Monday 16th February 2004, Day 156/366 - Mana, Fiji Islands.

Happy Birthday Stivsy.

Just for a change it's pissing it down. I can see me counting the days till I leave.

The dorm is 20 bed mixed dorm right in the middle of the islanders village.

It's a strange feeling being stuck on a small island in the middle of the pacific ocean.  All you can see is other small islands and lots of ocean.

Everyone is pretty miserable and I miss the camaraderie from Hawaii and the chuffing mozzies are driving me crazy. You can use credit cards even on this small and rather backward island, but they charge 5%.

They do arrange daily activities, but they've mainly been cancelled due to the weather. The excitement of the day was going to see the baby sharks feeding off the reef, but even they couldn't be bothered to turn up.

Lots of the hostellers have headed back to the mainland due to the weather. Well if they're gonna be miserable then they can go for all I care. I'm gonna stick it out.

In the evening the food was better and the islands school put on a concert for us which was very cool.

My first impressions of the little bit of Fiji that I've seen are that it's very green and lush, probably due to all the rain they've had recently, that has also affected the colour of the water. It's very run down. The islands are the place to be. The Fijians are very friendly. They all say 'Bula Mate' as you walk past and they all want to talk about sport, mainly rugby and football. If the Fijians were any more laid back they'd be on their heads. They have a thing called Fiji time which means that if something is due to start at 10 am Fiji time, it could start at 9,10, 11 or whenever they can be bothered. Checkout however is at 10am (English time). They also sell normal chocolate (Dairy Milk) in the shops and the Queens head is on the money.