Travel Journal: Suva, Fiji

We just got back from our tour in Suva, the second stop in our itinerary. We did a mixture of cultural, historical and fun things for today. I will write them all down now while it is still fresh in my memory. We still have heaps of time to rest and to prepare for dinner and tonight's show (It's Wild, Cool and Swingin as per the cruise compass) later.

We already docked in Suva by the time we finished preparing to get off the ship this morning. We booked the Jewel of Fiji shore excursion via Viator weeks prior to boarding the ship. We could have booked it with Royal Caribbean instead but my friend found out that it was more expensive to book it with them. We thought it would be risky to book an excursion outside the cruise line company because other tour companies might not or probably do not have any arrangements with the cruise line. There could be a conflict regarding pick-up and departure times and we might be left behind by the ship or we may have wasted our time if they pick us up later than usual.



We also weren't sure if there will be other people on the cruise that would book excursions from tour companies other than Royal Caribbean. If in case we get left behind on the island, it would be more comforting to know that we weren't the only two people who got left behind. Haha! Those kinds of little things that could have an annoying domino effect. But, we agreed to book one tour with Royal Caribbean and one tour from another tour company so we could compare later on.

Fortunately, when we got off the ship, vans from different tour companies were already parked outside and tour guides were already waiting for their respective clients. Viator emailed us beforehand the detailed instructions - the meeting place, time, what the tour guide would be wearing, etc. It was good to know that a lot of people booked excursions through other tour companies as well. Once our van was filled, a lady in our group asked the driver/tour guide what time would the tour finish as we have to be back by 4:00 PM. The driver/tour guide knew that already and he assured us that we will be back on time so all of us felt relieved that they seem to know the do's and don'ts of touring cruise clients.

Our driver drove us to Navua, 3 towns away from Suva, about an hour drive, so we were able to see a bit of the other towns.

We started the tour by visiting a village (Koromakawa Village) meeting house called bure. We had to take our shoes off as per their custom and as a sign of respect.

We were warmly welcomed with a war dance and a kava ceremony, a sacred and traditional ceremony that is only performed for visiting high chiefs and important visitors. Kava is their national drink. I tried it. Its taste isn't as bad as it looked. It looked like muddy water, tasted like an old lipstick? (At least for me!) A folk dance was performed thereafter as well.

Our tour guides also shared the history of the village (established by an Englishman named Mr. Danford). They showed us how they cook/their traditional way of cooking called lovo. It's like an oven but underground. They dig/create a big pit in the soil and place wood and stones in it. They light a fire in it and if it's ready for cooking, they rearrange the stones so that the food to be cooked can be placed on top of it properly. Then, they cover the pit with dried leaves. Our food for lunch was cooked in that way.

They also showcased how Fijian mats and artworks are made. For the mats, they shred or pound pandan leaves to make it thinner and weave them together. These mats are considered traditional gifts. As for the artworks, they use ink from mulberry. They pound mulberries and use the extract as ink. They add charcoal to that extract to create a black ink and they add clay to create brown ink or just use the pounded mulberry extract as it is. They also have handmade fabrics, which, similar to the mats, are used as gifts for a wedding or funeral. If I remember correctly and hopefully, I am not mistaken, I think it is also customary for them to give gifts at funerals.

They showed how they open coconuts, which is very similar to how it is done in the Philippines, and what they do with the coconut byproducts. They use the coconut husk to make their roof while they use the coconut shell as a pot/container for cooking as well.

Our guides also explained their native weapons (such as neckbreaker and cannibal fork) and meaning behind their symbols (e.g. putting a flower on your left ear means you're single while placing a flower on your right means you're married). I loved this part. A lot was discussed but these are the only ones that stuck in my head as I write this.

We also visited a village pre-school and met some kids who sang us both welcome and farewell songs, which was really cute.

Then, we had lunch and ate the food that was cooked earlier. Their food is somewhat similar to Filipino food. There were noodles with vegetables (like pancit), a dish that looks and tastes like laing but not spicy (I forgot what it was called), rice (Yay!), fish in coconut, curry, pumpkin. We thought we would have extra time after eating lunch so we also had our name listed for a quick massage but we cancelled it because we had to go straight to our next activity.

I tried and ate most of the dishes offered.

