Go to Kuata Isalnd and swim with the friendly reefsharks!!! John the guide is amazing and the trip is really worth the 20 Dollars. Also take your own snorkeling gear with you, it gets expensive to borrow it each time...

Tropische Insel mit wundervollem Klima und sehr liebenswürdigen Menschen. Es gibt zahlreiche Resorts, auf welchen man allerdings eher 'eingesperrt' wird, obschon man immer raus kann. Würde nicht unbedingt die Hauptinsel, sondern eine der vielen kleinen Inseln im Nordwesten empfehlen.

At 30,000 feet, the stewardess on flight FJ910 to Fiji asked me if I would like the chicken or the lamb. I have absolutely no idea why she asked me this, because what I got on my tray didn't even begin to come close to either of them. I read once that McDonalds were being considered to take over the in-flight catering on British Airways flights, but I gather that nothing came of it.It's a shame, really - I quite like the idea of being asked by a stewardess with a little red and yellow hat if I would like the Big Mac in a red wine sauce or the Chicken McNuggets Parmesan. At least you wouldn't have to concern yourself too much with whether to eat in or take away. The flight from Australia to Fiji only takes about three hours, which is a lot less than I had been expecting - it almost seemed as though we were returning to the ground before even reaching cruising altitude, but perhaps that's because I've got used to some seriously long haul flights over the last three months and anything less than twelve hours seems like heaven. After showing a ridiculously unfunny film starring Leslie Nielson, a man who these days seems to get every comedy part going, we were forced to watch a short information film on the Fiji Islands. I say "forced", although I do admit that no actual guns were used or anything - it's just that, having been given headsets so that we could choose whether to listen to the film or not, we were given no option for turning off the soundtrack to the Fiji information film. Some of the passengers had clearly had long days and were not at all happy to be woken up mid-flight, and the old lady in the seat next to me was so startled that she stuck me with a pointy elbow as she twisted around in her seat. I learnt, courtesy of the information film, that Fiji has come a long way since the days when being invited over for lunch suggested you could expect to be eaten somewhere between the fish course and desert. This is always nice to know when arriving in a new country, although I think most of us had already taken it for granted before booking that we're no longer living in the days of cannibals and head-hunters. Unsurprisingly, Fiji doesn't much like being known around the world as The Cannibal Islands , although they clearly still find the time to remind everybody on the way in just in case any of us step out of line. I would like to say that Fiji has made a lot of effort to bring themselves into the modern world and put their past behind them, but the problem is that they seem to have stopped the modernisation process somewhere in the seventies. I remember thinking that if the haircuts on the people in the information film were anything to go by, everybody in Fiji must look like a member of the Jackson Five. This was seriously funny stuff - every man, woman and child in the film was proudly sporting a microphone haircut of the first order. I assumed, at least until leaving the plane on the Fijian Island of Viti Levu, that this information film had been made some time ago and they'd been showing it ever since - but No! Upon disembarking, I was met with the sight of a lounge full of seventies throwbacks. The land that time forgot. I wanted to go up to the nearest guy and ask if he knew Huggy Bear.You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

