Tahiti

My plan (because Rod doesn't plan) for Tahiti was to land at about 8pm, check-in, then take a taxi into Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Papeete is like the Patong of Phuket, more nightlife and more of a town than the rest of the islands. Figured that if we do that, we'd have about 3 hours to spend for dinner and wandering around Papeete before coming back to the airport for our next flight - which leaves at 12.50am. And I knew from checking out the maps that Papeete town is close to the airport, and doesn't take a half-hour boat ride to get to!

First thing that went wrong with the plan - our flight was delayed by at least half an hour.

Second thing - check-in counters weren't open until 10.50pm. That left us with our bags on hand. PLUS, Rod is absolutely insistent about being the first to check-in for the flight. For reasons that still remain unclear to me, as being first in line doesn't get you any upgrades or any more special seats!

Sorted that out by finding storage for bags - we walked over to the small shed-like structure for bag storage. Prices seemed okay - about US$7 to US$10 to store our bags, and prices are for 24 hours, so doesn't matter how long we keep them there.

Fortunately for us, we decided to ask how much it'd cost to take a taxi into Papeete. The lady behind the counter told us - XPF2000 to XPF2500. That translates to about US$20 to US$25 for a taxi into town. ONE WAY!!! When I asked how far it is, she said "Oh, about 10 - 15 minutes" Our jaws just dropped when we heard that. It's worse than high-way robbery! What that makes it, I'm not sure...but it's ridiculous to be spending nearly US$50 to go to town and back! I asked if there was any other way we could get into town and she said that we could take the bus. And how much is that? US$2...only 10% of what it would cost to take a taxi! I look hopefully at Rod and I could tell from his expression that there was no way in hell he's going to take a bus - and he said as much.

So my plans for Tahiti is kaput. We have to spend 4 hours in the Tahiti airport - really exciting times...

We found the airport 'restaurant' - it's more a canteen. We get a high class ham and cheese baguette for dinner and thought that we'd play cards to while away the time. But throughout 'dinner', we were totally distracted by the HUGE crowd of people nearby. It looked like a whole village had come out to send someone off - or are waiting for someone to land. And having a PARTY at the airport. There was singing, there was dancing, there was music (coming from ukuleles and guitars - yes, more than one ukulele and more than one guitar!), there was drinking, there was laughing...it was totally bizarre! We kept asking each other if that's what Tahitians do for entertainment on a week night...

Eventually, the wait is over and we can go to the check-in counter. So yes, we were first in line - but it made no difference to our seating on the plane in the end. No upgrade (despite my practising "Excuze me, eeezeet pozzibel? We get an upgrade on zees flight?" while waiting, I didn't dare say it in the end). Not even front of cabin seats. Just any old seat...

Anyway, we figured that there was no need to spend any more time hanging about outside, so we decided to go into the departure hall to wait. By then, the village had moved to the departure hall too. And there was kissing, there was hugging, there was crying, there was waving, there were shell-chains like you wouldn't believe! Almost all of them had about 100 shell-chains round their necks. You'd think that they were sending about half the village off! And strangely enough, those people they were sending off all had an American accent (there's a flight ahead of us going to LA)...so, why would there be a bunch of Tahitians with American accents living in Tahiti and flying off to LA??!! In the end, I figured that they must have been exchange students who were going back to US. From the farewells that they got, they must have been in Tahiti for a number of weeks at least.

We finally got through to the departure hall and it literally is ONE hall with three gates. With ONE duty-free shop. And ONE pub/bar. Well, nothing much else to do. And nothing much else to tell really. Our flight leaving Tahiti was late, as you can expect...so we got in to Auckland about half an hour later than scheduled, and totaly exhausted from what looks like a simple 5-hour flight from Tahiti.

It was a breeze getting to Tahiti, but definitely a killer coming back. Still...worth the time and effort and money, I think. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Farewell

The sky's clouded over on our last day on Bora Bora...good! At least we don't feel so bad about leaving...

We've got the whole day on Bora Bora, since our flight back to Tahiti island is only at 7pm, and our boat shuttle back to the airport is at 5.15pm. When we checked in, we had asked for late check-out and the lady told us that it was fine since we got the Sofitel Privilege Card (a tip that I picked up from one of the forums!). But then we were told that they needed the room for the next guests, so we had to check out by 12pm. They said that they have complimentary shower room, so we can still have a shower before we leave.

While having breakfast out on the deck, Rod spotted a strange-looking fish near the platform. He yelled at me to have a look (I was inside the OWB packing, as usual - since if I leave him to do it, he'll stuff dirty shoes on top of clean clothes and that drives me MAD!). I rushed out to see what it was that he's so excited about. He said that it's a "HUGE" fish - and knowing his exaggerating tendencies, I wasn't expecting that big a fish.

