Nanuya Island (Enedala Homestay), Yasawa Islands, Fiji

30th October – 2nd November 2017

When I boarded the ferry, I knew I had a bit of a distance to go, as I was getting off at the last stop, which was about two hours away. I went to the top deck at first. It was very hot and sunny up there; it was also very quiet, so I lay down for a bit and tried to sunbathe. After a couple of stops, I decided it was far too hot, so I moved onto a lower deck to try and get some shade. I had never sat on the bottom deck before and I don’t know why because it’s an air-conditioned room – it was amazing!

Just after 1, the ferry arrived at the final stop Nanuya Island and it was my call to get off. I was boarding a little boat to take me around the back of the island, to Enedala Homestay. When I arrived, the homestay was just off the beach, so I walked through and was greeted by a lady, whose name I instantly forgot. She was sat in the dorm, which overlooked the beach, so I went in and she showed me to my bed and she showed where the things I needed to know, where. After that, I was pretty much left on my own. There were other people’s things in the room, but they weren’t around at the time, it was just me and the locals. I didn’t mind that though as it gave me time to get my bearings of the place and decide what to do.

I wandered around the area and took some photos, before wandering onto the beach. The views were stunning and the water was beautiful blue colours. I walked as far as I could on the beach, before walking back. When I checked in, I was told I could go anywhere around the area and eat as many mangos as I wanted from the trees, so that’s what I did. I wandered behind the dorm, where the family were, and said hello to them; they pointed me in the direction of the path that leads to the blue lagoon but I decided I was saving that for another day, as I had two full days to fill. After speaking to the family, I found the mango trees, with hundreds of mangos on the floor around. I chose a few and ate them on the steps of the dorm, overlooking the sea. I also used this time to cool off, as it was so hot, I had sweat running down me just standing still.

After I had enjoyed my mangos, I re-sun creamed, before heading to the beach. On the beach, I just relaxed: I lay out my sarong and lay in the sunshine for a while. When I got too hot, I took a dip in the sea to cool off and then repeated. Even though I haven’t technically been doing anything, the time seemed to go so quickly. I knew I had to be back in the dorm around 4, to take my tablets, but what felt like half an hour, had actually been two hours.

When I walked back to the dorm, one of the older men, who I had met earlier, was sat on the dorm steps. He seemed very happy to see me and he wanted to know what I had been up to. When I told him, he handed me a mango, so I sat with him and we chatted away for a while.

Even though he had already asked me once, he asked me two more times what my name was. I didn’t mind because I had also forgotten his, but by the time I had realised I had forgotten it, it was too late to ask – I never realised how bad I was with names! We talked about lots of different things and he asked me lots of questions about me. He was very impressed with the fact that I am a teacher and told me I should teach in the school in the village. The conversation went on a little further until he decided he wanted me to write a sign in the dorm – he reason was that I am a teacher, I can write. My sign said, ‘no smoking inside’ and he was very happy, he kept calling me a ‘good girl’ once I had done it. When he went off to get the pen for the sign, he returned with another mango for me – I’d never eaten a mango in my life before I for to Fiji, where I then had an endless supply.

We sat and watched the sea and could see people passing by on the boats. My friend told me that they were getting the boat to blue lagoon; he laughed at them because they had to pay $20 to get a boat and we can walk for free from the homestay. When I told him that I was staying at the blue lagoon resort after the homestay, he then laughed at me because he said it is so much money and not cheap like the homestay and it is walking distance from where we were sat. He then let me off and said it was okay, when I told him I was only staying there for one night, after three nights in the homestay.

While we were sat there, in between conversations, he told me about the young Fijian men who go ‘home’ to England and join the army. He seemed sad when he was telling me that so many of them leave to go to London – I’m not sure why they would choose that lifestyle over a Fijian one and maybe he thought the same.

After a while, he got up and left me because he thought that he was getting in the way of my day; he told me he would leave me alone to read. I enjoyed our little chat though and was determined to find out his name before I left.

Once my friend had left me, I sat on the door step for a little longer, watching over the beautiful view of the sea. I sat there for a while longer, sorting through photos and enjoying the peace.

Before it got too late, I went for a shower – I couldn’t go when it got too late, as there is no electricity in the building where the dorm and toilets and showers are, so it you don’t shower in the day, you shower in the darkness. After I had showered, the other three people who were sharing the dorm with me (Julia, Samantha and Carlos), returned from their day out at blue lagoon. They were all solo travellers but coincidentally had booked three nights together at the homestay, which was quite strange. Lucky for me, they were staying with me for the first two nights of my stay and I just hoped that someone else would join when they left.

