My new love

I've been so busy lately. sort of at least... busy with things that aren't exactly that important to anyone else but myself.
And the things i should actually be doing, such as trying to find a full time job, or adding to my portfolio, as well as talk to centerlink about getting my payments back -_- (because my job agency said i should...) i've completely put aside.

But i should actually talk about my trip to Fiji! because its been the highlight of the year so far.
but i've been so sad since i've come back, and i also have a stomach bug too.. im not sure if i got it there? but i've been feeling sick the past 5 or so days....

Sooo on the 25th of March, My lovely friend Kerrie drove us to the airport to go to Fiji!! how exciting..
At the airport, we saw Kevin Rudd..
We had a nice long plane ride there, sitting in the emergency seats because they had extra leg room. When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by Fijians playing the guitar, welcoming us into their country. that was very lovely.
We then arrived at our first hotel, Raffles, which was close to the airport.

This was our hotel suite. Dave had upgraded us into one of their 5 Suites they had there. it was really nice. and it was great being on a king sized bed.

i loved that there were flowers everywhere.

 One of their swimming pools. This one is the slide pool, i was actually standing on the slide to take that shot.

Dave and i arrived at the hotel around 3pm? and we didnt have much to do there besides rest because it was only a pit stop before we head to another island the next day.
So we swam, ate, watched tv and slept. as well as took photos.

Day 2 - Our trip to Mana Island.

 We traveled by boat on the South Sea Cruise. For an extra $20 per person Dave upgraded us to be in the captions lounge, away from the blazing sun and humidity. as well as all you can eat snacks and drinks!! (they didnt have much, but it was free!) Free alcohol too!!! woo.

 And photos from off the boat.

 Mana Island.

i was greeted by a japanese women there who spoke to me in japanese. i was awfully confused. i even had a video of it because i was trying to record the guitar greeting they had, but was interrupted by the lady.. lol.
Dave and i got too excited, threw out things in our room, changed into our bathers and ran out to snorkel. we had actually packed our own snorkel gear for the trip, but it turns out that they provide snorkel gear free of charge there. as well as many other free activities.

Our view from our room.

 We saw a lot of tropical fish in the water. but i wasn't able to take much photos of them because they moved too fast.

 there were these little fishes that kept swimming with us, it was cute.

And the highlight of our day, a giant trigger-fish (or what looked like a trigger fish, but it had different teeth) chased us. i also have a video of that too, but half the video contained my feet because we panicked and tried to swim away. the fish had frikin teeth!

Day 3 - Fan weaving

Melon Cracking. The Fijian people are so cheeky, they have this game where you walk up to a melon, and crack it with a stick. but you have to do it blind folded, and spin 3 times before taking ur steps. and it was so funny watching everyone try..

 i was able to poke a sea cucumber.. (it wasnt poo, i swear)

 Was able to get some awesome landscape shots.

Because it was a stormy day, Dave and i booked a spa day together.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! it was so cheap as well.. well.. not THAT cheap... but compared to everything else they had there, it was pretty good. $70 AUD per couple, for an hour including herbal tea.

you have no idea how amazing it was.. it was outdoors, secluded, we were able to be naked! i love being naked!!! and it was just so beautiful and natural.

After that Dave and i just relaxed on the beach.

At night time they had a little thing called 'Crab Racing'
People place bets as they auction off the little hermit crabs. bets started low, but because everyone got into it the lowest bet ended up being $25FJD and the highest was about $160USD? or something. some chinese man was drunk and really eager to buy the china crab. haha
The total bets ended up being $660FJD

Then they place all the crabs under a little bucket in the middle of the circle and when ready, they lifted up the bucket and watched the tiny little crabs run. the first one to cross the circle won $300FJD, second place was $200FJD and 3rd was $160FJD. it was very amusing.

Day 4! It was a hot hot day.
After realising that kayaking was free! and also on my list of things i wanted to do before i die. we decided to rent the kayaks and paddle into the ocean.

i didnt know diddlysquat about kayaking, so dave did most of the work.
but it felt like a scene from 'life of pi'
there were gaming fish splashing about, and the birds swooping to try and catch them. it was pretty awesome.

Dave and i participated in the coconut hunting activities. and for a place with a lot of coconut trees, we couldn't find any coconuts on the floor! we needed to find the coconut to make some coconut ice cream, no coconut, no ice cream :(
We came back empty handed... but they other people had found some coconuts. but they werent edible.. but the activity staff actually got a couple of fresh ones and grinned the flesh to make some ice cream.

We didnt actually make make the ice cream, we just mixed vanilla ice cream into the coconut shavings.

Dave and i took some photos of me =D

 bwahaha.. the scene was too nice, i couldnt help forcing him to take photos of me.

i ended up finding a coconut.. but it wasnt edible.

After that Dave and i watched a little 'Explore the Reef' thing hosted by their japanese scuba diver.

Then we went to our night snorkeling trip. we got to the place about 6pm, the time they had told us to meet. but they have this thing there called 'fiji time', it basiclly means that they are too relaxed that things get delayed a lot. so we ended up eaiting till 7-7.30pm before we actually got into the water.

