Day 90 Thurs 22nd Sept Hong Kong day 2

David is sent off to buy train tickets for the start of our China train journey and also to the Post Office to send another big parcel of bits and bobs home to try and get rid of a bit of our excess baggage! The girls embark on a walking tour around Mong Kok and encounter an array of sights, sounds and smells along the way!

  

Everywhere you turn in Hong Kong, on every street and down every alleyway, there are snack stalls, preparing, cooking and selling a dazzling selection of food. To our untrained eyes - most is unrecognisable -apart from the unmistakable smell of tripe! We probably ought to have been braver - but content ourselves with just looking! The tour is supposed to take us to the "goldfish market" but it becomes obvious very quickly that this is the pet shop area. Unlike the UK there is no limit on what can be sold and we see sad little faces of every conceivable "pet" staring back at us. Initially the girls ooh and aah but rapidly this changes to distress at the conditions and the realisation of what they were looking at.

  

There were also fish and aquatic species of every shape and colour - but again the rows and rows of tanks and suspended bags on every doorway become just too much for us and we quickly move on to the next stage of our trip.

 

Our next stop is to one of Hong Kong's most colourful street markets, the Flower Market is a jungle of exotic blossoms, luck-bringing houseplants and sweet scents to be found in more than 50 shops. and the displays of every conceivable plant and flower on offer are beautiful.

    

Our last stop is the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden.This charming Chinese-style garden is the favoured gathering place of Hong Kong's songbird owners, who carry their beloved pets around in intricately carved cages. All manner of beautiful birds can be seen here, as well as a selection of traditional bird-keeping paraphernalia. Located on Yuen Po Street in Mong Kok, the garden contains some 70 songbird stalls

 

  

The girls loved looking at the birds and especially the bags of various insects ready to be fed by chopstick to waiting beaks!

 

The tour ends with a well deserved, slightly extravagant, chocolate milkshake! but ssssh.... dont tell Daddy!

6 August - Nelson - Markets, Morris Dancing and Ducks in the park!

A very easy start to the day and we wander into the centre of Nelson and the Saturday market. Nelson has a thriving "arts and crafts" scene and the market is filled with local produce, artisan bakers  and smokeries as well as local craftsmen selling jewellery, ceramics and sculpture. 

It feels fantastic to have the luxury of time to wander amongst the stalls browsing and the girls enjoying sampling and tasting as we go. We are also a little astonished to find a group of Morris dancers! We sit and watch with a steaming cup of very good coffee and the girls eat a fresh cooked crepe.

 We walk to Queens Gardens with armfuls of bread from our backpackers. Fresh bread is provided free in the communal kitchen each day but there were lots of odds and ends left over this morning and so we decide to go and find some ducks to feed. The seagulls also descend and enjoy the feast! 

 

 
We pass a peaceful hour or so in the park, wandering along the paths and through the ornamental gardens. There is something to be said for time spent doing ordinary stuff to keep us grounded!

 

Nelson Cathedral at night. Just across the road from our backpackers.

Kula Eco Park and Sigatoka

Our room at Vakaviti, Coral Coast, Fiji

Today the rain disappeared and the wind dropped. By 10 am there was almost a cloudless, clear, blue sky and the temperature was rising. An early morning explore of the beach across the road from Vakaviti reminded us of the Fiji we were expecting. White horses crashing on the reef and an almost still lagoon with patches of turquoise water – we will definitely need our reef shoes though as it is a very corally beach. Later we were visited by Lai Lai (almost 3) and Ma. Lai Lai or Lily lives next door with her brothers Alfie (9) and Olly (7) and their parents - Brits relocated 8 years ago from Croydon, running 4 dive shops along the Coral Coast- Ma looks after the children while Alice and Alex are working and has done so for the last 8 years. Even in Fiji! Tomorrow she is going to bring fresh coconuts.

We strolled up the beach, spotting this beautiful heron and visited the Kula Eco Park which exhibits native Fijian wildlife. As with any attraction it came at a high price and we are almost certain that prices change depending on whether one looks like a local or a tourist! Tiegan really enjoyed handling the native banded and crested iguanas and the Fijian boa. 


Rowan took some convincing but succumbed eventually! We also see native birds, the Fijian Lory and the Red breasted Kadavu The temperature was perfect as we wandered through the park and climbed to the treetop walkway to look at the forest canopy.  A truly wonderful place.

