the local church service after breakfast. Las took me along, about a 5 minute walk from the resort. The church was not in a building like the church we saw on the last island, it was some tree trunks holding up a tin roof, with tarps on the floor to sit on. The weather was really hot, so I was glad it was under cover! I had to cover my shoulders and wear my sarong again. When we arrived there were only about 20 people there, singing to a keyboard, with the Pastor at the front. There were about 6 visitos in all, and a few more locals turned up throughout the service, so there were abut 30 locals in total. Afterwards I asked Las if there was another church as the village has a population of 600, and the Fijians are religious people, so I was surprised at the little numbers. However, he told me there was a big Catholic church in the village, and this was a small new church (not Catholic at all). It was a very informal service, with people contributing in prayer and singing, the people were very welcoming to us visitors and I enjoyed being a part of it, even though I could not follow the sermon as it was all conducted in Fijian. The Pastor welcomed us in English and said he hoped we would gain something from being there even though the service would be conducted in Fijian. I was there for about 2 hours, and then Las took me back as it was finishing up. I asked him what the service had been about and we talked a bit which was good. Sadly the hot weather did not last all day! After lunch it went all cloudy, so we ended up reading in hammocks around the resort. We both went for a swim to cool off as it was hot and muggy. We showered and went for dinner which was really nice again! There wasn’t any ‘entertainment’ on, so we all sat around talking and getting to know each other. I think we were in bed by 10pm again, but enjoyed watching some TV shows we had got on our laptop from Jo and Stephan at Barefoot!

On Monday we had signed up for the Cave Trip, so we were being picked up at 9am after breakfast. I was not too keen on this cave trip, as you have to go under water under rock to get into one of the caves, and this was not appealing to me at all! Ben didn’t really get it, as he has seen me face my fears a lot on this trip, but I tried to explain that this was not something I was comfortable doing, even if I had done it 10 times! So, feeling nervous, we were waiting on the beach for the boat to pick us up. We saw a boat go by far out with lots of people on, and wondered if they’d forgotten us, and when it came to 9.45am we decided they had! We went up to the bar area, and Nai tried to phone, but could not get through, so we knocked the idea on the head, deciding not to go the next day either. I was actually quite relieved, and we also saved ourselves $100 too! So we had an unexpected morning on the beach, and the sun was shining, so we both lay on the beach and read our books all morning. Just before lunch Becky left on the boat, and lots more people arrived on the boat! We had lunch, and the table had definitely grown a lot! We had a lazy afternoon and went for afternoon tea again, hoping to try a different cake, but it was chocolate again, but I can’t complain as it was very nice!!! We went back to our room for a shower and to get ready for dinner. After dinner it was a little different than the last couple of nights. Ron welcomed the new arrivals and asked us all to stand up and introduce ourselves, and then all the staff sang the ‘Bula song’ (welcome song) to us, and then Las got us all up to learn the Bula dance! We were all in a line, and it was some moves in a pattern a bit like doing the Macarena, so we all joined in and had a laugh! Then Las got out some party games which we all joined in, including musical potatoes (like musical chairs but you grab a potato when the music stops!), a rather funny game involving a tennis ball clenched between your bottom and dropped in a box, run as a relay race, and then my personal favourite, coconuts! Coconuts consists of a long football sock with a coconut in the bottom of it, tied to some string, and worn around your waist! You have to swing it between your legs and bash an empty can along the floor to the end of the room and back again, and do it as a relay with your team, it’s a lot harder than it looks!!! It was a fun night!