Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Destinations
Lautoka (20 daily; 45min); Rakiraki (8 daily; 1hr 45min); Suva (7 daily; 6hr
10min); Tavua (8 daily; 45min).
By car
Car rental is available at Singh's Rental on Main St ( 667 4988).
INFORMATION
Banks
Westpac and ANZ banks (Mon-Fri 9.30am-4pm) both have ATMs on Bank St.
Internet access
IT Intelligence Ganga Singh St (Mon-Fri 8am-5.30pm, Sat 8am-1pm; 50
cents for 10min) has broadband.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Ba Hotel
Bank St 667 4000.
The only accommodation in Ba can be found at this slightly
seedy hotel, which doubles as a bar, nightclub
and b
ottle shop; there are thirteen spartan
rooms with bouncy beds, tiny bathrooms and a/c.
F$85
Chand's
Main St, near the roundabout.
The locals' favourite restaurant, located one floor up
with views down onto the street, offers excellent South Indian curries from F$15.
Mon-Sat
7.30am-9.30pm, Sun noon-2.30pm.
PATHWAYS OF THE SPIRITS
Viti Levu, particularly the grasslands between Ba and Rakiraki, is crisscrossed with
an-
cient pathways
known as
tualeita
. Dating back centuries before European contact, most
of the paths run along the highest ridges allowing walkers to spot enemy war parties and
to avoid being followed. The paths played an important role in the Fijian colonization of
Viti Levu, linking pioneer settlements to the main chiefly villages. Before the widespread
conversion to Christianity,
tualeita
also held a religious importance. It was believed that
the spirits of the dead followed the trails on their journey back to their origins, and thence
on to the afterlife. Most walking tracks today follow
tualeita
.
Tavua and around
A forty-minute drive east from Ba brings you to
TAVUA
, a smaller, more intimate market
centre set slightly inland from the coast. The Kings Road passes straight through town, mak-
ing it feel busier than it is. The roadside is lined with twenty or so tiny shops packed with
all sorts of odds and ends while the cramped
town market
is found at the eastern end. You
can easily spend an idle day here chatting with the locals without being pressured to buy any-
thing.
Eight kilometres inland from Tavua, the Vatukoula
gold mine
was once Fiji's largest, until
the Australian-owned Emperor Mines Limited closed it in 2006, claiming it was no longer
profitable. The mine's workers, mostly from Tavua and its sister town of Vatukoula, became
instantly unemployed and many left the region altogether.
