Moon Fiji (Travel Guide)

Great book about Fiji!! Lots of helpful information!!

Fiji was not on my short list, but it is now. If you could hear the sweet tones and relentlessness with which my wife has been reading to me from this book, you would think it a volume of love poetry. And maybe it is. Minal Hajratwala, also a journalist, teacher, and poet, has written a tempting and inspiring travel guide. It provides sensual descriptions in the voice of someone who’s spent a lot of time and wants to curate the best possible experience. Minal tells you where you’ll first land and unfolds your choices from there, like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. A good travel book introduction is indispensable, and this one’s top-10 list and general orientation really drew us in. When recommending an experience, Minal doesn’t just tell you where to go to get more information. She tells you what to ask for. She offers itineraries that fit my comfort level but also challenged me to fantasize about stretching my travel ambitions. The guide also includes very helpful orienting maps for this complex region. Reading it, we felt empowered to visit a place we knew nothing about and curious to read the Moon guides for other destinations we’ve been intimidated to visit.

Good travel guide for Fiji with plenty of good info. Might add more info for budget traveler.

I gave it to my family as a gift that accompanied my announcement that we were ticketed to FIJI this year. It's small enough to carry on trip too. Didn't want to deal with APPs and google for everything for lack of cell service on island. Wanted a travel tip book for quick reference and maps, suggestions for hotels and sights. This is written by a Fijian!!!

Get to Know Fiji Through the Eyes of Somebody who Loves Fiji I know Minal in many capacities, as the author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages, and I was delighted to be able to attend her book release party in Pleasanton, California. Minal’s presentation was like a hot bath for my soul. There was a slideshow. I thought I might nap. But I didn’t. Minal’s grandparents, as well as uncles, aunts, and their children, emigrated to Fiji, and she has visited often since the age of four. Minal spoke with passion about how in Fiji, unlike many tourist destinations, over 90% of the land is owned by tribes and government. How even the big name resorts are on 99 year leases. How, as such, fair treatment of local workers is guaranteed, and how tourist money is going to the local population not just to the corporations. Local indigenous rites and dancing have been threatened in Fiji due to problems in cultural passage between generations. VOU, Fiji’s internationally acclaimed dance school, is working to solve these problems by integrating traditional dances with educational pathways. Minal told us about award-winning artist and inmate Aisake Amoe at the Tagimoucia Art Gallery. The Suva Prison is home to the Tagimoucia Art Gallery and features and sells artwork created by prisoners taking rehabilitative workshops. Minal spoke about the beauty pageant fandom in Fiji and, in particular, how their was a pageant for trans folks that’s particularly well-attended. Minal also discussed the environment. In her book, she writes of turtle callers and the declining shark presentation. How Fiji has more than 800 species of coral. “‘Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau marveled at Fiji’s undersea variety, calling it ‘the soft coral capital of the world.’ More than 800 species of coral make their home in the Pacific (compared to only 48 in the Caribbean).” She mentioned the fact that on the big island of Suva there’s places that are only about 2 meters above water. “So you can imagine how even only a 2 mm of sea level rise can devastate this place,” Minal pointed out. I used to work closely with climate and environmental justice advocates. As she spoke about climate awareness and climate change, she spoke with such respect toward the people of Fiji that I was moved. Is this really a powerpoint about a travel guide? I wondered. This is so, so fantastic, I thought. It’s really about how people are adapting. How they survived massive, traumatic changes. She’s writing about a place she loves, I realized. This isn’t just a guidebook. This is personal. I could’ve listened to Minal talk for another hour. I didn’t want my time in Fiji to end. The way Minal talks about Fiji is the way I want to talk about the people in my life. With such love and care that you will want to visit. You will respect and admire them. She’s written the Moon Fiji the way she might write a novel. Readable and enjoyable in every way. Also, honest. It isn’t all blue skies and blue lagoons in Fiji. As her finale, Minal said she wanted to tell us about the Humpback whales. Whales have been hunted for centuries. Fiji was the breeding grounds of a tribe of humpback whales that made an annual migration north from New Zealand. The whaling industry on the island massacred the whales until there were only 35 survivors in the 1970’s. The survivors stopped traveling through Fiji. Instead, they completely changed their route and began to swim through Tonga, where they were protected. Tongans had declared whales off-limits for hunting. Through partnerships between indigenous peoples and environmentalists, Fiji also banned whale and dolphin hunting in 2003, but by then it was too late. The whales were gone. “Seven years ago,” Minal said, pausing and raising her head to meet our eyes, “the whales came back to Fiji. It worked. The woman who told me the story was a marine ecologist named Helen Sykes. Helen teared up as she talked about the Humpbacks. ‘It’s very special to me, you know. What happened. It tells me that forgiveness is possible — no matter what we’ve done as a species.” Minal and I shared our misty eyes. We were thinking about our Fiji Shaped Lives. Get this wonderful book. I've purchased it, and it gives you an insider's view into Fiji that will leave you aching to go. If you've already got tickets, I'm jealous, and let Minal help you plan your trip. (BTW - this review was actually part of a larger blog journal project about fasting for Ramadan -- you can read along at drunkenwhispers.wordpress.com)