Before leaving the village, my friend and I bought some souvenirs. We quickly slipped on our rashguards and aqua shoes as well. We deliberately left all out things at the village for this part of the tour. We canoed down the Navua river to visit Navua's largest waterfalls. I didn't notice that it was a 45-minute trip because I was busy looking at the villages, rainforests and waterfalls that we passed by. It would have been nicer if the weather wasn't gloomy. But at least we didn't have to worry about sunburn or heat.

After reaching our stop, we trekked further into the forest to reach the waterfalls. We had a quick dip. And I had a little accident before that. I was stepping on rocks to get slowly into the water and as I walk one step further, there were no more rocks! I somehow slipped into the water. There was like a gap in that spot/a sudden dip and the water is fairly deep for my height. Luckily, there was a man nearby and he grabbed me by the arm. I was split-second close to panicking and I wouldn't have been able to swim! Whew. He then pulled me to a safer spot where it was not too deep. Oh, my goodness. I was super grateful to him.

We capped off the tour by riding a bamboo raft, which was their previous means of transportation, back when there were no roads and before motors were introduced.

Chinese cuisine for dinner

We canoed down the river again and went back to the village to grab our things. It was a good call to leave our things in the village because it was a hassle to carry things and worry about our gadgets while canoeing and trekking. We were driven back to the cruise ship port on time. Everything in this tour went smoothly. Now we know that we can safely book tours outside the cruise line company. They are efficient and they are way cheaper, too!

Next port stop will be in 2 days time!

Travel Journal: More notes from the sea

30 October 2017, 11:17 PM

Here I am sitting on the couch, writing again. We just got back from our dinner and we are so full. We used our available credits for the cruise to pre-book three fine dining dinners. The dinner we scheduled for tonight was at Chops Grille. I ordered truffle mushroom soup (which was amazing!) for entree, 12-oz New York strip steak (I wasn't able to finish it because it was so big and I was still full from our late lunch) with grilled asparagus, sauteed mushrooms and creamed spinach (We can actually order as many sides as we wanted) for main and red velvet cake (which I had to take as to go because my stomach can't distend any further. Haha!) for dessert. Unfortunately, I have no #JanaEats shots because I was embarrassed to take photos in a fine dining restaurant. Heh.

After dinner, we headed to a show named Invitation to Dance. It was a song and dance show. A mash-up of different genres of dance - salsa, flamenco, etc. Ballroom dancing, basically. The star dancers were a pair of Russian ballroom dancers. While waiting for the show to start, we shared a nice, casual conversation with a lovely lady from New Zealand who sat next to us.

Anyway, what else did we do today?

We slept in, woke up around 8:30 AM because we were so tired from yesterday. We woke up early for our boxing training with my brother. We went grocery shopping afterward so my brother has something to eat while we were away and the fridge is stocked once we come back. Then, we did our final packing before heading to Circular Quay as well.

We headed for our first breakfast buffet for this trip. I was super excited to have a proper, decent breakfast meal on a Monday morning! Woohoo! It is a rare occasion for me nowadays. I was so happy with the breakfast buffet menu - eggs cooked in a variety of ways, sausages, bacon, French toasts, waffles, pancakes, hash browns, fruits, yoghurts, assorted jams, bagels, English muffins and more! Aaaaahhhh!

We decided to go to the gym after because, as I've said, if we were going to eat buffet meals for two weeks and at the rate that we are going with eating, we might as well work the calories out. Haha! When we got there, a seminar about detoxification (look at that, very fitting for our eat and burn plan. Haha!) was about to be held so we decided to sit down and listen before working out. The speaker, Jack Chamberlain, was really good. He is a fitness instructor/personal trainer and I believe he also studied nutrition or something related. He explained scientific things in a simple way, which made the talk really interesting and not too overwhelming. The things I learned (and which I remember) from the talk are:
(1) Green tea has caffeine content.
(2) Only 8 feet of the colon are tested during colonoscopy.
(3) We need more alkaline food.
(4) Diet coke has aspartame, a neurotoxin.
(5) Coke has phosphoric acid, which is next in line to the battery when it comes to acid level and is used as a cleaning agent. (I will never look at Coke the same way again!)

