Golfing, Lovo and Sunny Day #13

We woke up to the sky being cloudy and looking like it was going to rain all day again, but to our luck after we ate breakfast it cleared up. The sky was perfect and sunny, so we decided today was the day (and our last chance) to go golfing. The resort has a Championship Golf Course and we got a free tee certificate from the hotel, so we got a pretty sweet deal. We only had to pay for renting the clubs, cart and buying a few balls. They also offered us a caddy, so we said why not.

He ended up only being $18 dollars (which is only $9 US). He helped us with our clubs and where to go. The first 9 holes were too difficult for us, so he took us to the last 9, which where perfect. He also helped fetch our balls, when they went into the little creeks that were everywhere. There were frogs everywhere next to the creeks, we even found one in one of the putting green holes when my ball went in. Luckily the frog was fine when my ball went in, he just jumped up and back in.

Neither Wes or I took score, because I'm sure we were way above bar in each hole. Maybe one or two hole we got close to par. I hadn't played a round of golf in like 3 years, but Wes has a couple times this year. We finished playing 9 holes by 12ish and called the driver to come pick us up and take us back the hotel.

It was still sunny when we made it back to the hotel, so we got our suits on and sat down by the pool for the afternoon. Wes wanted to swim in the ocean one more time before we left, so we put some goggles and flippers on and jumped in. It got boring pretty fast, because there was only sand to look at. It started getting cloudy, so we went back to our room and showered and got ready for happy hour.

When we showed up at happy hour at the beach bar, we were the only one's there, except the bartender and the band. About 45 minutes later a few more people showed up, but it was so empty compared to the last few days with the wedding groups. Both Wes and I drank Lemongrass Capiroska's and them we got a dark rum drink and I couldn't drink it because it was so strong. I guess I hate the flavor or rum, especially dark rum. Wes could even barely drink his.
It was about 7pm and we headed up to the Lovo (traditional fiji dinner). It's the same thing we went to last Monday at the hotel. The dinner was buffet style, same stuff as last time. After we ate the entertainment group for the hotel did their fiji performance and dance. Then we headed back to the room for bed.

I found out this evening that my dad went to the hospital this morning and he was really low on oxygen and dehydrated, but they don't know what's wrong with him yet. I wish I could be there with him. Keep him in your prayers.

We are leaving to come home tomorrow, so we'll see everyone soon! Our honeymoon was great, we couldn't have asked for more.

Watch out, here come's Wes!


On the 16th Hole at the Pearl Golf Course


Strike a Pose before dinner :)

Riding Horses and Seafood BBQ Day #12

We left the room at 9am this morning and grabbed a quick bite to eat before walking down to the Uprising Resort to ride horses. It was about a 30 minute or so walk down there, since it was low tide and easier to walk.

I got the smaller female horse and Wes got the larger male horse. Both of them were actually pretty small horses. They were wild Fiji horses that the guide found and trained. The guide was telling us that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Wes was riding a stallion, but they both were very tame and did great. We rode the horses down the beach and then back. Wes's horse stopped to go to the bathroom and my horse walked right by his butt and it almost went all over me!! GROSSSSSSS, haha. On our ride there was a dead buffer fish laying on the edge of the waves, it was pretty huge and spiky.

I really liked riding the horses and Wes seemed to like it too, but I think he was a littler nervous. After we were done, we walked back to the hotel and went to the Seafood BBQ out at the Beach Bar by the pool. They had $20 buckets of 5 Beers and tons of salads, potatoes, rice, bbq fish, mussels, pork and sausage. It was all pretty good food, with enough flavor in everything. We hung out at the beach bar for a few hours and listen to the band play music.

Then headed over to the Arts village to get more snacks, water a few gifts. That took only about an hour. The lady in one of the shops we kept going in asked if Wes was mexican and he explained he was Native American. The lady was really interested. She said her son did a whole school report and Native American's and had no idea what it really was. She thought all American's had the same culture, like Indigenous Fijians and/or Indo-Fijians.

We walked back to our hotel and watched the movie "Awake" with Jessica Alba in it. It wasn't very good. The movie ended and we got dinner downstairs at the Bistro. I got a quattro formaggio pizza (4 cheese pizza) and Wes got fried squid and tuna shashimi.

Right when we got back to the room after dinner, I passed out, but Wes said he stayed up and watched TV for a few hours.

The usual ride down the beach :) Why don't we do this more often?

Puffer Fish!! Ek.

Saturday Day #11: No plans again because of the rain

We woke up around 5:30am and watched Superbad and then headed down to get food. After breakfast we planned to go golfing at their champion golf course, but it started pouring down rain. We even had the hotel drive us up to the golf course drop us off and then 5 minutes later we had them come pick us up. Luckily we decided not to play, because it starting pouring down rain 30 minutes after we got back and lasted the rest of the day and night.

