Since I have been swallowed by the Fiji time which is a term for the relaxed approach on everything by the locals such as taking the time to get a task done, I haven't been putting notes on what I did in my book for my blog often as I would like but then again I didn't do much during my stay at Beachouse so I thought I would sum it all up in one entry so here goes...

We got up early for a shuttle to Beachouse; it was a 2 hours' drive so it offer me and the gang an opportunity to see more of Fiji and for me to challenge my perception that I mentioned previously in the blog. The palm trees were everywhere and Fiji was quite clean no matter where I go. I passed several villages and obviously, the houses are far smaller but they weren't poor as I was expecting and they seem to have developed means to keep their heads above the poverty line.

The roads were slightly bumpy but overall the transport infrastructure was good, there were bus stops everywhere with installed shelters in most of the cases. The drivers were very sensible and the speed limits were religiously sticked with.

Eventually we arrived. Beachouse is actually a land besotted with several villas and buildings. It is practically a mini-village with a gorgeous beach at the end of it. There is also a swimming pool with a bar and a cafe where we have our lunches and dinners. The food was okish and fairly cheap.

Over the days, we spent our time lazing on the hammocks provided, kayaking in the beach, horse-riding, playing volleyball which I sucked at. More activities that we undertake were coconut jewellery and bamboo craft classes. We also played a lot of snooker. The weather was unpredictable, we had few days of sunshine followed by a streak of rainy days and the pattern would shift back and so on.

One of the key factors that made Beachouse such a magical place to stay is the people and the workers. Over the time, we got to know the workers by their name and had conversations with them about their lives. There were Rosa and Albert, a married couple with two children who lived in the village next door as most of the workers do. Rosa cooks breakfast and looked after the manager's father who bought the place. Rosa eventually learnt alphabet in British Sign Language. Napo was a grumpy old man but as the days wore on, he become friendlier. Blink worked at the bar but always skive off to shoot some balls with us.

We met many fellow travellers during our stay but few stands out like Vjollca a cheerful flirty German who hung with us for rest of our stay in Beachouse. Vera came from Switzerland and visited Beachouse for a weekend as a mini break from her job in Suva. There were many others such as Nick, Bruce, David and many more. The manager also owned three dogs called Diesel, Lucy and Oscar. We all had our favourites. Dominic and I liked Diesel, an elderly black Retriever while Oscar the youngest and the most mischievous captured the hearts of Ashley and Sara. Lucy, the golden retriever was popular with Charlene and we would be always playing with them which was a chore sometimes because they stank because they liked swimming in the sea often

We had two trips away from Beachouse, We went to Suva which were capital of Fiji for a day. We explored the town which Fiji's poverty was finally revealed. The town had all of the big brand stores but we worked our way through the town where we found an overcrowded market with local market traders selling their food at cheap prices. This leads to an alley with small shops such as barbers and fake goods. I enjoyed the sights but not the smells! The alley ended with entry to a well-known supermarket which was surreal. We also visited a church and we even bumped in a deaf McDonalds worker who was slacking off work chatting with a group of deaf people which we then stayed with them for a while. Their sign language is identical to ours probably due to English's colonialism of Fiji in the past.

The second trip we had were a jungle trek which we thought was a light walk into the jungles of Fiji and which will be ended with a swim in waterfall. We was mistaken especially Sara and Charlene who brought their flip-flops. It was an exhaustive trek where we was constantly slipping and falling over the wet slippery track. I suffered the most due to my woozy balance and I was even provided with a walking stick and a helping hand from the guide, We crossed many rivers, hiked up the hills, weaved through the jungle before reaching the waterfall where we had a swim and climbed up the waterfall for a round of photos. We also stopped for a lunch in a villager's house which is barely bigger than living room at the home.

It was an eye-opener and it was my first time that I visited a home of third world civilians. The lunch wasn't that great even for my cultured taste. But the visit was worthwhile to observe life from the other side of the poverty line.

But all of the good times must come to end and soon enough it was time to move on from Beachouse to the island of Beachcomber.