{"id":14852,"date":"2018-12-06T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T02:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14852"},"modified":"2018-12-23T21:58:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T02:58:37","slug":"suva-viti-levu-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14852","title":{"rendered":"Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday – December 6, 2018<\/p>\n

“Bula! Bula!\u201d Means “Hello” in Fijian. \u00a0The full greeting is \u201cBula, Venaka!\u201d Literally \u201cHello, Thank you\u201d but serves as a warm welcome.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s the view of Suva, Fiji from our balcony. It looked like more like a commercial port, not the tropical paradise that the word \u201cFiji\u201d conjured in my imagination. \u00a0Suva is the capital of the Republic of Fiji and biggest city on the island of Viti Levu.<\/p>\n

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Jeff and I went ashore and I saw a No Smoking sign which included the local \u201cPidgin\u201d language widely used all across the South Pacific Islands. \u00a0\u201cE Tabu\u201d means ‘it\u2019s forbidden’ – taboo. \u00a0\u201cNa” means no. \u00a0\u201cVaka\u201d as in vapor\/smoke. \u00a0\u201cTavako\u201d is ‘tobacco’. \u00a0\u201cEke\u201d means here. \u00a0Loose translation: “It\u2019s taboo – No smoking tobacco – Here”<\/p>\n

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We crossed the street and went toward a sprawling covered market. \u00a0Several people had mats spread out on the ground outside the building. \u00a0They were selling peanuts, eggplants, and a variety of root vegetables. The woman in the photo below had crabs tied together with a strip of a palm leaf.<\/p>\n

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Inside the vast market building there were about a hundred vendors selling taro, pineapples, coconuts, potatoes, eggplants, different kinds of bananas, mangos, papayas, beans, other fruits and vegetables which we didn’t recognize.<\/p>\n

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On the street outside the market there were more permanent stalls offering shoe and leather repair, cell phone services, and hot prepared foods.<\/p>\n

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We had been warned about the \u201cbarrow men\u201d who used wheelbarrows to deliver fruits and vegetables to the vendors. \u00a0They had a reputation for mowing down unsuspecting visitors in their haste to perform their jobs. \u00a0I saw two of the barrow men relaxing between deliveries and asked one of the men if I could take his picture. \u00a0He nodded gruffly. \u00a0When I showed him his photo, he beamed a wide smile and laughed heartily. \u00a0You never know what people are really like unless you communicate with them\u2026.<\/p>\n

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Jeff and I saw a sign which read \u201cGrog Upstairs\u201d and we discovered the second floor of the market where kava roots, tobacco, and Indian spices were sold. \u00a0We were told that the islanders drink kava especially during celebrations and special events. \u00a0My dictionary states that kava is \u201ca narcotic sedative drink made in Polynesia from the crushed roots of a plant of the pepper family.”<\/p>\n

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When I took the picture of the kava roots above, the woman who ran the booth came forward to talk to me. \u00a0She explained how the roots were dried and finely ground, then water is added to the powder. \u00a0The plastic container to the left of the roots held ground kava. \u00a0The woman\u2019s assistant offered me a drink of kava, but I declined graciously, thinking about drinking the local water as well as the unknown effect of the kava.<\/p>\n

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Outside on the street there was a large banner celebrating the recent visit of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. \u00a0They visited New Zealand and Australia as well as several other Polynesian islands.<\/p>\n

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Here is a photo of one of the main intersections in Suva.<\/p>\n

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A few minutes later, there was a huge tropical downpour. \u00a0Fortunately, most of the sidewalks were covered and we ducked into the modern, air conditioned Tapoo department store to get out of the rain. \u00a0This sign directed us up to the 4th floor:<\/p>\n

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We didn\u2019t want to have Fijian New York pizza but we sat at a table in the food court and had refreshing cold Pepsi Colas. \u00a0Did I mention it was 84 degrees with 93% humidity outside before it started to rain? \u00a0Christmas decorations in Tapoo:<\/p>\n

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The food court included a young brown-skinned Santa who gave me the Hawaiian\/Polynesian double-handed greeting.<\/p>\n

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Later, we found the post office and I dropped some postcards into a slot labeled \u201cOver Seas\u201d so I hope my family gets them. \u00a0When we got back to the Amsterdam, there was a U.S. Coast Guard ship in the harbor and the light was interesting as gray clouds increased.<\/p>\n

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In the evening, the Amsterdam pushed away from the dock and we left the Port of Suva, Fiji. \u00a0More amazing cloud formations on the South Pacific Ocean:<\/p>\n

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Thursday – December 6, 2018 “Bula! Bula!\u201d Means “Hello” in Fijian. \u00a0The full greeting is \u201cBula, Venaka!\u201d Literally \u201cHello, Thank you\u201d but serves as a warm welcome. Here\u2019s the view of Suva, Fiji from our balcony. It looked like more like a commercial port, not the tropical paradise that the word \u201cFiji\u201d conjured in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-fiji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14854,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14852\/revisions\/14854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}