But what was interesting about the fish was that it had a flat head. In fact, it looks like someone wearing stripey soles had stepped on its head and left the marks there. So its head looks rather like a duck's beak, but with grooves on it. We saw about 5 of them swimming about, but we've already finished the bread we took from the basket. So out came the cornflakes - fish aren't that fussy about food. We were going to snorkel in there for the last time just before check-out, but Rod said that there was no way he was going to get in the water with those fish around - and since they didn't seem to be going anywhere, our last chance of snorkelling went.

We checked out and lugged a couple of bags with us round to the front of the hotel, where there's a small strip of beach. There were a few beach chairs laid out, so we basically spent the whole day lying around. Not attempting anything strenuous so that we don't end up totally knackered for the night flight. The hotel's shower room was actually quite good - everything stocked. So it didn't turn out such a bad day after all.

Bora Bora is a really difficult place to leave - if ever there's a place that epitomises 'island paradise', then this is it. I've been spoiled for other beaches now. No other beach or island places I've visited comes close to this one. Not that the other places aren't amazing on their own, but they have so far paled in comparison. Maybe we should visit more places, then we'll have a better comparison! It's not the island itself, it's the whole experience of Bora Bora.

Time to save up for our next trip - ideally make another one before we leave NZ.

4WD Adventure!

Dinner last night was really good, but with no exciting crab experience, I didn't think it warranted a separate post on its own. I had made reservations via the internet for another restaurant. Their signature dish - breadfruit gnocchi - was highly recommended, so I was really looking forward to that. When we got there, our maitre d' / waiter came over and passed us the menu, and told us that something was 'missing' from the menu. I thought, well if it's missing then it's not likely that we'll order it would we? But what I then found out was that he meant that the blardy breadfruit gnocchi had been sold out!!! Argh! The substitute recommendation was terrine of mahi-mahi - what is mahi-mahi anyway?!! Still, the food in the restaurant was good, but expensive. Smaller portions than the previous night, but taste-wise...much better.

So anyway, we had booked ourselves on a 4WD tour for Sunday and the pick-up time was 8.30am! *snore* Another bright sunny day today, so it's good. We were picked up in a Land Rover Defender, seats on both sides of the truck facing each other, and our driver/tour guide's name is Frank. There's another couple in the truck already. The guy definitely needed braces...he is what Rod would call "eat an apple through a letterbox". I try not to stare at his teeth in fascination. Wonder how he kisses his girlfriend without biting off her tongue! In fact, wonder how he reaches her mouth, since his teeth would have kept her at 'teeth-length'...ha-ha...okay, that was mean...

We picked up another couple and we're off-road! Actually, just driving on their 'main road' itself already is an off-road experience, I thought. But I wasn't prepared for the real off-road experience. I'm sure they actually go out on the track and regularly carve up bits of the track to make it bumpier! Frank tells us that there are only 8,000 people on Bora Bora island. But they have 6,000 dogs - thanks to a fenceless society, their dogs regularly mate. Something like dog control (or lack of) in KL...breeding a whole of lot of GBDs (generic brown dog) 'coz they are usually brown, with short hair and pointy ears. The Bora Bora equivalent of the KL GBD is shaggier hair, with a mixture of pointy and floppy ears. Some look kind of well looked after, while others are lame and mangy. But they all seem pretty tame.

I try to take photos while on the truck but it was so bumpy that I had to concentrate on not falling face-first into Rod's lap - or worse, Mr. Teeth's lap! Eventually we come to a photo stop, so everyone piles out for photos. Another truck is just right behind us - it was the Italian tour. Oh surprise of surprises! Frank points out stuff that the American GIs had done...the GIs were here during WWII after Pearl Harbour, so panic stations, dump some GIs in another Pacific island. But the Japanese weren't interested in Tahiti, so the GIs who were chosen definitely had a good time waiting for nothing! The one and only entrance into the lagoon was dynamite-d by the GIs - they chose one part of the atoll and blew it up. They also built warehouses and a port for their regular shipments and were in the midst of building a marina when something happened - I can't remember if he said it was that a hurricane hit and the whole place was a mess, or whether it was time to go home. Whichever it is, the marina was never finished.

After a 15-minute stop, we off-roaded back down to the main road. Driving around Bora Bora is very similar to driving around the East Coast of Malaysia. Very kampung feel to the whole place. The strange thing that was pointed out to us was that there are no public cemeteries - everyone buries their dead in their front garden! Frank says that if anyone wants to buy land in Tahiti, to find out if grandpa comes along with it...

