in guidebooks to Fiji

books

An embarrassment of choice in guidebooks to Fiji

Finding Fiji. By David Stanley.

Published 1985 by Moon Publications, P.O. Box 196,

Chico, Ca 95927, Usa. Isbn

0 918373 03 4. Price $A9.95.

The Fiji Experience. By James Siers. Published 1985 by Mil wood Press, Wellington, New Zealand. ISBN 0 908582 73 0.

Price $A9.95. The Fiji Explor er’s Guide. By Kim Grauelle.

Published 1985 by Graphics (Pacific) Ltd, Suva, Fiji. No ISBN provided. Price $8.95.

“In Fiji alone, of all the South Sea Islands, may be lived that ideal life of the South Seas of which one reads so much and sees so little.” So wrote Basil Thomson, Pacific Prime Minis ter, raconteur, splendid col onialist, and author almost one century ago of what is arguably the first tourist guide to Fiji ever written. Since that time travel writers have been saying pretty much the same thing, whether or not they have ever heard of Thomson or his works.

So many well-intentioned people can’t possibly be wrong.

The most tourist-oriented island nation in the South Pacific has, not surprisingly, attracted to itself the most tourist-oriented literature, varying from glossy hyperbole to plain common sense advice.

That range is illustrated by the contents of these three books, all of which, as if by some magical tourism multi plier effect, have appeared within a short time of each other. But no less remarkable than this coincidence is the fact that the three slim volumes could hardly be less alike in content or appearance.

Of the three, James Siers’

The Fiji Experience is for the serious traveller the most ex pendable. Siers, long known for

his pictorial studies of most Pacific countries, has tackled 5? bef ° re ’ in larger format This FIJI ex P erien f e is a minor one > P rett V look at —as are all of his books - but largely lacking in hard travel information. In fact, it looks for most of its 144-page length like a promotional glossy, a nod in the Erection of all his buddies in Fiji. This could well be Siers’ ex P er ience; it is not really likely to be that of most visitors. If it is P° ssib^e f°r a picture book to have too many pictures, then this one has too many; many are simply S 19 ’

“*““»■ The difference between

Siers’book and David Stanley’s is the difference between the bour 9 e °is and the backpacker.

Stanley’s claim to regional fame as a writer rests mainly on his South Pacific Handbook, a compendium of travel information which has achieved something of the status of holy writ among the down-market set.

The title Finding Fiji is significant especially for North Americans, Stanley’s major market, who are just “discovering” the country in any numbers and regard themselves as the region’s new wave of explorers, eschewi ng the predictable comforts and increasingly inflated costs of the Regents and the

Travelodges the better to com prehend Fijian culture via the dormitory accommodation of the Coconut Inn in Suva, or the Old Capital Inn in Levuka Well ... different strokes for diffe rent folks .

Finding Fiji is, in fact an expansion of the Fiji section in South Pacific Handbook, a point which owners of the latter should perhaps consider before rushing out to buy it. Like all of Stanley’s handbooks it is cram med with information and writ ten in a style which forsakes the flowery for the fundamental The layout makes that informa tion very easy to find, a simple requirement surprisingly over-

Suva...“a sometimes gaudy, always bustling melting pot of cultures”

looked by many travel guides.

Stanley is an established master at digging out details, especially those relating to cheap accommodation, which the average traveller or travel writer for that matter fails to notice, although his apparent obsession with living on the cheap gives his occasional observations about Fiji’s more expensive facilities a somewhat dyspeptic quality. Resort hotels may achieve salvation in his eyes only if they provide dormi tory accommodation.

Despite the self-righteous attitude of most backpackers, 1 remain unconvinced that one necessarily comes closer to the “true culture” by dossing in a crowded, sometimes airless dorm. One does, however, come a lot closer to others of one’s kind. Maybe that is the real aim of budget travellers. If one can ignore Stanley’s idio syncracies, including the desire to spell Fijian words phonetical ly (why not, in the interests of “authentic experience” encour age one’s readers to accept the language on its own terms?) then Finding Fiji is a good buy, like all his publications.

But probably the best buy of this trio is Kim Gravelle’s Fiji Explorer’s Handbook. Much of the reason for that lies in the attractive layout. Gravelle, a journalist, graphic designer and photographer long resident in Fiji a condition which gives him a certain advantage over the others seems to have achieved in black and white what Siers didn’t achieve in full color; the combination of a personalised account of travel in Fiji with usefully detailed description. Gravelle is also a rucksack enthusiast but not a defensive one. As a result his guide encompasses experi ences as varied as trekking in Viti Levu’s interior, to tantalis ing his senses at Toberua, one of Fiji’s most expensive resorts.

The hard-going Sigatoka valley trip, which receives one page in Stanley’s book, is given seven in Gravelle’s, yet Gravelle has no evident guilt feelings about enjoying a Blue Lagoon cruise rather than getting a village boat to the Yasawas. Elsewhere the reader will find useful tips on self-driving and bussing, vil lage etiquette, caving and white-water rafting.

The chief limitations here are

mainly geographical. Gravelle’s explorations are confined to Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu, and the easily accessible offshore islands including Ovalau. These are after all where the great majority of Fiji travellers go, but of Fiji’s other half the fascinating islands of Vanua Levu, Taveuni etc. there is not a word. Maybe the author is saving those for a second volume.

So you makes your choice and you pays your money, and all of these, from the shininess

of Siers to the straight-forward ness of Stanley, represented some kind of value for a buck, no small matter in these tough times. But the Fiji Explorers Handbook represents the smal lest number of bucks. If you still have some dollars to spare, save them for Pacific Publica tions’ Fiji Handbook and Guide due to appear in 1986. The traveller to Fiji actual or armchair has never had quite so good a choice. What would Basil Thomson think?

Norman Douglas.

Kim Gravelle, Fiji-based photo journalist and graphic designer.