Oahu, Hawaii

Aloha

I have left Fiji behind and safely arrived on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. To be precise, I am currently in Honolulu or to be even more precise, in Waikiki beach. Probably one of the most famous surfer spots in the world and no, I have not yet done any surfing.

I have big news considering my photography further down so bear with me, or if your not interested in what i have been up to, skip that part altogether.

My last few days in Fiji were dominated by a lot of rain so sadly no interesting stories or pictures from then. To be honest I stayed in the hostel most of the time and waited for my flight to Honolulu. To be fair, it wasn't just a little rain, it was a bloody monsoon.

All in all I really enjoyed my time in Fiji. Lazily lying in a Hammock and reading for two weeks, it was good! I couldn't have done it any longer though. It did start to get boring.

I have such a massive jet lag right now. It is so massive that I have lost all sense of time. I left Fiji at 9:45 am on the tenth of April and landed in Honolulu at 6:15 pm on the ninth of April. I am from the future dude's!

Although Hawaii is a south sea island, you can instantly feel that it belongs to the U.S. of A. Everything is bigger; the roads, the meals, the drinks and well sometimes the people as well (no offence meant). Reminds me of a insider joke i had with my family when I went to California in 1998. Do you guys remember?

Tomorrow I will head to Maui, which is a 30min flight from Oahu. Maui I will explore by myself before I fly back to Oahu to meet up with Francis. For you who don't know, Franics is a good friend from Switzerland who will travel around Hawaii with me for 2 weeks. I am really looking forward to see a face from home. First time since I have started my travels!


Now about that photography thing. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have been getting into photography a lot as of late. So much actually that I would like to make it my new career. I am a realistic guy though and I know, doing so, will be very hard. The nice thing about photography is, that I can easily pursue this in my free time while working a different job. Maybe one day I will be able to go full time with photography.. wish me luck!

I have set up a website where I showcase and sell my photographs. You (or anyone interested) can buy prints on paper and canvas. The site would offer a lot more options but for now I will limit it to those. Note that the versions I have on my blog are inferior to the one's on my new site. Those photographs have superior post processing and resolutions.

if your interested please head on over to Simon on SmugMug.

thanks for reading..

For all my male readers ;)
no comment
As I mentioned, things are big here.
Surfing is one of them.
Hotels is another one.

Island Paradise

Cola Vina!

Hello (as stated above) and welcome to the island paradise edition of my blog.

I landed in Nadi on the Fiji main island on the 24. of march and have since made my way to the Yasawa island group. Sadly but true I am nearly done with them. Just two more nights and it is back to the main Island.

Why did I not update my blog earlier? Because, as suspected, Internet on these Islands is not readily available. Today is actually the first day that I have access to the Internet since I have left the main island.

Let's move on to more interesting matters though. What have I been up to? Where have I been?Is everything to my liking? The answer to the first question is a rather simple one: Not much! I have spent most of my days lying in a hammock. Now, in that hammock, I have done a number of different things. I have been reading, drinking cocktails, napping, listening to music or just stared out at nothing particular. Does that mean there is nothing to do here? No, saying so would be a lie. There is a number of things you can do here; visit villages, snorkeling, diving, fishing, weaving etc. I have chosen to just kick back and enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing at all.

Now to the second question; where have I been? On my second day in Fiji I boarded the “Awesome Adventure Flyer” which is a Catamaran that goes around the Yasawa islands once a day. I have a hop on, hop off pass, which works pretty similar to the hop on, hop off bus I used in NZ. I have transport, food and accommodation payed for and can stay in any resort I like. Some resorts are more exclusive though and in those I have to pay something on top.

I decided to not book anything ahead but to do it spontaneous. Meaning, I get on the boat, decide where I want to stay that night and then arrange everything else from the travel desk on the boat. This can mean that the resort I want to go to is fully booked and I have to stay somewhere else. I am quite alright with that though.

So on my first day I wanted to go to the waya lailai Island which was not possible, so I ended up on Kuata right beside it. The resort was really really basic but the people are extremely friendly, the dorm was clean and the food very good. What more could I ask for? Instead of the planned two nights I stayed three.

On the third day I headed up further north. To an Island called Nacula (pronounced Nathula). I booked into a resort called “Oarsman's bay”. I couldn't have made a better choice! It is quite a big resort but there were only 9 other guests there. Over the next few days we would never be more than 12. Because of that small number of guests, it felt like we were one big family. We all ate at the same table and we all knew each other. This created a great atmosphere. Again the staff was super friendly and the food here was even better than in Kuata. The best though was the location of my bed. I had booked (and paid for) a dorm bed. Since the resort was empty though, I got a little hut for myself right on the beach. I think I don't have to mention that I stayed 5 nights instead of the intended two. I just couldn't leave.

But everything has to end and I felt like I want to see one or two more places before I have to go back to the main Island (in 7 days). So I headed to the Octopus resort. Super nice place, very modern compared to the other two but so impersonal. It was a rally big resort with many many guests. This was not to my liking. Everything else was very nice though. Especially the food was great! I got lucky again and had the dorm I slept in for myself for two nights. Yay! After 3 nights I was more than ready to leave though.

I am now on Bounty Island. Bounty is 30min from the main Island. Here it's back to basics again but because it's close proximity to the main island, they have Internet here.

This last two weeks gave me time to think about a few things in my life. Where I am at the moment, where I want to go and things like that. To be honest I don't seem to be able to make any decisions just yet. Let's see where life takes me.

Due to the fact that I haven't updated my blog for quite a while, there are more pictures than usual. Some of them I edited on my computer (HDR again). I know they are not perfect but I just don't have the tools on my laptop to get them perfect. Still I think the results are worth a look. I hope you enjoy them.

I am really REALLY getting into photography!

thanks for reading.

Octopus resort at sunset
Beach at Octopus resort
View of Waya lailai from Kuata
Same as as above
Taken from the summit of Kuata.
Beach in front of Oarsman's bay (Nacula)
Arty-farty pic from Nacula's beach
I am in love with this one
As a friend said earlier; Fiji makes it easy to take good pictures
back to the touristy photos.. this is the boat that takes me from island to island. I love how the small boats flock to the big one.
This is Kava, a traditional drink. It didn't do anything but make my mouth numb...
El Simon drinking Kava.
The resort on Kuata
A performance of traditional songs and dances at Oarsman's bay.
MY hut at Oarsman's bay.. I miss it!
And finally.. me... at what I do most days around here.