Castaways {Jariana}

Fiji

Luckily, for Jai and Ariana, their rescue and subsequent arrival on Fiji was not made available to the general public. This was assured by the producers of Survivor who secretly hoped to land an exclusive interview with the teenagers and their parents. Therefore, it became Jeff Probst's primary responsibility to keep the true 'survivors' happy. He had no idea what a difficult job that would be.

"What do you mean, you don't have a shower?", Ariana asked indignantly and in full diva mode as soon as they got to the boat.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Grande", replied Manuel, the boat's captain, "but this is only a 37-foot cruiser. We do have a head though." His offer of facilities didn't impress Ariana. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's what we call a...", the captain tried to explain.

"I know what a head is. The captain of my father's yacht is a retired Naval officer."

"Sorry, miss." The older man tipped his hat to her formally and quickly disappeared.

"How about we see what there is to eat in the galley?", suggested Jeff.

Jai rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Now we're talkin'."

When they docked on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu, the erstwhile missing teenagers were quickly spirited off to the Hideaway Resort. This exclusive hotel complex would be able to provide them with the luxury they had been missing plus it was isolated enough to keep their rescue a secret. The resort manager, Andre de Lage, personally ushered Jai and Ariana into the first of about six bures facing the ocean. A bure is the Fijian term for a bungalow although it was the largest, most elaborate bungalow either teen had ever seen. After all, the Survivor production company was fitting the bill. Each bure was an individual stucco cottage painted a festive bright yellow. Dusk was falling and large torches cast a romantic glow outside each bure. Inside featured a large King-sized bed centered in the large room and a fresh bowl of tropical fruit on the small table near the window.

Jai headed directly to the fruit bowl and deftly plucked a large coconut out of the bowl and held it up for Ariana to see. She smirked knowingly to him and much to the dismay of the manager, Jai shot the coconut through the air in a perfect imitation of three-point field goal and directly into a rattan wastepaper basket on the other side of the room. Not only was he amazing at track, but he was a pretty good basketball player as well.

Without batting an eye, de Lage pulled out a small notepad and pen while he commented, "I'll make a note to exclude coconut from the fruit bowl for the duration of your stay."

Meanwhile, Ariana had wandered into the adjacent room and Jai's explanation of their hatred of coconut was interrupted by an ear-piercing scream.

"What's wrong?", shouted Jai as he and the manager followed the voice to where Ariana was standing with an awed look on her face.

She whirled around in circles indicating with her outstretched arms the magnificence of their surroundings.

"Isn't this the most incredible room you've ever seen?" She was smiling like a child on Christmas morning.

"Wow...", was the most Jai could muster.

All three of them were standing inside the grandest, most elaborate bathroom imaginable. A large black granite vanity held two white porcelain bowls in which water poured through elegant stainless steel faucets. However, the most outstanding feature of this room was the oversized walk-in circular shower which was technically outside of the house. It had complete walls, but the roof was open to the sky.

"Yes, this is one of the favorite attributes of our bures. It's almost like showering out-of-doors", the manager explained in a slight French accent.