We all sat in the dorm and asked each other typically traveller questions, while we waited for dinner. It got very dark, very quickly and before we knew it, we were sat in a pitch black room which was quite strange.

In order to charge anything that we needed to charge, we had to go to the dining area, where the generator produced electricity for the building. When we went down for dinner, just after 7, I took my laptop down to charge it, but everything else for me was fine. For dinner, we had rice and coleslaw and a vegetable curry/ noodle thing. I’m not a fan of noodles, so I ate what I could and it tasted good.

After we had eaten, we were brought a cup of tea, which I passed on, and we sat around and chatted for a while. My friend from earlier (whose name I still don’t know) told us that the clocks ‘might’ change one day this week – I found it strange that there was no set date, so we had to wait and see. While we were say chatting, we saw two giant frogs nearby. I naturally freaked out, but Carlos tried to scare them off for me. Because it goes dark so early, it makes it so much more inviting to go to be early. We all went to bed around 9, which sounds early, but I would rather go to bed early and wake up early with the sunshine!

Despite going to bed so early, I found it quite difficult to get up the next morning. I woke up originally around 7, but soon fell back to sleep and struggled to wake again for a while after that. Just after 8, we were shouted for breakfast, so I had no choice but to get up at that point. We went down to the dining area, where we were served porridge and mangos and donuts. I’m not usually a porridge eater, but I put some sugar in it and managed to eat it.

I didn’t really have a plan for the rest of the day, but we could tell at breakfast that it was going to be a hot one! Before deciding what to do, after breakfast, I did some laundry; I knew it would dry in no time in the heat we were in.

After I had done my laundry, I decided I was going to walk to blue lagoon – the only reason I wasn’t completely sure was because there was a cruise ship that comes in on Tuesdays, but there wasn’t much else to do around the village. The others decided to come with me, even though they had already been, so once we were all ready, off we went.

It took us about half an hour to get there and it was an extremely hot day. We had to walk up over the hill and back down the other side to get to blue lagoon, as it was on the opposite side of the island to Enedala.

Once we got there, we picked a spot on the closest side of the cruise ship; there was a big sign on the beach saying that we couldn’t pass that point if there was a cruise in, so we just stayed there. We found the tiniest shade spot, under some trees and set up there. As soon as I had ditched my bag and drunk some water, I was straight into the sea to cool off. At the point where we had picked, the tide was still pretty low, so it wasn’t very deep, but I didn’t care, I just lay down in it. It was also quite warm water, but there were some cold water channels running through, so I just hunted them down. Once I had felt like I had had enough of the water, I got out. I lay in the sun for a little while to try and dry off, but as soon as I was dry, I was baking, so I moved into the shade. I practically had to curl up in a ball to be in the shade but it worked for a while.

As soon as all of the shade had disappeared, we decided we had to move spots – it was far too hot to sit in the sun all day. We rebelled and walked through the cruise ship site, but we just stayed on the beach, by the sea and no one said anything. Once we got to the other side, we found another tiny shaded area, so we set up there instead.

After that tiny bit of walking, we were all so sweaty again, so we went for another dip. The water was much deeper in this part of the beach so that was nice and the views were unbelievable. Apart from the cruise ship, we were basically the only other people on the beaches, which I found very difficult to understand, as it was all so beautiful. I kept switching between swimming, drying off, shade and re-applying sun cream pretty much all afternoon – it was great!

Eventually, the shade had disappeared from the second spot we had picked, so we had to move again. We moved slightly closer to the cruise area, as there were lots of trees there and we sat a little bit back from the beach, in the cruise area. We were still far away from the cruise passengers, so we didn’t bother them, and no one said anything to us.

By about 4.30, we decided that we had had enough of the beach for one day, so we started to walk back. We decided to take a different path, which we thought might have been shorter – I wasn’t sure about taking the risk with my track record, but it paid off! Even though it was much cooler by that time, it was still very hot and sweaty and although the views around were amazing, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

When we got back to the village, I collected my clean and dry washing from the line, and tried to cool off a little. I was last to shower and by the time I got in, it was pretty dark in there. After I had showered and cooled off, I chilled out for a bit by the village and on the beach, before dinner was ready.

Dinner was ready just after 7. We had fish, noodles and bread fruit (which is a bit like a potato), and then there was a lobster served in the middle of the table. I had never tried lobster before, and when I did, I wasn’t particularly blown away by it: it was quite chewy, it didn’t taste disgusting, but it wasn’t amazing, despite the Russian man at the table devouring the whole thing practically.

