Houston, we have a problem...

Houston, Texas. U.S.A.

I sat inside NASA's Johnson Space Centre and gripped the arms of my seat as tightly as I could. JESUS CHRIST. My eyes bulged and my breathing stopped for a second. Karlos could tell something was going on and put his hand on my knee, his expression asked me "are you ok?" I swallowed hard, and loosened my grip on the arm rests. I nodded slowly at him to say it had passed, and his gaze lingered on me for a few more seconds before it went back to the space shuttle control room.

WOAH! JESUS CHRIST. There it was again. This time it took my breath away sharply and caused me to reach out and grab Karlos' knee instead of the arm rests. His hand found mine and his expression this time around was more concerned. I was not well.

It had started earlier on in the day, as we left our friends in Dallas and embarked on our southern journey towards Houston. I figured I had eaten something bad, with the amount of toilet visitations required, but then the stomach cramps I was having began to get worse and worse and had me a little worried. After all - we were at the NASA space station. Hello! I have seen "aliens" people! Whatever was in my stomach, squeezing everything as hard as it could every few minutes, needed to get out.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

As our tour group began to leave the space shuttle control room, and another wave of my stomach pain set in preventing me from walking, Karlos took control of the situation. "We're leaving," he said. I knew he would look after me, so at that point I burst into tears and fell into his arms. I had given in. I'd tried to get on with it, to do the "but I'm a traveller I can't be sick" thing, but the slightly more pressing matter of "I'm actually too sick to walk straight" took over and forced me to stop and deal with it.

Long story short - a NASA employee was sent for, who collected us from halfway through our space centre tour, and took us back to the main carpark. From there, thanks to Karlos and his deft use of our GPS system, I found myself laying on a bed in the emergency department of the Houston Physician's Hospital. Short story shorter - after various tests were taken, and questions asked of me, a small plumbing type system was stuck into my arm in order for fluids to be pumped in. Ok... so We all know this is a "drip"! - but seriously people, even though I hate needles and all things jabby, you have to admit - this is a pretty awesome invention. It was a bit of an event getting the drip into my arm though (shout out to Karlos who grabbed that vom bowl with lightening speed, whilst nursie did a great job of holding my arm tight... needle only half way in! When you gotta vom, you gotta vom, I tell you!) but it wasn't long before the vomiting (etc.) had passed and I felt a lot calmer, less painful, and more stable. I tried to sleep, and asked Karlos to tell me stories so that I could forget how bummed I was to be in hospital on our trip, and that I had a tube hanging out of one of my veins. He really isn't any good at telling stories, bless him - but he tried, and he was there with me, which was all that mattered.

After an hour or two my test results came back and said I was dehydrated, with a stomach virus. (I know! I was surprised that my test results could talk also!) So phew, no aliens in my tummy, and nothing to worry about :-) just the sickness to ride through that's all.

The doctor said I was likely dehydrated to begin with, which would have made those stomach pains worse, and I was also very low in essential vitamins and all that - so a second fluid bag was given to me. Whilst that was filling me up, the doctor gave Karlos and I advise about natural remedies and ways to strengthen our immunity, in particular whilst travelling. He really was a great doctor, I was impressed and felt safe in his hands. He told me to just drink lots of water and take it easy over the next few days, and prescribed me some anti-nausea tablets to take the edge off. He was great. I was especially impressed with his natural remedy talk, and his honest discussion with us. Probiotic is the go-go he said. And a diet of soft things for the next couple of days. Mmmmm yoghurt...

And so, once my hospital visit was over (and I'm not even going to think about that sign on the wall saying "approx cost of visit $498"), Karlos and I found a nice motel across the street and spent the evening relaxing under doctors orders, with me milking my illness for all the attention I could get! hahaha. I'm kidding. I really was sick. But if you can find positive in all things - having a sweetheart like Karlos look after me and stroke my hair and hold my hand, then being sick whilst overseas really isn't the worst thing ever, now is it?... ;-)

Hope all is well and healthy with you, my friends. Wherever you may be...

Peace and love,

~ Comet xo

This is the GRAND Canyon, Arizona!

The Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA.

My heart was pounding a little faster than it should have been for someone who was standing stationary. My mouth dried up, and my lips felt as though they'd not met each other in years. The killer sun beat down on my back, reminding me I am nothing more than a mere dot on this vast earth. And what could be more vast than the canyon stretching out before me: The Grand Canyon. And isn't it just...

