Today was a great adventuring day which started very early. We are our complimentary breakfast and then headed out on a half day trip with Valentine’s Tours (booked through Viator). The tour collection for us was at 8am and then we headed to the Sri Siva Subramaniya temple, which is the largest Hindu temple in Nadi. I had to wear a sarong (so did B) and we had to be barefoot, no head coverings and no photos were allowed inside.
After the temple, we went to a tourist store in Nadi (I bought all my Australian school students Fiji pencils) and then on to visit the local fruit and veg market. I loved the COLOURS that we could see there! It all looked so tasty.
From the market, we went to visit a local school where we dropped off some donations of books, pencils, writing paper etc and the kindy kids sung “twinkle twinkle little star” for us. It was a bit cute.
After the school visit it was off to a traditional village named Viseisei (the first official Fijian village, estimated to have been settled over 3500 years ago) where we had a tour and learnt about traditional village life. I found this bit a little uncomfortable…while I respect local customs and culture, it is quite an oppressive society for women to live in. B really enjoyed learning all the history stuff and checking out the chiefs house though.
After the village visit we trekked further out for the Garden of the Sleeping Giant which is basically a formerly private garden owned by a famous TV star (I think it was the guy who played Perry Mason?) and is now a popular tourist attraction with over 2000 orchid species present.
While the sheer range of flowers was cool, I’m not sure if I would have gone there on my own without a tour. 
From the gardens we went to my FAVOURITE part of the day trip – the mud bath! Now, I had done a lot of reading for this beforehand so was able to prep B for it so there would be no surprises. If you decide to visit the Sabeto Mud Baths (which we highly recommend!) you need to be prepared that this is owned and operated by villagers. It is not a fancy day spa. 
Basically – you follow these steps:
- Arrive, pay entry fee if not on a tour (around $20 FJD + another $5 FJD if you need to hire a towel)
- Put your bathers on. Even if you’re a bigger lass like me, you will want to go in a bikini or for guys shirtless.
- The mud has been collected from near the source pool and is in a bucket. You slather it on.
- You wash it off in the mud pool. This was the hardest part for me as I have sensory issues and the pool of the mud bath is sponge like and muddy. I had to mentally prep myself a fair bit beforehand to be able to step in!
- You go into the thermal springs and laze around. It’s glorious.
- There are 2 men’s showers and 2 women’s but both run cold water. You will want to rinse your bathers out in full (so much mud!!) so bring a change of clothing including undies
From the mud baths we returned to the resort for another quick shower and a change of clothes before taking part in a Sunset Dinner Cruise on Captain Cook Cruises.
The sunset was spectacular and the food, drinks and dancing were also good. Due to the fact our hotel was a fair way out than everyone else’s – we got a private transfer instead of the same bus! Score! Patrick the platypus had a great time on the cruise and drank way too many cocktails.
Mel's Travel Blog 