Sisili

We begin our travels again to leave LA and fly to the beautiful islands that Fiji has to offer. It was another seamless journey (well, almost seamless, but I will tell you about that shortly). Myanna kindly offered to drop us off at the train station (for which we will be eternally grateful), then a train to the bus station, a bus to the airport, an 11 and a half hour flight to Fiji, a coach to the ferry, a 2 hour ferry ride to a speed boat, a speed boat to Waya lailai island and bish bosh boom we were there!! But before I tell you of our time on the island, let me tell you a little story...

It was late at night, around 3 in the morning. We were 3 or 4 hours into our flight from LA, we had been fed, played some on air entertainment, challenging each other to complete games of pairs in rapid time and had just settled off to sleep. Then, there was an announcement! "Could anyone who is medically trained please make their way to the front of the plane immediately". I looked around waiting to see if anyone else was going to offer their services, hopefully a doctor. Nobody stood up. They played the announcement again. Still nobody, so up I got, and was taken through first class and into the back of the cockpit. As I walked I was eerily calm at the same time as pooing my pants. I was praying it was a child that was sick. I know what to do with a sick child. The only thing I know how to do on an adult is CPR and I didn't fancy doing that. I was met by two air hostesses and rapidly explained that I was a nurse, not a doctor. I looked around, no one else had come to help, crap!! I asked what the situation was and once they'd finished, I tried to control my laughter. There was a man, in first class, who had been struggling to poo for the last 3 hours and it was causing him pain. I was elated. This I can handle. I work on a gastro ward, I am all over this shit, literally!! I went through first class to go and see the man and assess him. I had ascertained that he could wee, pass wind (so no intestinal blockage) had poo'd in the last 24 hours and was clinically well. I told him to drink lots of water, take some paracetamol for the cramps (and probably grow a pair too). As I went back to explain this to the air hostesses, in barges this half asleep man in a white vest and boxers who declared he was an ex army paramedic and here to save the day. Hallelujah!! I explained the situation to the gentleman who agreed with what I had done. As I made my way to leave he grabbed my arm. "You know, sometimes it's helpful when someone's constipated to stick a finger up their bum to stimulate their rectum". I looked at him and replied " with a less than 24 hour history of constipation it's really not something I would recommend". "Well I think it would help, and since you're a nurse it's probably best if you do it" he said whilst asking the stewardess if I could have a glove. I assured the man that I would not be sticking my finger up anyone's bum hole during this flight, but suggested if he felt so strongly about it, he was more than welcome to give it a go. I spoke with the stewardess again and left. As I left first class I heard the paramedic suggesting his idea to the man and saw him hand over a glove. I hated to break it to him that I doubted the man in first class, who would have had happily had us make an emergency landing in Honolulu for a level of constipation Aiden could only wish for, would be willing to stick his own finger up his bum. When I returned to Aiden he had a grave look of concern on his face, he thought he'd seen me go into the cockpit and decided I was giving CPR to the pilot, and was trying to work out how he was going to land the plane. Nothing that dramatic thank goodness!! Haha.

So we made it to Waya lailai. A word of advice for anyone travelling to Fiji. Travel in shorts and flip flops. When you make it to your islands you have to get off the speed boats, into the sea, and wade your way through the rocks, sand and water...trousers and plimsolls were not my best choice. We were welcomed to the island by the resort workers singing to us, and greeted by the owner who explained to us that it was a family run resort, and now we are guests, we are also part of the family. He showed us to our bura, which was a sweet little wooden shack, that thankfully had its own toilet. It reminded me a lot of some of the small beach resorts i went to in Malawi. After a nap to try and recover from the trip we took a snorkel around the beach. I'm going to let Aiden talk to you about the snorkelling as I am completely ignorant to what I am seeing and can do it no justice. We had our first dinner and were very impressed, we were told the portion sizes had a lot to be desired... but there was more than enough. We left as soon as we finished dinner and didn't join in the evening games and carva (although I'm not too sad about the carva) as Aiden was feeling ill we decided to have an early night. The next morning I woke up and the tummy cramps started. That's right, 12 hours on our first tropical destination, and I have a tummy bug. Turns out most of the people on the resort had it, some just had tummy aches, some were ill for 4-6 hours and enjoyed their day. 72 hours later and I'm almost fully better with the aid of tablets. So for this reason I will hand you over to Aiden to tell you of his snorkelling adventures, whilst I laid and read my book. I did manage one snorkel trip, not the amazing one Aidens about to tell you about, but the next day I decided to take some tablets to help myself, and although probably dehydrated and not quite feeling myself I decide to try snorkelling. How hard can it be to float around the sea?! Well this day they decided not to take us out to the reef on the boat. We were to swim there. I managed it there, but by the time we got to the reef and they said to turn back I felt horrendously sick. I spent the whole time swimming back preying not to vomit. Aiden stopped me to look at a shark beneath us, which I tried to see but by this point I was heaving, petrified of vomiting near the shark. I don't think they like vomit...but I wasn't willing to take the chance. Not to mention I didn't think our fellow snorkellers would be too impressed with me. I also managed to do the summit walk, to watch the sun set over the island. Turns out our resort staff do not work on Sundays so we were going to walk it ourselves, luckily 6 island dogs ran out to guide the way...apologies if Aiden puts the photo up of me climbing the summit, it was a lot steeper than we thought, and I look a bit like death...not sure I was quite well enough for it yet. Oh well, it was well worth it.

Hellooo, Aiden here, so I'm going to tell you about our time at Waya lailai because Sarah's favourite sport for the period was sprinting back and forth to the bathroom screaming 'don't listen!' It has been a magnificent spectacle, the sheer amount of species on our door step ( and inside our room) is incredible. Moths the size of your fist, huge beetles and grass hoppers, bats, birds, insects, lizards, crabs, geckos ( Gismo protected us from the mozzies). Insects pretty much run the place as the island is a bit small to accommodate large mammals and snakes. The level of sea life is also immense with the colours of some of the corals surpassing that of the Great Barrier Reef! When snorkelling we saw countless tropical fish of all colours and sizes, pipe fish, flying fish, star fish, cucumbers and on a couple of occasions some decent sized white tip reef sharks. Unfortunately there was also quite a few small jellyfish who decided they like the taste of my face but you do get used to it, jellyfish that is, not things tasting your face. On the way back from one of the free snorkel trips on the speed boat we actually came across a couple of dolphins who wanted to crash our party. Out of nowhere, 3 feet from me they started launching themselves along the boat and twisting in the air and splashing us with their flippers, I was stunned into silence as they followed us back. The fact that the Fijians were also beside themselves with excitement shows that this was not their usual snorkel trip! Awesome!!!!! Sorry for going all David Attenborough on you guys but these Yasawa islands are truly untouched wonders, I do hope tourism does not expand here and it can remain a wonder. As well as snorkelling we also worked up a sweat by trekking to the summit of the island while being guided by a group of local dogs (the pets), one dog in particular stayed with us the whole time to show us the way. We called her Moby. The view of the archipelago was stunning and Sarah was treated to the sight of me falling flat on my bum on the descent! We also had a chance to sample the local drink 'cava', this is a root based refreshment which looks and tastes exactly like it says on the tin... Don't think we'll be rushing to try it again anytime soon, however we did this with the staff as part of their mothers day celebration which was pretty cool! By the way, the odd picture you see attached is one I took of Sarah's jellyfish stings on her bum, thought you guys might enjoy it, thankfully it was not painful enough for me to have to pee on her.... In the name of first aid!Read more