Savusavu – boat rides and broken houses (PART I)

I was going to start from how beautiful this town is or describing how quaint it is and I remembered something… THE BOAT RIDE OVER.

Let me start from the very beginning. The boat to which I am referring to is the SS Suilven, the best inter-island ferry we have in this country. I first went on this boat in 2007 when after the Savusavu Music Festival, the then Malaga Singers returned from Savusavu aboard the Suilven bound for the capital city. It was a fun boat ride; we were put in the first class lounge so it was pretty decent (we even had bunk-like sleepers). I could never forget that ride. Ever.

So when mum decides to tell me that we were traveling to Savusavu in the Suilven, I thought to myself (YES!) and began pushing for us to get either first class tickets or the pricier but much better cabin tickets. You may ask, what’s the difference? Well, let’s just say that even though you’re first class and all that, you still have to share bathrooms with the economy class passengers. Cabin passengers, have their own spacious cabins with a really, really nice bathroom (including shower with hot water) that looks like it came out of a hotel catalogue. Meals come with the cabin (YUMMY!) and they can also use the first class lounge, should they choose to go there.

Now, you may say that I’m a snobby bitch, but let me remind you that we all seek the better things in life, even if it means spending a few extra dollars to travel in relative comfort.

So there I was, tempting my mother and father to buy the pricier tickets, all to no avail. We all got economy tickets. And it all went downhill from there!

Picture this. We’re sitting in the economy lounge, packed like sardines, people all over the place, some even lying in the spaces where it could be found. There were people everywhere: inside and outside. Then it happened. The air conditioner broke down and stopped working altogether (economy class only mind you; the cabin ac’s were working in fine order). I was stuck in the lounge with no air circulation, no space to move around, no space to lie down and nothing to drink to replenish my internal water supply that was being sweated out in this 11 hour voyage. All I could do was periodically walk around the outside of the boat, navigating my way round sleeping bodies so I could get some fresh air and then return to my hot, humid and sweat smelling corner. I must say, the smell of human bodies cramped in one space with no ventilation is absolutely nauseating and disgusting to say the least. I have to be hones about that. I felt bad for the babies and children who had to coop up in that space.

Mum and dad? Well they spent the night on the benches outside.

I’ve had a fair amount of chances to berate them for not getting us better tickets on that ship. We’ve all agreed that if we are to travel back to Suva by boat, it’ll be in the cabins or we won’t travel at all. I’m gonna keep them to their word.

Looks like I’ll have to continue this later cause talking about our house is another long post with elaborate descriptions. Keep an eye out for Part II of this blog post.