There really isn’t anything to do around the homestay, so after dinner, we just sat around chatting. I moved away from the dining area and went and sat outside, being very wary of the frogs. I sat and chatted with my friend from yesterday, who we all just call grandpa now, because no one can remember his name. We talked for a while about all sorts of things and we looked up at how many stars there were and how bright the moon was.

On my way back to the dining area, I spotted a frog. In my opinion, I was quite brave, as I got relatively close – that’s only because I had to so that I could get by. I sat and talked for a little more, until the generator cut out and it was pitch black. I ended up walking back to the dorm on my own, being very careful about where the frogs were – I think everyone thinks I’m being dramatic when I say I don’t like them, but it’s a real fear and a real inconvenience when I know they are around because I have to scan the whole area that I am in, which was a nightmare when trying to put toothpaste on my toothbrush, in the dark! It was another early night, but it’s tiring work lying out in the sun all day and I knew I had something similar planned for the next day, so I needed to get my sleep.

It was another struggle to wake up in the homestay, and I don’t know why. The hot and sweaty room gave me all the persuasion I needed to get up, though. At breakfast, there were some new faces – apparently, they arrived the previous day, but they didn’t have dinner with us. For breakfast, we had donuts, bread and there were mangos. I had decided by this point that I wasn’t actually that keen on mangos and I had eaten far too many in my time in Fiji, so I gave them a miss.

After breakfast, I felt completely energy-less, which was fine, as I didn’t actually have to do anything, but it was a strange feeling. I lay on my bed for a little while and chatted to the other, while they packed, as they were leaving around lunch time. After a while, I eventually gave myself the motivation to get up and ready.

I had the whole day to myself, as the others were staying by the house and I was going to head back to blue lagoon – it was too far for them to go, just for the morning. I said my goodbyes and left just after 10. It was another hot and sweaty walk over the hill to the other side of the island. On the way, I bumped into the cruise passengers who were on some sort of tour; I just smiled and passed them, hoping that no one would say anything to me.

I made it to the beach and got myself a spot in the shade of a palm tree – I knew the shade spot wouldn’t last all day, but it was fine for the time being. As soon as I had rehydrated myself, I was straight into the water to cool off. I stayed in the water for a while because it was so calm and quiet around; besides the cruise ship, I was the only one on the beach.

As it was so quiet, I decided that it would be a good time to go for a snorkel. I got out of the water and got my snorkel (even though it was rubbish) and got my GoPro (even though it was slightly broke) and headed straight back into the water. The pole in the water, near where I was, was meant to be the best place to snorkel, as there are so many fish around it. I tried to get there, but my snorkel was far too rubbish for the long distance, and it kept leaking water. I was still very impressed with what I saw though, and by keeping my GoPro out of the water until I needed it, worked well.

After a while, I got out and dried off, before moving myself into the shade. As it was a little breezy, as I lay in the shade, the palm tree leaves were wafting over me, giving me a tiny bit of sun, but not too much – it was a good balance. I was happily lay down, enjoying the peace and quiet, when I heard noises. I knew it wasn’t the cruise ship, as they were all getting back on the ship, and it was coming from the opposite direction. I looked up and there were two people on the beach! I was not happy at first, but then decided I could easily share the space. Bearing in mind that it was a long beach, I have no idea why they decided to sit themselves pretty much right next to me, I didn’t like that so much because they were ruining the quiet. I lay and listened to them for a little bit, before I decided it was time to move.

By the time I had decided to move, I was pretty hungry anyway and I knew that there was a restaurant in the resort at the end of the beach. I started to make my way across to the restaurant, but it was a lot further than it looked, especially when the sand was so hot. I had a little break along the way and sat on a cool looking palm tree – the nearby Fijian men that were cleaning up the cruise area had a little chat to me while I cooled off.

After my break, I carried on. As I got closer, I could see Julia, Carlos and Samantha sat outside the resort with Lethe and Joe (the couple who run the homestay) – they were waiting for their boat transfer. I said hello and had a chat and they asked if I wanted a lift back to the resort. It was too early for me to head back, so I said that I was okay and thanked them. I then felt this wave of guilt come over me, as I walked into the resort for my lunch, as I was staying with the family. They didn’t say anything, but Joe came in soon after me, and it felt like he was checking up on me. Although I did feel like I was slightly betraying them, I knew I didn’t have anything to feel guilty about, because although they would have made my lunch if I had asked them too, I would have had a longer and much harder walk back to the village to get it, and I still would have paid the same prices.