*

So, after our Vegas adventure, we headed back to LA LA land for some more fun (which involved a tour of Universal Studios, more time in Hollywood, and a wicked night out at a bar called 'Bird' in Franklin village... and this time it was MY turn to pole dance, only Karlos missed the whole thing as he was outside having a smoke. He really needs to give that up... ;-) ).

After a couple of days though we were back on the road. This time with a sweet Malibu Chevrolet... which I could not wait to drive! I was hoping to get to drive a '57 Chevrolet whilst in the states (all because of a song about one my Grandad and I were fond of), but a 2010 model with have to do... not too shabby, let's be honest.

So after literally an entire afternoon getting lost in LA on route to pick up Johnny Mac and Stasia, followed by several hours crawling out through LA traffic... we were on the open road to Arizona, the 3rd state to tick off our 'been there, done that' list.

After a few more hours driving, we got to a little town called Kingman, a couple of hours from the Grand Canyon National Park. By this stage it was around 11pm - so we decided to stop and get some sleep. So the four of us found a sweet little hotel room for $80 and had ourselves a slumber party. It was fun. We watched murderer documentaries on HBO for an hour or so, had some giggles, and then we all fell peacefully asleep... when I say "we all fell peacefully asleep," what I actually mean is - everyone ELSE fell peacefully asleep; I would spend the next few hours in and out of nightmares and jumping at every single god damn bump in the night. "What was that!... oh Stasia snored... WHAT was THAT!... oh Karlos farted..." and so on. In the end I had to tell myself off... "NO ONE is going to break into this hotel room and abduct you Hayley, EVEN IF psycho motel IS next door. And besides, if they do - Karlos is nearest to the door anyway!" Hahahaha. So I eventually did fall asleep... guns though. I kept thinking about guns, the abundance of them in this country... someone could actually shoot the lock right off the door, and then what???... sleeeeeeeeeeeep.

Next morning Karlos suggested I give this driving on the wrong, sorry I mean right, side of the road thing a go - so I did. And it wasn't a bad experience at all. In fact, because I was so focused on doing it right and not smashing into anyone, I think I actually drove a far sight better than I usually do at home! I found it relatively easy to get my head around being on the right side of the road and all that - I reminded myself, the steering wheel needs to be in the centre of the road the whole time. So this helped me when I turned left at intersections etc.

It is strange having the drivers seat on the left side of the car though... I'd say this was probably the most difficult part for me, as it took me a little bit to find my position on the road, I kept hugging the right hand side of the lane, but of of course you need to hug the left hand side of the lane over here - making you closer to the centre of the road. Anyway! Totally uneventful ride - 2 long hours of straight desert road mostly - the main thing is, I stayed awake, we all got there in one piece. And - I did it :-)

Photographic evidence below, courtesy of Karlos:

And so this brings us to the Grand Canyon. After parking the car, and walking through the trees (surprising amount of trees out here in the Arizonian desert) we reached it. And I don't know what else to say but - she was impressive. All of a sudden, she is there. She is right there - like WOAH, THERE SHE IS. You are standing on the edge of a VERY high piece of land (and pretty much too close to the edge for my liking actually) and in front, and in all directions around you, as far as the eye can see, lays the largest amount of open space I think I have ever attempted to comprehend. It's intimidating actually - how powerful mother earth is, that she can carve out something as magnificent as the Grand Canyon. And how insignificant I am, just standing here looking at it.


We took lots of photos of course. Many of which I've whacked into an album on ye olde facebooke. But seriously, no photograph can be taken to capture the beauty, and the granduer of this place. You can't even take it all in with the naked eye. You have to move your head up and down to get a full picture, not to mention side to side and beyond.

Karlos and I took a walk along the canyon's rim. There are paths that you can walk along, with large boulders/rocks put into place to act as a boundary between the path and the edge of the cliff. We, however, as many others were doing, crossed the rock boundary several times to get closer to the edge. This always made my heart beat a LOT faster than I wanted it to, to be honest. Thankfully though there were trees dotted here and there along the edge, so I would strategically position myself next to one for those closer look-outs... something to grab hold of 'just in case,' I figured.