We make a stop in pareo-selling hut and get a demonstration on how they do tie-dye pareos. The big momma there does a demo while Italian contingent goes "Bello! Bello!" over and over again. Then there was a pareo-tying short course and they get two girls up to show the different ways of tying pareos. Rod and I had missed the initial 'intro' to the course and we whispered to each other, wondering if these girls had actually bought the pareo or not. Rod thought that they'd feel a real tit if they didn't buy the pareos now that they had them tied on! I actually manage to remember a few Italian words and understood that they were demonstrating one day-wear style and one evening-wear style.

What was interesting also is how the Tahitians don't anchor their boats. Instead they put them on some kind of contraption that suspends the boat within a frame. These frames are scattered all over the island's waters. We also pass by a few churches - they're mostly Protestant, I think. There's only one Catholic church in Bora Bora.

There's not much left of the old Tahitian temples, as the missionaries tore them all down. What's left is only a wall here and there. Turtles are a holy (or royal?!!) symbol for the old Tahitian beliefs. We also pass by a bunker or two, again left behind by the GIs.



Our last stop was at an old ammunitions storage and two guns - there are 8 of them scattered over the island. 2 facing each direction...now just collecting rust and dirt. They were built in 1908 and were initially used for WWI - nearly 100 year old technology! I guess it's not worth the cost and effort in dismantling and removing them from where they are. Plus, what would Frank show on his 4WD tour if they did remove them? He remembers the GIs being on the island, and said that when they left after WWII, leaving everything behind (cars and stuff), the French swooped in and took everything the GIs left behind. And when the GIs heard about that, they turned their ship around, came back into Bora Bora and took back everything that the French took! Makes them sound really heroic doesn't it? According to Frank, his dad had a Jeep left to him by a GI, and apparently this GI told his dad to 'sink his car' for 3 months - which he did - and apparently still runs today!

Frank asks me if I'm Chinese and I said that I'm Malaysian Chinese...he looks at me sceptically and I ask why. He asks me back "Why you look like Tahitian?" and I said that it's probably 'coz I'm dark! Rod then of course jumps in and tells me that it's because I have one of those 'generic' faces that can pass off as anything - Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Tahitian...bastard. Actually, I think that Malays can easily pass off as Tahitian and vice versa. Except that some Tahitian women look like really, really bad men in drag. After the first couple of "are they men or women?" incidents, I gave up as I thought it would be rude for me to think that they are all men in drag. As I think it can't be possible that so many of them are men in drag.

Our tour ends in a Black Pearl farm - typical, but expected. Very polished presentation by the guy there (complete with suit and tie!), but it was unlikely that any one of us was going to buy. The tour lasts for about 20 minutes, and after that, it was drop-off back at the hotel. It was fun, but they should pad up the seats a bit more!

Snorkelling

We didn't have anything else planned for the rest of the day, so decided to spend some time soaking up the sun. Had to build a tan, otherwise who would believe that we'd been on holiday right?!! Anyway, after an hour and a half of lying in the sun, I'd had enough and decided that we could get a kayak from the hotel and go snorkelling instead. We go back round to the hut and got a couple of paddles, a life-jacket for me and dragged the kayak out into sea.

It's hard-going for a while for Rod - he couldn't figure out the paddles. Obviously the 'mechanism' of operating manual paddles is very complicated. I had to tell him to turn the paddles in a figure 8, rather than straight left-right-left motion. Eventually he gets it and we start moving around faster. I'm navigating in front - and I'm sure a lot of people in the other OWBs got woken up from their afternoon naps with "Right! Right! Right"...and "Left! Left! Left!"...and "Right! Left! Right! Left!"

When we paddled past our neighbouring OWB, I craned my neck to see if there was any 'action' going on in there. The couple next door seemed to be having a LOT of 'fun' the night before, we heard the girl's enthusiasm even over the TV set! She was either faking it, or he must have had some 'good lovin' lessons...urgh! Of course Rod is whispering at me furiously, telling me not to be so nosy. Well, if they are going to leave their sliding door to the deck open, then don't blame me if I 'happen' to wander by and look in!!!

We eventually navigate round to where there were a couple of boats who have obviously anchored to allow people to snorkel coz there were a lot of bright orange jackets bobbing about. We try to paddle over, but have a fear of hitting someone on the head with either a paddle or the boat, so we tried to keep our distance. We also got chunks of bread from the basket, but no fish were coming near us. So we tried paddling closer, but nearly hit a snorkeller...and then I realised that even if we were near the snorkellers, we can't both snorkel at the same time, coz who's going to hold on to the kayak? And even if both of us got out and one of us holds on to the kayak, how the hell would we get back in??? Eventually, we just gave up and paddled back to return the kayak to the guy. Saw a total of ZERO fish on our kayak snorkelling trip.

