[N.B. This is the second entry from Fiji, I've done two today, so click on "NADI" on the right of the screen if you haven't read the other one first] 

After a short six-hour sleep to recover from the Feejee Experience (and a few drinks with Doug, Steph and Bola afterwards) it was time to leave the Nadi Bay Hotel again and catch the Awesome Adventures bus to the marina at 7:30am. Things started to go wrong from the start - having not had time to organise myself and get essential supplies for a week on the islands (cash and alcohol being the most important things) I was scuppered by the ATM at the marina breaking down just before I got to it. With no time to go anywhere else, it was a case of boarding the Yasawa Flier and hoping...

The Yasawa Islands are a chain of volcanic rocks jutting out of the sea to the north-west of Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. There are resorts dotted all over them, and the islands range in size from tiny to small. I bought a package called the "Ultimate Lei", which includes accommodation and meals for six nights and several extra activities. The Yasawa Flier stops at the resorts, and passengers and baggage are taken to the islands by way of speedboats which cruise out to meet the bigger boat once or twice a day depending on where they are. First stop was Sunrise resort on Nanuya Lailai.

Travelling between the islands is a very social experience, you keep meeting the same people even if you're not staying in the same place. Quite a few were doing the same trip as me (although not everyone), so in roughly the order I met people, hello to: Hannah, Catherine, Amy, Neville, Christine, Ben, Reece, Will, Alfonso, Mickael, Violaine, Christiana, Rick, Nick, Dave, Hwee Sin, Malinda, Aurelie, Tugba, Rita, Dana, Brandy, Tracey (fae Aberdeen, no less) and anyone else who I've forgotten - send me an angry e-mail and I'll add you to the list.

Sunrise resort is on the other side of the island from the Blue Lagoon, which was used in the film of the same name. The walk takes about 20-25 minutes, and after we trudged over to the resort (the sea was too choppy to drop us at the resort itself) we were welcomed by Tui, the statuesque lady running the place. Our lunch was provided (all meals being included in the various resorts) and after eating and saying hello we were free to amuse ourselves on the island.

There are resorts and there are resorts. On the next island there was a particularly posh one, where Britney Spears had her honeymoon. The ones I was staying in were geared towards "backpackers and alternative travellers", with accommodation being provided in dorms and the power provided by generators which are switched off by about 10 or 11pm - all air-conditioning comes from the gaps in the walls. Sunrise resort was naturally quite basic, but it was clean and the staff were very friendly. We were welcomed after the evening meal with another crab race, which I lost again.

My biggest problem was solved by a walk over to the Gold Coast resort on the other side of the island, where Neville and Christine from London were enjoying their honeymoon. They definitely had the fancier place, with a proper bar (unlike our hole-in-the-wall affair) overlooking the lagoon itself. Since that resort accepted credit cards, I was able to take some cash out, which in itself solved the other problem of a lack of alcohol.

There were plenty of snorkelling and swimming opportunities, and several different card games to entertain us - the German girls (Tugba, Rita, Dana) had a pack of cards for playing Uno, and our resident Frenchman Mickael provided an even more convoluted game called Jungle Snap, which involves matching coloured geometric shapes and trying to grab a totem on the table. This game in particular could get violent.

On the monday morning we were taken by Joe's Water Taxi (i.e. speedboat) to go swimming through some nearby caves. There must have been at least 30 people trying to tread water in the dark in an enclosed space, and the cave itself didn't extend very far. We were given a talk about the caves, but since the other guides were making so much noise, all we could hear was "caves... sharks... eels..."

After drying off from the caves it was time to board the Yasawa Flier again and cruise southwards to the Wanna Taki, a live-aboard cruise ship, for one night. Accommodation was 24 dorm beds inside, but there was no point in spending too much time in there - the bar was on top, and the railings opened up so you could jump off the boat and into the sea. Much like the boat in Halong Bay in Vietnam, but much bigger. And the cocktails were lethal.

The next morning I went for another scuba dive, despite the dive in the Whitsundays causing so much trouble with my ears. After a chat with the dive instructor we decided I'd probably be OK, since I'm fine on planes and I had a fair amount of wax in my ears the last time. We went from the nearby Manta Ray resort, which meant walking down the beach with the scuba gear on - since the beach is made up of some sand and a lot of dead coral, it didn't half hurt. The dive itself was fine, with some fascinating coral and sea life to look at. My ears recovered in no time as well.

