Who brings babies to Fiji?

As our last day in Fiji we only had two things on our agenda. Go to the markets to get some souvenirs and make it to the airport in time. I know that I couldn’t sleep so by 7 AM I was already out of the shower and ready to get on with the day. Riley woke up shortly after and we were out the door by our set goal of 8 AM! We had decided yesterday that we were going to walk the same way we did yesterday, about 2 miles, into the markets with our suitcase then if we had a taxi pull over after we were done shopping with a good deal then we’d take it. We knew it wouldn’t be easy getting to the markets without every single taxi flagging us down and trying to get us in their car to take more of our money so we made it into a game. We were going to count every time a taxi pulled over to talk to us, every time someone yelled taxi at us, and every time a taxi driver honked at us and stared us down. As you can imagine this was very uncomfortable and got old rather quickly. We didn’t even get a quarter of a mile down this secondary road, not even a busy road, before our numbers had started climbing. Walking in the daylight wasn’t as bad as at night and we were able to catch some good scenery. Our moods weren’t too high though since we knew we were the last ones in Fiji some our newfound friend group. That definitely made us the minorities now, but we also knew by the end of the day we’d be back in Sydney! Within thirty minutes we had made it to the supermarket called Jetpoint to get some water. This meant that we were making good timing but we wanted to keep going to get to our destination before the sun got too hot! Our walk through town wasn’t bad and our taxi counting game stayed pretty stable for a while, which definitely surprised us. I was very fed up though and would give the taxi driver a stern “No thank you” whenever he had the courage to yell something at us. Word must have got around that we were mean tourists not wanting a taxi ride since the numbers didn’t increase much which slightly disappointed Riley. I, however, was thankful for the break. The people in Fiji are absolutely the nicest people though. Whenever you get within talking distance of them they will offer a “bula” and we of course are supposed to offer one back. This is how they say Hello, and they say hello to everyone! Even little kids will say “bula” which is truly heartwarming. I know that I would always get excited when we were about to cross paths with someone since I would have a chance to say hello. This definitely doesn’t happen in the United States or even Sydney that I get to say hello to everyone I cross paths with! We arrived at the markets in no time, but I guess I really shouldn’t call them markets since they are really just what we call strip malls. A single line of stores that all connect. The first couple stores weren’t too promising since I was looking for one particular thing, a sulu. Riley still wasn’t sure if he wanted to get his tribal wooden mask but he was definitely keeping his eyes peeled for a Fiji Bitter tank top. His long, almost never worn, Hardrock Café tank top may have changed from white to tan while we have been here because of the daily use it got.  He wasn’t very lucky since the only place he could find one was at the first ever hostel we stayed at. I told him that he should just go ahead and get it, but he wanted to shop around for the best price. It was off to the third store which was called Fashion Time, but I must say, there wasn’t much fashion going on in here.  I found a couple sulu’s that looked promising however they were hanging on the ceiling so when she brought one down it was clear that they spray painted “Bula” and “Fiji” on them. This was a big disappointment since they had looked so nice faraway and tempting since we were running out of shops. One of the shops tried selling me a pink sulu that said “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”, she must have not received the memo that it was the beginning of April. It was down to the last shop and I was determined to find a sulu! We walked in the store and was greeted by some Fijians who gave us the traditional “Bula”, which we thought was a good sign since none of the other shops said Bula. We asked if they had any sulus, she didn’t answer right away so the tension was rising. She looked back at her coworker but then quickly turned back around and pointed at the wall where at least 20 sulus were hanging! I’m not sure how we missed the sulus as we walked in since they are in our line of vision. I was very happy and relieved to have found many sulus to take my pick from. After long deliberation, and with Riley’s help, I finally chose a sulu, but you will have to wait to see it til I get back home! Now that our shopping list was fulfilled we were able to make our way to the airport and take our time doing so. We actually weren’t far at all and after we passed through the final taxi stop the shouts and honks somehow ceased. Maybe the taxi drivers realized that if we had made it that far without getting in a taxi then we were going to walk the last half mile by ourselves. We both felt very accomplished and proud of ourselves whenever we finally arrived at the airport, way ahead of schedule also! So ahead of schedule that we couldn’t even check in! We had said that we wouldn’t mind just hanging out in the airport waiting for our plane to take off, but now that the time had come to do that I was feeling a little antsy. I definitely didn’t wanna spend my last five hours in Fiji in the airport, although there were a lot of nice shops inside. Whenever we took a look at the lunch menus and saw the prices I knew that we were going to have to think of another plan. I had remembered seeing a nice little ranch restaurant right down the road from the airport and that’s where we headed after much persuasion towards Riley. He wasn’t happy about having to leave the airport which the suitcase in tow once again. It goes without saying that we will never pack that many clothes and unnecessary items for a beachy vacation. We had no idea that we would spend so much time in our swimsuit. We made it in no time and were able to share a delicious Hawaiian pizza. Once we arrived back at the airport it was time to check in and we were able to spend the rest of the time browsing the shops while Riley cracked open his book again. We saw another couple from Australia that we had spent some time on the islands with. I even spotted two girls that I finally realized that I recognized from UNCC. I had remembered them for their very loud and often rude voices at the departure meeting and had hoped that they wouldn’t be going to Uni of Sydney. Crazy that I would see them at a Fiji airport getting on our plane though! Really is a small world sometimes. The plane ride back to Sydney almost seemed as long as the one from LA. Maybe I’m just worried that every plane ride is going to feel that long now especially since I get the queasy stomach again and feel like I can’t do anything like read or even sleep. Riley was able to finish another one of his books which was quite something since he had just about restarted it while we were in Fiji. We quickly realized that daylight savings time had happened while we were done since we stepped off the plane at 5:30 and the sun was already setting. That was going to mean our walk home would be in the dark but we were ready to run if we had to. First we were worried about getting through customs since we had been told that they sometimes don’t let seashells through. Riley was not going to let that happen though since he had grown rather fond of our collection, so fond that he referred to them as his babies! Going through customs and immigration was a breeze this time since we beat the big crowd, but we were in such a hurry that Riley had mistakenly left his laptop case where we filled out our immigration cards. Lucky for him we soon realized it and one of the airport workers had found it and put it behind a counter. He really is the luckiest boy! Our seashells made it through customs, so now we’ll just have to worry about them again when we land in the United States. It felt so nice to be back in Sydney since it was familiar and welcoming to us, but we still didn’t waste any time getting back to Tempe to hop on a bus that would take us to the city. Everything went as planned and we were even able to stop at the uni to finally get internet connection and reassure everyone that we were safe again! Fiji islands were an unforgettable experience but Sydney truly is our second home for now and we were more than happy to be back!