But all is not lost! I kept the life-jacket and we went back to our OWB to snorkel off the platform at the side. That's me in my life jacket...We had chunks of bread left, although it's all soggy by now and it's kind of white mush. Rod sat on the kayak to stop it from floating away - although it wasn't until a day later that we saw what another couple had done. They rent the kayak, paddle it round to their OWB, and then tie it onto the railing so that they could use it whenever they want. Selfish bastards...we should have thought of that too!

There are two main clumps of coral near our OWB - obviously man-made. We could still see the steel wire-frames on the newer corals. Each clump of coral had their own species. On the side facing the open waters, there were a lof of black & white striped fishes, a huge school of long thin fish (like chopsticks), a few schools of boring-looking grey fish and a few of the fish in 'Finding Nemo'. The one in the fish bowl with a scar that tries to bust them all out of the dentist's office. On the other side of the OWB, which is facing our noisy neighbours, this other clump of coral attracted a lot of brigh blue fish, some grey fish and some orange fish. What the hotel should provide really, is a kind of chart so that we could identify what we saw. Over the few days, we actually saw about 15 to 20 different species of fish. There's even a particular orange species that are nocturnal, coz we only saw them in the evenings and at night. But they are no where to be found during the day.

Ray-feeding

We got driven further up from the Starwood clump of hotels and then Patrick stops the motor. Everyone thought that it was time for the rays...we thought we saw shapes in the water, so out comes the camera again. I took a few photos of water and sand before we realised that there's NOTHING in the water...ha-ha! Patrick said that it was just for us to have a swim about - the water is about 3 feet deep and amazingly clear...so the photos of water and sand haven't been wasted after all.

More photos, more photos...

We all put on our snorkels but there wasn't anything to see other than seaweed. At least it was safe for the guy (who thought the sharks would bite) to go into the water. There was nothing in there to bite him. You'll notice blur patches in the photos right in the middle, it's not until we got back that I realised the the lens was smudged...so all photos taken from the video camera looks blurred in the middle. Sigh!

After wading about for about 15 minutes in the shallow water, Patrick calls us back to the boat for 'refreshments'. He has cut up coconut and grapefruit for us! Yummy...he entertains us with more ukulele songs while we got 'refreshed'.

He then starts the boat up again and drives off. We have almost gone full circle from our hotel by now. In fact, we were starting to head for our hotel when he swerves off to the left and then kills the boat engine. It was a repeat of the shark experience - everyone starts seeing shapes before the rays swim up to the boat. Patricks jumps off the side of the boat and the rays come 'flapping' up to him. They bat their 'wings' at his chest and he picks them up and mock-bites them on the snout. Amazing! Everyone takes photos for about 10 minutes without actually going into the water and he has to coax people into the water.

Generic Italian girl 1 thought that she'll be the first one into the water, so she puts on the snorkel, and climbs down the ladder. She's in the water for 2 seconds before the first ray bumps into her. She SCREECHES and paddles/scrambles/splashes her way to the side of the boat and climbs on top of the bar as fast as she could (traditional Tahitian boats have a bar that runs parallel to the side of the boat - for balance I think). The whole boat bursts into laughter - she had a really shocked expression on her face. Of course after this episode, Mr. It Will Bite refused to go into the water and hovers around the front of the boat and laughs at everyone else instead.
Eventually, Italian guy 1 decides that he'll go into the water, followed by Italian guy 2 and then more and more people go into the water (I think there were about 12 of us on the boat). Generic Italian girl 2 went with little fuss, then it was Generic Italian girl 3, who muttered "Dio! Dio! Dio!" the whole time she was climbing down the ladder - which is not a very long ladder either, but it took her about 2 minutes to climb down 2 steps. Then when she got into the water, it turned into "Madonna!" and she wasn't referring to the singer either, I can tell you that!

The water actually looked too deep for me but I thought that I could kind of paddle over to the bar, but it was getting pretty full with Italian girls, but I didn't want to NOT go into the water either. Eventually, I got halfway into the water and Patrick waded over to me and carried me onto his shoulder and put me on the bar! That was really helpful...saved me some dog-paddling at least. But then I had to try to grip onto the bar so that I didn't fall face first into the water, and after a while, my hamstrings got pretty tiring and I started to hyperventilate, imagining all sorts of horrible drowning incidents. I yelled across for Rod to get over to me so that I could hang on to him - he takes his own sweet time in getting over to me.

