Safe to Drink the Kava?

[George M. Huff]

I'll be travelling to Fiji with Intrepid Travel at the end of May. Our cultural tour includes a homestay in Namatakula village and a kava cermony. I'm looking forward to experiencing every aspect of this culture, although now a friend has me paranoid, as she knows two people who became very ill, and attributed it to the kava. I'm curious if any of you Fiji experts can share your experiences? I know the normal rules about "don't drink the water" foreign lands - I'm just not sure if this applies to the kava as well?

 

[Edward]

I know the Fijian guy who gets me one of the kavas I sell drinks bottled beer over there and kava over here. I don't know if that's telling us anything?

There's a video somewhere of a man trying to avoid being ill drinking kava by throwing it over his head. It seemed odd behaviour at first but now maybe we're getting to the bottom if it

 

[Pauluk]

I never thought of that. I imagined how great it would be to just turn up at a hut and have a few shells.
But of course if theres bugs in the water that we arent used to.....

 

[Kavashua]

There's a video somewhere of a man trying to avoid being ill drinking kava by throwing it over his head. It seemed odd behaviour at first but now maybe we're getting to the bottom if it

I always thought that guy was just a moron that didn’t understand the custom. To the OP: I say go for it, with the tourism industry so big in Fiji I would imagine if they had any issues we would hear about it more often

 

[AlohaAimee]

The people who got sick... Assuming it's reviewers on the Intrepid site? Not frequent kava users? They probably got sick because kava is an acquired taste. Or they are the unfortunate rare folks whose bodies just cant handle kava. Just a hunch of course. I say go and enjoy!

 

[Intrepidus_dux]

Also a lot of people get sick just from travel because it's stressful and wears down the immune system between the stress and sleep loss. Yes be careful, but also try to have fun! If it's allowed and not considered rude, bring your own bottled water for them to use.

It would suck if more claims of this are made because I hope to visit there someday!

 

[theGrogfather]

I'll be travelling to Fiji with Intrepid Travel at the end of May. Our cultural tour includes a homestay in Namatakula village and a kava cermony. I'm looking forward to experiencing every aspect of this culture, although now a friend has me paranoid, as she knows two people who became very ill, and attributed it to the kava. I'm curious if any of you Fiji experts can share your experiences? I know the normal rules about "don't drink the water" foreign lands - I'm just not sure if this applies to the kava as well?

My wife and I spent 5 months in Fiji several years back, which is where I was introduced to kava, and I would drink it nearly every week without a single case of falling ill. In some places bottled water was used, others straight out of the tap, but water quality was never a main concern. The part some people have a problem with is that everyone drinks out of the same coconut shell throughout the ceremony, so that’s a lot of mouths on one cup.