Trips

Whilst staying on Beachcomber island, there are a range of options and trips you can go on. They cost around $60 Fijian dollars, which is really not a lot. The trips range from a island hop (aka. pub crawl) where the boat goes from island to island. It includes lunch on the famous castaway island and drinks from every bar you visit. The shopping trip takes you to the main island where you can shop for 3 hours in the streets of Lautoka- Fiji's second biggest city. Or there is the Seafari trip, which takes you to the main island to experience a traditonal Fijian gathering. Men are required to wear sarongs (or a towel wrapped around as a sarongs) and everyone is required to wear shirts which cover their arms as well as all sunglasses taken off. Cava is offered and must be drunk or it is considered very rude. My favourite trip was by far the shopping trip, i felt as though i got the best of both- not only did i get to go shopping, but i got to experience the life of the Fijians on the mainland. It is very different, we were also warned of the dangers of the mainland before getting off our boat. Although that deemed not a problem for me, many did experience difficulty on the mainland. Instead i got a rather frightening experience of a different kind (although i laugh when i look back on it now). It was the scary mini-bus ride we had from the port to Lautoka. While a speed limit sign in Fiji says 60km/h, most tend to drive 110-140km/h. How their cars get to such speeds still baffles me. Our bus was over taking semi trailers towing cuts of wood whilst speeding into on-coming traffic. When i watch the video i took while it was happening (for proof of course!) i still get frightened and i feel for the girl next to me who decided crying might help the situation. As my friend sat next to me on the bus as we were speeding at 120km/h with a soon to be head on collision, he stated "you win some, you lose some, you just have to take a chance in life". Although his words at the time were not so wise, i think back and know that we were simply the unlucky ones and that not all would experience what we did that day. Not to mention when our boat caught on fire and we were all told to evacuate aka. jump into the freezing, incredibly deep ocean where the Sharks were out to get us (all in the same day). But regardless we made it back safe and sound, just a little traumatized and probably scarred for life.Regardless, the trip itself was very fun, many things bought such as little piece of Fijian wood, shells, clothes and towels and loads more options. For more information on Lauktoa go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautoka