A super blog about Vanua Levu

from w
By chance I discovered an excellent blog An American couple spent five months mainly house-sitting in Savusavu with some visits to Labasa and Taveuni. Their blog postings describe their life and insights and with many lovely photographs. From their perspective about the ups and downs of living in rural Fiji. There are some nice postings and photos of Naseakula village.

Bus trips in Vanua Levu

from w
I came across this post about riding the buses in Vanua Levu. Not a happy kind of trip but it's honest. On this Babasiga blog it's dishonest to just tell the very best stories.

http://infiniteviewfilms.blogspot.com/2007/01/tripped-out-from-labasa.html
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Tripped Out from Labasa

Healed from our sunburns, brown and thoroughly peeled, we are happy to report that we survived our latest side adventure: a trip to the northern-shore town of Labasa [Lambasa].

Labasa, with its 25,000 inhabitants, is the largest town on Vanua Levu and the 4th largest in Fiji. It is almost famously unremarkable and known only for its sugar mill and a complete lack of tourist appeal. That's why tourists almost never go there - except, of course, for the ones who like to venture out "off the beaten path" and endure probably the most arduous bus ride in the South Pacific. The only reason to visit Labasa is not the town, but the trip itself, since the two bus routes that take you there are famously picturesque and worth seeing. There is the "short" and paved route through the central part of the island, which is relatively comfortable and harmless, and then there's the "long" route that takes you along almost the whole eastern half of the island and upon completion of which you deserve a medal for bravery and patience, especially if you ventured to take this route for pleasure and not out of sheer necessity. But I'll get to that in a sec.

So, we took the short bus route to Labasa first. It took us along the Savusavu Bay and into the mountains of the interior where the bus would creep laboriously up the steep inclines and then roar down them dangerously. Sometimes, the surrounding hills were so steep that we saw waterfalls falling vertically off their sides without trees even obstructing the view.

As soon as we got through the mountains, a green plane opened up in front of us - the first flat land bigger than a football field we've seen in almost 3 months! The vegetation in the north of the island looked familiar, but strangely out of place in Fiji: we saw patches of pine forest, green meadows and fields of sugar cane. Completing the botanical confusion were the occasional massive bamboo bushes and coconut palm groves. Seeing the conifers reminded both of us of the northern climates we come from and, I must admit, made me personally long for a whiff of cold winter mountain air.

Labasa wasn't entirely bad - it was just another busy, loud and oven-hot Indian market town. The mid-day heat was lethal and air-conditioning scarce, so we sort of hopped around different shops looking for a hard-to-find item for Hans (a rotating can opener, more specifically) and then we went to check out the nearby sugar mill, which was closed for the season, unfortunately. In the evening, we went to see the only movie playing in the only theater in town. Alas, it was a Hindi movie, and though we swore before that we'll never see another Bollywood production again, our movie theater withdrawal was too strong and we couldn't resist.

The movie Baabul was, like probably all Bollywood movies, a simple and overly sappy love story that dragged on so slowly that it seemed to unfold in real time. (And the movie covered a few years!) Ryan was writhing in mental agony next to me, while I was getting a kick out of the cheerful dance sequences and the male protagonist's stylishly trimmed beard. There was a bit of a drama and social commentary in the last ten minutes, but by that point we were ready to escape into the streets!

Thus we exhausted pretty much all that Labasa offers in terms of activities, spent a night in the Riverview Hotel, from which we had no river view, and the next morning we were back on a bus to Savusavu - this time the one with the "long" route.

The first part of the trip lead through more sugar cane fields and was mercifully paved. Within 2 hours, though, the tar gave way to a bumpy and dusty back road and we started climbing ominously higher and higher into the thick bush again, getting swallowed by the overgrown jungle, from which we would emerge only on precariously steep climbs with sweeping views. On some of these inclines, it seemed that the bus was on its last legs - spewing clouds of black smoke and creeping up the hill so slowly that it seemed it would roll back any moment and hurl us down the mountain. But, miraculously, the extremely rugged Fijian bus never failed to get up on those hills or brake on the way down and we didn't get stuck by the road side 4 hours away from the nearest phone. (Only once did we have to coast down the hill in reverse to get a better running start up the hill.) And since the bus, like most Fijian buses, didn't have any glass in its windows, it was a breezy, safari-like ride, with clouds of dust and an occasional branch penetrating inside.

All along the way, we rode through villages so remote that the daily passing of the bus looked like an event in itself. Groups of locals were gathered at each bus stop, either sending off or welcoming people, or just sitting around, waiving at the passing travelers. And everywhere we stopped people would load countless pieces of luggage, rice bags filled with taro* and other crops through the windows and stuff them wherever they would fit them - on, under or between the seats. (Grabbing and loading other people's stuff is a part of the unwritten Fijian bus-travel etiquette and we were involved in the ritual a few times, as well. Just grab the stuff people hand to you through the window and give it to someone behind you who will stow it away.) Since Ryan and I sat in the back of the bus, we were eventually completely boxed in into our seats by loads of bags, rolled up mattresses and bunches of kava root.

*note: Taro and other crops are the only things freely available everywhere in Fiji, yet the locals always have a need to bring their own supply wherever they go, perhaps just in case the other town/village ran out...?

We rode forever - until the shadows grew longer, our spines felt impacted and every single pore on our bodies was covered with road dust. The views from the bus were sometimes quite beautiful, but overall, the ride was fun because it was so unbelievably out of the ordinary - and so Fijian.

And since Ryan and I were the only 2 people who stayed on the bus for the entire 8-hour trip, I really believe that we deserved some sort of a "Completed-the-most-arduous-bus-ride-in-the Pacific" medal.

We haven't done much after recovering from the trip. The sun and heat are back on and they don't allow doing much during the day. The sunset is too short to do much except for snorkeling to the one good coral reef nearby that we've already seen dozens of times. We've met some weather-beaten yachties at the yacht club and seen many movies on our DVD. After 3 months in Fiji, we're definitely missing the cold and can't wait to get to New Zealand.

I'll end with that. Be back soon with some delicious local recipes.
Posted by InfiniteView at 14:14

Recording studio in Labasa

from w
Another copy and paste job about Labasa - this time from today's Fiji Times.
Good move as there are some great singers and singing groups in Labasa who over the years have had to record their music in Suva. Qawali singers and string bands such as Vua ni masei from Mali Island.

New music studio opens
Thursday, May 22, 2008 Viliame Rabuka in his new studio in Labasa, the first ever for the town.

DESPITE gloomy economic conditions in Labasa, Viliame Rabuka has opened a recording studio. Originally of Namoli Village in Batinikama, outside Labasa, Mr Rabuka started his studio a month ago, pushing aside all fears of the poor economy. "For me it was about helping the people back home who have great singing and musical talent," he said. "It saddened me that most of these talents were not exposed because there is no recording studio in Labasa or any town in the north."

Most singers and musicians cannot afford to travel to Suva to record because it's too expensive.

Mr Rabuka left his studio at Kinoya in Nasinu and shifted his family and business to Labasa. "I operated this kind of business for the past five years in Kinoya so that experience is more then enough to start a studio in a rural area." Presently, Mr Rabuka is recording music groups for free to promote his studio and the talent up North.

In Labasa to see a game

from w
Here's a nice piece of writing from a visitor to Labasa to see the Babasiga Lions at play. From Fiji Times a few week's ago.
Labasa's friendly magic!CULDEN KAMEA
Monday, March 17, 2008

I rose early last Saturday morning, excited by the clash later in the day between the two Vodafone-sponsored champions - Labasa and Ba, in the first of two games in the Pillay Garments Champion versus Champion Series.

I could see Subrail Park from the bathroom in my hotel suite at the majestic old lady of the friendly north; The Grand Eastern Hotel. The empty grandstands looked eerily quiet in the soft light of the early morning sunglow, but I sensed that this magical serenity would soon surrender to the searing heat of the white-hot northern sun leading up to kick-off at 2pm.

Labasa's heat is a suffocating heat. It tries to drown you in your own perspiration. It sucks the breath of life out of your lungs, leaving your throat parched and dry. At its worst, it can cause meltdown of body and mind.

It was going to be a scorcher of a game between the raiders from Ba and their friendly hosts Labasa and I would be one of the lucky six thousand sports fans to witness the clash.

But before that, let me tell you about the absolutely best curry duck in the whole of Vanua Levu!

In fact I had two beautiful meals of duck curry during my short stay in Labasa. The first was at breakfast on Saturday morning, where I was told by my good friend, Pradeep from Tabia that the secret lies in the masala; that special blend of spices and chili handed down over the generations from Mother India through her daughters in the dusky light of kitchen fires. Thank you Imran and Jermima, your special duck curry masala was the best!

How Pradeep knows about the secret of masala I'm not sure, but I guess since we men know everything, he must be right!

Anyway, later at lunch I had duck curry made by Hamida and her masala was just magical. (Memo to me: Must get Tongan bride on masala mixing course at USP).

One can't visit Labasa and write about it without mentioning the huge crab and fresh fish so here goes!