After the Wanna Taki it was back aboard the Yasawa Flier to go to the Kuata Island Resort. By this stage most people had heard stories about this place, and not good ones. Rats had been mentioned. As it turned out, there didn't seem to be any rats at all. Sure, the island was filthy, but there were no rats. Just mice.

I passed Sarah from the Feejee Experience as I went to Kuata and she was leaving, and asked her how it was. She frowned and said "yeah." Upon arrival I ran into Melina and Valentin as well, and Melina's bag had been chewed open by a mouse trying to get into a food wrapper inside. The same mouse (or possibly its friend) decided to try Valentin's bed for comfort as well.

Luckily, I was in the next dorm, and we didn't have any mice. We didn't feel left out, though, because we had a family of birds nesting in the roof. That's inside the roof, they used the door to come in and out, and decided that 5am was a good time to do their cockerel impression and wake everybody up. At least they couldn't get through the mosquito nets, though. Neither could the cockroaches, which was a shame for the one that was trapped inside with me and decided to land on my shoulder just as I was drifting off to sleep.

The sea off Kuata was rough, so swimming was possible but not particularly enjoyable. There was also a guided summit walk to see the sunrise - I didn't bother, although I walked up to the summit and also went over to the pen where a family of pigs lived with all the rubbish from the island. I did take part in the sea kayak trip to the next island, where there was a much nicer resort - our guide (who works in Kuata) told us that next time we came, we should stay in the other resort instead. We had yet another kava ceremony, with the locals openly laughing at the stupid tourists.

There were messages written by various guests on the rafters of some of the shelters. My personal favourites were "WHAT A S*** HOLE" and "Worst 2 days in Fiji! Locals R thieves and scam tourists". Still, there were hammocks to lie in and some interesting rocks to walk around. Apparently the Lonely Planet guide book says Kuata is a wonderful place - you can draw your own conclusions about how much use the Lonely Planet books are.

Next stop was South Sea Island, which can be walked around in approximately three minutes. There's a beach, the resort, a few trees and nothing else. Plenty of snorkelling and so on, and it was a lovely setting, but I was glad I was only there for one night - I would have gone mad if I'd been stuck there any longer. There was yet another crab race (I didn't even bother putting my money on a crab after my previous losing experiences). The finalists had to be serenaded by the national anthems of their sponsors - Ben decided not to sing the Welsh anthem, and instead treated us to a spirited rendition of Tom Jones' "Delilah". It did the trick, his crab won, and his prize was four beers - the first of which was poured down a snorkel into his mouth.

The next game, though, I knew I could win. At Volivoli, Junior the Feejee Experience driver had demonstrated a trick by which he could pick up his cigarette lighter in his teeth, with his hands behind his back and his knees straight. Given my bendy legs, I could match him for stupid contortions. The game in South Sea Island was "bite the box", and the rules were similar. The contestant has to bite a cardboard box (which gets steadily smaller as bits are cut off) with only their feet touching the ground, although we were allowed to bend our knees and put our hands anywhere (but not on the ground). It came down to a race between me and Mickael, with a square of cardboard sitting on the ground. I beat him to it, and got three beers for my troubles - sadly not through a snorkel, though.

The last day on the Ultimate Lei was a trip aboard a yacht called the Seaspray to the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway. First up we had a village visit (and yet another kava ceremony) then we had lunch on the boat. There was a proper barbecue, and it was the best food we'd eaten in a week - although since the Seaspray was built in Glasgow, you'd expect it to come equipped with a deep-fat fryer. Our Weegie boat did, however, have all drinks included in the ticket, so water/soft drinks/beer/wine could be consumed whenever the need arose. After an hour of snorkelling around the island there was a definite need for beer.

Then back to Nadi, to spend all day on the internet telling you, my devoted reader, about everything. If only I could get the USB port to work I'd stick some photos on as well. I have another few days in Fiji before I head to the USA for the final leg of my trip, so I'll either find a decent internet cafe or I'll sit on the beach drinking kava. Don't hold your breath waiting for photos...