Look Ma! I’m Driving On The Wrong Side Of The Road!

(Written on Thursday 24/9/09)

Today, Alex and I rented a car! We did this so as to better get around and do some things here on Viti Levu that otherwise we may not have done. Granted, we could have taken a taxi or a bus to most places, but we haven’t really appreciated how the drivers here handle their cars. And we were both pretty excited to try out driving on the wrong side of the road.

Fiji, like Australia, drives on the left side of the road, with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Although I can drive a manual, we got an automatic after Alex reminded me that I would have to shift using my left hand. Not as cheap as we would have liked, we got a new Toyota Carola with AC!

We are renting it for 5 days, which we have filled with plans that will be more convenient with this car. So immediately after renting the car, we took it out for our first destination. I got to try this new experience first: and it was much easier than I expected. Perhaps it was the fact that I haven’t driven in over 2.5 months, or just that it is similar enough to the American right-sided driving, but I quickly got into the groove of things.

During our drive we encountered, as we expected, a traffic circle, but that too was simple to handle. I don’t want to use one that is more than one lane, but this single lane-ed circle was fine. When it came to be Alex’s turn to drive, I think she too quickly became comfortable with the left-sided business. The hardest part is getting used to all the bad drivers surrounding us, and the poor conditions of all the roads!

Hiring the car in the first place was a bit of a conflict for me. Those of you who have been following my blog may recall that I had intended to get a job ASAP but have so far failed to do so. Because of that I have felt very much to be a financial burden on my dad who has been lending me money for my travels. Thus you can see how spending a substantial amount of money to hire a car does not help, however I also want to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that have thus far fallen into my lap.

Today Alex and I spent a number of hours at this great garden, the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, not too far from our lodge. It has hundreds of different types of orchids and had amazing and beautiful paths through the gorgeous trees and plant life on the slops of one of the nearby Fijian mountains.

We had planned on going to some hot springs in the same area while we were there, but we decided against it. For both of us we didn’t really feel that interested in paying what would likely be around$ $10FJD each and we would have only looked at them (swimming in the Mud Baths was common, but neither of us were digging it at the time). And yet we both didn’t want to skip it, just to feel later that we regret not going while we were so near.

It is an easy feeling to cope with, and I feel certain that I would always have to consider what I might miss out on with every event based decision I make. And this may be even more true based on how much time and money I had available to me here to do more events.

Cheers!