Fiji: The Art of the Stopover (ft. Chris Singh)

In life, we spend a lot of time thinking about
where we're going, but not nearly enough time thinking about
how we return. Most troops are planned around the destination,
the place you've been dreaming about saving for. But what
about what comes after the moment when the movement stops
and we're left to make sense of everything we've just
experienced before our lives take us somewhere new. This is Wayfinder,
Life Changing Travel. This podcast goes beyond the guidebooks into
the heart and soul of real life travelers as they
journey around the world. I'm your host, Daniel Scheffler, and
I have seen firsthand how our stories connect us and
inspire us. Today, we head to the Mamanuka Islands in
Fiji with writer Chris Singh, who, after ninety days traveling
across the United States, created a deliberate four days stompover,
not simply to explore more sights, but to slow down, reset,
and fully take in the person he was becoming. But
there in the peace and beauty of Fiji, what Chris
found was something deeper than what he had planned for. Chris,
how did you first get into travel?
Eighteen years ago?
I started out as a music writer for a blog
that was starting up, and that kind of grew organically
and I started writing about food and lifestyle a lot,
and that bled into travel. The more I experienced, the
more people I met and networked, and travel is something
I've always been interested in, I think, as everyone is,
and my tertiary backgrounds in psychology, so it lets me
blend a bit of that into my writing as well.
I was hanging out a lot of music circles. I
was into the art scene. I think art a lot
of it's about empathy and meaning and exploring different places
in my own personal travels. I thought about, how can
I apply that to start writing about travel? Because everyone
likes traveling, Everyone has grown up wanting to travel, and
I think this is a great way to be able
to see the world. And I just started writing about
it and it grew from there.
As a writer, how does that lens change the way
you travel or think about travel.
I'm always thinking about the story and what can I
get out of this? You know, when I'm going on
a trip, I want to do an art story and
a food story and a music story. And I think
it just helps me feel a bit more present if
I'm thinking about how can I present this in a
way that's aligned with what I want to write about.
I feel like the more present you are on your trip,
the better you're going to remember it. The trips that
I've been on where I've been the most present, the
ones that I remember the most vividly, And yeah, speaking
of him in terms of stories helps me do that.
Did you grow up traveling a lot?
I come from a single parent background, and my mom
when I was nine, she took me around the world
to London and la and San Diego, and I think
that fortified my love of travel. I think parents should
always take their kids traveling and give them opportunities to
return to places as adults.
Yeah, it shifts something in you. I traveled as a
young kid, and it certainly ignited some kind of bug.
But it's like, if you can afford it, and if
you have the opportunity, I guess it is the greatest
gift you can give to a kid, right to set
them out on a course.
Yeah, it's almost like, also, you're giving them emotional anchors
they can return to if they need to win their adults.
An emotional anchor was exactly the thing Chris was looking
for when he booked himself a four day layover in
Fiji on his way home from ninety days in the US,
not as a detour, but as a transition.
I write about America a lot, and I wanted to
spend quite some time over there stacking up stories just
so I don't have to go over so much. And
I was everywhere I was in New York, New Orleans, LA, Chicago.
It was quite a chaotic journey, and I wanted to
contrast that quite aggressively with my stopover on the way back.
I like it so when you're on a treadmill and
the trainer tells you to slow down rather than stop.
So I didn't want to go back to Sydney straight away.
I wanted to do my buffer in Fiji and see
how that kind of helped my mentality settle back into
the rhythms, and how that shifted me and got me
ready for going back to real life.
So this was a stopover, but you turned it into
a kind of trip of its own. How long were
you there?
I was there for four or five days, just to
soak it up. It was about my third time now
I've been there for work maybe two or three times before.
I've always had an aversion to islands. I always avoid
them and go to big cities instead, and I wanted
to appreciate island life a bit more this time.
Instead of staying in Fiji's main hub, Chris chose to
go further out to the Mamanouka Islands.
When I've been to Fiji in the past, I haven't
really left Nadi, which is the tourist center. And I
always tell people I'm not really an island guy. You know.
Throw me into a warehouse in New York and I'll thrive.
But put me in an island, I'll look to get
off straight away. But once you leave those tourist areas
and go to the outer islands, I think that's when
it all clicks and starts to make sense. I went
to the Nama Naku Islands, specifically Tokeriki Islands. It's about
an hour from Portsanero, and what really surprised me was just.
How peaceful it was.
If you're looking out from Tokeriki Islands, the water is
breaking in the distance, there's the lagoon right in front
of you. The waters are so clean and glassy. There's
the smell of fresh frange of pennies in the air.
The amount of islands out there, and they dotted around
the water. They are huge mounds of greenery snaking down
into the water, and the colors are much more intense
out there. I find the blues are bluer, the greens
are greener.
Why is that? I mean, you're totally right, but why
is that.
I think it's the way the light hits everything.
It's like light hits ocean. There's something about that kaleidoscope
that happens, right.
Yeah.