After I had awkwardly passed them, I ordered my lunch and sat on the deck, under a parasol enjoying the view. I had ordered a minced beef pie and when it arrived, it was much bigger than I expected it to be. It also came with a jug of icy water, for free, which was a very pleasant surprise. I ate my lunch and sat there a little while longer, taking in the views and enjoying the break from the sun.

Just after 2, I decided to make my way back onto the beach. As I was walking back, I couldn’t believe how much the tide had come in already, there must have been less than a metre of beach at some points.

When I arrived at the cruise area, it was obviously much quieter since the cruise left. I walked right along the beach, looking for a shady spot. Without realising, the shaded area that I had chosen, was right next to some sunbeds. I don’t think I was technically allowed to use them, but the cruise ship had gone and the workers were at the other end of the beach, so I thought I would take my chances. It was so much easier being on a sunbed, as everything was a lot less sandy. I lay there for a little bit, before re-applying my sun cream again.

Once the sun cream had soaked in, I went for another swim. As I was at a different part of the beach to the morning, it wasn’t as deep in the sea, but it was enough for what I needed, as I just wanted it to cool off.

When I got out again, I lay in the sun for a few minutes to dry off, before I was baking and had to move into the shade – it was a constant cycle all day. I tried to have a little snooze, but I was always conscious that someone might come and move me off the sunbeds, so I didn’t fully relax.

Just before I was about to leave, two workers walked by. On the way passed at first, they just said ‘bula’ to me and luckily didn’t say anything else. On their way back, they stopped and chatted to me: they asked me where I was from and where I was staying etc… but they didn’t ask me to move, so I was glad about that. I knew that when I left I would leave the sunbed exactly as I found it and I wasn’t doing any harm to anyone, so I’m glad that they let me stay, not that I was staying much longer anyway.

I started to make my way back to the homestay just after 4, as I knew that there were more people to compete for the shower, and I didn’t want to shower in the dark. It was another very sweaty walk back, and when I got back I needed some time to cool off, before showering, but I still managed to get the first shower – it was also handy that the shower block was attached to the dorm, so I was closest. As no one else had checked in, and Julia, Carlos and Samantha had left, I was in the dorm alone for the evening and I thought it was great: I had so much more freedom in the room by myself.

After I had showered, I chilled out for a while, until dinner was ready. I went for a walk along the beach, but as the tide was so high, I couldn’t go very far, as the rocks were in the way. I sat and chatted with grandpa and the American family for a little bit, and then we were called for dinner.

Dinner was pretty much the same: rice, noodles and a bit of chicken. I wasn’t particularly hungry (maybe because I snacked between lunch and dinner) but that was probably a good thing, as I didn’t really like the food anyway. After we had eaten, we had a little chat. As it was just me, the family and the Russian couple left, and they all went to bed soon after dinner, I really had no choice but to do the same – at 8 o’clock, a new record!

In the dorm, I sat in bed for a while and sorted through things on my laptop. The dorm room was closest to the Russian couple’s room and they were very noisy – it was quite inconsiderate but I had always found them rude anyway. I’m not sure what’s wrong with them but they are constantly arguing and I don’t know if they do it to show off, as they will emerge from their room shortly after and be all happy, or that they don’t realise the walls are paper thin, with mesh windows and everyone can hear them. I eventually fell asleep around 10, ready for my last morning at the homestay.

After a peaceful night’s sleep, I was awake quite early. I didn’t move though, I just lay in bed and enjoyed the lie in, in the room to myself. Just before 8, I got up and ready, as I knew that breakfast would be ready around 8ish, which it was. For breakfast, we had porridge and pancakes.

After breakfast, I began to pack all of my things again and organise my bag, ready to leave. I originally planned to get on the Yasawa Flyer at 1.30, but the family told me that it wasn’t possible, as it doesn’t go to the resort that I needed to get to. I was sure that it did, but I didn’t argue with them because if I was wrong, I would have missed my stop. Instead of getting the Flyer, the family dropped me off at the resort, as it wasn’t very far and I had already paid them my transfer. It meant that I left the homestay earlier than planned, but that was fine by me. I said my goodbyes and loaded my things onto the boat, ready to set off to Blue Lagoon Resort.

Staying with a Fijian family, in the homestay is an experience I won’t forget. The family that I stayed with were lovely and would have done anything to make sure their guests were happy. Although there wasn’t actually much to do at the house, the walk to the blue lagoon wasn’t too long, it was just tiring in the heat. Seeing the blue lagoon was so worth it though, especially as I practically had the beach to myself once the cruise ship had left. It’s definitely a place to go to when you need to forget what time of day it is, and have a relax.

To travel is to live, Katie x