Or as we say here in Fiji; “Lambasa”.  You add the “mm” before a “b”.

Anyway…We had a lovely day today renting a car with Orcinius John and Lisa for a couple hour drive to Labasa.  It’s one of the larger towns on Vanua Levu – the northern island – and is on the northwest side of the island.  There’s almost nothing between here (Savusavu) and there in terms of towns but the geography is interesting and fun.  For the first half of the trip up and over the mountains (not too tall – maybe 1000 feet) it is lush rainforest.  Emerald green, dense, you can’t see even a hint of the ground.  The second half on the leeward side of the mountain is a completely different country.  It’s like suddenly moving from the jungles of Fiji to farmland in Oregon.  It’s still green, but not nearly as wet  and the land is mostly tilled for sugar cane.

Small gauge train cars carry the sugar cane to the mill (in the background) Each car can carry 2000 lbs of cane which all gets loaded by hand.

Once in Labasa we parked in the middle of town and walked through the large market.  Same as all the towns in Fiji, built around the market.  But we never tire of walking through them, they are so alive and full of color and interest.

Arriving at the market, first we have to find a place to park.

Every Fijian town is centered around the market and the bus station.

Fresh fish anyone?

Watch your fingers though...

An amazing collection of grains and spices as well as the vegetables and fish.

Every type and form of Kava imaginable is available.

Colorful textiles...

After and hour or so in the market, it was time for lunch and we found a place called “Banana Leaf” that advertised that it was a “taste of happiness”.  OK, that sounded good!  Best of all, it ended up delivering (John and I had goat curry)!  How they made any money though, I don’t know as we were almost the only patrons.  The staff outnumbered us about 3 to 1.

How could we resist trying a "taste of happiness"?

It was happy. Might have partly been the beer.

One of the cooks kept "peeking" out to see if we were enjoying our meal. When I went to take a photo, I found four of them sharing this tiny kitchen.

A fun day, which we always have when we go places with our buddies John and Lisa on Orcinius.