Fiji
Fiji: tropical South Seas country in the Pacific Ring of Fire, setting for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Fiji: a volcanic landmass composed of some 300 islands only settled about 3,500 years ago by Pacific explorers. Fiji: where some 60,000 Indians and other Southeast Asians were forcibly relocated during the British Raj to work the sugar plantations (since 1884 sugarcane from Fiji has been shipped to the Chelsea Sugar Factory on the North Shore of Auckland to be processed). Fiji: a gorgeous tourist destination and nation still developing. I can see from the air as we land that Fiji is just a little farm country with dots of human settlement interspersing the green. I fly into Nadi (pronounced “nandee”), which is definitely in Fiji and not Japan, and breathe the hot tropical air into my lungs. The airport is tiny and I cross the road from the airport to the bus stop and enjoy the laissez faire open air bus ride into the Nadi town center where I stick out...
