Thursday, April 17, 2003

 
NACKEN FIJI EXPERIENCE is taking a break !!!

We are travelling for some time, so no news from Fiji for a bit ... but if you want to know where we are going and what we are doing there, please bookmark and check nackentravel.blogspot.com

will look very familiar :)

#posted by Peter 9:43 AM

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Wednesday, April 16, 2003

 
i got a good laugh today comming across Richard Cheese .. a guy who turns modern music into vegas lounge acts .. his versions of "Baby got back" and "Relax" are hillarious !!!

Not so funny is that just when we head over to NYC again for a bit, the MTA happily raised the subway fares to make everybody feel welcome home again ...

also not funny that Bushmeister now takes an evil look at Syria ... hmm .. have they ever found Bin Laden ? Saddam ? Weapons of Mass Destruction ??? My mom tought me to finish one thing before starting the next ... what went wrong with GWB's mom ???

#posted by Peter 5:15 PM

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Tuesday, April 15, 2003

 
i can understand that some people seek for shark fin soup recipes on this site (though i have none) ... but what are people hoping to find typing "greasy Fiji ladies" into a search engine ???? and this very website shows up at #1 !!!!

people are weird !!!

they also keep looking for Jane March nude pics (nada) and the "monster's ball sex scene"(dito).... ah well .. the joys of the internet

#posted by Peter 11:20 PM

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I added pictures of last weekends Toberua trip below, please scroll down ...

Monday was quite busy and dinner was at Daikoku, which was good as usual.

Today some more packing and buying stuff and for lunch I made some mean steak / onion thing ... for dinner we went to Suva Motor Inn (well, actually we went there just for some afterwork beer, but then Ritsu got hungry, rightfully so) and Ritsu had her favorite: The braised chicken ... it was nice to be at the SMI again, people still remember us, my engraved mug is still stored in the fridge for the few times we come by. David, one of the regulars, was there too so we had plenty to chat ...

#posted by Peter 11:06 PM

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Sunday, April 13, 2003

 
We just got back from our third weekend trip to Toberua Island and again it was fantastic: food was great, diving was fun .. all in all a swell weekend. I will add pics a bit later, but a videoclip is already there :)

Friday
For the first time we drove to Nakelo Landing with our own car, instead of taking the cab. The road had some very interesting potholes this time around. The boatride was again in the new boat, so It only took 20 minutes and we watched the clouds turning red and beautiful thanks to the sunset.

When we arrived we saw other guests getting ready to leave, among them Lynn and Terry, the manager couple, leaving for a 2 week vacation. We were introduced to Verne, the owner of the island, who would take over for them for the time being.

Initially we were supposed to stay in bure #6, but we heard that our "old" bure #9 could be ready in an hour as people just left, so we opted for that.

We hung out at the bar, where a new barman Matthew took care of us. We also got to talk to Eric, who was getting ready to get married the following day.




Then finally the main event of the evening: dinner: lobster fritter, pumpkin bacon soup, poached mackerel, cashew-date slice. All very very nice. Ritsu had her "Toberua Prince" cocktail, while I washed that all down with some beers ...

We planned on reading, watching some TV .. but we just fell asleep.

Saturday
Great breakfast, then getting ready for diving. #1 was bird island reef where we swam with a big school of barracudas and 3 medium size white tip reef sharks. The surface interval was a bit rough, so understandably Ritsu shared her breakfast with the fish. Here is a little videoclip indicating just how rough the sea was.

On the second dive we encountered a pretty big nurse shark ... i'd say 10 - 11 feet in length ... and it was hunting some little fish .. very nice ... we also ran into 2 turtles ...

Upon return it was already time for lunch: shrimp in/on a patty of dalo leaves and mashed dalo. Then a Walu / Avocado salad, and banana fritters for desert .. again, all very great !!!

Sure enough we needed a nap after that. We woke up just before 4 since that was the time of the wedding ... from the bar we could initially only hear some music from the bure where the happy couple got ready, but then we saw a cute procession coming down the beach. The groom was already waiting at the "beach altar" and the bride, led by her parents, walked the last half of the sandy isle by herself. There was a pastor performing the service and several islanders were singing and following the prayers. It was a very beautiful ceremony, including tearjerking moments. Afterwards there was champagne and cake.




We returned to the bure for some reading / napping. Around 6:30 we went to the bar were we rejoined the wedding party. At 8 PM the drums called us for dinner: Kokoda (which could have needed a bit more bite in form of chilly) Corn/Chicken soup (which needed quite some help via salt / pepper) and then it was time for the mongolian BBQ. It starts out like a buffet: Bowls full of different cut veggies and 5 bowls with shrimp, fish, lobster pieces, cut beef and chicken cubes. You load on your plate whatever you feel like and hand this to the chef and he sautés it and spices it up. I selected mainly seafood and it was very nice, albeit a bit too salty.

That amount of salt requested beer, and thus we went to bed pretty early


Sunday
I decided to have only fruit for breakfast. We then got ready for another dive. Again we went to "the playground" where we had been before twice, and again it was a very pleasent, 1 hour + dive. We saw a small shark and lots of neat little things. The boatride was smooth both ways.
Back at the bure we waited for Ritsu's massage.




According to her the massage was great ... then it was time for lunch .. if i could only recall what lunch was ... oh yeah .. seafood salad in a wasabi vinegrette .. was great .... we then had time to pack and the boat brought us back speedy to Nakelo where we had to stop at the shopkeeper's house to have the gate opened to get our car ... so .. door to door it took us 1 hour 10 minutes ... great !!!

For dinner Ritsu made us her famous "Somen" .. cold japanese noodles with a nice dipping sauce ! perfect summer food !

#posted by Peter 5:23 PM

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