My biggest concern was Karlos though. Sheesh. That daredevil likes to deliberately freak me out, I'm sure of it. (He won't admit this). He got a little too close to the edge for my liking on a number of occasions, and I think I almost fainted up there. Not from the altitude, but with the amount of 'calm deep breaths' I took, I nearly hyperventilated. Thoughts of - "that's a long way down" rattled around in my brain most of the way, let's be honest. And some stupid sign just had to write something about "you could fall and die here" somewhere at the beginning of our walk - which didn't help.

We were at the Grand Canyon though. And I have to say - thoughts of plunging to my canyon death were all a part of the experience. All a part of my realisation that - mother earth is something special. And I am a blessed being to be living on her, and she deserves my respect. I came away from the Grand Canyon feeling both healthy after a 4 mile walk around her, and empowered. So often my days are spent looking inwards - studying, working, performing, or whatever it is - but every now and then it pays to look outwards. To place yourself amongst the great outdoors, and to remind yourself of just how insignificant you are, how you are a miniscule part of something far greater than you can ever know, most likely. And just how lucky you are to be alive and breathing this clean air, from this beautiful planet.

Peace and love planet earth!

~ Comet xo

This is Vegas, Nevada!

Las Vegas, Nevada USA.

Viva Las Vegas!

Karlos and my trip to the united states of america was never going to get very far before we made it to sin city... and we were delighted to be able to share the fun with two of our friends from NZ, Stasia and Johnny Mac. We were especially pleased as it was to be Stasia’s 30th birthday during our time in Vegas (planned that way, of course!).

Karlos and I picked up a cheap (well, after tax and insurance was added on, a ‘moderately priced’) rental car, and then went to pick up our road trip buddies for the fun to begin.

Before we left LA we took a trip out to Venice Beach, to visit the Sunday Farmer’s market. This was a great idea – we all got yummy burritos, or in my case strawberry and banana filled crepes, for breakfast, and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine to eat them and (as I especially love to do) people watch. Nothing unusual happened – but I was surprised (pleasantly) by the amount of men who wished me a happy mother’s day, “either today or some day.” This only reiterates my “people in LA are friendly” comment from earlier.

After breakfast we went for a walk down to Venice Beach and, dare I say it, I thought it was pretty gross actually. Well, that’s probably a bit too harsh, I mean, the beach is beautiful soft golden sand (if you forget that there are often needles etc buried within it) and very large. But it was full of odd ball people (we saw just one bikini babe), and the air really stank. Karlos and I took a walk down to the water for a paddle (hah, Karlos will love that I said that!) but one big toe was all that was getting in that ice bath! Soooo cold.

We took a walk up the Venice Boardwalk after the beach failed to impress us (oh New Zealand how you have spoiled us!) and this was a bit of a giggle. The boardwalk is lined with tacky souvenir shops, outdoor gyms with Schwarzenegger-lookalikes for the ladies to perve at, silicon breasts in tight cotton for the men to ogle, and the oddest bunch of people I have seen in some time. I bought a CD from a rapper dude who “never cusses” and said to his mate about me “she’s cool.”

Well, after a morning of leg stretching, it was time to hit the road to Vegas!!!! Woo hoo!
Karlos was a total legend getting us around and navigating – the driving on the opposite side of the road was really natural to him and he was really calm and confident about it. Stasia also did some driving on the freeway, and we got to Vegas within 4 hours – arriving at night time. The lights were dazzling.

We cruised along Las Vegas Boulevard, aka The Strip, and tried to take everything in. On either side, all around us, there were just utter monstrosities of architecture, lights, and bling. Huge electronic billboards advertised any form of sin you wanted – shows for the ladies, shows for the men, and so on. A replica Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, and the Venetian hotel impressed me the most.

We were staying in the Stratosphere hotel at the bottom of Las Vegas Boulevard, and it reminded me a little of the sky tower back in NZ – complete with revolving restaurant at the top and a sky jump for the daredevils. Our rooms were awesome – really nice and a steal at $25 a night. Karlos found a stash of coins in our room on arrival, and thought that was a good sign... but I wasn’t worried; I knew that I could entice him into a topless dance show and any thoughts he may have of gambling would be long gone (and I was right!).

Our first night in Vegas began with a cocktail in the upper bar of the Stratosphere tower, that had amazing views of the city and lights – we felt so classy, I actually forgot we were in Vegas for a little while! Then we took a jaunt up The Strip, stopping to take tacky tourist photos and chat with men with parrots, and the like. It took us all night, a good 4 hours or so, but we managed to walk almost the whole length and finished up with a cheeseburger from a place called Fatburger that was full of animated African Americans – who made us feel uncomfortable at not being obese.

