Our next two weeks were to be spent travelling around the Yasawa islands with a company called awesome adventures.Our first stop is Mantaray Resort on the island of Naukacuvu.We get to this island via a catamaran called the yasawa flyer and when we arrive in the vicinity of the island we are collected by the islands small fishing boat aka a bath tub powered by a lawnmower engine very un health and safety!You get a lovely warm welcome to the island with all the staff singing the bula welcome song as you get off the death boat!It is at this point that I should explain the word bula, for those who have never been to Fiji the word bula is something of an institution!Its literal meaning is hello however it represents more than just a passing hi.It means hello, welcome to the family, how the hell are you and must be delivered with a huge Fijian grin (with or without teeth)!We have a quick welcome meeting and are then shown to our bure.The bure is basically a hut on stilts with a bed, mosquito net and not much else!It is on mantaray that we are to attempt to scuba dive and acquire an open water diving qualification to allow us to dive elsewhere.Our first stop is the dive shop, a small hut on the beach, to meet the mantaray dive team.Our main dive instructor Simon suggests we have our introductory dive that afternoon…. Holy s***!!!We are given a quick demonstation of how to assemble the kit and before we know it we are waddling to the water complete with tank, mask, flippers and a whole load of other crap that we hope has a function as it bloody weighs a ton!The first dive of the course is the introduction to scuba diving.You are led by the hand around the coral reef by the instructor to gain a feel for what is expected of you in the coming days.It was wonderful and we took to it, pardon the pun like fish to water, within minutes simon had let us go and we were swimming around the stunning coral seeing hundreds of beautiful tropical fish.By the end of this first dive we were hooked and couldn't wait to get started with our training and where better to learn than the clear warm waters of Fiji!After our first dive we got the pleasure of experiencing our first of many cold showers!!Yes you heard it, cold showers but I have to admit it was pretty cool to be in the shower and when you look up all you can see is the beautiful blue sky!With a very liberal application of insect repellant we followed the noise of the dinner drum to the main bure for our tea.Tonight was curry night so we were very excited at the prospect.We joined the queue at the buffet and were given some vegetable curry and some "chicken curry" on a bed of boiled rice.Fortunately the vegetable curry was delicious, unfortunately the chicken curry should have been named bone curry as it contained only the skin and bones of what I hope was a chicken as they didn't really look like any chicken bones I have ever seen!!After a couple more beers to wash down the bones and a bit of chat with our fellow islanders we headed to bed as there was more diving in the morning.One of our reasons for choosing to dive at mantaray island was because of the daily opportunity to go swimming with the mantarays!We were told that the islanders go out at eight every morning to see if there are any mantarays and if there are then they beat a drum at the beach.This lets everyone who wants to swim with them get their snorkel and fins and head to the boat.Our first morning on the island so we had an early breakfast and were on the beach waiting for the drum by half eight.Without fail the drum went off and a report of six mantarays so we were the first in the boat.Now I don't quite know how I thought I would get from the boat to the water however when we got to the mantaray sight and everyone started to falling backwards into the water I just had to do the same and make a very amateur and clumsy plop into the water.It was all worth it when we started to see the mantarays swimming around.I hadnt realised just how massive they were, if you imagine the width of a man with his arms stretched out from fingertip to fingertip, some of them are even bigger than that!We had about an hour floating around just watching the show they were putting on for us.Some of them would swim really close to you and do lots of loop the loops it was just awesome and such an honor to be there swimming with them on their turf.Once our hour was up we all climbed back into the boat and made our way back to the island.There was no rest for us however as we were straight into our diving gear for our first training dive.This first dive involved mastering some of the skills required to pass the course.We had to kneel on the ocean floor and fill our masks with water then clear it out, then take the breathing regulator out your mouth and put it back in and clear it.It was really scary filling the mask with water and I think of all the things we were to learn this was my least favourite task!After the skills we then had another 30 minutes of swimming around looking at more of the reefs and fish which again was amazing.We had enough time then for some lunch and a quick relax in a hammock before we were back in the water to learn some more skills.I have to say that having swam with the mantarays and then had the morning dive we were exhausted but there was no time to moan as we were soon back in the water.The afternoon skills involved repeating the ones we had done in the morning with the addition of taking the breathing regulator out your mouth, throwing it away and then retrieving it in two different ways.I struggled for a bit