We availed the private consultation and body analysis after the talk (#committed!). There was actually a promo that if you attend it with someone, it will be cheaper so we were like, "Yeah, why the hell not?" While waiting for our appointment, we hit the gym  (I told you we were serious. Haha!). The gym was beautifully located on top of the ship with glass windows overlooking the ocean. While you run or walk on the treadmill or do ellipticals, you're facing the ocean. You will also feel the waves while you're on it, which I found really fun and luckily, it didn't make me seasick.

During the private consultation, I found out that I am still underweight and my basal metabolic rate is low. I need more muscle in order to lose more fat. I need to gain weight as well. It was surprising and interesting to note because I thought I am on the normal BMI range now and that my body is okay. Sure, I am not toned and I have a bit of fat in my midsection area but I didn't think I still need to gain more. I also need to increase my resistance or weight training. Hence, we purchased a detoxification program (from a British brand named Elemis) to help us cleanse, repair and revitalise our body. We still have to go back and see him for the nutritional plan.

Then, we headed to our favourite spot (Where else? The Windjammer!) for late lunch and afternoon tea. I had a grilled steak, a spoonful of pasta and risotto, some corn and carrots and grilled zucchini. For afternoon tea, we had dulce de leche cheesecake, chocolate mousse and strawberry shortcake and, our favourite, chocolate chip cookie, and peppermint tea (Drank peppermint tea because of what Jack said re: green tea and I have already been avoiding coffee if I can). We are really owning this buffet madness like a boss! Hahaha!

And that's how our day went. We decided to have an early night tonight (aka #Tita) because we planned to hit the gym early tomorrow morning. Eat and burn - that's our mantra for this trip! :)

01 November 2017, 12:23 AM

Hey, hey, hey! Day 3 of our cruise today.

So, we had a pretty chill day today. Headed straight to our breakfast buffet upstairs upon waking up (Of course.).

We went to the gym after. I have a feeling that half of my travel stories will be all about food and working out. Haha! We did some light exercises first since we just had breakfast. We tried out the hydrotherapy pool. I could stay in that spot for hours. The water pressure felt really good on the muscles after a workout. We tried the sauna and steam room as well. Luckily, we were the only ones there. We only lasted 30 seconds in the sauna room, though, because it was too hot and we couldn't be bothered to pour water on the charcoal almost every 15 seconds. We enjoyed the steam room instead that we even did some stretching and bodyweight exercises while we were in there. Haha! I know, crazy. My head ached because of too much heat, I suppose, and I felt slightly light-headed as well because it was wavier than usual and I was lying in there and doing some planks. So, we headed back to the room to freshen up.

On our way back, we passed by a crowd who were gathered by the pool area watching the World's Sexiest Man Competition. Ain't no sexy man there, for sure, but it was hilarious. We stayed and watched for a bit. After I had our shower, my headache was still there so I decided to sleep it off and asked my friend to wake me up in time for Rock of Edges Show. Thankfully, when I woke up, my headache's gone so I was able to enjoy the show.

And it was a really great ice skating performance and they danced to some old-school rock hit songs from Aerosmith, Queen, and the likes. We loved it. We grew up listening to those songs and bands, thanks to our parents. They were, I believe, professional ice skaters so they were really good. We noticed that there was one Filipino/Filipino-American performer on the show as well.

After the show, we headed to one of the decks. We sat, enjoyed the view and observed the people while waiting for dinner time. So yeah, food again!

Every night is a movie night by the pool area. So while waiting for the movie to start, we watched a magician named Adam Mada perform his tricks. Obviously, this caters more to the youngsters but we had nothing else planned so why not. We went back to the dining area (Haha!) to have some tea while killing more time. The movie that was shown that night was The Ghostbusters movie. Oh my gosh, it was very windy and cold up there! I don't know how some people and kids can watch the show while in the pool! Maybe the water in the pool is warm though?

We headed back to our room after the movie, freshened up, got ready for bed and that's about it. Nothing much to share for this day.

01 November 2017, 11:42 PM

We had another pretty chill day today.



This morning, we hit the gym first before heading to breakfast. We had our session again with Jack for our nutritional plan. He discussed with us the zoning diet and how much we should eat to reach our fitness goals. This will be difficult for me because ever since I've been eating what I want to eat and I've been eating as much as I want to eat. I'm lucky that my weight has always been more or less the same no matter how much I eat so I am not very conscious and strict about my caloric intake. Recently, I've started avoiding (at least trying to) or at least minimising my dairy intake when I can. But that's about it. Anyway, we'll see how we go.

