We left Octopus yesterday afternoon. It seems like so long ago now. Last night we stayed at Tropic of Capricorn in the New Town Beach area of Nadi (pronounced "Nandi"). It was fine. Clean, safe, and cheap but nothing to write home about. That part of town is definitely the backpackers area. Lako (a gentleman who works at the hotel) did recommend a good Indian restaurant, Maharaja's (well, Indian & Chinese it seemed like). We took a cab there. There is a really big Indian population here (somewhere around 40% it seems). The cab driver was Indian and he told Jigar that 80% of the land is owned by the native Fijians and by law they can't sell it. Only "free hold" land can be owned by non-native Fijians (including Indians who have been here for generations). The resorts are actually on land leased to them by nearby villages. Since it is almost impossible to own land, a lot of Indians are leaving Fiji.
Tonight we moved to Stoney Creek in Sabeto (pronounced "Sambeto"). We wanted to come inland a bit because after being on the beaches of Octopus, the beaches of the mainland are a bit disappointing. Basically, if you come all the way to Fiji and you stay in Nadi the whole time, you have wasted your money - at least as far as beaches are concerned. Now we are in the foothills of the Sabeto mountains and it is breathtaking. A totally different side of Fiji. We took the bus out here today and after we checked in, we took the bus back to town. It is really interesting riding the bus. You get to see the people and the countryside. It is a much realer side of Fiji than what we have seen up to now. It is an open air bus and you can smell the sugar cane burning in the fields as you ride through the hills.
We didn't have a lot of time in town. The last bus back to Sabeto was at 5:15 and we got to town around 3. We did some quick souvenir shopping and then we headed to the Hindu temple. I have wanted to go to a Hindu temple for the last couple of years so it was really exciting to go there. When we got there, we took off our shoes and left them at the entrance (Jigar said not to ever do that in India) and then we went to talk to the guy who worked there. Everyone was very excited to meet Jigar. The manager told us that his daughter works in the Malayasian embassy in Wellington and she would show us around when we got there! The temple was really beautiful. It was bright and colorful and had images of Lord Shiva around the outside. We walked around the temple 3 times carrying the offering to the gods, as directed by the priest. It was very calming. The temple had an aura of serenity around it. We went inside and made our offering. The priest blessed it and then gave it back to us (you are supposed to bring it back to the manager who gave it to us to begin with). Jigar and the priest had a long talk. It was in Hindi so I didn't understand it, but he was telling Jigar about the Bula festival going on in town and recommending some good places to stay that are owned by Indians so they would give us a good deal. We went down to bring the offering back to the manager (you are supposed to take half and give half back). He put all the fruit (the offering had been 2 bananas, a coconut, and the priest had added an apple to out plate) into a bag with about ten extra bananas. We told him not to give them to us, but he said they were just going to rot at the temple and we could give them to the villagers. Then he told us there is a wedding at the temple tomorrow at 10am and that we should come. We are going to move to a hotel back in town tomorrow so that we can go (the buses don't run on Sunday).
On the way back to the bus station, we got some Indian snacks and Coca Lights. It was delicious! We were eating greasy, fried samosas, bhajiyas, and bataka vadas. Mmmm, mmmm, good.
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