But also because you have the lagoon and then you
have the ocean, you have all these different shades of
blue as well, which I find is incredibly visually striking
because everything's much more vivid. It just makes you feel
more alive. Fiji. It's big, it's mysterious. It's very vast
and spread out, and I think the vastness helps tease
the imagination a bit more. It feels like you're part
of something that's much bigger than yourself. It's like anyway,
when you're being in this vast, big, nature, you know,
you feel small, And I think there's a lot of
value on feeling small.
Beyond the island's color, light and natural beauty, there's something
else that defines Fiji. It's people, whether you're at a
result or simply passing through, there's a feeling that you're
not just being hosted, you being welcomed in.
After US, I was feeling very mentally depleted, very tired,
not quite ready to go back to Sydney, very anxious,
and you know, the best cure for anxiety is feeling
nurtured and calm and taken care of. And I think
Fijian hospitality lends that quite well. Fiji kind of wraps
around you in a way that's warmer than everywhere else.
I think it's because the culture grew up centered by
community in very small villages and it was all about
helping each other. You know, if someone's house was knocked
down due to strong winds, the whole community would come together,
they help them build it back up. And I think
growing up with their mentality of taking care of each other,
it's almost become part of the psyche of Fiji, and
they can't help it do it.
That sense of connection comes to life in the many
traditions of the islands, like the Lovo Feast and centuries
old Kava ceremony, both which experienced firsthand.
Whereas staying.
They have these regular Lovo barbecue ceremonies out in this big,
sprawling area that they have surrounded by all these torches,
and all the guests come together and they sit on
these communal tables and there's an outdoor buffet setup and
Lovo barbecue is kind of like Fiji's version of pit
barbecuing in Texas. So you have all these meats and
vegetables and to the side you have people singing. Locals
from the nearby islands come to the resort to conduct it.
So this is plant based drink in Fiji that they've
been drinking forever called carver and it's a natural muscle
relax and it's often referred to as why Fijian culture
is so calm. So kava ceremonies are very important to
their culture. They've always used it to bring community together
and this hotel offers that as part of the barbecue experience.
So everyone sits down in a circle, they pass around
a bowl and adds that sense of community.
I think community is what makes it so special.
That's wonderful. It's something that you almost feel that you
want to take it back to your hometown. My experiences
in Micronesia and Polynesia, and spending time in those islands,
the way that people are so close knit made me
feel like I want to foster more of that where
I live.
I think in Fiji, it's just how they grew up.
It was all about helping each other, and I think
growing up with their mentality of taking care of each other,
it's almost become part of the psyche of Fiji. And
you know, when people travel, they just want to matter,
they don't want to feel like a number, and I
think Fijian hospitality is perfect for helping people feel like
they're part of something, a community, and they're seen. And
so I felt very seen, very humanized.
In that feeling of calm and support. Something for Chris
began to shift and suddenly some thing that once felt
intimidating felt possible for the first time.
The jet skiing was pretty big for me as well,
because I've always been intimidated by anything moving cars, jet skis, bikes,
and it's always been a big blockage to my confidence,
and a lack of.
Confidence does creativity.
So I was thinking, you know, under what conditions would
I feel safe and comfortable doing something like a jet
ski And I've always been quite nervous to jump on
a jet ski. It's quite rough, it's dangerous, especially I've
always wanted to do it in New York. But Fiji
relaxed me so much, and they'll make me feel nurtured
and taken care of. And I felt the confidence to
be able to jump on a jet ski and it
felt very empowering.
I like that jet skiing feels freeing. It feels like
almost more dangerous than what it actually is, and more
adventurous than what it actually is.
Right, Yeah, yeah, of course I feel.
Like I'm doing a leaper in a bikini out in
the sea. Not quite James Bond, but maybe like Jason Bourne,
not as elegant, more American, not the doer's American. But
do you know what I mean? Does it feel like
that too?
I think yeah, jet skiing feels very glamorous because it's
very uncommon. You can only do in certain places, and
you're out in the middle of the ocean as well,
so you're in a very expansive environment. Fiji and waters
out in the Namanaku Islands are very calm and very placid.
And you know the fact that the guides are so
nice and nurturing helped give me that confidence to take
a jet ski out on the water, and I think
that helped make the entire trip much much better.
On top of the barbecue and jet skiing, here are
a couple of Chris's other tips and takeaways for what
to do in Fiji.
Going to local markets is one of my favorite things
to do in Fiji, and just seeing how people live
out there. Everyone's so calm and they're moving in a
very relaxed way. On water activities, Fiji's famous for jet
skiing or kayaking, those are probably my favorites mister, during Fiji.
Fijian waters are just so packed and biodiverse and glassy
as well. You could even see a lot of fish
from the sands. The marine life is very generous sound
in Namenaku Islands, I guess because it's so unperturbed.
What are your takeaways from building the strip as a stopover.
So when I'm booking the trip and when I book
subsequent trips from now, if I'm doing something for so long,
like being in the US for a couple of months,
I would always follow it up with the relaxing place
like anywhere with grand pops of nature. I think people
should always think about contrast when they're thinking of multi
stop travel. You don't want to follow a similar destination
with another one. Contrast amplifies emotions, and I think emotions
help consolidate memories much more, and so your trips go
to resonate with you if you're jumping through environments which
are vastly different. That's another thing why I put us
next to Fiji, because they're just so different to each other.