Finally I'm in the water and it really is too deep for my feet to touch the bottom, but the water is so salty that I can't keep my feet down and they keep bobbing up either in front or at the back! It was hard to concentrate on the rays and keep my feet down at the same time, but eventually I get to rub the back of ONE ray when it swam up to us. Too quickly, Patrick calls us back up to the boat, while I part bob, part wade on Rod's feet to the ladder. When we got back into the boat, out came the tuna fish pail again. I ask him for a piece of tuna to feed the rays, but the refused to come near me! I waggle it about in the water but they completely ignored me - Patrick tried to help by 'throwing' a couple of rays towards me, but they didn't acknowledge my tuna. I gave up and passed the tuna fish back to Patrick.

No photos of rays - just videos this time... :(

Anyway, it was over all too soon. It was time for the picnic now, and Rod and I were the only ones who were cheapskates and didn't take the picnic tour...ha-ha! Patrick radio-ed our hotel boat to come pick us up and while waiting for the boat, we got a farewell song. Well, it's was just really 'Thank you' in various languages but there was nothing else to do anyway. So we got a great big 'BYE' from everyone on the boat - probably relieved that they could now go on to their picnic!!! We got back to the hotel at about 1.30pm...not bad for a half-day.

Shark-feeding

Woke up and the sun was SHINING!!! YES!!! Clear blue skies greeted us on our second day in Bora Bora... :)

We had booked the shark and ray-feeding tour with the reception the night before, and the boat's due to pick us up at the hotel pier at 9.30am. We chose to go for the half-day tour, which covers a circle island tour by boat, shark feeding and ray feeding. For an additional US$30, we could get the full-day tour, that includes a picnic on a private motu (island in Tahiti). But we didn't think that we could eat $30 worth of food to make it worth while.

There's another couple on the pier when we get there - Italians, what a surprise...The boat is about 15 minutes late, on island time. When it finally got there, we saw a couple of familiar faces - we shared the taxi with them from Sofitel Marara into town the day before. The Italian couple get in and guess what? There were already 3 other Italian couples on board!!! We get in the seat right at the front of the boat. Our guide's name is Patrick...I think.

He starts us off on the boat trip - we get serenaded with the ukulele as well. Hotels are pointed out along the way - well, what else would you point out when you're circling the main island and the one thing you can always see is the volcano that created Bora Bora - Mt. Otamanu... What was really annoying though, was the Italian guy who's sitting behind us (the couple at the pier ahead of us), who talks the entire time that Patrick is speaking. And he has that piercing Italian-o tone which makes it quite impossible to hear Patrick above him!

But the view that we get is absolutely amazing. The colour of the sea is an brilliant turquoise that looks like a kid's painting - it just seems unnatural! It changes from deep turquoise to bright turquoise in patches. Out in the distance, we can see the waves breaking on the atolls that surround the main island. Mt. Otamanu is the peak of the volcano, and the atolls is what's remained of the mouth of the volcano once the sea's flooded in. The water in the island is always calm, as it's actually a lagoon, but not necessarily shallow. The depths of the lagoon's waters range from 200 feet to 2 feet.

Patrick is driving us further and further out towards the atoll...and the breaking waves are HUGE! Don't think it's safe for surfing though...He finally stops the boat in about 5 feet of water and everyone's looking around to see what we've stopped for. We see shapes coming towards us...the sharks are here!

Rod starts humming the theme tune from Jaws (predictable!) and then sings a song from the film..."Farewell and adieu my fair Spanish ladies..." and it then sticks in my head the rest of the day! Argh! Eventually, we make out that there are about 5 black-tipped sharks swimming around us. The biggest one looks about 5 feet in length, not very big or scary at all. But exciting to see them up close. Everyone starts putting on their snorkel masks and reef shoes to jump in, except for the couple from Marara. The guy was worried about getting bitten!!!

Rod jumps in before me, to check how deep the water is. He says that it's okay for me to get in, but just barely. I pass him the underwater camera, since I didn't think I'd be able to manage camera and snorkel and keep afloat all at the same time. I take photos from the boat. But I couldn't imagine going on the tour and not getting into the water, so I quickly put away the camera and climbed down the ladder into the water. The water's just above my shoulders, so I was fairly 'safe' to snorkel.

Patrick allows us about 30 minutes to snorkel but we weren't allowed to feed the sharks. He's the only one who does the feeding - once he was sure that everyone had gotten back on the boat, he took out a pail of fresh tuna fish and starts throwing chunks into the water for the sharks. It was the 'photo opp' of the tour! Quick, take more photos! Take more photos!

