As our time on Fiji came to a close, we began to talk about our experience of living there for a month. I think we both went out of our way to not have a whole lot of expectations when we were there, so it's hard to say if any were met or not.

The first thing we have to mention is the people. Everyone was just ridiculously nice. If you visit Fiji, get ready to say “Bula!” to everyone you come across. Also, everyone knows everyone else, especially in a small town like Savusavu.

Welcomed into their home for prayer night. There is a lot of singing and music and incense.

The family that lives at Siga Siga were so warm and welcoming. We had dinner with them several times and we were fortunate enough to celebrate Diwali with them. That is a religious holiday for Hindu’s that is celebrated like a mix of Christmas, 4th of July, and Halloween. Gifts are exchanged, fireworks set off, and all the kids go house to house looking for platefuls of sweets. At night, people are walking all over the villages to look at the houses which are decorated with strings of lights and torches.

All the kids get the sweets then blow stuff up. Smells like smoke.

One of the nicest decorated houses. Right near Savusavu.

The food that we had was very good for the most part. We covered some of what we had in another post. The worst meal we had was in Labasa at a fast food joint called The Lunch Box and then at a Chinese restaurant. Labasa in general was not very nice. It was hot and rainy. We waited in a restaurant for service but were brushed off several times. Typical of a developing world large town, it was crowded, dirty, lots of exhaust, and, all told, rough around the edges. The same could be said of Nadi, though we were only in each city for a few hours. The most interesting part of our Labasa trip was the 90 minute drive there through the mountains and the super fresh pineapple bought from roadside villagers.

Sweets and sweet tea for Diwali. Dinner is much later at night than usual for some, around 1 or 2 in the morning.

For a country still trying to get its economic feet under it, Savusavu and the surrounding area was quite nice. The Hibiscus Highway is well paved, the electricity is mostly reliable, the drinking water was fine everywhere we went, and the people are upbeat about Fiji’s future. 3G was actually pretty reliable and fast over a lot of the area we were in.

Of course, I can't have a Fiji wrap-up without mentioning my new best friend ever, TukTuk. She made our visit even more amazinger with her lovable antics. You will be missed.

Overall, Fiji was a fantastic place to visit and a great way to start this trip. Great weather and extremely nice people made this a memorable first stop. We hope the rest of our trip provides similarly amazing experiences.

Also, landing in tiny planes is an adventure.