We woke really early, a guy from the agency came to pick us up and brought us to the boat which took us to Mana island. On the way we already understood that this was a “ boat to paradise” :-D
Transparent torques water, white sand and clear sky – this was what we saw on the way when finally after 1,30 hour trip arrived to impressive Mana island.
Getting closer to the island we saw a group of locals which were resort personnel, playing and singing greetings for new guests. Juli was joking that it seemed to be a song: “Money, money, money” for new comers – it is obvious how in Fiji people live from tourist business and expect as much money spent as possible.
Couple of things to know when you are on the Fiji islands:
- Tap water on the islands is not drinkable, that is why bottled water in the resorts is 3 time more expensive then in Nadi. Actually in our resort, Mana Lagoon, a bottle of water had same cost as vodka orange drink – 8 Fiji dollars (around 3,5 euro).
- Electricity in beach houses is turned off during the day and is turned on at 18.00
- Three meals buffet doesn’t exactly have big variety. Very basic, but nice Fijian food.
- On the island everything goes according to “Fiji Time”: no rush, at all....
- The boat from Nadi or for hoping on/off the islands comes only once a day.
Of course if you stay in some 5 star resort you may have much better conditions, but much higher prices too obviously :-D Our place was a backpackers place, with a basic canteen, dormitory shared rooms and beach houses with private rooms (where we were staying).
Once arrived to the island, we had lunch and went directly to the Sunset beach, which was one of the best snorkeling places on the island as we have been told. It was around 10 minutes walk from Mana Lagoon, through a bit of jungle, beach and even local airport :-D
The beach was IMPRESSIVE! White sand, crystal clear water and colorful coral reef with all kinds of fish.
We took pictures with our underwater camera
and in the end of the day enjoyed beautiful sunset.
After the beach we arrived just for dinner, 18.00 and met two Spanish girls (Ester from Madrid and Laura from Mallorca), who were staying in our hotel.
We had a chat with the girls, and found out that same as us they have bought round the world ticket with the same agency and even have spoken with same guy by internet – Geoff.
To make it even worse, they had same flights with us from Nadi to Auckland and then from Auckland to Queenstown. Same as us they planned to travel around New Zealand, but after NZ they were going to Australia and we were going to Singapore. However, after Australia, they planned to explore South East Asia – too many coincidences! :-D
We had couple of beers with the girls and an english couple that we also met in Lagoon (they were also doing round the world) and finally, tired but satisfied went to sleep.
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