Studying for dive certification

And why?

Because the truth is I was scared. As much as I wanted to go diving, I was afraid that something would go wrong. I was afraid I’d get the bends, my regulator would fall out of my mouth, I’d run out of air, or something worse. My fears kept me from doing what I wanted and finding excuses.

Matt at the Blue Lagoon Beach

We moved islands. Then I said well, maybe on the next island. Then the next island came and I said well, it would take too long. I didn’t have the time to learn. Gary, finally fed up, said stop making excuses and go learn. You know you want too and if you don’t, I’ll make fun of you on twitter.

The thought of being stigmatized on Twitter was too much for me. I sighed and said fine, let’s go do the discovery diving trip. But he had to come with me. That way, if anything went wrong, I could blame Gary for forcing me to go.

Matt getting ready to do his final certification dive

Coming to the surface, I was overjoyed. Under the sea was amazing. Seeing the fish and coral up close puts everything in a new perspective. Later that day, I went out for another dive and the next day I finished learning how to dive and became PADI certified. Since then I’ve done 7 dives and all because I conquered by fear.

So often times we let our unfounded fears keep us from doing what we want. Travel is about expanding out world view and getting over our fears. But even when you travel, you can still find excuses to keep your fears. Sometimes what it really takes to get over them is a little push from someone outing you on twitter to get over them. Even if you don’t have that friend, you can use other travelers to push you and be your support when your fears keep you from doing what you want.

Fijian boy from the island of Waya

- The tourism industry, especially the budget tourism industry, is expanding. This time around I noticed that Base Backpackers, the big hostel chain from New Zealand, is now in Fiji. The FeeJeeExperience, which is owned by the same company which does the KiwiExperience and the OzExperience. There are skydiving and other extreme sports options now available in Fiji as well. The percentage of 20-something Europeans I met in the Yasawas this time was much larger than my 2007 trip. They even have a Hard Rock Cafe at the harbor in Nadi. Everything seems much more mature from a business perspective.

- There are very few Americans here. I’ve met tons of Europeans but hardly any Americans. Almost all the Europeans are on a similar path where they either were just at Australia/New Zealand or are going there next. In fact, almost all the 20-somethings seem to be taking the same general trip. Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and LA. I still recommend the Yasawas as a destination, especially if you’ve never been there before, but when I return to Fiji next time, I’m going to a different part of the country.

- There is no evidence whatsoever that a military junta is running the country in the area around Nadi. None. I noticed this the last time I was here too. In 2007 I also drove to Suva and went out of my way to drive around Suva to look for evidence of the military. I couldn’t find any. What few people I talked to in the Yasawas and in Nadi were supportive of Commodore Frank. Unlike other countries, I didn’t even see so much as a political sign or a local government office in the villages I’ve visited. I’m not willing to chalk this up as something universally Fijian as I haven’t visited much of the country.

- I attended a church service while I was in the islands. The Fijians, like Samoans and Tongans, are very religious. The service was a Methodist service, which is the largest denomination in the country. It was by far the best singing I’ve ever seen in at a church service. The entire congregation seemed to be signing in harmony with men and women singing different parts at times.

- Rugby 7′s will be a new event in 2016 Olympics. This opens the door for several Pacific countries to earn medals in a sport which they excel at. Fiji currently has the top rugby 7′s team in the world. I think the idea of a Samoa/Fiji gold medal match would be great. It is something I will be paying close attention to in six years.

- I only did one dive in Fiji, but I couldn’t help but notice how cheap the rates were to get SCUBA certified. NomadicMatt, who I spent most of the week with, got his Open Water Certification for about $150, which included four dives. It cost me about 2x that much when I got my certification in Maui back in 2007. It is probably the cheapest I’ve seen for SCUBA certification in the world. In another oddity, both of the resorts I stayed at with dive instructors had Fijian instructors. I can’t say I’ve seen many local dive instructors anywhere in the world.

The life of a travel blogger isn't all fun and games...oh, wait, yes it is

Prior to departing Los Angeles for Fiji last Sunday (and completely deleting January 11 from my life as I crossed the International Date line) I’d had been in the United States for the previous five month. While I had spent the majority of that time traveling, it wasn’t traveling in the same sense as I am traveling now or I had been traveling the previous 2.5 years. The only thing I had to deal with traveling in the US were gas prices and motel rooms. I didn’t have issues of language, culture or extreme distances to deal with. I was on the road, but it was fundamentally different.

One of the many reasons why I travel

The skills you develop traveling are sort of like riding a bike I suppose. One you learn them, you never really forget them. Once I hit the ground I went into travel mode; that state of mind which combines a relaxed attitude and heightened awareness of your surroundings. All the little things I learned from my previous travels (e.g.: your best bet in the Pacific for using an ATM will be the machines from ANZ) kicked in like Jason Bourne coming out of a coma.

I’m excited and glad to be back on the road again. It feels like home. The fact that is it 100F degrees warmer (about 50C) doesn’t hurt either.

I finally got the chance to visit a McDonald’s in Fiji. I had to look closely, but what I noticed was definitely a reflection of what makes up modern Fiji.

The first thing to notice was that there were six different value meals available. Big Mac, double cheeseburger, chicken sandwich, fish sandwich, chicken nuggets, and regular old pieces of chicken. Why is this worth mentioning? Because 2/3 of the menu wasn’t beef and 1/2 of the menu was chicken.

If you looked at the full menu, every item that had beef in it had a small (beef) label next to the item. Why the issue with beef? If you spend any time in Fiji you’d see it right away.

About half of the population in Fiji are Indian, and hence, you got a lot of Hindus.