After watching a bit more TV when we got back we got a quick bit to eat for lunch at the hotel and then hung out in our room the rest of the afternoon. I finished reading my book called: Shopaholic: Ties the Knot. It was a perfect book to read right after getting married, because I could relate to all the little details they spoke about. Wes walked around a bit, played pool (only for like 30 minutes because everyone was using the table, since it was raining) and watched TV. We downloaded "the Game of Life" on Wes's iphone and played that together, it is a pretty fun game.

Before dinner we watched the movie "Employee of the month" which was pretty funny, but dumb. What a great movie day, Superbad and then this! We ate dinner at the hotel and I got penne pasta and Wes got the seafood spaghetti. They were both okay, not the best. Our hotel really doesn't spice up the food, it's all been pretty bland.

Look at the rain!!!

Friday Day #10: Spa Day and lots of food

We basically did nothing today. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Bistro and spent an hour or so in the Spa. Wes got a Deep Tissue massage and I got a Honey Coconut Milk Wrap and Scalp massage. The hotel started getting really busy and during happy hour out at the beach bar we found out that there was a wedding happening on Saturday (tomorrow).

It was thai night for dinner, so I got Chicken Green Curry and Wes got Pineapple Prawn Curry. Mine didn't taste very good, it was more of a casserole flavor than a curry flavor and Wes's was bland and just tasted like Pineapple. I even asked to have it spicy when I ordered. American Thai food is so much better. Wes and I now want to travel to Thailand to check out the food there. Maybe in the next few years.

Suva Trip, Day #9

Our day started off with some peanut butter toast, fresh coconut, pineapple, papaya and some coffee (the usual breakfast, but I tried to make it sound yummy!)

After breakfast, the front desk called a cab for us to go to the big city of Suva. But really there are only 190k people in the city including surrounding areas, so it's pretty small. The cab came and the driver chatted with us the whole time. He was born in Fiji and worked as a correctional officer in the prison next to Nauva for 25 years. Now he's driving a cab and it's his own business. It took about 45 minutes or so to get there and $45 dollars (which is really only $23 US). Pretty good deal, huh!

We got out of the cab just north of Victoria Pde and walked south. Within the first 2 minutes of us getting out of the cab and man on the street started talking to us and tried to sell us souvenirs. We were warned about people bugging us, so it wasn't a surprise. We do kinda really stand out, especially me with my pale skin. When we got rid of the guy on the street we walked south and found a familiar cafe from the Fiji book I bought. It was the Bad Dog Cafe, so we stopped and got some coffee and figured out where our next stop would be. I got a caramel latte and Wes just got a shot of espresso. It was actually really good coffee.

We decided to go down to the Thurston Gardens and check out the Fiji Museum. On our way down the street, we walked past what looked like a carnival being set up and it was the Hibiscus Festival for later in the month. This is one of the biggest festivals in Fiji. The ferris wheels looked so old school and I'm pretty sure they were all hand cranked, not power run. A few minutes later we made it to the gardens and walked through them to the museum. There was nothing exciting about these gardens. It's the same plants and trees we've been seeing everywhere in Fiji.

We made it to the museum and paid $7 dollars fiji each to get in. There were 2 or 3 grade and middle school classes in there, so it was so loud, but it made it fun. They must have been on a field trip to study their countries history, because they all had paper and pencils and writing stuff down. The kids were so interested in us. When we walked next to one of them or they walked next to us that would stand there and stare. It was pretty funny, because we were foreign to them.

The museum had a lot of wood boats from the 1700 and 1800's that were used in the ocean. They were canoes that I couldn't believe made it through the ocean's waves. Then there was some pottery from 3,000 years ago. They must have had some good clay, because clay usually crumbles after a while. Then we walked upstairs and saw clothing samples and some wedding dresses they made from the inside of mulberry bushes. It looked like a really stiff material, but they still wear it today.

We did a little shopping in the museum gift shop and then headed north of Victoria Pde to Tiko's floating restaurant. Wes was wondering if it was actually a floating restaurant and it was a boat and not a very big one, because we could feel it really moving back and forth as we ate. This restaurant was recommended in our book, but I didn't really like the Seafood Pasta I got, but Wes seemed to like his breaded fish platter & chips.

Luckily neither of us got sick from the moving boat, so we went to the Curio Market about 2 blocks north. The market was cement storage units with open gates on each of them. It was all compact and tiny. Most of them were selling wood carvings, masks, bowls, etc.... jewelry and baskets.

There was a bus that left from the Holiday Inn at 4pm, so we walked back down Victoria Pde for 10 minutes or so and got on the bus. It was only $9 per person, so a lot cheaper than a cab. I was slipping all over, because it was raining pretty hard and I was wearing flip flops, but we made it.