with this one however after a couple of attempts we were soon finished the hard work.Just as we were finishing up the class and about to go for a swim round the instructor suddenly pointed behind us and when we turned round we couldn't believe what we saw.There was a reef shark going about his business around the coral reefs.It was a bit of a shock and a real treat as he is apparently really shy!We had another swim around the reefs and then that was us done for the day.At this point I want to talk a little about the beach that we had to walk up and down on with our heavy gear.You may imagine in Fiji that the beaches are all soft powder like sand but not this one.The beach was littered with large lumps of sharp coral and there was a small stretch just before the water where it is like walking on glass.The first couple of times you walk to the water its ok however by the 6h time you actually feel like your feet are torn apart and bleeding they are so raw.So with the scene set I don't need to elaborate on the mood between Michael and I when we get back to the dive shop to discover that I must have dropped my mask in the water as we were getting out!!So you guessed it we had to go back across the walk of torture for the 7th time with a snorkel and mask to look for the missing mask.It fortunately didn't take long until Mike the hero appeared with the offending mask and we were able to laugh about it as we literally hobbled back to the dive shop. I think at one point I actually tried to crawl up the beach I was in so much pain however the coral was cutting my knees!sWe could really have done with the evening to chill out and relax however after washing and storing all our gear we were given the handbook of theory we had to learn for the exam in 2 days!We were expecting a few sheets in a booklet so were pretty horrified when we were handed a massive 6 chapter textbook which had to be read cover to cover before the exam.Our second night on the island therefore involved a quick dinner, no small talk and back to the bure to read chapters 1 and 2 before bed.What we hadn't banked on was that doing 3 hour long sessions in the sea really takes it out you and as you can imagine the theory is pretty boring so before reaching the end of chapter 1 we were both fast asleep, whoops!We got up really early the next morning to finish the chapters we hadn't got through the previous night then had some breakfast before it was time for dive number 4.This was to be our last skills dive before having our first open water dive with the dive master.This time much to my horror the first skill of the day was to completely remove our masks then put them back on and clear them.I panicked too much the first time so I had to do it again.Michael managed it first time as usual he is such a natural.The next skill was to simulate running out of air, communicating it to your dive buddy and then sharing air with each other before making a controlled ascent to the surface together.Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves having completed this we were not ready for what was to happen next.Our instructor who we trusted with our lives turned the air in our tanks off to let us watch the gauge and see what it feels like to run out of air.It is one of the scariest and most horrible feelings in the world.It has ensured that I will never ever let myself run out of air and I guess that was the point of the lesson!We next had to take all the diving gear off underwater then put it all back on which we thought would be a nightmare however the water makes the gear weightless so it was surprisingly easy.Our final skill was to practice an emergency ascent to the surface where you just keep breathing out as you quickly propel yourself to the surface.After a quick lunch we read some more of our textbooks before getting geared up again for dive number 5 our first open water dive where the dive master takes you out on the boat with other qualified divers.The dive master was a lovely Fijian man who was very patient and made our first open water dive a real pleasure.This time I was more prepared for falling off the back of the boat however the heavy gear made it a bit tricky and led to another clumsy entry but at least I was in with all the gear intact.To be honest the dive from the boat felt much the same as the dives from the beach front as you go to the same depth.We did see a few different fish and it was great experience and we were able to hold our own with the other qualified divers so we were pretty pleased with ourselves.The hardest bit of the trip was trying to climb back into the boat after the dive as you need real upper body strength for which I have none so that was pretty humiliating but gave everyone in the boat a real laugh.This time I made it from the boat to the dive shop with all my gear and after putting it all away it was back to the books with a small break for dinner.The next day was our final dive this time with a larger group of qualified divers and we were to swim out from the beach, catch the current and have what is called a drift dive where you drift in the current and are collected by the boat 40 minutes later.Again we were able to hold our own and really relaxed into the dive taking in all the beautiful coral and fish.This was to be our last dive in mantaray so we wanted to take in as much as possible and savour every minute of it all.This time when the dive was over I made a slightly better attempt to get back into the boat and we were soon on our way back to the beach to sit the dreaded exam!The exam took the form of 50 