After my most recent experience traveling from the island where my little village is (Vanua Levu) to the main island where the Peace Corps office is located in the capital city (Viti Levu), I realized that inter-island travel by boat really deserves its very own blog entry.
So, even though the plane flight only takes approximately 40 minutes to get from Savusavu town (my stock-up place) to Suva airport (just outside the capital), an overnight boat (that can cost anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 the price of flying) takes anywhere from 10 to 14 hours!!!
There are two main boats traveling the route: The Sulivan (referred to by Fijians as the "silly-van") and the Spirit of Fiji Islands (otherwise known as the "sofi").
Now, generally, the Peace Corps will give us enough money to ride in the "first class" cabin of the Sulivan, the larger, faster, and far cleaner of the two. This trip is often even pleasant. You report to the boat in Savusavu at 6pm. This is enough time to have a leisurely dinner at one of the cute touristy cafe's overlooking the bay, so that if the boat is late you can simply linger until it's absolutely necessary to report to the wharf. Then, the Sulivan launches at 8pm, and arrives in Suva around 6am. In "first class," there is a lounge area lined by couch units that shows dvds that passengers bring and chose themselves, and there are several rows of fairly clean (with fresh linens!) bunk beds that each passenger is assigned to and that even have curtains to give us privacy while we rest. Only once have I seek a cock-roach in one of those beds. All together, it's a pretty nice experience.
The first time we ever made acquaintance with the Sulivan, however, was a different story.
The first time we ever made acquaintance with the Sulivan, however, was a different story.
"First Class" lounge on the Sulivan.
During Pre-Service Training, there is a 4-night, 5-day "site visit" that allows trainees to visit their assigned villages and town/city sites prior to moving there after swearing in. For us Vanua Levu folks, this meant a trip on the boat. As luck would have it, that night was (in the words of a second-year Vanua Levu Peace Corps Volunteer who was traveling with us) the roughest seas ever experienced on the Sulivan. In fact, one of our fellow trainees who was a Merchant Marine in his former life notified us that anything over 22-knots of wind is considered unsafe to travel by sea, and it's actually a violation of international laws to sail in 25+ conditions. Now, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but the captain came on the loud speaker and actually announced that there were 28-knot (!!) winds that night...
Well, out of the eight of us on board, at least four were hurling over the railing for a significant portion of the trip. Furthermore, that second year volunteer who was kind enough to keep me company when I spent approximately five hours with my head between my knees on the outside deck, was cruelly rewarded for his kindness when someone on the deck above us spewed over the side and a bit of it actually got in our friend's mouth!!!
Well, out of the eight of us on board, at least four were hurling over the railing for a significant portion of the trip. Furthermore, that second year volunteer who was kind enough to keep me company when I spent approximately five hours with my head between my knees on the outside deck, was cruelly rewarded for his kindness when someone on the deck above us spewed over the side and a bit of it actually got in our friend's mouth!!!
My (shaken-up) fellow trainees, after we finally made it to Vanua Levu for our site visits.
Well, it is true that that was, by far, the worst it ever was on the Sulivan. And like I said, I much prefer that boat to the smaller and less clean Sofi which I had the pleasure of riding on this past weekend when I traveled down to Suva for small business training with my Turaganikoro (village mayor).
Me and Turaganikoro on the Sofi.
Because he wanted to, we rode probably the cockroach ridden Spirit of Fiji Islands for fourteen hours in the economy cabin--a cabin literally crawling with hundreds of roaches and with large, airplane like seats, for resting in on the ride. It would have been better, of course, had I not had my cat with me in a cage made from two laundry bins tied together with string howling in anger and disturbing all the other passengers the whole night through.
My poor (recently-spayed) kitty cat in her make-shift cage.
Needless to say, I've been lucky enough (knock on wood) to make it to my destination every time so far. So, I will continue to ride these adventuresome sea vessels when I need to travel between the Fiji Islands.
Just do me a favor, though, and cross your fingers for me that it can't get any worse than this.
