Sadly the title is not a competition with rich prizes, so for everyone except Wilson who has already recognised it the answer is we spent 4 nights last week in... Suva! For the rest of the world Suva is the capital of Fiji, and is around 3 hours drive south of Nadi (where the international airport it).
Our stay in Suva is remarkable for the fact that although we have now lived in Fiji for 3 1/2 years I have never spent more than 2 hours at a time there, generally driving in, going to the apple service place and "cost-u-less", grabbing a quick coffee at Bulaccino Raiwaqa, and heading home, taking the obligatory photo of Korovou (here and here) on the way out. What this means is that everything I know and believe about Suva pretty much comes from blogs:- Paradise not found, Oceanic, Awesome Cake, and Lunch in Suva... Yes that's right, I went to Suva expecting hoards of intelligent witty folks who make erudite comments while dining in quirky restaurants, even though I was wary of muggers and hepatitis (yes thanks for that Albie).
The first thing we discovered while trying to get to the school convention (which is the reason we were in Suva) is that Laucala Beach is not in Nausori. Yes that's right the two are not even close. Don't ask. We still got to our destination in time by some miracle... Second in Suva they have lovely water front housing...NOT! The above image just fascinates me, these are squatter houses built illegally as far as I can gather from the locals (feel free to chime in) over some pipes by the river. But it's looks quite picturesque no? This is just down from the KFC which marked our turnoff. Why didn't someone just say "turn right at the KFC"?!!!!!?!
While the kids were in convention, which was by the way extremely good, and will feature in another post (yes, still not sticking to the chronological thing, sorry Lee; also I will still post about Udu, trip home etc); I sneaked away a few times for a bit of tiki-touring. Suva downtown is fascinating, a real mix of old colonial buildings and new shiny ones, including the big-box style MHCC which even has escalators! I looked up "lunch in Suva" for dining ideas, and would have offered my services to go and dine with them and take photos, however I sensed that having an overweight 40+ year old kaivalagi with a huge camera tagging along would have completely and utterly blown their street cred... instead I simply read and appreciated the run down on the hibiscus festival food (as we were staying just up the hill)...
The idea to photograph the contrasts in downtown Suva is not actually mine, Neil Stollznow was the one who originally started taking these sorts of images showing the old colonial Suva contrasting with the new high rises. But I had to continue the tradition, even though I didn't feel inclined to wander too far incase I never found my car again. Note that the streets are quieter than usual- it's after 5pm, so everyone's heading off home...
To finish I will shamelessly post something er... lifted from one of the above blogs, her reaction (aieeeee it burns!) reminds me of me eating with the other parents at Vivrass MH foodcourt (and nearly snorting water out my nose); though I did have to buy it myself. Someone please syndicate this guy immediately! We need to see more cartoons like these...
Hi Meg the shiny builiding with the weird angles is Tappoo city suva. I did a proposal well 7 -10 on level 4 food court. Which they then moved onto i think the umpteenth architect, not my fault of course.
Dont you think that Mh looks a little VENICE? Well old building and grubby polluted water? No?
I hated Suva my first trip. Like you i went for a few hours, stupidly on a sunday so nothing was barely open.
Saturday and business days is mayhem and busy! There are some cool niche areas! Like Nadi and some not so cool. Overall its more westernised than Nadi i feel and has a lot more greater Architectural sites esp. the old colonial buildings.
Glad you had fun and great shots!!!
Posted by: dan | September 02, 2009 at 06:13 PM
Ever so slightly disappointed that you didn't look us (Lunch in Suva) up.
Whilst we appreciate the sentiment, we never did have much street cred to begin with ... and we could have used some tips on photography: your photos kick our photos' behind any day.
And here's a street map of Suva for your future reference
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-18.14002&lon=178.42458&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF
Posted by: Picky Eater | September 03, 2009 at 12:34 AM
great map!!! just needs more details around Laucala beach, but yes, now I'm starting to understand... also I can see which way my friend Lala went when she headed off into the darkness one night when I was following her towards the school...
Lunch next time then ! (in 3 years at my current rate of visits) but I probably also owe Wilson for referencing his blog all the time (ah yes, and Albie for stealing his cartoons)...
Posted by: meg | September 04, 2009 at 08:59 AM
We should have a blog meet up ^_^
Posted by: wilson | September 08, 2009 at 10:28 PM
Love the look of the new blog Meg. Great pictures from your corner of the world.
Posted by: Heidi | September 13, 2009 at 02:36 AM
Always love seeing what you're up to Meg! Such a beautiful world we live in!
Posted by: Chelsey | October 29, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Wow, great photos...... So much to see out there!
Posted by: Mommas Soapbox | November 07, 2009 at 12:14 PM