After the gym, I relaxed my muscles through the hydrotherapy pool. I am really enjoying that pool. And not a lot of people are hanging out in this pool (or in the gym), unlike the main pool on the upper deck, which was also a plus.

We met a Filipino lady who works for the cruise in the changing room. We had a casual conversation and we asked her for some travel tips for Lautoka. We didn't have anything planned in Lautoka as we will only be there half a day, anyway. She said she didn't like Lautoka because there's not much to do and to see but she suggested that if we can, we should try to eat seafood there.

After lunch, we prepared for our another dinner reservation at Giovanni's Table, which is an Italian restaurant. We also met another Filipino who works there. He was the waiter assigned to our table. We ordered Caprese salad and another dish (which I totally forgot what it's called) for our appetiser. We each ordered a soup named cioppino-something (Why am I forgetting this?! I just had them a few hours ago!). We ordered the same entree which was veal tenderloin with mushrooms and cheese filling, asparagus, truffle sauce and veal jus (I remembered that!). They have a dessert trolley with at least 4 options. I picked the pannacotta and cannoli for dessert. We thought we ordered just enough for us but no, it was a lot. We were so full. Food baby right here. Luckily, I wore a dress! A black loose dress.



The theatre was near the restaurant so we decided to go and watch Monique Montez, an Australian singer, perform.

We're back here in our room for another early night because tomorrow we will be docking in Lautoka! Yay! Now, I have stories to tell other than eating! Haha!

***

I did not write anything on other days so I'll just share a few of the random snaps I took during the rest of the trip.

Another ice skating productions, Spirits of the Seasons, from the same performers. I loved the winter part. 

Love and Marriage Game. Oh, this was one of our favourites. I believe this is one of the crowd's favourites as well! This was a hilarious game. They pre-selected 2 couples for this game - one couple married for at least 10/20 years and one couple married for 50 years and above. Whoever was recently married or on honeymoon who wanted to volunteer themselves as the third couple for the game were asked to do some kind of dare and the winning couple was decided upon by the audience. The couples were asked random questions about their relationship - from the basics down to the TMI kind of questions. The ladies were asked to go backstage while the host asked the men and vice versa. Men were asked the similar questions while ladies were asked similar questions. They sat together thereafter for the big reveal. After that game, we felt like we knew those couples already - in a more intimate level. Hahaha!

There were a lot of activities on the cruise. You will not get bored, I tell you. There will always be something to do. One of the activities that piqued interest was game tutorials at the casino. I checked it out and tried to learn poker, Russian Roulette and Blackjack. In Blackjack, I got a one-on-one tutorial because I was the only one there. Next thing I knew, there were 3-4 guys behind me trying to teach me as well. And waiting for me to finish as it was already happy hour at the casino.

One of the performers. They performed Beatles songs.

Another show as well. Held at the Promenade this time. It was 70s nights so a lot of 70s music and dancing.

Parade on the night before our last day on the cruise.

One of the artworks in the art gallery.

I tried rock climbing, too! I almost finished! I didn't think I will reach that far but my arms were starting to shake and my fingers couldn't grip tighter anymore. I had a hard time getting down because I was kind of freaking out. I'm afraid of heights so letting go and trusting that rope to safely put me down seemed like a crazy idea to me! So I tried to go down in a similar way that I did going up but the trainer kept on telling me that I should just completely let go. And I told him "No" several times but I let go eventually. Haha!

More towel art. Isn't it cute? They actually have lessons on how to do it. I might attend those next time. Haha!

The chocolate chip cookie that I mentioned in my previous post! Oh, so goooooddddd!

Farewell show from some of the cruise staff.

And here are some of our portraits. Every night, there were photographers on selected areas who can take your photos for souvenirs. We were quite hesitant to have our photos taken because a lot of people were lining up. We only did it three times - the first two was random. We happened to pass by and there was no one around so it was a good opportunity for a quick photo without being awkward and without strangers staring at you. The third time was during our last night and we just didn't care anymore if there were a lot of people lining up or looking at us. Most people lined up that night for photos since it was the last night.

The day we got off the ship. Hello, land. And hello, reality. Ho-hum.