multiple choice questions with an 80% pass mark.As usual the word exam had me in a panic complete with sweaty palms however we need not have worried as when the paper was marked we were both delighted to learn we had 100% and we both had the same mark so nobody could gloat to the other!When we went back round to the dive shop to let the other instructors know that we had passed we were over the moon when Simon asked us if we wanted to take some kit and take a dive on our own out on the reef.It was a really scary prospect going alone but it was too good an opportunity to turn down and great experience to go out just the two of us.Without any supervision we got all the kit together, walked down the glass walk and were soon swimming around the reefs just the two of us it was so much fun and real buzz to be out alone.We managed about 45 minutes and it seemed like we saw so many new fish that we had never encountered before.All too soon it was time to take the gear back and buy our instructors a beer to thank them all for their patience and work to get us through the course with the qualifications we need to dive all over the world.At last we were able to let our hair down without any textbooks to read so we had a few beers and a couple of cocktails to celebrate passing our exams.Tonight was also to be our first experience of the national Fijian drink called Kava.Due to the Fijian people not drinking alcohol as an alternative they have a drink called Kava as a relaxant to chill out the body and mind after a hard day.The process of making kava is a long one which begins around 7 years before the drink is made.Basically they take the root of a special plant which has been grown between 4 and 10 years and they dry it out and crush it into a powder.The powder is then mixed with water in a special bowl and then the Kava ceremony can begin.Fortunately as our last night at mantaray was a Saturday night the locals invited everyone to join them in a Kava ceremony.They appoint a chief and a chief spokesperson and then after they have both tried the Kava it is passed round everybody one at a time.When it is your turn to take the small bowl with the muddy looking liquid you clap once, say bula then drink from the cup.When you are finished everyone at the table claps you three times as a mark of respect and the cup passes to the next person.Any Fijian person you talk to raves about Kava and they talk of how it makes your tongue and lips numb and it can do funny things to the mind!I have to say that I wasn't very taken with the Kava it just tasted like mud to me and after about 4 bowls my tongue was a little numb but that was about it so I think I will be sticking to the cocktails from now on.Finally our stay at Mantaray was over we had arrived with only a little snorkeling experience and were leaving as qualified divers.We had met some lovely people from all over the world and shared lots of funny travelling stories.The staff on Mantaray were some of the nicest people we had ever met, always happy and smiling, nothing was ever too much effort for them.By the end of our stay we knew their names and they knew ours and it was actually really sad when it was time to leave on our little fishing boat back to the catamaran bound for our next island!So the next stop was our most northern island called Nanuya Lai Lai and the resort of choice was Sunrise Lagoon.Now this was the island that when we mentioned it to our fellow travelers their response was "oh that's the one run by the transvestites is it not"?We had no idea what they were talking about and were a little concerned about what would greet us getting off the fishing boat!As with the previous transfer we were greeted in the usual Fiji fashion on the beach with the bula song and were relieved to see that the men were dressed as men, a couple were maybe a bit precious looking but nothing too scary.We had our arrival meeting and lunch in the dining room and were introduced to the person who ran the resort, a man with a massive afro called "Queen" and his assistant another big burly Fijian man called "Debra"!We had met our hosts for the next 3 nights and they seemed lovely if a little on the queer side but then there is nothing wrong with that!Our bure was a good size with a double bed and a bunk bed and makeshift toilet complete with the cold shower.Having had a busy few days on mantaray all we wanted to do was read our books chilling out on the beach so we grabbed our sun cream, books and towels and headed to the beach right outside the resort.We had maybe an hour on the beach before I started to feel something landing on my skin and then flying off.I looked from my book a few times to see what it was but every time I did there was nothing there?After a few minutes of constant inspection I suddenly realised what was jumping on us, hundreds of little sea lice living in the sand!!!Once I noticed a few I decided to go in for a closer inspection and was horrified to see that the sand was crawling with them, yuk yuk yuk!We made a quick departure from the beach and found a couple of chairs beside the bure so we spent what was left of the afternoon there, it was in the shade but there were no lice. Dinner was a little earlier on this island at 6.30pm sharp so we were washed up in plenty of time for a feed.Lucky for us it was a Sunday night which was barbeque night so we had chicken (real chicken legs), sausage and some sole of an old boot masquerading as a piece of beef!It was a really lovely spread and after dinner the locals sang us a few tuneless songs and after they headed to bed we went