Saturday, January 5, 2008

December 14, 2007- Off to Mango Bay Resort

At 7:30am this morning I found myself on a large coach bus being transported down the Coral Coast of Fiji to my backpacker resort, Mango Bay. Upon my arrival at 10am, the owner showed me to my bure dorm— which to my luck was occupied only by one other backpacker (6 of the 8 beds were vacant). I found the accommodations to be very cute and cosy. The bure consists of 8 single beds, with tiny bamboo walls separating one from the other. Each bed has an individual bedside table, drawer, and light. After a quick examination of my unit, I dropped my bags beside my bed and headed toward the beach. My initial impression of the beach was one of disappointment. I had pictured a long drawn out white sand beach that went on for miles. What I found was a tiny beach with more white rock than sand. To make matters worse, it was rainy and overcast. I spent the majority of what was left of the morning, and the afternoon lying on the beach working on my suntan, which later on in the night I diagnosed as a mild sunburn. I met a few other girls traveling from all parts of the world: Ireland, South Africa, and England. I met up with several British girls for dinner. The food is fantastic! I have, however, came to the realization that the resort does their best to get you to rack up your incidental bill— to which they apply a 4% processing fee upon check- out. Anyways, I retired to my unit at about 10:30pm, as the crowd seemed to die down quite a bit and it didn`t appear as though much would be taking place bonfire- wise.

Having completed my day 1 at Mango Bay, I am giving some serious thought to cutting my ten days in half. It seems like a nice place to go to relax on the beach, and spend lots of money due to its isolation, but I think I might like to branch out and see more of Fiji. I ran into a travel planner from Montreal who runs an internet shop in Nadi and she offered to help me find accommodations in the Mamanuca islands. I`m debating whether I should move on from here, or simply take advantage of a day cruise to the Mamanuca islands, while using Mango Bay as my base. I`m just wondering if it would be worth going all the way back to Nadi to catch the ferry only to make the 2 hour trek back to Mango Bay. I guess time will tell....

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