Our second day in Fiji, the sun is warm today and we decided to spend some more time exploring Denarau Island.
Around lunch time we ventured from our room to reception and found the best way to get around the island is to take the Bula Bus.
The Bula Bus is a converted truck with bench seats in the back that goes around the island non-stop all day. There are several of them so the wait is fairly short. It costs $8.50FJ for all day travel so is a fairly inexpensive way to get around.
Waiting at reception I was watching one of the staff pounding a Lali Drum at the entrance to welcome guests back to the hotel.
I managed to talk him into doing it for me so I could record it.
It should be noted by now that in Fiji you’re going to hear “Bula” a whole lot. Bula means hello and every person you walk past will greet you. By the time you leave you’ll have said Bula at least a million times.
Bula Bus
After jumping on the Bula Bus we headed to Port Denarau which is a small shopping precinct on the island. It is also the port where cruise ships and other boats arrive and depart.
There are all manner of shops and restaurants here. First stop was a cafe where I picked up a freshly made juice to re-hydrate.
It’s about 33C in Denarau today and the humidity is quite high.
After the juice and a quick look around the shops we headed in search of lunch.
While the most recognisable name is the Hard Rock Cafe we opted to try out Bone Fish which is a seafood restaurant located at the back to the shops facing the water.
After some arguing with the staff about the freshness of their crabs and lobsters Crystal opted for fish and chips while I had a seafood basket.
For an entree we ordered a “Kokoda” dish which is cold fish in coconut milk with a lot of lettuce. It is a traditional Fijian food. Crystal didn’t like it too much but with a little salt added it was quite tasty.
We visited Budget and organised a hire car for the following day. They offered to pick us up from Radisson first thing in the morning to take us back to their office at Port Denarau to complete the paperwork and payment before collecting the car.
After lunch we had organised a massage. The massage business picks you up from your resort and takes you for the massage then returns you to your resort.
Unfortunately after waiting a long time in the hot sun for the driver to arrive we ended up cancelling and jumped back on the Bula Bus back to Radisson Blu.
Bula Bus Ride back to Resort:
After arriving back at the resort I bought myself a Vodka drink from the kiosk and headed back to the room to relax.
It was quite hot outside by this point and Crystal decided to take a nap while I went to the pool for a while.
We had made dinner arrangements with some work friends (the boss) and around 7pm jumped back onto the Bula Bus to meet them at Sofitel about 5 minutes up the road.
After some brief catching up we jumped into a taxi and went to Habibi, a Mediterranean restaurant operated by a French lady just outside Nadi.
The atmosphere was lovely and the restaurant very well decorated to match the cuisine. The food was absolutely to die for.
Between us we ordered Baba Ganoush and Houmous for entree which come with hot bread and for mains we had Chicken Couscous, Lamb Tajine and Lamb Ribs Mechoui.
I even ordered myself a Pina Colada to top off dinner.
Habibi Menu
After dinner we all headed back to our hotels to retire for the evening.
Read on to day 3, road trip from Nadi to Suva