to the beach with some of the other travelers to have a bonfire.The wood used for the bonfire was really just a load of twigs, some dead palm leaves and tree bark so it only lasted about half an hour before it was burnt out so we said our goodnights and headed off to bed.The next day I was adamant that I was not sharing my beach with a load of lice so on the advice of queen we took a 30 minute hike up a dirt track over to the other side of the island.We were delighted to find that this was a completely deserted beach free from lice.It was blissfully quiet with the sea as calm as glass.It was on this beach that we spent the next two days doing nothing more energetic than turning the pages of our books.The weather was fantastic not a cloud in the sky with the occasional breeze to cool you down.There was a much nicer resort on this side of the island too so we went there for a drink each afternoon before beginning the hike back for dinner.The food on this island was also really nice.We had heard a few horror stories from some other travelers about the food on some of the islands being horrible but sunrise food was good, excluding the bone curry we were given on the second night.Fortunately this evening was not a total write off as we met a lovely couple from Chicago called Ryan and Cat.We all had a very entertaining night sharing stories, slating George Bush and playing cards all really good fun (Hi guys if you're reading this)!There were no other exciting incidents on this island unless you count when we returned from the lovely beach on our last day.We got back from the beach in time for a quick wash before dinner and headed for our bure only to find when we got there that it was locked from the inside?Suddenly a very confused group of 4 Irish girls answer the door to ask us what we are doing?All our stuff is gone and they insist that they were given the bure when they arrived on the boat in the afternoon.By this point we are freaking out as all our clothes, money and passport s were in that room when we left that morning.It was a very scary 5 minutes until we tracked down Debra who informed us that because they needed the larger bure for another party they had moved all our stuff to another room!Now whilst the second room was nicer than the first it was very disconcerting to have someone touching and moving all your things item by item to another room however it all worked out ok in the end and apart from 2 hair bobbles which I am convinced Debra pocked for herself everything was accounted for!Before we knew it again it was time to say goodbye to all the crazy gang on sunrise, to the travelers we had met and move on to the next island.We had really enjoyed our stay it was certainly different but for all the right reasons and will never be forgotten.The next stop on our island tour was Naviti and the resort is White Sandy Beach.By this point we were well used to the musical welcome on the beach however it is such a lovely warm welcome and this time we were greeted with a welcome drink in the form of a coconut cut open with a straw in it, very funky!This time we yet again had the biggest bure which contained a double bed, a single bed and a bunk bed as well as the very basic toilet and cold shower which I have to say by this point we were getting kind of used to.We arrived a little later at this resort so there was time for a quick hour of sunbathing on the beach (free from lice) before it was time for dinner.This evening we met a group of three travelers who had already been to New Zealand, Australia and Thailand so we spent most of the evening picking their brains about what's worth a visit.After dinner the staff on the island put on a show with songs and dancing before getting all the guests involved in some party games including limbo competitions, musical statues and musical numbers which I have to say is the most hilarious party game ever.It is a game that everyone will be playing from now on at any party I attend so beware!!The next day we decided to hire snorkeling gear and hike over to honeymoon beach on the other side of the island as we had heard at dinner the previous night that the reefs were amazing.Again we were delighted to discover a completely deserted beach all to ourselves, or so we thought!!We put down our towels to relax for a while before snorkeling and I soon shut my eyes and was drifting off when I felt something on my arm…. when I opened my eyes there was the biggest fu**ing beach crab you have ever seen making his was up my arm, googly eyes and all, I can honestly say I almost shat myself I got such a fright but I think the crab got an even bigger fright!I soon realized looking around the beach that because it was deserted there were honestly dozens of pretty big crabs on the beach so that was motivation enough to get me into the sea for some snorkeling.The reefs were amazing and whilst you never see as many fish from the surface as you do diving we still saw some beautiful reefs and the odd fish came out to say hello.After the diving we decided to head back to the other side of the island to sunbathe there and to maybe do some snorkeling as we had the gear hired all day.It was a pretty precarious downhill slide back to the resort so we collapsed onto the sand and had a good hour's kip in the sun before having another snorkel, again fantastic view but maybe not quite as good as the morning.The second evening was much like the first with lots of chatter and then party games after dinner so great fun and a real laugh just a shame this was our last night on this island as we were only staying