I was 22 when I stuffed two large backpacks into a locker at Nadi International Airport. I just finished almost a full year of travels, and I jumped at the opportunity to have an island stopover on my way home. The flight cost the same, and I could get by for just a few bucks a day, so why not punch another stamp in the old passport? It was an easy decision, even though for the first time in my life, I would be in a foreign country, alone.
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| Wilson! |
Utterly alone is exactly how I felt when the man from the tour company dropped me at the dock (sticks tied together with vines). It was probably close to midnight, and there was not a single volt of electricity anywhere in sight. Pitch darkness followed the man’s tail lights as he sped off into the night. Really? You are going to leave me here, alone? I was at least an hour away from the airport and it did not take me long to recognize that I was completely at the mercy of a man on a boat. There I was, under more stars than imaginable, surrounded by unfamiliarity and I loved it. The rain came at me from every direction; even splashing up at my Rainbow sandals from below the dock.
