Sunk six waking hours of my life in a fruitless exercise. That of sitting in the passenger seat of a car travelling between Suva and Nadi.
I was rushed out of bed this morning. I had to go to Nadi with my manager to meet some clients. Instead of being ready to travel at 6am, I overslept. We left Suva at around 6:30am.
It is approximately 3 hours drive to get to Nadi. We almost got stranded on the road with an empty fuel tank. Through sheer good fortune, we managed to get to a service station. We must have been running on fumes when we got to the pumps because the fuel indicator flashed its warning a couple of times before that.
The ride was boring. I've been on this road a few times already so the scenery was not interesting. I'm not one to make small talk so conversation died fairly quickly. We listened to the BBC on the radio instead. In some hilly areas, reception was bad so things were very quiet at times. It was hard to stay awake during the trip.
We got to Nadi around half past nine. We met the clients. Had lunch at Lc's in Nadi. We finished our business around 4:30 in the evening.
On the way back, we had company on the road. Some cars leaving Nadi airport were going in the same direction towards Suva. We travelled in a convoy of sorts. Every once in a while, one of the cars would overtake another. It was like a pack of slipstreaming cyclists switching the wind breaker in the lead. We overtook the leading car when we got close to Suva so, I think we won that race.
Reached home around 7:30pm. It was a long and boring trip. I'm glad I don't have to do this kind of thing regularly.
When I got home, mum asked me if I got car sick from all the travelling. I said no so she invited me to play badminton with her group. They were sending off one of their good players with one last game before he had to go back to the Philippines for study. So we played badminton. It was near closing time when we got to the gym so, we got about 2 games each. I enjoyed the games and the chance to shake off the aching pains in my limbs. Sitting in a car for about half a day is not fun.
Post Scriptum: I fell asleep writing this post last night. I was exhausted from the travelling and badminton. So sorry if I kept you waiting for my new post all day :P
I have 2 gripes about the trip between Suva and Nadi:
ReplyDelete1. It's a highway! Does it have to go through every village on the coast? I've timed the trip many times, and if you stick to the signed speed limits your average speed over the entire trip can't get much higher than 60km/h - hardly fast. I want a proper highway with no road humps, free of animals, and clear of school children.
2. I hear that when the Allied Forces had bases in Fiji during World War II, there was discussion about building a nice big highway between Nadi and Suva, straight through the middle of Viti Levu ... now that would have rocked. Apparently the Brits didn't fancy the idea of the invading Japanese landing and being able to rush across the island on this highway, so we got the piddling little coastal road that goes through every village. Thanks a lot Colonial overlords! The trip could have been so much faster.
@Jachin Thanks for sharing that story :D
ReplyDeleteA straight wide path through Viti Levu would be great if it were possible. If this were Burma, it would have been done already. For some reason, the military government is pretty big on building roads and bridges.
As they're already labelling Fiji "South Pacific's Burma", maybe there's a chance for that big road yet ;)