Day 2 was spent, in large part, sleeping – and whilst Karlos (who still had a mild flu poor thing) slept into the afternoon, I went to the top of the stratosphere and spent some time watching the brave souls who paid to jump from it. The psychology of it all truly fascinated me...

I was then enticed into a beauty shop and convinced to buy some scrubbing salt from the dead sea and body butter, by a very friendly salesman. I figured ‘what the hey’ – the desert air, air conditioning, and static electricity in Vegas had left my skin so dry, it needed some life putting back into it. Ironic that this very product is from the dead sea, I thought.

Whilst I’m thinking of it – I have to say that the static electricity in Vegas is unreal. We would walk through the casino, touch each other, and that was all it took to get an electric shock. Karlos thought this was particularly funny. And don’t even think about touching the handrails, door handles etc, without a sharp jolt. It was pretty funny though, I admit. Watching grown men pull their hand away sharply en route to the hand rails in the elevator, for example, after they’d suddenely remembered that that hurt last time.

Our evening of day 2 in Vegas was just the best. Karlos had a shower and a little bottle of jager that I had bought for him, and he was good to go. We began with happy hour, of course. The bar in the stratosphere casino had happy hour from 4-8pm serving a bottomless glass for just $19.99 – as Karlos would say, “booooom.”

We wisely got there at 6.30pm, but still managed to get in around 5 martinis each before 8pm. Good effort. And daaaaaaaaamn good martinis, seriously. It was nice to be together drunk in Vegas, being carefree, and in that place where you so relaxed you can talk with your partner about anything and it’s all good. Just being best mates and happy to be together.

The night continued on the gravy train and just got better. We met Stasia and Johnny Mac for Stasia’s birthday dinner, at a lovely Italian restaurant. We were told that we arrived like naughty school kids, as we were so drunk and late for dinner. But Stasia and Johnny Mac said that they knew we were at happy hour and so had already assumed we would be late (thank goodness!).

After dinner, of which I admittedly remember very little of, we went to a show called BITE. It was basically a musical vampire show... I guess there was a story line, but it was fundamentally about hot vampire chicks dancing around to rock music in next to nothing. I really enjoyed this show. It wasn’t some tacky, bum slapping strip show (which the boys would have enjoyed anyways!), these women could reeeeeally dance. I was so impressed and entertained by them. We thought that some of them might even have been ballet trained; their moves were so sharp, polished, and sexy. Some of them did some cirque de soleil type stuff, dancing amongst sheets coming from the ceiling. Drunk, in Vegas, we were mesmerised.

After the vampire erotica, we came across a bar with a band playing johnny cash covers. DING DING! In we went. Karlos and I warmed up the dancefloor and had heaps of fun pulling people up to join us. And from there on in the rest of the evening involved much dancing, interspersed with much alcohol. Jelly shots were a highlight, as was Karlos’ topless pole dancing. He even scored a $1 tip it was awesome! We met some cool people, and had a really fun time.

...And after a slow start the next morning, we left Vegas with more good times and happy memories under our belt.

;)

~ Comet xo

This is LA, California!

LA, California USA.

We arrived in LA, after a pretty crappy 10 hour flight from Fiji, to a beautiful smiling face – Jinny. It was great to land in the mighty USA, and having Jin meet us at the airport gave me a sensation like we were coming home.

We landed in the states on Thursday May 6th at 1.30pm, which was actually Friday 7th 8.30am for us. It was great to get to relive the 6th May again, but because we got very little sleep on the plane, we were a little hanging. Jin didn’t need to ask to know this – her first stop was to buy us a tall iced coffee. We were incredibly grateful. And alive again. Actually, I would even go as far as to say that that was quite possibly the best coffee I have ever had – despite a 20kg pack on my bag, I was able to bounce all the way to the bus stop with Karlos and Jin. Caffeine hit? Or perhaps I was just really happy to be in America...

