12th August 2025

My short time in Fiji was starting to come to an end, as I continued ever eastwards on this “Around the World in 40 Days” adventure.  I still had a couple more days left to explore this lovely island nation though, and was heading now to the country’s capital city of Suva next.

After a fond farewell to beautiful Taveuni Island, I first took a flight back to Nadi, where I had a connecting flight to Suva on the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu a few hours later.  This is a bit of a long story.  I had originally booked a direct flight from Taveuni to Suva, but Fiji Airways subsequently emailed me later to say that they had cancelled this flight and booked me onto the next day’s flight instead.  I needed to go on this day if I wanted to have time to explore Suva, and after explaining this to them they wanted to charge me an additional £200 for the privilege of getting me to my original destination on the same day to fly two connecting flights via Nadi instead.  This would actually have been more expensive than just simply buying the connecting flights!  I am sure this is not legal in the airline world, and I was having none of it.  I requested my email concern to be elevated, threatened to contact the international airline dispute authority, and eventually they put me on these two flights to travel on this day for no extra cost.  I mean, really!

So I had four hours to kill between my flights in Nadi, and took the opportunity to visit the other attraction close to the airport not far from the afore-visited Sabeto Hot Springs – the fantastic Garden of the Sleeping Giant.  I had booked a taxi to meet me at the airport, take me to the Garden for an hour’s exploration there, and take me back again, to also stop off at the Hot Springs as I had left my swim shorts there during my previous visit.  In fact for my time in Taveuni, I invested in a pair of really small and cheap swim shorts at the local shop there so I could enjoy the Waterslide and Tavoro Waterfall pool during my visit.  It turned out they were so small and cheap that they pretty much straightaway ripped a right hole on my behind!  Fortunately I don’t think many people were looking while I enjoyed the slide and cool swim.

The Garden of the Sleeping Giant was just delightful – a botanical garden around 50 acres in size, filled with over a thousand different species of orchid, native flowers and trees.  It was originally founded to house the private botanical collection of Canadian actor Raymond Burr in 1977, who since opened it to the public, and is named for the nearby Sabeto mountain range which as mentioned in a previous blog entry resembles a giant figure sleeping on his back if viewed from the ocean.  The current owners clearly take great care over it, and the visitor is especially treated to a free glass of cold fresh fruit juice after the visit, as admittedly the walk around it and particularly up to a viewpoint with awesome views down to Nadi and the Pacific Ocean beyond was rather hot.

Back at the airport, I enjoyed lunch at Burger King, followed by my long–awaited and much-appreciated flight to the Fijian capital of Suva.  It was a 25-minute up-and-downer, this time in a slightly larger aeroplane with around 50 seats, but still propeller-powered!  This time there were mostly official-looking business types of travelers rather than tourists, and I felt really excited to be heading off-the-beaten track in Fiji – my favourite type of travelling!

So while Nadi is the tourist hub of Fiji, as well as home to its international airport, Suva is the capital city and political and economic centre.  At 100,000 people, it is not only the largest city in Fiji, but also in the South Pacific, so is additionally an important regional and international hub too.  I was excited to explore.

Upon leaving the surprisingly tiny airport terminal, I was faced with one of those taxi driver melees often seen in developing country urban centres such as these, where you start talking to one of them and ten more gather around you trying to get you to ride with them or charge you an extortionate price while they shout and bicker amongst themselves.  This is very much one of my least favourite parts of travelling.  My tactic is to start this way, and if I don’t get a decent price or if there is too much chaos, I walk away and head to the main road to flag down a taxi in passing.  I was just starting to do this when I caught the eye of a more humble-looking cabbie towards the back of the queue who quickly offered me a decent price, and I hopped in, much to the angst of the others as we sped away.  This kind of thing is often a circus, though nothing has yet beaten the worst place I have encountered this, which was Dakar Airport in Senegal – this place didn’t come even close to that.

We were actually driving a long time, 40 minutes through the suburbs of this comparatively large urban conglomeration, to my accommodation in the city centre.  This turned out to be a grand old dame of a place at a bargain of a price, built just after World War Two by the British and Americans as they were developing Fiji following the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War, and currently home to a lovely Indian lady and her family.  My self-contained apartment with living room, dining and kitchen area, bedroom and bathroom was spacious with lovely furniture and high ceilings, and was slap bang right in the middle of the embassy area in the centre of town.  I had just enough time that evening to down my bags and do a quick walk around before the sun set, after which I’d rather be back in my accommodation after the stories I’d heard back in Taveuni from my policeman-driver-guide there.