He starts up the boat again and takes us further round the island - there's a stretch of island (on the atoll side) where the Starwood Group must have decided to over-populate. Le Meridien is already there, they recently completed and opened St. Regis and are in the midst of building 4 Seasons there - with 100 rooms!!!! It already looks very high-density and it's not even half completed yet. On top of that, the side of the main island they face is the...drum roll...rubbish dump, where they burn their rubbish on a daily basis. So it's a really expensive view to pay for. Was trying to spot the St. Regis before Patrick pointed it out - using magazine pictures of Nicole and Keith as reference. I was right in my guess too! Sad sod that I am...

Night out

After referring to the list of restaurants from the trusty forum, I decided on 'La Bounty' - it's got good reviews, but most importantly, it's supposed to be 'reasonable prices' (for Bora Bora that is!). We walk to the reception to ask for the boat and while waiting, thought we'd take some photos of the view across on the main island. These are the bungalows of another resort - I think it's the Inter-Continental Moana, just re-opened after extensive refurbishment.

We were told that the restaurant's only a 5 minute walk away, so no transport provided for us tonight. We walked out onto the muddy street that had no street lights - just barely made out the puddles in the road from on-coming traffic. The main road is paved for the most parts, but lucky us - the stretch in between our hotel and the restaurant is the part that is mostly UN-paved. Full of puddles and potholes...which is just as well, since the cars slowed down while driving past, so we didn't have to worry about getting splashed by zooming cars.

I told myself that I'll be trying the 'national' dish of poisson cru - raw tuna (not sure if it's tuna all the time, or just any fish?) marinated in coconut milk and lemon/lime juice, with cucumber, carrots and tomatoes. It's a cold appetiser dish - but the portion that came was enough for a main course! Of course there was no way that Rod would try it since it's fish, but I thought it was quite good. Couldn't finish the entire portion, as I'd have been sick before main course. Other than the poisson cru, nothing really spectacular about the food. It was okay food, but nothing to write home about.

The only highlight of the evening was Rod spotting a huge mud crab sitting about two feet behind me. When the couple (who were nearer the crab) saw us pointing and staring at the ground behind the girl, they too turned and had a look. There was an animated conversation in Italian (heard a lot more Italian than French in French Polynesia, funnily enough! I thought they all went to Sardegna for the summer!!! Ha-ha!), which then caught the attention of another Italian couple sitting nearby. And when the other Italian guy saw the crab, he immediately whipped out his camera and ran over for a close-up - "Bello!Bello!" - he kept saying. Although I'm not sure I agree with his opinion. Anyway, after a few shots, he went back to his table. But this couple had enough of the crab, so the guy took their umbrella and nudged it over the rail into the garden.

But 10 minutes later, it crawled back! The girl tried the umbrella thing again, which pissed it off enough to try to pinch the umbrella with its pincers. It would have been fine if it stayed where it was. Unfortunately, it started to inch towards me!!! I heard Rod saying "Do you want the umbrella? Do you want the umbrella?" but I was too distracted with watching where the damn crab was going to go, so didn't answer him. Then it suddenly sped up towards my feet and I let out a loud screech and stuck my feet up in the air. Did Rod come to my rescue? NOOOO!!!

The Italian girl came over with the umbrella and she manages to stick the umbrella under my chair a few times, and then suddenly I felt something brush against my calf and thought, "Oh my god, it's attacking me!" - while the girl was telling me "Aspetta, aspetta" - "Wait, wait". I couldn't bloody wait while the crab was attacking me, so I jumped up and turned around to see my rescuer jab at the crab. And what was Rod doing? He was STILL in his chair, WITH HIS FEET STUCK UP IN THE AIR!!!! Talk about being a hero...and HE had the bloody umbrella with him! I think by that time the crab had had enough of commotion and it ran over the rail into the garden, and then skittered all the way along the rail to the front of the restaurant. By that time, half of the restaurant patrons were hanging over the rail to see what the noise was all about!

Well, I can now add 'crab' to the list of things that I wouldn't expect Rod to 'save' me from. Top of the list being 'creepy crawlies' of course...anything with more than 4 legs (dogs are okay) but less than 8 legs (spiders are okay), has some form of wings and feelers.

Exploring

Just as the boat bumps against the side of the hotel pier, we see a guy in a sarong blow into one of those shell-horns (like the kind you see in "Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves...ha-ha!). Then he gets out his ukulele and starts jangling a song to welcome us. A Japanese girl is on the pier with two umbrellas - fortunately the rain has slowed to a drizzle by now, so we didn't need them! We get walked up from the pier to a small hut/shed - it's where to go to get kayaks, snorkel equipment, life jackets, etc. She shows us a hanging basket and reached in but it's empty - she said that it's usually full of bread to feed the fish, and then tells us where there's good snorkelling around the island.

This is our outside of our OWB, photo taken in the evening...

