We're so out of practice

Today we attempted to explore Nadi more on our own. We were a little apprehensive about it as we've developed both a fear and a level of confidence of stepping out of our comfort zone from our travels. It was a little unhelpful that the receptionist at the hotel told us we just pay cash for the bus which isn't actually the case. We discovered when we boarded that we needed to purchase a $5 travel card. Luckily though we could use one for both of us so only needed to get one. The bus wasn't the worse we've seen but it certainly wasn't a comfortable ride. They were playing music though which was a welcome bonus. We made it to Nadi bus terminal and our first thought was to work out where we needed to get back on the bus. Luckily as we were discussing this a gentleman approached us and showed us the bus stop we needed to be on for the way back. At first he came across really friendly, asking where we were staying, where we're from, that kind of thing. He then asked us our plan for the day and we said we were off to the markets. He passed us over to a lady and said she'd show us where it was. As we were walking we did feel very relaxed, she achieved this with her friendly personality. We began to realise something wasn't right when we turned a corner and were heading down an alley that didn't look like it would lead to any tourist market at all. Turns out that she lead us to their own personal shop. We knew then we'd been scammed and she explained that all the products sold here were made in the villages and wasn't mass produced. We didn't buy it but couldn't get out of the kava ceremony she began performing for us. She invited us to drink kava which we declined and after that was over we were invited to look around at what we'd like to buy. We did a courtesy loop before making for the exit. What made it worse was they were all sat by the door so as soon as she realised we weren't buying anything she said "well a donation will do" but we just exited quickly and thanked her. We pretty much ran away at this point and got ourselves into the fruit market before awkwardly passing the man and woman as they headed back to the bus station obviously to pick up their next targets. We felt like such fools for not picking up the signs earlier but you do want to see the best in people and not believe that everyone has a hidden agenda. You just have to put an unfortunate guard up in countries like this where they believe just because we come from a wealthier country that we have hundreds of pounds to spend on huge wooden swords. We felt a bit sour after that and it did taint our visits to the real markets and we just avoided going too close to any stall. Instead we explored a few shops, bought a few things we needed before deciding that was enough of Nadi town centre. We made our way to the bus stop and happened to meet 3 English girls who are staying at our hotel and were on the bus to town with us. Luckily one girl has been living here for 3 months so when we found out the bus was 40 minutes away she told us to come with them on an alternative bus and then once we got off she put us in a taxi and made sure our driver only charged us $5 for the ride. It was so nice after our experience earlier to have someone genuinely help us. Although I'm proud we ventured out I don't think it was our best day of exploring. I'm hoping at least when we visit the island we are staying on for Christmas we don't have to have such a guard up but we will see.Read more