It hadn't really occurred to me that it might be raining, but it was chucking it down. Fiji is slap in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about as close to the equator as you can get without having to jump up and down going "Ow" on the hot ground all day - I had pretty much imagined I'd be walking around in a loin cloth for the next few days, but it looks as though it might actually be quite pleasant. I was met from the plane by a woman who stood out from the crowd straight away in that she was the only one without a seventies hairstyle, so I assumed her to be either the rep from my holiday company or a local who was trying to be dangerously unhip. She directed me to the small office of a company called Rosie Tours , where I sat in front of a small desk waiting for the bus that was to take me to my hotel and being chatted to with massive amounts of enthusiasm by somebody else with a microphone for a head. The bus, when it arrived, was empty - I had assumed it to be taking so long because they had to pick lots of other people up from somewhere on the way, but it turns out that everybody here is simply on "Island time". In other words, they'll get around to it when they feel like it. My sort of people. I fought the urge to swing myself into the vehicle through the window seventies style, and propped my tired eyes open for the duration of the journey so that I could take in what this island paradise had to offer. I know I've only just arrived, but so far I'm pretty impressed. Not only has Fiji not been motivated by the perceived need to cut down all the trees and build office blocks everywhere, but apart from the main city of Suva, 95% of the 333 islands that make up the Fiji chain are still covered in rainforest. We seemed to drive through endless countryside on the way to the resort, and the sun was setting as we drove. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life - as the sun dropped out of sight, there was this sort of ethereal glow across the treetops. Fiji is claiming that it will be the first place in the world to witness the dawn of the next millennium, although to be honest introducing daylight savings time to the islands may have allowed them to cheat a little on this, and I can't really imagine at this moment anywhere I'd rather be on the 31st December this year. My hotel, The Naviti Beach Resort, is nestled in its own grounds one and a half hours away from the airport. It seems to be quite a relaxing place with palm trees growing everywhere and acres of gardens, beaches and forest land all to itself. There are two restaurants, and nightly entertainment such as fire-walking in the open sided Bar/Lounge. On arrival I was given a shell necklace to wear for the duration of my visit, and everybody here seems to be doing the same. Something tells me that this is going to be a very laid back week.

You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

My room at the Naviti is amazing. The glass doors open around two entire sides, and I have a view out onto the mountains across the hotel gardens. I can sit out on my own patio and chat to the neighbours, or I can hand feed the strange little birds that come hopping across the lawn from every direction at the slightest smell of food. They stand at my feet, look up at me and make the feathers on their neck stand up like a mane. Then they warble until I feed them. It's really cool - except that if they were several feet taller I'd run like crap because they'd look almost entirely like the raptors from Jurassic Park. On the other side of the corridor, the rooms look out onto a long white sandy beach lined with palm trees and lines of vines laid down to the sea. There is even a little grounded boat to one end of the beach, to give the resort that "deserted island" look. The hotel has a big pool in the gardens, although the closeness of the sea makes it a bit redundant. For youngsters, there is a huge adventure playground out in the grounds, and the bars have family entertainment every night which ensures that there is never any chance of getting bored here. In fact, there is very little reason to leave the resort except to go to the shops - and there are shops on site so you could probably get away with not even doing that. The people here are incredibly friendly, too, almost to the point of overkill. Every single member of staff - Receptionists, Barmen, Clerks and Gardeners, Guards and Cleaners - constantly stop whatever they are doing and greet me with a friendly "Bula" and an extended hand wherever I go. The barman, who sees himself as a self elected tour guide for the resort, explained all the facilities to me, told me when happy hour is in the bar, and when the nightly show starts. He even gave me a big dopey looking yellow flower to stick behind my left ear. Apparently, this is a local custom - a flower behind your left ear means "I'm single - please come and get me", and a flower behind the right ear means "I'm married. Hand's off." Presumably, a flower in both ears means "I'm seriously confused or looking for a bit on the side!" I like this tradition - I can imagine it going down well in Nightclubs back home! Another thing I appreciate about the Naviti is the fact that everything I do gets charged back to my room - even at the bar. In fact, it is impossible to buy anything with cash in the resort except in the shop, so there's no need to carry any. The Naviti is part of the Warwick Hotel chain and also has a sister hotel called The Warwick, and I can even go there on the free shuttle bus and use the facilities and charge it all back to my room here. Life should always be this easy!