for two nights on white sandy beach.It had been a lovely two days chilling out and we could hardly believe that we only had two more nights left before we headed back to the main land.Our last two nights were to be spent on the resort of Kuata on the island Kuata.We arrived and were greeted in the usual fashion with a song and quickly assigned to our bure which you will see from our photos is a lovely thatched hut with colourful fabrics inside.There was only enough time on arrival for a quick walk around the island before heading back to get ready for dinner.The first evening in Kuata was made brighter when we met a couple from Birmingham called Laura and Pete.They were a real giggle and we ended up staying up way past our bed time and probably had way too many beers but it was a fun night.The intention when we arrived on the island was to get up early enough to watch the sunrise, around 5am.We thought it would be cool to be the first people to watch the sun rise in the world for that particular day!When we realised it was after midnight we thought perhaps a 5am start would be better left to the next day.Oh how wrong we were when at 4am, yes that's correct 4am as in the middle of the night we are rudely awakened by a cockrel and his immensely irritating " c*** a doodle doo" right over the fence from our bure.The bird continued to make noise until around 9am when he eventually went to sleep.I was raging as I was so tired and it was making a racket a good 90 minutes before the sun was even thinking about coming up.Eventually the noise got the better of Mike and at 5 he got up with the camera to go for a walk and watch the sunrise, I was far too grumpy to do anything other than lie in my bed pretending it wasn't happening!Needless to say we didn't get up to much that day just sleeping and reading on the beach trying to recover from the horror of the morning.The second evening was much the same as the first chatting and playing cards with Laura and Pete although we were not as late saying our goodnights as we were exhausted and knew we would be awake again at 4.When we got back to the bure we were greeted by a pretty horrible smell.I would describe it as a kind of sewar/drainage smell so pretty unpleasant.We thought it was maybe the toilet so we dumped some water down it in an attempt to wash the smell away.We got into bed to try and get to sleep however the smell at the bed end of the room was getting worse.By this point it is 11pm and we are wondering what we are going to do because the smell is unbearable.We move the bed to the other side of the tiny bure to see if it is going to be possible to get to sleep but not surprisingly the smell is no better.We leave the bure in our pj's in search of anyone who can help.We eventually find the islands chief and him, his mrs and their 2 kids all come back to the bure with a torch to investigate the smell.So he is looking round with the torch lifting up the coloured fabrics and looking into the thatch and I am wondering what he is hoping to find because I still think it is drainage.Then he utters the line "the smell is a rat, a dead rat"!You actually had to pick me up off the floor with shock.A rotting decomposing rat had been sharing our bure for the last 2 days.There were no other bures available so we had to sleep in an emply dorm room that had about 7 bunk beds in it but at least there was no smell and the silver lining to the smelly cloud was that we couldn't hear the rooster.Thankfully the next morning we were leaving and we were ready to say that it was time to leave the islands.It was almost as if the islands knew it was time too because the sun had gone and it was raining for the first time in 2 weeks.We had to return to the "hut of pong" to pack up our things for check out at 10 am.I don't think I have ever packed my bag so quickly every now and again stopping to have a shudder at the thought of rats in the room.We were just about to leave and I went to the bathroom to get our toiletries and noticed something suspicious about the cardboard box of soap left in our room by the resort.I think the neighbouring islands heard the shreak of "OH MY GOD" there was a big hole chewed in the box and quite a few teeth marks in the corner of the soap.We had been sharing the room with dead and alive rats running around as we slept!!!!!!!!!We grabbed our bags and the offending soap and got the hell out of there pronto.I took the soap to the chief as a way to let him know that there were still rats in the room.Now having spent 2 weeks with the chilled out folks of Fiji I don't know what I expected him to say, maybe an apology or an expression of regret at our traumatic experience I was not ready for him to say with his best toothless grin "Well madam it is better that the rat eats the soap than it eats you"!I had to agree and we all had a good laugh at the sight of this nibbled bar of soap.When it was time to board our little fishing boat back to the catamaran we were both ready for a hot shower and the ability to choose what we have for dinner!We had thoroughly enjoyed our 2 weeks island hopping in Fiji and I am sure anyone reading this blog will agree we have taken away plenty of stories that we will remember and laugh about for many years to come.We had heard a rumour that the Fijian people are the happiest people on earth and that is a fact that I can wholeheartedly endorse.They live a very simple and understated life free from many of the luxuries that we take for granted but they are living proof that money doesn't make you happy a happy life is about much more than that!