Bijou of the South Pacific - Non, je ne pense pas

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16/03/07 - 17/03/07 Tahiti - Bijou of the South Pacific - Non, je ne pense pas

A 2-day stopover in French Polynesia turned out to be plenty of time. Tahiti is expensive and from the moment we stepped of the plane, we met moody, sultry people. The taxis from the airport to the hotels are ludicrously expensive for the distance traveled and have the cheek to charge you a set price for the distance and then and additional charge per piece of luggage that you are carrying!! Tip - use one huge bag!!

It was strange to sit in a smoky, Parisian decor café in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, ordering a Croque Monsieur and Café Au Lait and it really did feel French.

The Inter-continental Hotel was constantly busy. The lobby area was like it’s own village community and actually seemed to have more people coming and going then some towns we’ve passed through on our travels. The Lagoonarium (a bastardization of Lagoon and Aquarium) was a great feature for novice snorkellers. We swam around, snorkeling with stingrays and tropical fish in water shallow enough to stand up in. The evening shows were excellent with more grass skirts, booty shakin’ and allegedly 2 times world champion, fire dancer. Tres Fantastique!

For our final 24 hours we hired a car and drove round the island. Our plan was to photograph Tahiti but it rained so hard and all day long that we actually couldn’t get out of the car. What we could see of the island looked incredibly green and fertile but most of it was covered in grey cloud. We stopped en route around the island at 2 spots and dodged the raindrops - the Gauguin museum, with fascinating information on the live of the artist and noticeably none of his paintings and further along the route, a small grotto where locals swam under the shelter of a cave.

Our flight was at the unearthly time of 02:20 made even worse with a 2 hour delay and we arrived in LA. Our sprinting shoes were tightly laced and when the seatbelt sign blinked off we ran the race to the LAX immigration hall… and incredibly it was empty, and we waltzed through in 5 minutes AND we were actually prepared with the address that we were staying at in LA, so absolutely no problems at all. Horrah!

I’m sure that there’s some beautiful places in French Polynesia, and some friendly people, AND some decent weather but we saw none of the above and were pleased to see the back of the place. Au revoir Tahiti - or maybe NOT!!

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Comments

[john guy]

o well the girls looked good