After incorporating Fiji into the British Empire in 1874, the country’s capital was chosen to be located here as it had a deep water harbour and plenty of ample space inland to spread out.  Thus, the centre of Suva is now majestically filled with lots of lovely, dilapidated faded-glory British buildings which were a delight to walk around and admire.

The best of these buildings was the Grand Pacific Hotel just opposite the majestic open space of Albert Park which once served as a military parade ground but now seems to be the sporting centre of the city, with numerous well-to-do folk out for a jog or hanging out with their friends.  This hotel was recently restored around a decade ago to its former glory, and a delight to visit.  Even Queen Elizabeth II once stayed there, and I loved seeing the old photos of her on display around the foyer.  She was a classy lady indeed, and is much missed.

Next I headed to the Suva Municipal Market and the bus station, where I was hoping to buy a bus ticket for my return journey to Nadi the next day.  It turned out you just buy it from the bus driver when you want to go, so I planned to do that the following morning.

The Market was fairly interesting and a typical Third World dive, the kind of which used to spark my travel interest back in the day, but which I nowadays tend to avoid.  Just outside, I felt a negative presence behind me, so changed walking direction to head to a more crowded area and saw that a bit of a loony-looking guy with his hand inside his jacket pocket had been there.  Perhaps he was a decent man just going about his day-to-day business, but I always trust my instincts in this kind of situation and something tells me he did have bad intentions.

On the way back to my accommodation, as dusk was creeping in, I just happened to walk past another branch of that fantastic Indiana Indian restaurant chain which I first encountered back in Nadi, and thus my mind was made up to have a takeaway chicken curry with roti bread for dinner that night.  This was absolutely the most amazing and delicious curry I have ever tasted, and I highly recommend this restaurant chain to anyone reading this and visiting Fiji.  I also made plans to return to the Nadi branch for dinner the next day, and already couldn’t wait to have that dastardly-tasty curry in my mouth once again.

After a good night’s sleep in my spacious apartment, I checked out and headed to nearby Thurston Gardens – a lush and spacious green area adjacent to the afore-mentioned Albert Gardens and considered one of Suva’s top attractions, with the Thurston Gardens Clock Tower in the middle of it.  I met a friendly group of local police officers there and we exchanged taking photos of each other, which I thought was really cool.

I then spent a good hour in the fantastic Fiji Museum, set within the Gardens, learning about the country’s culture and history.  Highlights for me included a large drua boat dating back to 1913 and learning about the traditional “voyaging” of the Fijian people and their ancestors, so beautifully brought to life recently by the brilliant Disney film “Moana”.  Also on show were the rudder from the HMS Bounty of mutiny fame, and the shoes of Reverend Thomas Baker who was tragically cannibalised in 1867 by the people of the interior Navosa Highlands of the main Fijian island of Viti Levu, after mistakenly touching the chief’s head, which was considered taboo.

After a lovely iced latte at the Museum café, I took a taxi to the bus station and boarded a midday bus heading west back to Nadi.  I was pleased it was an air-conditioned bus, but it was still a throwback to typical Third World travel which I hadn’t really done since Lesotho and Swaziland back in 2023.  This kind of travel is always an adventure, particularly the toilet stops and loud bus stations filled with bag-laden people and lots of shouting.  The scenery on the journey was just beautiful, travelling through lush forest and highland, then along the more touristy “Coral Coast”, before alighting at Nadi’s central bus station.

I bought a few things from the bustling centre of town there, including some sorely-needed sunscreen for my poor back and my next snorkeling trip in French Polynesia.  A taxi took me back to my original accommodation where I had left my large backpack three nights before, via of course the fantastic Indiana Indian restaurant for some more delicious curry for dinner later.  I was happy to be relocated once again with my belongings, and did a bit of travel stuff sorting and clothes washing in the apartment’s own washing machine, before settling down for a good wind down, whisky, curry and evening in with a good film – Jack Black’s hilarious “Year One”.

The next day I was continuing my journey eastwards, to the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia and crossing the International Date Line proper!  I was so excited about this, as I’d never done this before in all my travels.  I was to leave Fiji on the morning of Wednesday 13^th August and arrive in French Polynesia on the evening of Tuesday 12^th August, gaining an extra day on my travels!  I am still trying to get my head around that one, lol!

More of course on that in my next!