In 2008, I had planned this epic solo trip to Australia and Fiji and just when I was about to finalize my travel, the market crashed and a number of my clients cancelled their contracts with me. This prompted me to pro-actively cancel my trip to Fiji. I haven’t forgiven myself since — and in the subsequent years, I have been dreaming of another time I could make the trip. I have not yet made it to Fiji, but I have busied myself over the years consuming books and writing and history about the culture and the islands — and then I read this Moon travel guide written by Minal Hajratwala, and it surprised me — in all the good ways. This guide is so much more than other guides I have read and used as traveling reference — in that it engages the parts of me that want to go deeper — to understand different cultures from both a critical, de-colonial and respectful lens. The voice of the guide is of a loving friend — committed to keeping me accountable as an ethical traveler that cares both about the earth and the people, and a reminder that when traveling — I am a guest. For example - there are detailed discussions on how to practically show respect in what I choose to purchase (support local makers / economies), how to behave (say ‘bula’ to folks), ask permission to photograph and be ok with hearing “no”, as well as what to wear. As an Asian American traveler, it was engrained deeply into my consciousness that my clothes, especially when traveling, communicate so much about how I show respect. I also appreciated the ways information about the flora and fauna is highlighted with detailed storytelling about their relationships to places and customs. In reading through many of the sections, I was pulled into the literal place of Fiji often as Minal’s writing spoke with me, not at me. Additionally, I judge all travel books for relevancy on how they approach LGBT/Queer travel and local culture. Most leave me wanting — allocating a mere paragraph if anything at all. This guide however, provided exactly what I am often looking for — a discussion about social and political realities, as well as this history of cultural ways of being — both of which weave throughout the guide and helped me better understand the intersections of customs and behaviors in different regions. The book also speaks more openly about transgender folks, not just gay and lesbian — which totally tempered my judginess. Fiji is still high on my list of travel destinations and it is becoming more and more likely these days. I can’t wait to have this guide in my pocket (ok, backpack) to keep my company when that adventure unfolds.

Moon Fiji mixes lush depictions with a fierce social conscience to create a beautiful, compelling book! I feel like I'm living multiple lives! Thanks to Minal, I can trek through waterfalls, zip-line through old growth rainforests, and sail down the river along black volcano walls. 300-plus jewel like islands? Barrier reefs and thousands of marine species? Sign me up, please. I feel like I'm really living life now that I know about "the soft coral capitol of the world," and can drink kava with new friends. I knew nothing about Village Homestays before. Now I know they are a great way to integrate and participate respectfully in Fijian culture. Being a city girl, I appreciate that she draws our attention to Suva, a cosmopolitan city with museums and night clubs, eateries, bars, and places to go dancing. Minal, who has deep roots in Fiji, reminds us that Fiji is not a single story, there is a multiplicity of place and experience here. I love that she includes a sample itinerary offering a kaleidoscopic experience. By far one of the best tour guides I've ever read.

Minal Hajratwala has convinced me that Fiji is a place I must go. Her love of the islands are truely evident. She paints a picture of Fiji that is not only beautiful and exciting, but also romantic. My wife and I love to travel, but like to explore the hidden places and get to know the true history of a place. This book provides the means to create that journey. The descriptions of the wildlife, people, and land takes it from a trip never thought of to a place now on my bucket list. The writing is fantastic. There is much that I have learned about Fiji and I enjoyed every moment of this book.