After checking in and being shown the room, we thought we'd snorkel off the OWB. I send Rod in to check the depth of the water - it's too deep for me, so I just stand at the side to watch...sigh, I should learn to swim one of these days. It's quite chilly with no sun and a sea breeze blowing. After about half an hour checking out the fish, we decide to go into 'town' - the hotel provides a shuttle, which the manager neglected to say costs 600 French Polynesian Francs (I think the abbreviation is CPFs), which is about US$6 for the return trip. We were told by the driver once we got dropped off - obviously when it's too late for us to do anything else other than dig into our wallets for the money! It's not much of a town really...there's only ONE road that runs round the entire island, so it's impossible to get lost - as we were told numerous times.

'Town' is actually called Vaitape - it's got a cluster of low, small shop-houses that sells tourist arts & crafts, tourist t-shirts and tourist souvenirs. Hmm, is it me or does there seem to be a theme here...Driving into Vaitape is kind of like driving through to the East Coast kampungs...it's kind of strange.

But to be fair, it really is Bora Bora's town centre after all, so there's also a small rental shop for videos, DVDs, PS2/XBox/PSP games, etc. The film titles were pretty up-to-date on the American films, although I can't comment on the French film titles! We also drove by what looked like an open-air arena - we had just missed the annual French Polynesian festival in July, called the Heiva, so maybe the arena/stalls were still set up.

What we really wanted though was a local supermarket called Chin Lee! Yes...apparently 5% of the French Polynesian population is made up of Chinese! It was quite strange for me to see Chinese-looking people speaking fluent French and Tahitian. I had also mistakenly brought a pair of shoes with me that had small heels - which is fine for walking on concrete floors, pavements, etc. BUT! Our room to the reception = walkway made of planks; Reception to pier = walkway made of planks; Marara pier to Marara reception = walkway made of planks...so there was a really urgent need to buy a pair of flat slippers!!!

Anyway, we have a quick wander through the supermarket to get the essentials for the next few days, i.e. cereal, milk, drinks, crisps...plus a pair of slippers. All of that cost us about US$45!!! How do people live here??!! We also wanted to buy a plugpoint converter, as we'd forgotten to pack one (although if you ask Rod, he'll say that I'm the one that forgot!). We track through mud and rain - fortunately the duty manager had gotten us a large double umbrella - and wandered into every tourist shop but NO converter to be found. Each shop directed us to yet another shop, but there were none to be found in Vaitape. Our only hope lied with the manager, who had already been sent on the mission to find one for us.

I did buy a box of Vanilla Tea though...since vanilla is supposed to be a Bora Bora specialty. Was tempted to buy vanilla beans (although they looked nothing like beans - more like dried stalks!), but since I didn't know what I'd do with vanilla beans, I thought better of it. The other Bora Bora specialty is soap - but there's only so much soap we could use. And when you've used ONE soap, you've used them all...Plus, Rod and I have amassed so many toiletries from various hotels over the past few years that it was unlikely that we'd ever run out in the house!

Having given up, we then went to a small, very Malaysian-style 'coffee shop' called "La Appetiserie" - I think. Well, as long as no one who reads this is fluent in French, it's probably spelled right! It was on a list I found in another forum, so it's at least 'on the radar'. We had a 'jambon et frommage croissant' (a high class ham & cheese sandwich), a vanilla cream tart and two milk shakes. Won't even mention prices of food from now on...gulp!

Rod decided that it was time to show him linguistic skills and says that he reckons that he knows about 50 Malay words...no, make that 100 Malay words! I challenge him to list them all...including telling me what they mean, and numbers don't count either. He starts off quite well with the usual makan, minum, tak faham, boleh, diam...by about 20, he was starting to struggle and I had to feed him some clues. He tries a few phrases but didn't really know what they meant...so they weren't counted. By the time we got onto the van, he was at about 90 words - which he was extremely smug about. I'm mildly impressed...

Anyway, it's time for dinner...

Arriving in Bora Bora

First real day of our Bora Bora holiday!

After reading the posts on various message boards, I'm convinced that we have to sit on the left-hand side of the plane for the best views when flying in to Bora Bora. But it's clouded over, so I'm worried if we'd be able to see anything out of the window. It's supposed to look like this:


We got free transfers from hotel to the airport and when we got there, we find out that there is an earlier flight than the one we're booked on, so we rush to the desk to ask if we could get onto that flight, as it takes us in in one hour earlier than originally scheduled! We thought we were on to a fantastic start when the lady told us that we could get on - that left us with about a 15-minute wait to board! Brilliant!

