A place like paradise

Lawaki Beach Resort on the southwest side of Beqa is an image of paradise. Just at the beach, surrounded by rainforest lies five buildings: mainbuilding, staff’s building, dorm and two bures. We had one of the bures for three nights. We were the only guests this weekend so the place was very quiet except for the sounds from water, wind, birds, rainforest (mostly insects), dogs and motor boats on their way to the next resort or the village nearby. The food that was cooked by the young female staff was excellent: a mixture of Fijian and European dishes. A Fijian man and a Swiss woman own the resort. Our bure was simple but very nice; we had all that we needed. Just 40 meters from the shore another world was displayed beneath us; I have never seen something like this. It was just like swimming together with fishes and corals when snorkeling. This was really value for money.

When you stay at a place with few people the ones you meet becomes more interesting. We met first a man and then a woman; they were a couple. He was on his way to their plantage with a machete in his hand. We had a short talk on the beach when we met. He told us about his family and we asked him about his crops at the plantation. He worked at Lawaki Beach Resort every other week. We went further and saw a person out on the coral reef (it was low tide). When we came nearer we saw that it was a woman fishing. She had her clothes on; no bathing clothes as we have when entering the water. She was out fishing to dinner. In a plastic bucket were some small fishes. She told us that the family was nearly self sufficient when it comes to food. They used to buy flour and rice. I think it is rather fantastic to talk to people who are living so close to nature and so much rely on what nature gives.

Fiskaren

Världsomseglaren (i jolle)

The same afternoon we met a person with quite contrary conditions of life. He and his wife and two small children were visiting Lawaki Beach Resort (the woman was from Austria; I think it was the reason). They were sailing round the world. He was of Irish origin and lived now in Grenada in the Caribbean. He had bought a sailing yacht in Lysekil and overlooked the fabric process several times. He knew what he was buying. He was in the early fifteeth and had sold his company to a german company; he seemed to be economical independent. His wife was a professor in tropical diseases and had taken a time out with the relatively newborn kids. He was a very nice and humble person, nice to talk to and with an enormous experience of sailing. The contrast between these two families that we met the same afternoon on a nearly empty beach far out on an island in the Pacific is faschinating. We are all humans but our lives looks so different. I wonder if we all are equally happy…