French Polynesia

I: Te Mau Motu Herehia - The Beloved Islands.

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:51:04 -0800

Depending on who you talk to, Tahiti is wonderful; Tahiti is boring; Tahiti is a shimmering tropical paradise of sun, crystal clear water, verdant views, and friendly people; or Tahiti is a hot, humid nondescript place. There are people who cannot get enough of the islands; there are others who don’t like Tahiti, because they speak French as their lingua franca.

French Polynesia to be a wonderful place to visit; many artists and writers come here to let their creative juices flow. It is a writer’s paradise. Te parataito o te mau moana i ‘apato’a. Well, maybe not necessarily so now in the island of Tahiti and in the capital Papeete, but certainly in the other islands. Tahiti is like Hawaii in many respects. In the dry season the weather is beautiful, maybe a little warm. In the rainy season it gets more uncomfortable. The tourism infrastructure is there and working well, so you get all the services you need. On the other, the place is not as crassly over-commercialized as in Hawaii. And as you go the other islands, you’ll find the more relaxed lifestyle people talk and wax lyrical about.

We were lucky with the weather. In December, the rainy season, it can rain for hours or days on end. The average rainfall in Tahiti for December is 11”. But when we were there, it was essentially dry all 17 days; . Sure, it was cloudy most of the time, which was fine, because that cuts down the sharp hot rays of the sun. And December is also the low season, so there were fewer other tourists around. The first big downpour we encountered was when we came home and stepped out of San Jose airport in California.

The Archipelago

People usually only talk about Tahiti, but Tahiti is just one island, albeit the most important one, in the whole of French Polynesia, which is a group of islands spread out over a vast expanse of ocean. The total area of the 120 or so major islands comprise of only about 1,365 sq miles in an ocean of about 2 million sq miles.

These Islands were formed millions of years ago from columns of magma rising from the deep ocean floor thousands of feet below the water surface and finally emerging above the surface of the ocean. Over the ensuing eons, coral reefs developed around their perimeters, as crustaceans breed, live, and die close to the shores. Remember, the ocean is very deep just outside these reefs. But as time progressed, the islands slowly started to sag back into the ocean, but the coral reefs stayed where they were formed. So the current islands have coral reefs at some distance from the shores, which had retracted as the island sinks. Lagoons are formed in this void. In some islands volcanic eruption may have blown the top of these islands away, and you will see the outlines of a caldera in the lagoons. In the area between the coral reefs and the island proper the lagoons are shallow and rich in aquatic life. These coral reefs encircle the whole island and it is very tricky to find an opening in the reef for a vessel to sail from the deep open ocean, where the water is rough, into the shallow lagoon, where the waters are shallow and calm. In some places, such as in Rangiroa, the island has already completely disappeared in the water and what is left behind is just the coral reef in a huge circle.

Another interesting observation is that the difference between high tide and low tide is not more than 20 inches. This is because there is an amphidromic point at Tahiti. At an amphidromic point the tidal range is essentially zero because of the Coriolis effect and the interference of the water within oceanic basins, seas and bays. It sounds like a suitable word to impress your next date. Unless he/she/it is an oceanologist, and then you are in deep, hot water.

left: Because of the low tidal range, you can build a house on a minuscule motu (island) just a few inches above the water level in the lagoon. This one is in Bora Bora. In the back is the surf from the ocean against the reef. One of the advantages of living close to an amphidromic point

Most of the tourists to French Polynesia only come to the Society Islands, a cluster of islands comprising of Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Raiatea, Tahaa, and a few other smaller islands. Rangiroa belongs to the Tuamotu islands.

The Tiare Tahiti.

This national emblem of French Polynesia is a beautiful white flower, the latin name of which, Gardenia taitensis, carries the name of the country. This in itself is unusual. You will see the emblem on the tail of the Tahiti Nui planes, as the logo of the Bank of Tahiti, the Tahitian Tourist Bureau and many other institutions and shops. But when you count the number of petals on these logos, you’ll find different numbers; it can be 5, 6, 7, or 8. Botanically speaking this is unusual because most flowers have a fixed number of petals. Unless the flower has lots of petals, like roses. So who is right. Everyone; this flower has either 5, 6, or 7 petals. Occasionally, you’ll find one with 8 petals. And if you find one with 9 petals, you must have caroused too much the night before or it is time to buy a ticket to the lottery.