As all inter-island flights are free seating, I was getting very kiasu about the rest of the people crowding round to get on the plane first. Of course I wanted to be in front of the plane, on the left-hand side for the best views (and hopefully minimal air-sickness!).

There's an older couple in their 60s - the woman looked really bossy with a fussy-looking flowered hat, so obviously I hated her on sight. When the flight was finally called, she managed to push her way in front of me - which really pissed me off, as she just put on this 'wide-eyed innocent ol' me?' look and squirmed her way forward.

Well, she tried it with the wrong person later, as she tried to worm her way further forward and a guy with a 'don't piss me off lady' look about him grabbed her arm just as she was inching her way past him. He glared at her (through his sunglasses, so that's quite impressive!) and gestured to stand behind him and wait in line. She had such a shocked look on her face that it was worth her being in front of me, just so I could see that!

Anyway, it was all for nothing, as everyone wanted to sit nearest the exit - which was to the back of the plane. So there was plenty of seats left up front, on the left hand side of the plane! Woo-hoo!!! I made sure we got seats in front of the propeller, so that the photos wouldn't have propellers in them...On top of that, stupid flowered-hat woman got a seat on the right hand side of the plane behind the propellers - so she had no view, and whatever she could see would be blocked by propellers. So there! Hah!

After about 40 minutes, we see land through a lot of clouds...our first view of the French Polynesian islands. Quick dig into the camera bag for the digital camera and video camera!!! Our first photo of one French Polynesian island - but not Bora Bora...

Our first view of Bora Bora followed shortly after, but my choice of seats wasn't that good after all. And we weren't far away enough from the bloody propellers after all...so this is the result. Bugger! I think it's Le Meridien, but I can't be sure...



Once landed, we head towards the hotel 'desk' for our flower leis - which is standard - and the girl tells us to get our bags, and that the boat isn't at the pier yet, since we arrived early. She says that it's another 20 minutes before the boat gets in! So we look on in envy while everyone else on our flight piles onto their hotel boats.

Oh but wait! Flowered-hat woman is also waiting, as HER boat wasn't in yet either! That's a small comfort but I could have happily waved at her from our hotel boat, if we had thought about letting the hotel know ahead of time that we got on the earlier flight!!! Argh! Lost our 'time advantage'...

The girl at the desk waves us over to her, she's got the phone on her shoulder - we thought maybe she's gotten the hotel to send another boat out to get us. Rod speaks to the person on the line and was very polite. When he put the phone down, I was asking if they were sending another boat out but he said that the person had told him that because it was a 30-minute ride, they can't send one boat out, and then another one to pick up the next plane's passengers. Dammit!

Our boat finally arrives - and it didn't look like the Le Meridien boat. It was much smaller and less 'glamourous' than the other hotel's boat. Quite disappointed - thought that I could at least have a nice boat after the wait! Humph...Anyway, the other plane has landed by then and they load our luggage and ONE OTHER COUPLE's luggage on board. After an hour's wait, we were only waiting for TWO MORE PEOPLE?!!! How annoying!!!

On top of that, it had started to rain and I thought that the people in the office must have cursed us, since so many of them said to me "Hope it rains!" the day before. They were a Chinese couple from the US - but the girl had a really Singaporean accent. Obviously newly-weds, since their wedding rings were so spotless/scratch-less! The guy has a big video camera in his hand and hogs the small opening at the back of the boat to film the boat ride - on a good day, the plastic flaps at the side would have been opened, and it wouldn't have been so selfish. Then the girl pulls out this huge digital SLR camera and starts taking photos of her new husband, of splashing water, of the back of the boat, of rainy skies...sigh, new love! Then the guy goes to his huge backpack, unzips it and it's a HUGE camera bag full of lenses, flash, paraphernalia!!! Talk about taking photography seriously. Fortunately it's to put his over-sized video camera away, otherwise I would have sneered...and that wouldn't be too nice. Ha-ha!

We're staying at the Sofitel Motu and they were staying at the Sofitel Marara...sister hotels, but the Motu is on a small island off the main Bora Bora island, no facilities, just the overwater bungalows. I know, I know...you're probably thinking "Sofitel?!!! Eeeee....so yucks!" But I checked out the website and other reviews and it's actually classified as a 5-star - since I didn't go into other hotels, don't know if it's comparable to the more 'established' brands like Le Meridien (yes, I know I've mentioned Le Meridien about 5 times already!) or Sheraton.

On a good day, our hotel looks like this from the boat. But since it wasn't a good day when we arrived, we didn't get that good a view through the rain-soaked plastic sheets...

Our over-water bungalow (OWB) is the one on the far left hand side, facing away from the main island. We had a 'horizon' bungalow - which presumably refers to the view of the horizon from our OWB.