fiji time

so i know i'm a big advocate for hitching rides, but in fiji it wasn't a practical mode of travel for me. i was usually on a time budget and thus didn't have the freedom to wait for a kind hearted soul to pull over and pick up a complete stranger. that, and an overwhelming percentage of the cars in fiji are taxis and they ain't picking up nobody fo free. so that being the case, i took a few cabs when i needed to get around the island. i was soon to learn that taking a cab in fiji does not always lack the lustre. two rides were particularly interesting.

#1

i took one cab from suva to lautoka which is a long, winding 3 hour ride. (having already done the trip once i knew not to take the bus). the driver, a big fijiian man with an even bigger belly made the time fly by though. we kept passing this middle eastern guy whose license plate read "2 fast". appropriately enough, my cabbie's plate said "who cares". so naturally, we would zoom past the 2fast driver with a roar of laughter and a message: who cares. inevitably, the 2fast driver would counter and the process would begin anew. 2fast....who cares!!!! when the cabbie tired of this game he moved on to a new one. being that this guy's cousin is a cop, he knows where all of the speed blocks are. so...he would creep up right behind some slow moving tourists in a rental and make them speed up right before a trap. we never got anyone pulled over, but as the rental cars passed the cops the cabbie would yell "arrest this man!" with an eruption of deep melodious laughter. cruel? yes, but damn funny to watch this guy in action.

#2

my friend andy and i got this one taxi from lautoka back to the marina where we were staying. the cabbie was a heavy set indian man with tired eyes and a talkative tongue. we made small talk about travel, politics, and the routines of taxiing people around. what was funny about him was the way he explained where places were and what it took to get to them. "where do i live? yeah, it's like 4 dollars that way." "all the best mangos? it'll cost you ten dollars to get there." "no" we'd say "where are they?" "yeah maybe twelve dollars actually." "where is my home village? oh i'd say at least 100 dollars away" and so on...later he asks andy, "so you two live on a boat?" "yeah," says andy "you can check it out when we get there, it's only 50 cents from bow to stern." the driver releases a hearty belly laugh from the depths of his belly. but then turns serious again, "so how much does it cost to take the boat around, diesel is expensive no?" we explain that usually we just use the wind to get from place to place, and that the wind is free. "yes, yes i must get this sail for my cab..."