The Yasawa Flyer is a modern catamaran that takes young backpackers and honeymooners from Denarau Marina in Nadi out to various islands in the Yasawa chain with a first stop in South Sea Island in the Mamanuca chain.  The catamaran always stops outside the reef area of the island and passengers are transferred onto small fishing boats.  The luggage comes on a separate boat (which sometimes means luggage gets accidentally left on the catamaran).  At each island, you are greeted by a team from the “resort” singing a traditional Fijian welcome song to you.  You must respond with an energetic “bula!” or, the joke is, you don’t get lunch.

Let’s do a little Fijian language lesson.  Bula means hello.  Venaka means thank you.  Bula venaka means thank you very much.  As we say on Fiji Airways, “bula venaka laka wevu”, which means thank you for flying with us.  (Sorry, I’ve flown Fiji Airways four times and that phrase will be stuck in my head forever.  I never thought I would have a Frequent Flyer account with Fiji Airways, but I do!)

I found out about the Yasawa island hopping from Party K, who I met in Tulum.  She did it in 2016.  The web site for Awesome Fiji Adventures has lots of blond girls in bikinis jumping around and smiling.  While this isn’t really my thing, I appreciated the energy behind it.  Really, the web site is just incredible A+ marketing.  I decided to splurge on the 9 day experience because I figured I would never really do it again.  Looking back on it, I’m glad I did it because I ended up making some solid friendships during these 9 days.  Unfortunately, the price is very high and definitely not in the backpacker budget, even though it is marketed as “Fiji for backpackers”.  It’s just not true.  If you have a vacationers budget, it’s more palatable.  I fell for the marketing.

South Sea Island was by far the most culturally engaging island.  The island is quite small and you can walk the entire island perimeter in about 10 minutes.  This island’s accommodations were more like camping, and maybe that’s more appropriate for this experience.  There is a small village for the staff behind our bunks.  There is a performance troupe that does two cultural song and dance shows during the 2 hour lunch time.  I saw every song and dance performed twice and was thoroughly engaged each time.  I learned about the story of Fiji through the performances.  The singers, in traditional dress, were in harmony and many sang with such passion they swayed left and right with their eyes closed.  I could feel their intention, or at least I’d like to think I did.  The final song was always the traditional Fijian goodbye song  “Isa Lei”.

A few of the male performers seemed to be a little embarrassed during the performance, or maybe bored.  I’m not sure.  However, the overall performance at South Sea Island by far the best of the Yasawas.  In some of the other islands, the performers were not really in the mood to sing and would roll their eyes or not sing and just stand looking down instead.  These were uncomfortable moments for both the performers and the audience.

The traditional song and dance made me think about my cultural traditions.  When my grandparents family’s were living in their small villages, called shetls, did they have a traditional way of welcoming expected visitors?  Was there a traditional goodbye song?  With the history of Yiddish theater, I knew that oral tradition was passed down theatrically.  I know we have congratulatory songs for celebrations like Simen Tov und Mazel Tov and dances like the horah.  Heveinu Shalom Aleichem was definitely some sort of welcome song.  I wondered what else was lost from my traditional culture in our American assimilation and what else the Nazis took away from us.

At South Sea Island, we would bring bean bag chairs out to the beach at night and sing music together under the stars.  I met Constantine from Germany there.  We spent all night talking to each other about life.  I also met a couple from the UK, James and Amy.  We would follow each other to Barefoot Kuata Island as well.

Unfortunately, there were no historical cultural moments after South Sea Island.  The only cultural exchange I had was with the modern culture.  At each of the places I stayed, the staff and the local villagers were one in the same.  Asking questions confidently was important because it seemed there were some properties that were leased to Australian managers and the staffers, after many years of this arrangement, now seem disgruntled.  It seemed like it was hard for the staffers to separate their frustration with the management and their resentment towards tourists who were simply hoping to achieve the goals of the Awesome Fiji blonde bikini marketing web site.  I soon learned that I was probably misinterpreting the “resentment” aspect of this but I’m still not sure what the right word is.  I guess it really depended on the individual.  Sometimes it seemed like me being there was a chore for them, and that made me feel bad.  Other times, like during the storm on the fishing boat without life jackets at Oarsman’s Bay in the Blue Lagoon, it seemed like they really did not care if I died, and that made me feel bad too.  I realized then that I could not leave my destiny in the hands of the staff and I had to be an assertive and aggressive backpacker, even though in some cultures this is considered rude (like in Mexico).  In Fiji, sometimes, it is the only way to show that you are serious and that you will not accept an alternative (again, like having life jackets on your boat during a storm).

Here are photos of Barefoot Kuata:

Here are photos of Barefoot Manta, with a beautiful view from the top of the hiking trail:

Here are the photos of Blue Lagoon where I met Anna, from Germany and Ralph, from Holland.  We would be stuck on the fishing boat during the storm together, praying for our lives.  (It brought us closer together and we ended up spending a bunch of time together at Beachouse on the Coral Coast.):

The Oarsman’s Bay story is somewhat funny.  There is a Blue Lagoon Resort where everyone else was staying.  At Oarsman’s it was just the three of us.  I guess we did not book enough in advance.  Upon arrival, the staff sang us the most lethargic and unenergetic welcome song, rolling their eyes and laughing at each other between words.  They could barely get through it.  I knew something was wrong.  They then informed us that no one else was staying there.  They had no beer.  Dinner would be sometime after 7pm, maybe 8pm, who knows?  Insert “Fiji time” joke here.  We figured we could just go to the Blue Lagoon Resort because it is physically connected to this resort.  It’s right next door.  We could chill at the pool there and order drinks, maybe?  Alas, when we arrived at the neighboring resort, the bartender shows us the tiny little sign seemingly written for people like us, “Members of other resorts must purchase vouchers at the management office during these hours…”.  Other resorts?  So,  you mean the one resort next door, the one we are staying at?  I realized that we were at the “overflow” resort and we are the stragglers or the riff-raff that are coming to deplete the beer supply for the people who actually reserved Blue Lagoon Resort.  Getting the vouchers was a bit of a complex ordeal with the staff member needing approval from his manager and making it clear that we would only get one opportunity to purchase a voucher, so we should let him know exactly how many beers we would want immediately.  Two for me and Anna.  Ralphie needed three, I could tell.

On the way back from the Yasawas, Cyclone Josie was approaching.  Our fishing boat ride back to the catamaran was treacherous.  The 4.5 hour catamaran ride was horrifying.   The boat was bouncing left and right like crazy.  My Drammamine mostly worked but I had to keep my eyes closed and my head tilted a certain way for the entire ride.  I knew that I was mostly done with beach time and I needed a mountain escape.

Advice: you should go to the Yasawas if you can.  Don’t spend 9 days there.  Go to South Sea Island and get a little camping experience and sing under the stars.  Go to Barefoot Kuata Island and hang out in the pool and look across the bay.  After that, head back to the mainland.  Unfortunately, the Yasawas are experiencing a phase of confusion and frustration between the landowner villagers and the foreign/Australian/South African leaseholder operators.  I think the leases are about to expire and perhaps the original terms were not favorable to the village.   Perhaps some of the villagers regret extending their village to the tourism trade.  Maybe they weren’t prepared for what was to come.  I can understand that if they are being managed by someone from outside the village, they too feel like they are not in control of their destiny.