I’m about to depart to Tuvalu. My flight departs from Suva, a different airport about 4 hours from Nadi on the other side of Fiji. I’ve stayed here in Suva for a couple of days, just for safety, in case there were delays or flooding, or anything that could have interfered with my Nadi-Suva bus journey. It was also possible to fly from Nadi to Suva a couple of days ago, but I chose the more scenic route. Suva’s airport is not as developed as Nadi, with no similarities at all, just a small coffee shop and another shop selling snacks.

This has been one of the most expensive trips to date. Fiji Airlines are the only airline that flies to Tuvalu and it’s about a 2-and-a-half-hour flight away and overly expensive. I’ve read online that it’s the most unpredictable flight in the world. I’m expecting delays and I’m not expecting that there will be a lot to do on the island, once I arrive. I’ve booked a hotel, made sure that I booked weeks ago, and it’s within walking distance from the airport, though, in fairness, the airport looks like it takes up a majority of the island and everything seems within walking distance from point A to point B. I’m waiting for the ticket desk to open and then I hope to be able to get everything sorted fairly smoothly. There are no screens at the airport, so it’s difficult to monitor my flight, though it does seem like there are a couple of flights departing. I checked online, early this morning, and everything seems fine, doesn’t look like there will be any delay or anything, but this is Oceania and everything is never very accurate and I’ve had too many flight delays and cancellations to date, so I’m  always prepared for the worst-case scenarios.

Safely arrived in Funafuti yesterday. The flight was on time, though this time we flew in a much smaller airplane. The island is small, it seems like it’s smaller than Nauru, I’ve walked around the entirety of the island already and it only took about two hours. There is nothing to do or see on the far side of the island, no shops or anything. The airport area is the most developed, I suppose you could call it the downtown area, stretching from my hotel, about a ten-minute walk from the airport, not a lot to see, two restaurants, a mini supermarket, post office, and another hotel, directly across the road from the airport building. My hotel is right off the airport runway; you can literally walk right onto the runway if you want. Only a couple of flights arrive and depart every week, so a loud siren blares through the island, about half an hour before the flights are expected to arrive so that they can clear the runway and road, which is located right next to the runway, and get everyone into a safe location. The runway is open for the rest of the time. Children play games and there are sports activities in the evening and football games on the actual runway. I’ve had a nice and relaxing day today. There’s a Chinese restaurant close to my hotel and the menu and prices are reasonably ok. I’ve also done my bit of shopping over the past few days, but the Wi-Fi signal is terrible, but that was to be expected pre-departure. I bought about 2GB of data at the local shop, but it’s very unpredictable and only works 40% of the time. I’m leaving Tuvalu in two days, so I’m planning on going for an early morning walk tomorrow before I need to catch up on some rest.

Had another quick walk around the island this morning and shot more footage for the video that I’m making for my Youtube channel and then checked out of the hotel and currently waiting for my flight back to Suva in Fiji. I’ve decided to stay another two days in Suva and then I’m going to take the three or four hour bus back to the other side of the island to Nadi. It’s still a bit unusual that flights from Nadi(the bigger airport in Fiji) don’t depart to Tuvalu. I’m hoping to go back and spend at least three days in Nadi, and stay on the other side of the city this time. I’ve already booked a hotel right across the road from the beach. I’ve already been to Nadi twice before, but I only had the opportunity to stay across the road from the airport on both occasions and unfortunately didn’t go downtown. I’m really looking forward to it! Overall, it was cool seeing Tuvalu. It makes it 50 times more interesting knowing that Tuvalu will be completely underwater in about 40-50 years due to rising sea levels. Parts of Funafuti have more or less already disappeared and even the locals have been told that there is no point building or extending homes on the island anymore. Most of the locals have already been given a status and they are now known as climate refugees. They will be granted asylum elsewhere, over the next few years. It must be a weird feeling, knowing that your house is going to be completely underwater within the next 50 years and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it. It must be even weirder for the children, knowing that they will need to move away and start a new life and adapt to a new culture. Some of the islands on Kiribati have already vanished, though Kiribati has so many islands and Tuvalu is just one island, so Kiribati will be safer for the next while and the locals can just move to safer islands with higher altitude without having to go through the stress of changing country.