They gave us these giant torches. Dave and i got life jackets because we were lazy.. lol.

and we took a boat out to some area where the moon shined on us and headed into the water.
But i dont have any photos from the dive. 

because this is what happened when i used flash. all those specks of waterdust..

and that's what it looked like without it.
But thats essentially what we saw there. only, we could see it clearer. but only if u shine ur torch at the certain object.
We ended up seeing sharks, i missed the first batch of sharks but i did get a glimpse of one swimming away for a second.

but after that trip i felt really sick. it felt like morning sickness. (not that i was ever pregnant) but i've had those very very very odd sick feeling a couple of times what involved pressure on my womenly parts.. so im assuming thats what morning sickness feels like.
because it seriously doesnt feel like anything else i've ever felt.
i might just have been seasick tho? having the life jackets on, swaying in the water like that...
but im pretty sure it was the pressure from the wet suit.

anyways, we ended up having an early night that night.

Day 5! we cancelled our scuba diving trip because dave n i were still feeling sick. and ended up not doing anything that day because it was a wet day. so we slept in for the first time. (till 11pm, not my type of sleeping in)
i was sitting in front of the infinity pool when dave went to throw our rubbish away.. but he disappeared for so long... lol it turned out that he was 'ragged' into playing vollyball with some of the pretty Fijian girls there..(when we saw them after they were all flirting with Dave.. not often that ever happens to him)

And at night was a Polynesian dance show, that included fire!!

Day 6, We finally enjoyed breakfast outdoors. it was lovely. a cat attacked me! sorta..

Then went on the sub sea cruise, a mini submarine boat thingy.

Click for bigger picture!!
After some editing, the photos we took actually turned out really well.. after editing.. lol
so if anyone else ever goes and their photos dont turn out like mine, well its cause u havent edited it.

We went for another round of kayaking =)

Had a little dress up session.

Dave and I booked for another spa date, A honey scrub. we got a foot spa then they scrubs us with honey, oil and sugar, then we had a shower, and they massaged us lotion till we were all soft and yummy.

Dave and i attended a kava ceremony. drank some kava that made us feel weird and numb. lol

Went to sunset beach.

Say, if i were to set up the camera to its right settings, told Dave what i wanted how and how i wanted the photo. even tho he took it, would that still be my photo?
Because i believe it is, but i know im going to get some shit for it later because i was actually in the photo.
But Andy Warhol did it, and his famous for a lot of things he didnt personally 'make' on his own.

Then went to have an A la carte dinner, which we wished we had been there earlier instead of leaving it till our last day.

We then saw the Meke Show then headed to our rooms to pack.

Day 7! i woke up early because the birds were singing and the sun was blazing. early as in 7am.. i've never woken up that early for no reason in ages!!
but it was the most beautiful morning, and our last day at Mana Island so we unpacked our snorkel gear and headed to the beach.

Amazing way to end our stay there.
The water was so clear and warm, the tide was high, the sun was bouncing off the reflection in the sand, it was really amazing.

We stayed at the Raddison, it was a gorgeous hotel. but i honestly liked Mana Island more. i can visit any nice hotel anywhere in the world, but its the people there that makes the biggest difference. and i truely fell in love with the people at Mana Island.
The Raddison was okay, there were nice people there too, but it was different.

But as for beauty of the hotel, although all this was man made, it was such an amazing view to look out too. This was actually the view from our hotel room. They also had an awesome bathroom too. i am a sucker for bathrooms, and that was a bathroom i would like in my home one day =D!!!

Dave and i had a nice time there, we got to be a little more couply than all the other nights where i was too invested in all my books while dave did nothing or played with his phone.. lol.

But it was great.

Oh, and we went shopping too.

DAY 8! our last day in FIJI!!!

Dave and didnt do much really..
woke up, checked out, i read my book while dave surfed through my facebook. went to the airport, bought some duty free stuff.
and had our 5 hour flight home. i finished my book in an hour through the flight, so i had nooo idea what to do for the time after that, and because we went on a flight that also 'suited everyone elses schedule, which included babies' the plane was full and we werent able to move around as much as we wanted. but dave did manage to get my other book from our carry on luggage.
Then a couple of babies got sick... it was horrible!! CONFINED AREA WITH VOMIT SMELL!! ew..
hate babies..

Anyways!! it took me like 4 hours to write this blog. it doesnt seem like it would take that long but it did. it is currently 3am and i havent even started with my writing :(

BUT! to my title, it refers to 2 things! My new love for Fiji! honestly, i've known those people there as long as i've known my relatives in vietnam.. (well.. sorta) and when we left mana island, i just wanted to cry because i was going to miss them a lot. they were really just like family.

But in saying that, i really should stop falling in love with people.

BUT! i actually wrote the title to explain that i have a new love, which is classical music!!! i am slowly getting obsessed with it.
slowly because each piece lasts for over 10mins, more even.. so it takes a little bit of time to go through it all.


ANYWAYS! i should be off, maybe write a little before i sleep :)
But i will write more about Fiji and photography, because i have so much photos!!! and feel like i havent explained my whole experience there

Night night! hope u enjoyed reading.
i havent edited it, so as always, dont mind my mistakes etc.