My final, final day in Nadi, this time for real (as a transfer on my way from Apia, Samoa to Port Vila, Vanuatu), I decided that I was totally over these Wailoaloa shitty hostels (although seeing the Polynesian dance show one more time wouldn’t hurt). I also didn’t want to spend big money on a resort as my Fiji budget was exhausted in the Yasawas. I looked up Airbnbs and I found a homestay with an Indo-Fijian family who had excellent reviews and who cooks up a famously good dinner meal. This sounded like exactly what I needed after 2 weeks in Samoa.
I was picked up at the airport by my host. We drove 15 minutes to her house up on a hill in a development. She talked about Fijian politics and her recent dentist appointment. I met her husband and 11 year old daughter in the house. They were friendly and watching a Hindi language drama on TV together. Immediately, my hostess started putting out the food for dinner. She had made a lamb pulao with freshly baked roti. There was a jackfruit salad and tomato/onion salad too. This was the best meal I had in Fiji and Samoa in 5 weeks. I ate sooo much. I couldn’t stop eating.
After dinner, I played many rounds of Uno with the daughter. We were having fun but I did notice that she kept getting up. There were people at the door every 15 minutes or so. The little girl rolled her eyes at one point and looked at me and said, "I hate selling kava." I chuckled. I then realized that the daughter was the sales associate for the drug sales operation. Kava is not an illegal substance in Fiji but it is still definitely a drug. I tried it.
At the start of my South Pacific Island adventure, I set one of my goals to be to stay with local people as much as possible. When I started booking places that advertised themselves as resorts, I started feeling guilty that I was not following my plan. After about a few days in the Yasawas though, I started to theorize that there might not be much a difference in the experience of staying in a place that advertises itself as a "homestay" or a "village" versus a place that advertises itself as a "resort with huts/tents/bures/fales". I think I can say I was right. A village is nothing but a small place where people all know each other and do the same things everyday. The only new people who stop by are transients. Very few people move into the village permanently unless they are a member of the family.
Staying in an Indo-Fijian house in Nadi was similar to staying in a beach hut in the Yasawas and a wall-less beach fale in Samoa and a jungle treehouse in Vanuatu. The house had the best food. None of the places had aircon. I got to do kava at both the huts and the house. The house was far from the beach, the huts were on the beach and the treehouse was next to the volcano. Meals were served at strict times and in between times, if there wasn't a decent common space, you are relegated to your room. That was my experience with village life.