The duck curry breakfast set me off on a trot following the rest of the tourists from Suva armed with fistful of dollars to attack the re-sellers, posing as fisherman on the banks of the river, which snakes around, but often pours through and floods Labasa town.

We were easy marks; taller, bigger to a man, decked out in the latest brands, flush with cash! They saw us coming and held their nerves.

The standoff was over in a minute, because while we paused the locals around us just kept buying up the best fresh fish and biggest crabs that I had seen in a long time! We had to move and we did: Within minutes the tourists from Suva had done the capitol city proud, snapping up bundles of fish of all shapes, colours and sizes, their eyes bulging-fresh out of their sockets. Long strings of gigantic crabs were next on our feeding frenzy. I bought my lot off a FBI (Fiji Born Indian) man called "Dalo" who I would meet again and hug later at the football such is the magic of Labasa!

It was all over in a sweaty, frantic burst of Super 14-like rugby action of wave-after-wave of turnover of possession - our cash for their possessions until they had all our cash and we had their possessions! In the end, everyone was smiling the re-sellers posing as fishermen home from the sea, the tourists from Suva with crabs and fish dripping from their arms and the curious bystanders who all suspected that somehow I was world famous! Well that's what I suspected that they suspected anyway!

We disengaged and retreated to the air conditioned cleavage of the grand old lady.

The block around Subrail Park was a tangled mess of a junkyard with cars, trucks, tractors and 4WDs strewn all over the place.

My good mate Satish double-parked on the main road right behind the main grandstand. We were running a little late but hey we were VIPs from Suva with reserved VIP grandstand seats, specially roped off and guarded for us. Yeah right.

When we finally made it into the arena, the game was already underway with the MiB (Men in Black) from Ba hard on attack. Did they say they expected a crowd of six thousand today? Well there must have been about five thousand of them sardined into my VIP grandstand area and they were mean looking cane farmer types - tough as nails. We glared at each other momentarily. Damn why didn't the NLTB just renew their land leases? OK guys you win. You stay seated in my VIP grandstand seat and I'll sit here on the ground behind the Labasa reserves bench with Dalo the crab seller.

The MiB were so confident, so strong, so purposeful in their play. Everything they did was forceful. They were unfazed by the crowd and they were so fast.

The Labasa boys seemed physically smaller, tentative, frail-almost. They lacked cohesion and struggled to maintain possession and so unable to apply any real pressure.

Ba on the other hand forced corner after corner and had a scorcher of a 40 metre shot at goal by Shameel desperately tipped over the crossbar by the Labasa goalkeeper.

Labasa could only mount long-range counter-attacks off scraps of possession. Still, they forced the Ba keeper off his line a couple of times and also made him work to keep a clean sheet with a couple of good saves.

It was well after 3pm that the referee blew for halftime. So much action, so little time, the pace was a killer. Who would crack first?

Dalo the crab seller shook my hand then without a sideways glance at the security guard slipped over the fence and joined the Labasa Team seated in a circle on the ground plotting their 2nd half strategies. Dalo put in his two cents worth before returning to my side saying, "Don't worry boss, Labasa will win"!

Ten minutes later, Labasa Captain Pita Baleitoga slotted home the winner and as they say in Bollywood, the rest is history!

Dalo the crab seller and I jumped for joy and hugged like long lost brothers!

Labasa hung on to win 1 - 0 with the rematch in Ba in early April.

update on hurricane warning

from w
The latest is that the path of the hurricane has changed and it now heads for the middle of Vanua Levu so Labasa people are waiting for that terrible wind and rain to intensify. Isa lei, they suffer so much with flood damage and now this. We pray that they will be safe. Buses are not running, everyone is battening down in their homes, planes are grounded and all boats, we hope, have found a safe harbour.
A news item from 3 p.m. is here.

later 2.45 p.m. East Australian time.
I rang Labasa a few minutes ago and the phones are still working. I talked to one of our girls at Tuatua housing and she said she worked for a halfday then they were sent home. She said the hurricane is raging there now and all the shutters were up. She said it will intensify and be worse later on in the afternoon. A comment I posted before was premature - it is still going on in Labasa at present.

Chants and calls heard in Labasa

from w
Here are two pictures I took when I was researching the music of Labasa - at a South Indian temple and at the Naseakula mosque just below the Fijian village. I recorded the chants and calls to prayer from both places that day. For two to three years I was immersed in ethnomusicology - okay it's sounds academic but it was just going around with a portable tape-recorder and asking questions and listening to a huge variety of music - in villages, churches, homes, schools, sitting on the side of a mountain as the men and women cleaned a yam garden, festivals and so on. Very enjoyable field-days. Well, I only used about 5% of the tapes in the thesis but still have hundreds of cassette tapes. My thesis never got on-line, just copied for some universities. Nowadays it is a delight when someone allows their research papers to be read on-line. What do I do with all those old tapes?