Before arriving in the US I’d heard everyone who’s ever been to America’s version of “oh, US customs are terrible, you gotta be careful,” and was therefore a little anxious about arriving in LA. However, despite the relatively long queues, I don’t see what the issue is that everyone goes on about. I was expecting to be asked a multitude of interrogating questions by the customs officer, and produce evidence for what I ate for breakfast and all sorts – but a simple photo, finger print, and “where are you staying?” was all I was asked, before my beautiful maroon passport got herself another stamp.

Hollywood – we have arrived, baby!

We caught the bus from LAX to Union station, and then the metro to Hollywood, where we were delighted to learn is where our Jin lives! The ceiling of the Hollywood metro station is covered in film reels, and is such a pretty building – a far better experience than the piss-smelling european metros I’ve used in my time – and the moment we walked out of the metro, I was faced by the grand ‘Pantages Theatre’ displaying a CHICAGO banner. Hello? What? CHICAGO is currently showing here? Oh, Hollywood... I like you already!



Karlos and I spent a really cool few days with Jin in LA. Sushi and saki on our first evening, at a really cool restaurant in Franklin Village, started us off well... followed by a very stereotypical american day. I loved it! We had breakfast with Jin at a place called ‘Waffle’ on Sunset Boulevard – consisting of OJ, bacon and hashbrowns, and the like. A pleasant trip was then made to the local Target department store, in order for us to buy some US mobile phones, and to people watch! I’m always fascinated by department stores and supermarkets, when in a new country. I figure it’s a perfect place to see locals going about their daily routine. And there are always opportunities to browse for unusual foods, products etc too. I’m glad our visit to Target was relativiely short though, as Jin had forewarned us of the crazies that tend to visit the place. E.g a woman who went mad and stabbed a whole load of people there a few weeks back. Apparantly she was having a bad day...

After we survived the Target visit, we cruised along Hollywood Boulevard and then stopped to visit Madame Tussaud’s waxwork museum. On the way we walked past the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are held, and walked among the stars along Hollywood’s ‘walk of fame.’ Not literally - just the names on the floor... but Jin showed me where Marilyn Monroe’s hand prints are in the concrete, so I of course got to hold hands with her! Haha. When we eventually reached the museum, I was such the excited tourist! Karlos, Jin and I had a lot of fun that afternoon – running in and out of the various rooms having our photo taken with all the movie stars. It was actually freakish how realistic the waxworks looked. At one point Karlos sat in a chair and I went over to him, sat in his lap and gave him a kiss. A woman gave me a funny look when I stood up and then burst out laughing saying, “oh my god I thought you were kissing a waxwork!” Jin and I thought that perhaps she thought Karlos was Bruce Willis...

I was particularly happy about Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman’s waxworks being in the same room... I strategically placed myself in the middle of the two, and spent some time considering whether I should look left or right. Hehe.

After the Hollywood buzz we grabbed a slice of pizza. And not just some little slice. Oh no. This is America, baby. Everything is larger than life – and this slive of pizza alone was bigger than my head! How I actually managed to eat the whole thing is beyond me... hmmm, could be because it was SO DARNED TASTY perhaps?? Yep!! I have not had a decent pizza in like 5 years, since I was last in Italy... listen up New Zealand – your pizza is shit. Sort it out.

This very american day ended with Karlos and me nabbing tickets to CHICAGO at the Pantages. Oh I was so happy to get to see this amazing show in Hollywood! I loved it – especially the chorus girls. They could sing and move with such power, and class. I went to sleep this evening thinking – I want to be on the stage and I need to do it...

When we left the Pantages Theatre that night, we walked home along Hollywood Boulevard and after a short distance heard a lady’s voice yelling out “KARLOS” from a passing vehicle. We were both really surprised, and wondered who on earth that could be, before turning around just in time to see our Jin driving along in her jeep looking for us. What a sweetheart. So we picked up some delicious Thai food and all went back to watch movies and chill out. We’re not sleeping until 4am these last few days, so why not! (As an aside: Men Who Stare At Goats, and The Wrestler – aaaawesome movies).

I must say, LA is a really great place to eat. We’ve had some of the best sushi, pizza, Thai food, Mexican, and cheeeeeeeeseburgers that I’ve ever had. And it’s not too expensive to eat out either. Oh, you’re impressing me LA...

More good stuff to report? Well, we’ve also met some really cool people here in LA, good friends of Jin’s, and I’ve been blown away with just how friendly everyone has been in general. It perhaps helps that we are awesome of course ;) haha. I was honestly expectsing to meet a lot of really fucked up people, and a lot of falseness (and I don’t doubt for a second that they exist out here), but from my brief experience so far, there is also a real pulse underneath the facade of the city and the feeling that this is a pretty special place to be.

