Mana After a night at the Planet Travel lodge (this time with clean towels and sheets and a proper meal not pizza). We set off to Travellers beach to catch the boat to Mana, it was a long bumpy ride on a small wooden boat, with the Indian carpenters, a group of Irish girls and a couple (blokes) from England. When we got there we were greeted by Rachel( a big stern Fijian woman), and introduced to Papa Joe and Baby Joe. We were told to pitch anywhere so we did under two palm trees (unfortunately we later learned this was a thoroughfare for the village kids). We were also told not to go into the neighboring resort owned by Japanese (the other side of the big fence to keep us out!) That night they had a karaoke night…..only the locals joined in, a big guy singing Barbie girl! After a while of embarrassment they suddenly decided to entertain us with pap Joe dancing…..it was amazing, he’s a fabulous dancer with a great expressional face. He did traditional dancing, in full costume, grass skirt etc. The one of the girls working there came and did a belly dance thing, it was really good. The next morning Papa Joe took us for a walk round the island, its really beautiful, up to some view points. On one point he called it bat view and we saw some bats roosting in the trees, then Papa Joe chucked a stone at them and they all fled, flying fox bats. He gave us all hibiscus flowers to wear in our hair. On the way back he got us some coconuts to drink (simply legged it up a tree). We then stopped for a few of us to swim and strolled back up the beach with Tiger and Lion (dogs) humping the local b****es! (nice……) By now the weather had become glorious so we spent some time sunbathing and chilling on the beautiful beaches. One evening we went over to sunset beach to see the sunset (of course!) we walked past a beautiful chapel, its where people come to get married on a desert island…..we could see why, it overlooks a stunning white sandy beach. Just as sunset started, a bunch of Japanese people appeared with a huge video camera and plonked it right behind us, we were annoyed and Ian went off to find another spot for us to sit. While he was away a guy came over and said ‘do you mind we’re trying to film the sunset……I was none too pleased as you can imagine and told his where to get off, the words rude out of order, who the hell did he think he was were part of my response. I sat put then Ian came over and guy number two came over and told us to sit and look at the sunset as they wanted to record us for a promotion….I was fuming so Ian angrily refused (meanwhile the sun is setting) anyway we got up and moved down the beach…..after calming down we sat and watched the most stunning sunset, the sun melted into the sea and the colours were lovely. When we got back we ate then they had a crab race, very funny (although cruel) they raced hermit crabs. Ours lost he was a Canadian called Woods (we bought him for Woody!) The next day we went on an island hopping trip, we zoomed quickly(much to the delight of the kids on board) past castaway and honeymoon island (hmmmmm not really island hopping) then stopped at plantation island for lunch…it was a bit too resorty but nice, we went for a swim, the walked over the bay at low tide and were amazed to be faced by thousands of bright yellow fiddler crabs, I got nipped by one. We then had a great BBQ at Muscet Grove with the Slovenian family on the trip and set off to sandbank island. We got to the sandbank island…..it is literally a sandbank in the sea, maybe 300m diameter. We tried to snorkel but the tide was too low so we lay down to sunbathe and napped for an hour or two, it was so nice. We then went to snorkel when the tide was in and it was fabulous, a drop off with thousands of fish and really nice hard coral, the swim back was tough good job we had fins, against the current. We went back watching the sunset, unfortunately missing the LOVO preparations, to be met by a huge number of people who’d arrived. We rushed back for a shower then went to get our lovo food ( its cooked underground on hot stones wrapped in banana leaves then covered over with wet sacks and sand for hours). It was quite nice, we ate it with our hands in traditional style. We then were asked if we would be honorary chief and chiefess for the kava ceremony, so we said yes. We were dressed up in full costume, it was great fun, we joined in the singing (sort of) and then they introduced our costume. Ian then lead the Kava ceremony. Later Papa Joe did the same dance as the night before which was great with everyone there clapping. He then danced with a young lad who’d just learned the dance. Then he did a fire dance which was amazing, the dances are so powerful (poor old very pregnant dog started howling to the music). Later all the locals came to join in for a disco, the little girls were grabbing us up for a dance…..Ian never did! I was dancing with some of the young girls. Mana was a really beautiful place, very different from the others; the hostel is pretty much incorporated into the village, which is different from the other places, but really nice. Fiji is really friendly everyone shouts Bula to you when you walk down the street. We spent our last day in Mana lounging on the beach and swimming.