The Dowrising At The Uprising

The Downrising At The Uprising

The Downrising At The Uprising

Vaibhav Brij Lal

It was the afternoon of Monday, the 13th of January 2014 when we booked accommodation for two nights at The Uprising Beach Resort and Spa situated in Pacific Harbour in Fiji.

We left Suva at around midday that day and arrived in an hour’s time. On our way there, we purchased some Fish and Chips from the Cake 2000 Farmhouse. We slowly made our way into the driveway of the resort as soon as we saw the sign by the highway.

After parking in the carpark, we made our way to the Reception, where we were greeted by friendly Fijian smiles. We took our luggage to our villa without the assistance of any porters.

After a while, we unpacked some of our luggage and left the rest aside. Since we were quite exhausted from the ride from Suva, we rested for the remainder of the afternoon in our villa sometime after we checked in.

Later that night, we went for a stroll around the resort, visiting the restaurant and walking through the various pathways and along the beach. Since there was not much to do, we soon made our way back to the villa after some time.

For some strange reason, we noticed that there was very little lighting in the night and it made the resort seem like some ghost town. It was all quiet and eerie, probably due to the minimum number of guests. I assumed that they were saving electricity or just being ecofriendly at the risk for safety of others.

We had experienced this eerie feeling on our way to the restaurant and back, of someone watching us as we walked the path, up and down. We retired a little early for the night.

Usually, we are late birds but the atmosphere was not as homely so it made us a bit bored than when we are at home.

The next morning, we got ready and made our way to the restaurant to have our Room Inclusive Breakfast. It was quite an array of food. Basically, it was a continental breakfast. After our morning feast, we set on a journey throughout Pacific Harbour and Navua.

On our way towards Navua, we dropped in to take a look around The Arts Village in Pacific Harbour. After that, we visited the Cake 2000 Farmhouse for a scrumptious lunch of their delectable signature Fish and Chips. After having some lunch, we continued on our journey to Navua.

Upon arriving, we went through Navua Town, Navua Hotel, Navua River, and the abandoned colonial era houses situated on a dusty road. As we passed Navua Town, we stopped by a Muslim burial site.
There was a middle-aged Muslim man operating a stall beside the burial ground and he seemed to be familiar with my dad. Before we left, he gave us a medium-sized watermelon and a heap of wild guavas or “jamuun” as we call it in Hindi, for free. Beside the burial ground was a small-scale market.

We then made a stopover in Navua Town. Here, we went around, visiting various outlets such as the Supermarket and the Bakery. We had bought some random food from there as well. We walked around town, visiting the various places there, which were not much and so we were able to drive around the town and take in some views.

What had made me uncomfortable were the people staring at us. But I guess we seemed like out of towners. We stayed a while before a fly-infested restaurant with a bitchy employee made us scram. I deemed that that restaurant should be visited by a Health Inspector.