The population distribution in Fiji isn’t just reflected in the menu at McDonald’s. It has in one way or another, been responsible for much of the political turmoil which Fiji has experienced in the last fifteen years, how its political and economic structure is based, and of course its history.

For starters look at a map of the pacific. Most of the island countries would be impossible to find if their names were printed on the map. Fiji, however, is easy to see. It is by far the largest country in the region, which means it has the potential for the greatest amount of agriculture.

Fiji is also unique in that it was asked to be colonized by the British. (That isn’t an imperial fable to make the British look good either. They asked because they saw it as a way to end conflict on the islands and they knew they’d be colonized by someone, so they picked British.) The British used Fiji to grow sugar cane. They also needed workers for the sugar cane fields.

The largest British colony at that time was India, so India became the source of most of the laborers for the sugar cane fields in India. (The same thing happened in Guyana in South America. Guyana remains the only county in the Western Hemisphere where the largest religion is Hindu.) Indian workers came to Fiji to earn money never left.

Fast forward to independence in the 1960s. Most of the important events which have occured since independence have had something to do with the Indian population in some way or another.

Land ownership in Fiji is heavily tilted to favor native Fijians. There are also set aside positions in the parliament for ethnic groups. Because of the landownership rules, Indians end up owning many of the stores and businesses in Fiji, similar to how Jews and Chinese often wound up business owners in places where they lived.

In 1988, there was a coup in Fiji which was due largely to increasing role of Indians in Fiji in the government. Since then there have been several other coups, the most recent being in December 2006.

The end result of all the instability is that enough Indians have left Fiji to give native Fijians a majority again.

So….there is a heck of a lot behind having chicken on the menu.

I visited the University of the South Pacific where, according to my guidebook, is the best bookstore in the South Pacific. Sadly, that isn’t saying much. I got a book on cargo cults and the James Mitchner Novel “Tales of the South Pacific”.

I’m going to upload a few more photos while I have the bandwidth, then its a three hour drive back to Nadi tonight. Tomorrow morning I’m off to New Caledonia and Francophone land.

Tomorrow moring I’ll get to the Kiribati embassy first thing to get my visa processed. I’ll also try and hit up the bookstore at the University of the South Pacific before driving back to Nadi.

The next morning (Tuesday) I have an early flight to New Caledonia. I’m really excited to get to Vanuatu. I think Tanna Island will be one of the highlights of my trip so far.

I should note that I haven’t seen a single soldier since arriving in Suva. I can see no obvious external evidence of the coup….yet.

i finally have been able to upload some of the Fiji photos.

Here is the photo of the green flash that I wrote about earlier. The green flash is pretty unimpressive as a photo. Its just s small hunk of green. Its much more impressive to watch live with a zoom lens.

I’d recommend looking at the largest size image and then zoom in on the center of the photo to see the green.

So, after much review, I think what I have is called Impetigo. Here is how it’s described by the Mayo Clinic website:

Impetigo starts as a red sore that quickly ruptures, oozes for a few days and then forms a yellowish-brown crust that looks like honey or brown sugar. The disease is highly contagious, and scratching or touching the sores is likely to spread the infection to other parts of the body as well as to other people.

Impetigo is seldom serious, and minor infections may clear on their own in two to three weeks.

It’s mostly found in children. I think the open sores on my body and all the diving and the lack of descent shower facilities and the sores not letting me be able to shower properly probably were all factors in me getting a bad case.

I’ve begun uploading some Fiji photos. Here is one of me underwater. Note how extreme my haircut was. The barber pretty much made me bald. I have enough stubble on my head now that you can at least tell I have hair.

I also accidentally took some video while diving in Fiji. I thought the camera was in photo mode, but it was in video mode, so some of it is pretty jerky because I didn’t know I was filming.

I have a lot to say, but I’ll save it for when I can post from my laptop, where I’ve been writing all week. I’m leving Fiji with a very very different view than I had one week ago. I didn’t know what to think before I came here. I knew they had a military coup recently, but not much more.

I leave having met tons of people this week, made lots of friends, sores all over my body, tired and in a pretty good mood. I’m going to sleep in while in Samoa (I get to redo Saturday, so why not), check with the Tokelau Office to see when the boat leaves, and try to get good internet. What I find out about the Tokelau boat will determine where I go from there.

I’m also woking on some big picture posts about my travels, but I’m not going to post anything till I get more places under my belt. I’m not sure I have a big enough sample size yet to comment.

I met THREE people from the Twin Cities in Fiji and two more from Iowa. Those were the only Americans I met on the islands (a big group from the University of Georgia was on the boat). I met people from England, Scotand, Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Austria, Switerland, Germay, Finland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Netherlands, and I’m probably forgetting a few.

If I’m luckly, I’ll have my Fiji photos up tomorrow sometime and know what I’ll be doing the next few weeks.

I have some great stuff from Fiji and I had a blast. Met lots of interesting people. Can’t upload anything from here. I might make it to an internet cafe in Nadi tonight. I don’t know.

My next few days are totally up in the air. Once I reach Apia, I have to check with the Tokelau Liason Office to see when the boat leaves. I might be on a 48 hour boat ride tomorrow, or I might just be in Samoa….or American Samoa. I don’t know. It’s sort of out of my hands right now. My schedule should get more set as I finish this part of the trip in the next 2-3 weeks.

Here in Fiji, I got to visit the local village yesterday, meet some kids, watch a local rugby match, went diving today (3x in Fiji), and the night before got to take part in some Kava with the men in the village. Not too shabby.

I’m seriously considering getting a world ban cellphone.