During the course of our stays in Fiji and Vanuatu we have all had the opportunity to take in some of the local culture and partake in some rather unusual celebrations. The first tasting (generous description) was at Plantation Cove where a large Kave bowl was set up near the beach with a community bowl for dipping out your portion of something that looked like dirty dish water. Since there were many vacationers at the beach they might have been trying to stretch the Kava but when the 6 of us (crew
from Hawaii, Rita and myself) got there, there was plenty of the stuff to go around. It tasted (as Rita described it as some old Chinese herb medicine)and left a mild tingling on your tongue with a little buzz. The second tasting was in Port Villa where Cress, Matt, Rita and myself went to the chief's Kava Bar. It was a tin shack (8X12) with a bunch of wooden benches and chairs scattered around it. For 100 Vats ($1Cdn) you got a somewhat thicker bowl of dishwater (double dos). Both Rita and I had
a bowl full while our courageous captain and First mate had a couple of bowls. There were about 20 men standing around the Kava Bar drinking and spitting. After each bowl full the men went around the side of the Bar and spit so much that ground was wet (rather gross). Anyway it was a much stronger taste?? than the first experience. Maybe it was because we had already been expecting the taste that it seemed stronger. So after our drinks off we went down the road looking for a place it eat. We happened
upon a open store where Cress started inspecting all the things (he liked the colors of the merchandise) that were for sale and decided the boat needed more storage containers. After a nice dinner where we tried flying fox, and pigeon we went off looking for another Kava Bar (Blue Light Bar) and the boys had another couple of hits of Kava but nothing really happened during the walk back to the boat. Boys seemed very jovial as we walked. The final tasting occurred in Paradise Cove on Epi where the
owner sent out his granddaughter to get us a 2l bottle of Kava from a local bar. He instructed us that we had to have the Kava before we had our lobster dinner. All 6 of us had a bowlful but the Cap and First mate felt they had to finish the bottle as we did pay for it. The stuff was much stronger as all of us felt a bit of a tingle from it and not just on our tongues. As all of us enjoyed an absolutely fabulous dinner both Cress and Matt were giddy and saying they were seeing double. Cress had to
stagger out of the cafe to relieve his stomach and when he returned his whole conplection had changed. Cress had sunburned his head and shoulders while swimming with the turtles and degongs but after his Kava experience his skin was white as a sheet and stayed that way for about a 1/2 hour while he ate another meal of lobster. All of the blood from his head and shoulders seemed to have drained away. Matt on the other hand was very quiet and played with his food trying to focus on cutting his lobster
(while seeing double I would guess). Both were having a good time while the rest of us just pigged out on the great food. The Kava effect lasted about 2 hours and they were both half normal by the end of the evening.Matt wanted to buy some of the powder for the boat but was unsuccessful (Thank God). We are off to Darwin today but with no wind we are sitting about 5 miles off of Epi sweating to death.
Someone will write of our snorkeling with the turtles and degongs.
Dennis
No comments:
Post a Comment