And I think people should think a bit more strategically
about their stopovers in terms of that, because your mind
likes novelty and I like shifting through locations that are
much different to each other.
As stress goes up, stops will become more frequent. Is
that your quote?
Yeah? For sure.
You know you have airlines scrambling to introduce NonStop travel
and ultra long haul travel. But I think there's definitely
a space for multi stop travel still.
Yeah, especially if it's somewhere magical, right like growing up
in South Africa that we had to stop in Dakar
to fly to Europe because that's just the way it was,
but you couldn't get off the plane because there were
sanctions against South Africa, so it wasn't the multi stop
travel that you wanted, but Fiji is like, that's the
place you want to stop and kind of explore.
Right, Yeah, everywhere in Fiji is like living inside of
a postcard because the colors are so vivid and nature
is so vast, and you've got these beautiful white turquoise
beaches and the rolling hills and volcanic islands bursting out
of the water all around you.
It just feels very dramatic.
I guess it's like a super sized version of what
you'd imagine Paradise.
Is powder soft sand, right. It is also the sort
of castaway feeling they film the movie there, and it
does have that sense. And when I'm there on any
of those islands, there's a part of me that feels
like I'm stranded in like the best, most magical, perfect way.
Did you feel that, Yeah, I guess.
Fiji's tourism industry is quite well built up, so the
resorts there are beautiful. I think the mixture of being
on these incredibly untouched and well maintained islands and having
the relaxation and a luxury with that that helps Fiji
feel a bit different as well to other islands.
It's interesting. Multi stop travel is so smart and people
should do it more because it's a great way to
see the planet. And perhaps people don't know how to
do it, or they feel like there's potential for things
to mess up, or something like why do you think
people don't do it? And then how do you suppose
we encourage people to do it.
I think people don't really recognize the value until they
actually do it of having somewhere else that's not your
home to do your buffer, and so they just dedicate
most of their time to the main part of their trip,
and so when it comes to a stopover, they only
do one or two days, and I feel that's not
really enough to have the stopover affect you, like shift
your mentality back into the rhythms of daily life. So
I would always encourage people to dedicate a decent amount
of time, maybe five days of their trip to a stopover,
and you'll arrive back home feeling much more relaxed.
I can guarantee you.
It was time to depart the hotel, the staff came
together for a farewell ceremony and song. Chris was overwhelmed
with emotion and wasn't surprised to learn that other guests
were too.
I've never seen this before, but I was staying at
the Sheridan taker Riki and they seem to have this
tradition that every time a boatload of guests is leaving,
the staff come out and sing some beautiful traditional songs
for them. And they just started singing. This elderly man
started crying. One of the staff members, this beautiful woman
with short, fuzzy hair, ran up to him and hugged
him and said, those tears mean you'll be back. So yeah,
I would imagine a lot of people cry when they
have to leave that pocket of paradise. When it began,
I kind of needed that holiday. I was going through
a lot of stress. It just helped me at a
time where I didn't feel very confident in myself. Basically,
surviving the chaos of the US helped my confidence, and
Fiji helped me reflect on that a bit more and
consolidate it before arriving back in Sydney.
So Fiji was the healing component.
Fiji to me was a rest stop where I felt
very nurtured and taken care of. It helped give me
space to reflect on my trip and take stock of
everything before coming back into Sydney. So it was my
way of slowing down on a treadmill.
I would say, are you making any plans to do
more stopovers in the future.
Well, I'm actually going to the US in a couple
of weeks. I'm flying to Dallas because Fiji always has
a new route there via Fiji. So I'm doing the
same thing I'm doing two months in the US, and
I'm stopping back in Fiji just to, I guess, recreate
that experience. I think that's become something I'm going to
try to do a bit more, especially after the US. Yeah,
next time I go back, I'm going to go straight
for the jet skis.
Chris left his United States trip in need of a
place to process and make sense of everything he had
just lived through. In the Mamonouka Islands, he was shown beauty, stillness, love,
and support, the exact recipe he needed to regroup, recalibrate,
and ride waves he never thought he could. We tend
to think of travel in terms of getting to our destination,
but Chris's story reminds us to think about the art
of returning, of giving ourselves time and space to absorb
what we've seen, what we felt, and who we are
now because of it.
My message to future travelers to Fiji is go to
the out islands.
Fiji is much more beautiful, the.
More outsize that is, and the further you go, the
more remote you feel.
I can guarantee you it's much more magical.
Wherever your travels take you. Next, may you seek not
just the journey outward, but the space to come home
to yourself. Wayfinder Life Changing Travel is a production of
Iheart's Ruby Studio. I'm your host Daniel Scheffler. Our show's
executive producer is Sierra Kaiser, supervising producer Kelly Kyle, and
story producer Ryan Amador, with post production by James Foster
and editing by Sierra Sprain. Don't forget to subscribe to
Wayfinder and please rate and review the show wherever you
get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.