On our way back we noticed the Fiji Brewery, that produces Fiji Bitter, Fiji Gold and Fiji Premium beers. We had the bus drop us off at the Village Center, so we could get some more snacks and water at the grocery store. We made it back to the hotel and watched a bit of the movie Ocean's 12 and then went to dinner downstairs. I got a caesar salad and Wes had a fish salad called Kokota. Then we shared a small pepperoni sausage pizza.

During dinner we could hear the waves crashing, so we walked over to the beach to check them out after we were done eating. You could see one big wave crashing in, which is a lot more than there usually is. We walked back to our room for the night and had to watch out for all the frogs jumping around on the grass, I was worried we'd step on them!

House in Fiji, not so pretty:


Wes at Bad Dog Cafe:


Government Building in Suva:


Wes eating at Tiko's the floating restaurant:


Setting up for Hibiscus Festival:


The School kids in the Gardens:

Jet Skiing Adventure, Day #8

Wes and I went down to get b-fast around 7:30am and had to eat fast, so we could be ready in the lobby for our Jet Ski Trip out to the Beqa Island. The shuttle picked us up at the hotel and took us to a house about 3 minutes away and gave us snorkels, life vests and flippers. Then drove us right next to our hotel where they store all the jet ski's.

There were 8 of us on this trip and 1 guide, so 5 jet ski's. We all got on and started our 37 mile trip around the Beqa Island.

On the way out to the island, the water was all choppy, but nothing compared to the huge waves on the way back. We almost made it to the island and I thought I saw a huge log in the water sticking out, but I'm pretty sure it was a sea turtle, because it popped its end out and then ducked into the water to swim. I wish we would we have seen more of those!

Everyone stopped and took a break out on a little beach on the island. The guide gave us all water and we just relaxed. Then we headed out to the middle of the water where there were tons of coral to snorkel. The guide tied up our jet ski's with an anchor and we put on gear on and jumped in. There were some cool looking fish and the water was a lot more clean than the other day. We were also really close to the fish, probably a foot or two instead of 5 feet. Unfortunately we didn't see anything other than fish.

Then we jumped back on the jet ski's and drove around the island to the far west side. We stopped at another beach and had lunch. The guide brought sandwiches, fruit, vegetables and soda for us to have. We walked up and down the beach and found some pretty cool flowers and then watched the fish swimming right next to us and our jet ski's. They blended in really well with the sand, but where swimming right next to us and were probably about 7 inches long, so they weren't small.

After taking our lunch break, we all got back on the jet ski's and drove back to our hotel. The wind really picked up, making the waves big and there were white caps all over the ocean. I was driving and was not happy about the big waves. Being in the middle of the ocean, I was kind of scared and there was no way I could stop and switch spots with Wes so he could drove. We would just flip the jet ski if we tried. So I just kept going, keeping it slow and steady (but not really with all the waves). It took us about 45 minutes or longer to get back to the hotel. I was so glad to be back on the ground again!

It was only about 1pm when we finished, so I showered and got ready for the day. We didn't do much the rest of the afternoon, except stay out of the sun and went down to the bistro with Wes to get appetizers. It was Indian night at the Bistro, so we had dinner around 6:30pm and it was almost the same meal we had the night before at the Uprising resort. We were so exhausted from being in the sun today and eating a big dinner, we just went back to the room for the evening.

Wes and I on the Jet Ski on Beqa Island:


Snorkeling Time:


Wes and I finished the Jet Ski Tour. Here are our certificates to prove it :)


Beqa Island Beach:

Lazy Day #7

We planned to go into the big city of Suva today (only 190k people live there), but Wes wanted this to be a lazy day. So after b-fast down at the bistro, we spent the whole morning just chilling in the room, ready, watching tv and playing games on our iphones :).

After lunch we spent the afternoon out by the pool. The sun just peaked out and it the clouds were gone for the rest of the afternoon. We both went swimming in the pool and just read our books in the beach chairs.

We spent about 4 hours by the pool and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. I've been craving new food from a new chef, so we walked up the beach to the next resort down called Up Rising. This resort is was about a 30 minute walk up the beach. It was about 6pm when we reached the hotel and we were in luck, because they just started serving dinner. They had a special of Indian Curry with Prawns, so both Wes and I got that. It was decent, but I don't think we'll be making the trip back up there.

It was pitch black out by the time we finished dinner and luckily Wes brought his flash light for the walk back or I would have called a taxi. There are about two places with lights on the way back. One house and then one Seventh Day Adventist Camp, so I got a bit freaked out. The beach was crawling with huge and little crabs everywhere. If you even came close to them they would scatter as fast as they could and sometimes run right in front of your feet. I don't think we stepped on any of them!

We hurried back to the room as fast as we could, because my stomach wasn't feeling so good and just laid around the rest of the evening.

Wes in the pool having fun:


Chillin on the bed reading my book: