Blogs from French Polynesia, Oceania - page 40

Day 18 - February 1, 2007, Thursday, At Sea—Bound for Bora Bora Time: 6:15 am (8:15 CST) Latitude: 23 degrees 29.35 minutes S Longitude: 136 degrees 58.78 minutes W Speed: 19.4 knots average Seas: 1.5 - 4 feet, slight Winds: Moderate breeze Miles traveled from FLL: 6310 nautical miles Weather: Partly Cloudy/rainy, 78 degrees Clocks back another hour last night. Day 19 - February 2, 2007, Friday, At Sea—Bound for Bora Bora Time: 5:47 am (9:47 CST) Latitude: 20 degrees 13.11 minutes S Longitude: 145 degrees 23.90 minutes W Speed: 19.5 knots average Seas: 1.5 - 4 feet, slight Winds: Moderate breeze Miles traveled from FLL: 6807 nautical miles Weather: Partly Cloudy, 80 degrees Distance Remaining to Bora Bora: 449 nautical miles Clocks back another hour last night. We are getting further and further away from ... read more

Gene and I decided that we would spend our final day on the Tahitian Islands learning about its history and culture, so we booked two tickets on the tour bus. Little did we know, we were hopping on the bandwagon of old fogies. On a better note, our tour guide turned out to be a very educated Tahitian woman with broken English, but a mad sense of humor. She went to school for accounting and spent time studying in Fiji. She claims that she is still in the process of mastering the English language, her 4th language. She originally worked in an office as an accountant for a period of time, but later determined to take a 50% pay cut to drive a tour bus and meet people from all the world. Her motto: “Just go ... read more

Gene and I started our morning off on the internet after Gene hacked into somebody’s IP address…ah, the benefits of being married to a computer geek. We spent the entire morning again locked inside of our room as the rain pelted our roof. As Gene stood at the reception desk for check-out, a French news reporter approached him and asked him about our stay. As I sat with all of our luggage, I chuckled as I watched Gene struggle with the language barrier, trying to find an alternate way to convey the meaning of “a break in the 8-year drought.” Well, once you tell a news reporter that the Bali Hai Hotel is your first stop in your around-the-world travels, you quickly become an interesting news story. Needless to say, Gene and I will be searching ... read more

Today, Gene and I rented two bicycles and took a tour of the island. Hopping onto my beach cruiser, my leg muscles quickly reminded me just how many years it has been since I last rode a bike. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the Tahitians overly friendly. I felt as though I was in a Disney movie as I journeyed down the main road and was greeted, “bon jour” with a nod and wave by the locals. We have quickly learned how friendly the Tahitians are. Gene, being the gentleman that he is, volunteered to ride the defective bike - its handle bars were loose and the chain consistently fell off. On one occasion, a local Tahitian crossed the road to assist Gene with his bike chain. Even the little children smiled and greeted us ... read more

It is day 1 of our trip. Funny, I thought that I was beginning our adventure in a tropical paradise…tropical, yes..paradise, not quite…it has been raining cats and dogs since we got here. Nonetheless, it makes for an interesting travel experience. Gene and I spent our last night in the states out to dinner with some friends. Lesson of the day: Do not mix muscle relaxers with alcohol. I had two glasses of wine and was three sheets to the wind. However, I did sleep 8 hours of our 10 hour flight to Tahiti, so it all seemed to balance itself out in the great scheme of things. Believe it or not, dumb and dumber arrived in Tahiti in one piece. (Speaking of dumber, Gene just came into the room to tell me that he has ... read more