*

After 3 days in LA, we hired a car and went on a roadtrip to Las Vegas with our friends from NZ, Stasia and Johnny Mac. Stasia was to turn 30, and this of course had to be celebrated in style!

So we said goodbye to Jin and her kittys (who, by the way, are THE cutest!!) for a couple of days, caught the metro to Union station (where a drunk mexican asked me if I wanted to “see something cool”and then proceded to POLE DANCE in the train just for me, awesome), then a bus to LAX, and picked ourselves up a sweet 2010 Ford Fusion, ready for our journey to the Sin City...

Fun is being had, and hair is down.

And this is living.

Peace and love,

~ Comet xo

This is Fiji!

Nadi, FIJI.

I sat in the early morning sun, escaping the tropical 30+ degree temperature as best I could by dangling my feet into the cool swimming pool. The only sound around me was the ‘eh-eh-eh’ of little gheckos, scurrying up and down the palm trees. So calm. No urgency; no agenda; I drank my english breakfast tea and smiled. How ordinary an activity, the somewhat ritualistic ‘morning tea,’ and yet how much further from home the familiarity of this made me feel. Something measurable, comparable – what I usually drink indoors, at the breakfast table or snuggled up in bed, I’m now drinking here in the tropics. So far from home, yet still with the same taste in my mouth.

And this is how I view travelling. We pack our bags, arrange our transport, and go to new places seeking new experiences within the familiar. We experience we compare, and we evaluate. And in doing so we open our horizons, our minds and, eventually, our ideas...

I put down the cup of tea, half finished, and went in search of fresh coconut milk instead. After all, I was in the tropics...

*

06/05/2010, Nadi, FIJI.

Bula!

Karlos and I have begun our adventure with 6 days in Fiji. And what a good decision that was! After months of working hard, nothing could have been more perfect than a relaxing, tropical location to set our adventure off on the right foot. And our time in Fiji has been just that. Relaxing. Sooooo relaxing. And hot. Don’t forget hot! Sweltering actually.

From the moment we got off the aeroplane we were surrounded by a blanket of 30+ degree heat and humidity of >80%. Sheesh! Hot hot hot! And with temperatures so high you literally have no choice but to relax – you are too hot and slow to do anything more than that! As someone who is usually fairly high energy, I do find it difficult to relax at times – so it has been a blessing in disguise for me, the heat.

Fijians are open, friendly and (of course) relaxed. They know all about “Fiji time,” as it’s them who remind us of it constantly:

(To the minivan driver):
“Sorry; my boyfriend is still collecting his things, he won’t be a minute.”
“Ah, no worry! Fiji time!”
“Sweet...”

It didn’t take long for Karlos to be well known by the locals. I guess he does stand out with his bald head and crazy facial hair! But they are most likely drawn to his uniquely vivacious and chilled-out personality. I’ve been happy to be his shadow for the most part; his sidekick. All in a bid to support my new relaxation movement I suppose – and achived this I have ;)

The first night we arrived in Fiji, we got to our hostel at ‘happy hour’ (roughly 6pm) and were delighted to discover that “happy hour” is actually all day, every day! That, and the fact that the beers were just FJD$2.50, made us very happy indeed!

Our first night was spent drinking; smiling a lot at each other (as we were so happy to have had such a cruisy journey out here and, fundamentally, to actually be here at long last); and finding our bearings. Our sister hostel (next door, and whose facilituies we are entitled to use) was literally on the beach, with stereotypical hammocks and palm tress and colourful cocktails on order at the bar. We were happy.

Our hostel had a ‘kava’ ceremony happening that first night, which we didn’t need to be asked twice to join in on, and in the process met lots of really cool fellow travellers and had an authentic Fiji experience – which is what I’m all about getting. The local Fijians prepared the kava (made from pepper root) in a large wooden bowl, and we all sat in front of them to form a circle. After a series of blessings, you are handed a small bowl of kava, which you drink and pass back empty, then you clap three times. This I presume means you are ‘welcome’ to the group. Kava tastes like nothing more than muddy water, and looks the same. I had no problem drinking it though, as it doesn’t taste bad as such – and I was mostly curious to know what might happen to me after drinking it. After 3 ‘high tide’ bowlfuls I can safely report back – nothing.

