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Royal Levuka Hotel, Levuka, Ovalau Island, Fiji

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Don’t let the name of this hotel fool you. It is more a backpacker hostel then a royal residence. True, it is the oldest hotel in Fiji, over 100 years old, but it also seems that some of the rooms have not been upgraded in the last few decades. The kids are happy, we got a little apartment that is very spacious, and the girls are sleeping on a mattress next to Ron’s bed. The jumpfest from the bed to the mattress on the floor is a daily ritual before going to sleep.

We got here from Suva on Thursday the 30^th, via a small 18 seat Air-Fiji plane. The flight from Nausari airport to Ovalau took precisely 11 minutes. The taxi from Suva to the airport took 30 minutes, and the bus taking us from the landing strip once we landed took another 30 minutes. Ovalau is a small island with one perimeter road around 50km long. The only town on the island is Levuka, and about 3000 people live there. The rest of the island is dotted with smaller villages. On the flight and bus with us was a Fijian woman living in New Zealand, who had not been back to her hometown (and country) in 41 years. You could se how excited she was with every turn of the bus as we neared Levuka.

When we got into town we were welcomed by a fishy smell that has accompanied us ever since. There is a tuna cannery here, packing frozen tuna from China into Bumble-Bee brand tuna cans for sale in the US. The factory employs most of the town. The odor was at times overbearing.

The main part of town is a strip of Beach strip with old buildings, built 100 years ago that serve as storefronts for the town. Everything has an old dilapidated look to it, but at the same breath some sort of unexplainable charm. The locals all smile and come to look at the kids when we pass by the street. Every once in a while somebody leans to Shir or Orr and gives them a little hug or kiss. Some even pick them up to give them a hug.

We ate mostly in one restaurant in the center called “Whale’s Tale” that had decent food and a very nice lady running it.

Unfortunately for us, the weather here has not been favorable. It has been cloudy and rainy ever since we got here, and although it is not cold at all, we really could not go anywhere or do anything other than lounge on our balcony or hang around the main street whose buildings provided some shelter from the rain.

In front of our patio is a grassy yard that gets covered with frogs when it rains. What joy to spot and chase the little critters. Ask Ron or Shir. The hotel also has a parrot that we visited several times a day, just to hear him say “Hello”.

As you can understand, we did not have the ultimate experience here, but the tranquility and “realness” of the place and people was something that I appreciated. We met a New Zealand family whose son just bought a house here on the beach. He came as a tourist and fell in love with the place. We met a few more westerners who have been living here for a while.

Today we dropped in on a church service to hear the local kids singing in the choir. Amazing voices. Everywhere we went we were met with kindness and a happiness that you seldom see so openly on the street. I guess it’s true that the Fijians are one of the nicest people on this planet.

Tomorrow we hope to end the wet streak of this vacation by returning to the west coast and Nadi. We have a 7:30am flight and the bus picks us up at 6:30.

Good night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Big Trip, Fiji. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.