Day 39: Lautoka, Viti Levu … Fiji

Tuesday, 14 February 2017
At Sea — South Pacific

No Stats … I forgot to get them from the NavChannel

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.
~ Fitzhugh Mullan ~

Happy Valentines Day!

Our second day in Fiji … and another rain-free one.  The weather gods have been good to us on this island, which gets a lot of wet stuff year round … the reason why the landscape is lush green everywhere you look.

Today Insignia docked in Lautoka, on the west side of the island.  The name of Fiji’s second largest city means “spear-hit” or “hit to win” and refers back to the time when two tribes lived here.  After an argument between the two chiefs at a point known as Farquhar’s Point, one chief speared the other one and called out “LAU-TOKA.”  And that’s how the town, which is known locally as sugar city for the sugar cane industry in the region, got its name.

Today’s tour — with Monika of Funky Tourz & Transferz — was a mixed one.  Meaning that we enjoyed parts of it, but there was a sour note towards the end.  When I say, “we” here, I mean me and eight fellow-passengers … Mui stayed behind to rest and hopefully speed along his recovery from a sinus infection.

Monika picked us up from the Lautoka Cruise Pier at 8:30p as promised and soon we were off to see the sights around Nadi.  Our first stop — Garden of the Sleeping Giant — was a huge success.  Admission $18/person in Fijian Dollars; or about half that in USD.  The property is nestled in a valley overlooked by the highest mountain on the island — named Sleeping Giant for its shape when viewed from a specific angle … it was covered with a cloud blanket today, so we didn’t get to view it.

The garden was founded in 1977 by Raymond Burr — of the Perry Mason TV show fame — to display his orchid collection.  After his death, the property was purchased by an American, and has grown to include many other tropical plants … including some lily ponds.  Those ponds were filled with ‘frisky’ frogs today — perhaps they knew it was Valentines Day ;-)  We followed the path that winds through the property and goes up into a tropical jungle, enjoying the many beautiful orchids and other flowering plants along the way.  By the time we returned to the entrance, we were dripping wet with sweat — no “ladylike glistening with dew” here.  The tropical punch we were served was most welcome.

Our next stop in Nadi — Sri Siva Subramaniya Hindu Temple — was a short drive from the garden.  Here we paid our FJD $5/person admission, wrapped sarongs around our waist — required for anyone wearing shorts or pants — and were given a brief guided tour of the temple.

The largest Hindu temple in the Southern Hemisphere, construction of the current complex began in 1976 on the site of a previous temple that served Indian migrants who moved to Fiji seeking work on sugar plantations.  Eight Indian craftsmen were commissioned to create the structure.  Consecrated in 1994, it features pyramid-shaped towers typical of the Dravidian style of architecture that developed in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.  Elaborate carvings, stepped designs, colorful murals, and statues of gods, kings, and warriors decorate the temple.

Sri Siva Subramaniya is dedicated to Lord Murugan, the god of seasonal rains …  how appropriate for Fiji.  There is a sculpture of him in the central temple — only devotees who have eaten a vegetarian diet and abstained from alcohol, etc. the day before can enter this area.  Additional mandirs [temples] are dedicated to Ganesh, the Hindu god with the head of an elephant, and Shiva, the supreme god.

Compared to the all-white BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Houston — the only other Hindu temple we’ve visited — this one was adorned with color everywhere we looked.  No photos were allowed inside, so I took what I could as I strolled around the perimeter of the temple after the tour.   I tried to bypass all the scaffolding marring the beauty of the temple grounds — apparently there was a festival here yesterday and they were just taking the structures down today.

[This link is to a blog post that includes photos of the temple in Houston, Texas … scroll past everything else to see the difference in style between the two temples.]

Fijians are very proud of a developed area known as Denarau Island, so from the temple Monika took us there to show off the beautiful grounds and posh homes.  We made a quickie stop at the Sheraton Resort to wander around the property and check out the pool and beach facilities before resuming our tour.  In hindsight, perhaps we should have stayed there.

When I booked the tour, I had the option of adding beach time at one of the Denarau Island resorts, but Mui prefers swimming in the ocean to swimming in a pool, and the beach at these resorts would have been off limits.  Plus I wanted more of an old-world resort ambiance, so I asked that we go to the First Landing Resort.  Located at Vuda Point — accepted as the place where the first Fijian’s made land — the reviews and photos seemed to indicate it was just the right place.  Unfortunately, this is where we hit a sour note.

First, we missed the tide … so there was no beach swimming as the water fronting the resort was a mud flat.  There was a channel of water, but it was close to the boat dock, so no one wanted to swim there.  No one cared to swim in the pool either.  Instead, we sat at the bar for some cold beverages and food.  Those who had Fijian or Australian dollars were OK, not so those who wanted to pay in USD.  Instead of the 2-to-1 USD exchange rate, the resort was using the AUD exchange rate of 1.6-to-1, which short-changed those paying in USD.  Word to the wise — get FJD or AUD to use in Fiji.

On that note, we paid our various bills and left to return to the city.  Since several people wanted to stop at the Lautoka Municipal Market, Monika made a 15-minute stop there on the way back to the ship.  This market was all about foodstuff, though, so no money changed hands here.

Returning to the ship after 3:00p, I found Mui doing better, but I was getting consistently worse.  My cough was deep and hacking — although it was interesting that in the humid air of the Garden of the Sleeping Giant I did not cough once.  By the time the ship set sail at 7:30p — ½ hour earlier than scheduled — I was ready for a light dinner in the room and an early night to bed.  Good thing tomorrow is a day at sea.

A colorful end to a ‘mixed’ day in Fiji.

To see more photos from our day in Lautoka, visit my online gallery and start with this photo.

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.