Miss Friendly North

from w
two news items from the Fiji Times
Nizbat wins crown for her grandfather
SERAFINA QALO
Monday, September 03, 2007

From left Miss Friendly North Nizbat Ali, first runner up Makarita Luveicei, second runner up Roselyn Kumar.

MISS Friendly North 2007, Nizbat Ali dedicated her win to her grandfather as his Father's Day gift. Crowned as the northern queen on Saturday night, the second year student nurse of Sangam Nursing School in Labasa said her win was the best gift she could give her grandfather. The 20-year-old was sponsored by the Labasa Cancer Society.

She said she was confident of winning. "My family had confidence in me and always told me that I could do it so I kept that in mind throughout the festival week," Ms Ali said. She urged youths of the northern division to always believe in themselves and think positive. "That's important and I want to remind youths that believing in themselves makes a big difference in life," she said. "The other contestants also helped in a big way with words of encouragement and support we shared with each other during the week," said Ms Ali, who won herself an Air Pacific sponsored return trip to Sydney, Australia, with $500 pocket money from the festival committee.
Miss Labasa Chamber of Commerce, Roselyn Kumar received two crowns when she grabbed the Miss Charity and second runner up titles. Ms Kumar raised $11,010 and will travel to Auckland with $500 pocket money.

The two women will fly to Nadi from Labasa with sponsors Pacific Sun.
For her second runner up prize, she will spend two nights accommodation at Hotel Takia in Labasa. First runner up, Miss Naodamu Community, Makarita Luveicei will spend two nights accommodation at the Garden Island Resort in Taveuni and travel by Consort Shipping.

The festival raised $47,700 and committee assistant secretary Roshan Lal said the week-long festival was a successful one despite the economic situation.

Huge crowd turn up to see north queens
Sunday, September 02, 2007

A HUGE crowd gathered to witness the float procession of seven contestants in the Vodafone Festival of the Friendly North yesterday. It was one of the highlights of the final day. The contestants, Miss Naodamu Community, Makarita Luveicei, Miss Fiji Sugar Corporation Rusila Melokibau, Miss Labasa Chamber of Commerce Roselyn Kumar, Miss Northern Health Services Kriti Prasad, Miss Labasa Town Council Aonira Taboia, Miss Cancer Society Nizbat Ali and Miss Fiji Teachers Union Ema Togamalo were confident in their floats.

The crowd braved the hot sun and walked through the town to Subrail Park cheering and clapping for their queens. Eroni Sauqaqa, 52, who travelled from Nabouwalu in Bua to watch the float procession labelled the event as an admirable one because it brought together people from all walks of life. "I come almost every year and this event is a good example of building bridges among the different races in helping unite the communities. "It brings people together and everyone enjoys together irrespective of race, colour or religion and we should introduce more of such events," Mr Sauqaqa said. Children cheered and called out to the contestants who gracefully waved and smiled at the crowd. Five-year-old Salote Senibulu of Vunivau, outside Labasa Town, only nodded her head when asked if she enjoyed the float procession.

Rajesh Kumar, 12, of Batinikama outside Labasa, said that it was his first day at the festival and the first few hours were exciting. "I stayed home throughout the week to do my studies and this is my first day at the festival and I am enjoying it already. The festival is fun and I met a lot of friends and relatives so it's fun to be part of the festival," Mr Kumar said.

Queen's committee chairman Doreen Robinson said the contestants put up a lot of work in the week to face a huge crowd, an experience that made them nervous in the first few nights. "The support from families was good and saw the girls through the week of the festival," Mrs Robinson said.

The festival ended last night with the crowning.
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I remember that in earlier years there was an Adi Babasiga Festival and Militoni from the NLTB asked Peceli and I to help a bit with one festival. The winner was Vilisi, a teenage girl. She was too young to travel to Australia by herself so I had to make a trip with her and I took our two little boys. (This was before Junior's birth at Labasa hospital). Vilisi had a lovely holiday but was awed by the tall buildings in Sydney, much happier with my family in a small country town.

A gift of a wheelchair and a computer

from Peceli
Here are two photos I took when I visited a Labasa family. The Geelong Donation in Kind had given this girl a wheelchair and a computer a couple of months ago. the girl is rom Bulileka village and also in the photo is the District Officer Northern.