We really had a lot of fun together this first evening in Fiji. Some people began playing acoustic guitar which had everyone else singing along. I will always remember the Fijians singing ‘beat boys’ beautifully. The Fijians really love to sing and have a good time. As do we! We went to bed together really happy that first night.

Days 2, 3, 4 and 5 were alternated with scootering around and exploring the island, and relaxing by the pool. One of the best things that we did was visit some naturally heated mud pools. This basically involved stripping off and getting into a warm and murky outdoor pool. I was grateful that our local Fijian told me before getting in that all there is in the bottom is mud and dead leaves from the overhanging tree... I would otherwise have spent the entire time in there wondering what critters might find me tasty!

It was a really awesome, but strange experience... once you had climbed down a little bamboo ladder and into the mud pool, you quickly realised that you couldn’t actually stand on the bottom. The bottom of the pool consisted of warm sloppy mud (and leaves) that came right up to our waists, and probably even higher than that; we had to keep treading in the mud so not to sink! I think I spent the whole time giggling! We were told to get our skin wet and then to cover ourselves in the mud – from our toes to the top of our heads! Getting out of the pool washed a lot off however, so when we got out we were told to pick up globs of mud from the ground and rub this over ourselves. So much fun!

After turning ourselves into mud monsters we had some pics taken, and then stood in the sunshine for a while to let the mud to dry. After that we then had to get back into the mud pool to wash off the most part, and were then escorted to a naturally heated spa pool. Wheeeeeooooo, was this hot! We had to lower ourselves in bit by bit as it was like a red hot bath... toes first... ok, now the lower legs... this is ok. Bums?... ooooh faaarrrrrk this is hot.... ok ok oooh ok bit lower.... stomachs in.... aaaaah, not too bad at all!

We had a wee swim in the spa and after a few minutes just had to get out, or I think we would have passed out with the heat. Cool showers and 10 minutes later, the feel of the cool breeze on our newly smooth skin, as we raced by through Nadi on our scooter – was bliss.

Our evenings in Fiji were spent chilling out in the hostel bars. Beautiful sunsets, warm evenings, and lots of cool people to chat with – it was awesome. On evenings 2 and 5 we enjoyed watching Fijian fire dancers, sword dancers, and hula girls perform for us, bringing us from our seats in the pool bar right down onto the beach. Even though I was almost eaten alive by mosquitoes during the beach fire dancing performances, it was worth it. Those guys were really talented.

Another thing I will always remember about our time in Fiji, is all of the cute, cute, cute little critters! We constantly saw little frogs, lizards/geckos, mice, birds – and they were all so little, and so cute! Giant cockroach in our room however – not so cute. Although... it was funny watching Karlos whip it with is t-shirt until it scurried out the door!

At the end of our Fijia adventure I wrote a list of things I will never forget:

The heat rainbow over the aeroplane white knuckle minibus ride to our hostel with no seatbelt sunset $2.50 beers smiling with Karlos hammocks on the sand kava frogs lizards fish soup love scooter riding watermelons on the side of the road vegetable curry Bula! Bump roads on the scooter kissing Karlos as we rode large helmets that kept slipping sugar city sun loungers little mouse fire and sword dancers hula girls pina colada at sunset Karlos dancing lazy days by the pool hot skin cool water drying in seconds beach walk cool pool swimming yummy soup tiny bread rolls frogs very small scooter curry for breakfast orchid garden mud pools kavi in Nadi markets pineapple cheeseburger too much beer reading in the shade greek salad cute miner birds tropical rain fire dancers on the sand Karlos ripped his pants chilled evenings breakfast tea with feet in pool sunshine and damp skin coconut milk pineapple Karlos reading mosquitoe bites friends we made

And so, our last day in Fiji, due to a 10pm flight, was spent enjoying fresh coconut milk and Fijian pineapple by the pool. Not too shabby.

I enjoyed my time in Fiji, but by the end I became quite excited to get to the USA. We have 2 whole months to travel the entire US and the excitement hit me suddenly like a coconut falling from a tree. We’re going to America, baby! California, Texas, Tennessee, Montana, New York! Places I have heard so much about, for so long... and the time has now come for me to explore them.

Vinnaka, Fiji.

Here we come, USA!

~ Comet xo