You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

One of the only moans I have about the resort is that there are colonies of ants everywhere, although there is very little that can be done about it as it's simply a fact of life on the Islands. I don't know where they all come from - all I have to do is put my chocolate bar down by the sink for 30 seconds and when I go back to it it's swarming with ants. Most of my food seems to end up getting flushed straight down the toilet - cut out the middle man, so to speak! I asked at reception if they could do anything about the infestation, and when I got back to my room this evening somebody had clearly made a half-hearted effort with a can of bug spray and left the half empty can on the dressing table. Apart from the ants, I'm having a great time. The entertainment at the Naviti is fairly good, usually consisting of an evening display of Polynesian Hula-dancing followed by a disco until the early hours - but looking through The Naviti Sandpiper , our daily guide to what's on, it seems they still manage to throw in the odd surreal event for good measure: INTERNATIONAL FROG RACES: IN THE LOUNGE AT 8.30PM. FROGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD COMPETE FOR THE ULTIMATE CROWN Now, my question is this: Just who makes this Crown and how small are the tools? Actually, the Sandpiper has been an invaluable tool during my stay. It drew my attention to a wedding in the lounge this evening between a Mr Clark and Ms James, which was a traditional local ceremony which was both enjoyable and informative to watch. Both bride and groom were dressed in Fijian ceremonial costumes and local tribesmen were on hand to shout loudly and wave sticks around and generally scare us all to death. One moment we were all sitting around whispering to each other about how romantic it was and how we'd like to have an island wedding like this one day, the next we were leaping backwards in fear of our lives as traditional Fijian warriors appeared out of nowhere and started marching towards the bride and groom. I wondered briefly if they knew they're not permitted to cut people's heads off and stick them on spikes anymore.

You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

Last night after watching the sunset, I went to the bar to get myself a drink before calling it a night. There I met three great girls from Sydney - Cathy, Jackie and Bronwyn. We all got on really well straight away, and made arrangements to catch a local bus this morning into the local town of Sigatoka. This, in itself, turned out to be something of a culture trip. We met down in the lobby early this morning and walked down the long drive that connects the complex to the main road. I really am right in the middle of nowhere here - at the end of the drive, the main road simply stretches away as far as the eye can see in both directions. The bus, when it appeared, was simply a dot on the horizon which got slowly bigger until it screeched to a halt beside us. It was a rickety old thing, driven by another rickety old thing, and once on board we bounced along the dirt road on our way to Sigatoka, chickens clucking around on the roof and women in dirty shawls huddled in the corner with baskets of god-knows-what. Sigatoka was much like a smaller version of Suva, and all four of us spent much of our time fighting off vendors who had obviously seen us coming. In the flea market the stall holders were willing to do virtually anything to prevent us from leaving, so we came up with the idea that one of us would go in and look around while the others stood outside to avoid being pounced on as a group of tourists. This didn't work at all, as those of us waiting outside were simply approached from every direction by vendors who had seen us across the street and wanted to see if we needed any phallic shaped fertility charms. "Just come and look at my stall", said one, "No harm in looking, yes?" Once you go and look, of course, the hard sell begins and you become trapped. The next stallholder over will stop you on the way past and say "You looked at my friends stall, it isn't fair that you don't look at mine." To get you through the door many store owners will give you some trinket free if you look, usually a brooch or necklace with a value of probably less than nothing. I tried without success to explain to the girls that they would get a much better deal if they bought souvenirs from the Baravi Handicraft Centre which we would be passing on the way back to the Naviti, but sometimes it's just impossible to resist the pull of some exotic looking wooden cannibal fork offered by a local merchant along with the serious-faced promise that "we don't use them any more".