 

Another trip into Sigatoka was needed as we have used up our daily allowance on visiting the park so need to eat in tonight! Shopping is still very much a multi shop experience - bread and fresh pizza from the Hot Bread shop, fruit and vegetables from the market and beer from the liquor store and sold in brown paper bags!









 We brave the local minivan service $1F per adult, 
children can sit on laps so as to pack in extra passengers, and we are driven at break neck speed the 10 minute journey back to Vakaviti visiting every pothole and bump along the way. 

Fiji at last...

The plane was delayed for an hour before take off as a result of a faulty door mechanism, however by this time the girls and David were already asleep and stayed that way until long after take off. The evening meal was pretty pants and not sure the troops would have eaten it, even if they had been awake. Breakfast, an hour and a bit before we landed in Nadi, was a little better - a cheese omelette with grilled tomato and a chicken sausage, fruit, yoghurt, banana muffin and a cup of tea.

 

We have arrived in Fiji! Bula! This means hello. Customs really easy and the nice man stamped the teddy passports which the girls were thrilled with. We found our contact for Bamboo Backpackers really easily and bundled into the dusty, rusty, yellow taxi which I am sure would not pass a UK MOT but again I am sure we will travel in worse! This is the view from the taxi as the sun rose and we made our way to Bamboo. This is a range of hills called the Sleeping Giant which looks over Nadi - so called because its profile resembles a sleeping man.
 

The Bamboo Backpackers

This is our home for the next 3 days.

The room wasnt quite ready (not surprising as we arrived at 7 am!) so we settled on the deck and enjoyed our first breakfast Fiji style! This is free (hurray!) and the same every day, although you can add eggs or have tea instead! The fresh pawpaw is amazing!

The next 2 images are not for the faint hearted! We must admit it is a baptism of fire- and took 24 hours to acclimatise ourselves to our surroundings. Basic - but functional!

 David and Nicole get to have the top bunks as bunks have no rail or ladder and are very high! Bathroom is erm... interesting... enough said! After a good nights sleep - the accommodation doesnt seem so bad, the beds are surprisingly comfortable and the fan works well.

The girls have been spending a lot of time being entertained by the staff- being swung in the hammock or playing table tennis  - all are amazingly friendly and welcoming. Everyone smiles and laughter is everywhere. 

We ventured in to Nadi town on the local bus - which is open on the sides  and drive through a little residential area - every garden seems to have free ranging chickens and a broken down car in various states of rusting.

We visited the local produce market - not quite like Sainsburys! Mostly open air and all the produce seems to be home grown and being sold by the growers, (predominantly ladies) either seated on the ground or inside on wooden stands.  Everything is arranged beautifully in "heaps" and laid out for buyers to choose their own.  Vegetables and fruit were being splashed with water to stop them from drying out and to keep them looking good for buyers. Most are recognisable eg. aubergines, pak choi, okra, green bananas and a lot of pawpaw. Refreshingly nothing looks perfect but all guaranteed fresh and local - no unnecessary air miles here. Most piles seem to cost  1 or 2 Fiji $ - (3 $F to the £) and a pile of mussels were $1 - so cheap in comparison. Also lots of stalls with buckets of spices and tiny fresh hot chillies - a real feast for the senses! It is hot and noisy and smelly! There is also a large hall with row upon row of stalls selling Kava. Some still in root form and some bagged up in powder form.

Kava is made from the bare root of a pepper tree, pounded into a fine powder and then mixed with fresh water.As a guest in Fiji, you will frequently be invited to participate in one of the most common ceremonial and social customs in the islands, the Kava Ceremony. The drinking of kava, or Yaqona, is quite common on social occasions. It is regarded in Fiji as "the National Drink". Kava has a pleasant calming effect on the body, while leaving the mind clear. Unlike alcohol, there are no hangovers.

Before we leave the market we follow the smell of fresh sweet pineapple and find a man selling freshly cut whole pineapples, ready carved and ready to eat. We buy one for 50 cents and the man gives us another! This is about 15p! They are amazing and drip everywhere! We walked on into the main town and  approached atleast 10 times by Fijians who inform us we are shopping at the Indian side of town and we should go to the truly Fijian part. The obvious and very open divisions between the two cultures is shocking and we  both sense a degree of tension as we walk around. We stand out in the crowd and consequently also approached by several dubious looking characters offering us bargains, trips and invites to Kava cermonies within souvenir shops. We have heard tales of tourists being scammed and duped into parting with large amounts of cash on the promise of a boat trip or similar excursion and so politely smile and walk on.