You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

Tonight, I wanted to see The Magic of the South Seas, a show which takes place twice weekly at the Sheraton Fiji. It is hosted by a local witchdoctor by the name of Tupa'I Bruno, and as the in-flight magazine on the plane had given over nearly five pages to the show I thought it must be worth seeing. The Sheraton resort is bloody huge, as you would expect from an international chain like themselves, and just a tad on the lavish side. I was treated like a visiting dignitary by the staff from the moment I got out of the taxi, which had entered the resort across a bridge which I took to indicate that the resort was on its own island. As it was a while before the show started, I decided to have dinner in the Foyer restaurant, if for no other reason than that I would be able to tell people I had dined at the Sheraton. There were a lot of designer shops dotted around the lobby of the hotel, selling the most expensive jewellery and watches you can imagine. Out of interest, I enquired as to how much the rooms were. The receptionist handed me the current price list, looking me carefully up and down and mentioning that they could probably do something to cut the prices down if I was on a budget. I didn't quite know how to take this. The least expensive rooms in the place started at F$495 a night - about £180, and went up to more lavish rooms at a mere £400 a night. I told them I would have to think it over, and went outside to laugh loudly into the night. The show started at 8.00PM in the Sheraton Pavilion, a huge circus tent that had been erected behind the hotel. Tupa'I Bruno apparently used to work in the circus before going on to spend many years manufacturing tents for travelling shows. He has, in recent years, become an official Witchdoctor in Samoa and travelled the Polynesian Triangle performing his unique blend of magic and dance. On his travels, he has even been thrown out of countries for practising "The Black Arts", and for the time being it seems he has got fed up travelling and taken root at the Sheraton Fiji Resort. Like all showmen, I don't think it'll be too long before he moves on elsewhere. Bruno is a funny little man, totally different on stage from what you might expect of a witchdoctor and world class magician. From the fliers and other advertising material, I had been rather under the impression that he was a big menacing character with fire coming out of his nose and a bone through his neck. The photos show him standing over the charred remains of human bodies, waving magic wands around in the air and dancing about in the middle of burning buildings - more or less what you would expect from a witchdoctor, in fact! In reality, however, Bruno is difficult to describe. He is a small, chunky man with a bald head and squinty little eyes. Actually, he's quite easy to describe, isn't he? Bruno rushes around the stage in more the manner of a clown or a dandy than a serious entertainer, making camp Carry On Matron style oooh sounds at everything - whether its a female dancer appearing on stage with a grass skirt hanging suggestively from her waist, or a member of the audience being cut in half with a chainsaw. Perhaps this is his circus background showing through. Only about 50% of the show was actually what I would term magic. There was plenty of juggling and fire-walking, and the rest of the show was really more about beautiful Polynesian dancing girls with very little on and tattooed men performing tribal dancing displays. He also had a sixteen year old girl called Princess Zula as part of the act, supposedly from the entirely fictitious island of Bula-Bula - "Hello Hello" in Fijian. She climbed to the top of a high rope and performed incredible acrobatics on tight-ropes and high gantries as the audience covered their eyes and hoped she didn't fall to her death. It was every bit as entertaining as any other circus act and there's no denying Princess Zula probably has a future in the business, but it really wasn't magic - and what magic we did get was pretty second rate. There were no big illusions as such, just a lot of Bruno inviting people from the audience to pick cards or have knives thrown at them. A couple of the Hawaiian Hula-girls got levitated or cut in half in novel ways, but Bruno was largely let down by his equipment and the audience was badly positioned so that we kept catching glimpses of how the tricks were being done as he darted around the back. It's a shame. The show has a lot of potential, but I have to say I spent most of my time watching a half hearted attempt at an obvious trick and wondering when the girls in the grass skirts were coming back on! The taxi driver spent most of the journey back to the Naviti trying to persuade me to pay him to take me to a local nightclub where presumably he was getting a commission. He attempted to sell me on the idea with the promise "Fiji girls, they like western men. You'll have a very happy night, I promise."

You can read my full travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

sheraton hotel.not the best on the island.there are three hotels one next to the other that they all belong to the same company,sheraton,sheraton apartment and western(i'm not very sure about the thirds name)but thats the best.sheraton is the cheapest.it has a mini club which the other dont.the room are ok,fantastic beds very comfy.if you are lucky enough you might get a room in front the beach.by the way never saw enyone swiming in the see cause it looked mudy.there is a nice pool.breakfast is all right.but dont eat dinner in the hotel cause its very expensive.there is a complimentary bus(bula bus)you are going to laugh when you see it really GREAT,that takes you every few minutes to the pier.lovely restaurants and resonable prices.there is a pizza shop there very cheap and with everything handmade!handmade spagetti(fantastic)and great massive pizzas.really worth it.you also have to take the bula bus for the spa,but its only 2 minutes and you can even walk to it.have fun!!

Fun + Romance.... just one perfect combination! ;)