The tiare has a fragrance reminiscent of honey, chocolate and cinnamon. It was given by the god Ātea, guardian of the world, to the mortals in Tahiti, who at that time were spending most of their time bickering and quarreling with each other. But when they were given the flower and they saw the beauty of the flower, they were overwhelmed. They became simple, altruistic and friendly. In later years Ātea tried giving the flower to the Israelis and the Palestinians; he was rebuffed by both sides. Yes, even gods become ineffective and impotent with age.

The Tahitian Monoï

What else can you do with these flowers besides enticing members of the opposite sex into pleasures untold. Make Monoï, of course, the cosmetic cream to rejuvenate and condition your skin and hair to make your eternally young, attractive, and beautiful. The Tiare Tahiti flowers are harvested when they are still buds and within 24 hours mixed with the pulp of a freshly grated coconut. The mixture is then left to macerate for a minimum of ten days, after which the oil is separated. Voila, you have the original Tahitian Monoï in your hands. And since coconut oil is the base, you can also process the Monoï into soap.

So forget those overpriced synthetic creams and lotions from Orlane and Lançome; Opt for the Tahitian Monoi, the environmentally friendly stuff, made from natural products only. Al Gore will approve.

The Coconut Tree

From the Tiare we have discovered the Monoï. And from the Monoï I am now going to talk about the coconut tree. In French Polynesia the coconut tree is everywhere. It is arguably the most important tree in the whole area, because so much of the tree can be used. The fruit contains a sweet-tasting elixir and the soft sweet meat, which can be made into copra. The leaves can be used for roof covering, and from the fibers of the husk, a coarse, but almost indestructible rope can be formed to lash their canoes together. Coconut husks are split in two and the halves are used as brassieres by the traditional female dancers, even though they must be highly uncomfortable jiggling around, especially for the more generously endowed. Well, they can always get some Monoï to rub away the chafes.

right: Well, not all coconuts are used as food source. This particular subspecies is more used for medicinal purposes.

Most of the fruit-bearing trees have a 15” or so wide aluminum band around the trunk some 8’ above the ground. These are to protect the fruit from the rats who would love to climb up the trees and partake of nature’s bounty. But why not put these bands at shoulder height, instead of finding a ladder to install them that high. That is because the rats take a running start from the ground to skip over the slippery aluminum surface. But by placing the bands high enough, they will have lost sufficient momentum by the time they get there, so they cannot get past these barriers. And then, after a second of indecision, they slide back to terra firma, looking rather foolishly at their colleagues in the process.

The tree is also useful in a hurricane. In the olden days, you would look for a sturdy tree, situated not too high, yet also not too low above the water level, and lop off all the leaves away. When the hurricane comes, you would go to the tree and lash yourself around its trunk, and pray to God, all your patron saints, and also to the local deities, just for good measure, for deliverance. Apparently a lot of people did survive by this method.

Where did the coconut tree come from? It is said it originated in the Indo-Malaysia-Melanesia triangle and was brought to the islands during the first migrations. Well, the real story you should know is different.1

What happened was that there lived in Tererauta a very pretty girl named Hina, who was also the daughter of the local king. When she became old enough her father looked for a prospective husband and found out that the Prince of the Puhi (eels) would be happy to marry her. But he lived in a lake high up in the mountains. So on the day of the wedding, princess Hina climbed the mountain, which was impassable except by going on the banks of the stream coming from the lake to the sea. After crossing the stream some 83 times, because of the thick shrubbery on the banks, she finally managed to reach the lake. There she met her future husband for the first time. Jikes!! He was just like a huge eel, and terribly unprepossessing looking too.

So she hastily ran down the mountain to look for her brother for help. The Eel knew of a shortcut so he was already down there waiting for her, but the brother had heard her cries of anguish and was also there. Princess Hina was still horrified when she met the Eel again, and shouted to her brother to kill him. So the brother grabbed the Eel, but the Eel managed to say a few words to the princess before her brother cut off his head.

What to do now? Her brother had already checked in Wikipedia what to do next, so he put the head in a basket and told princess Hina that she should carry the basket home. But she should not put the basket down before she reached her destination.” Bury the “puhi’s” head in the village and all will be well,” he said. Since he was her older brother, Princess Hina dutifully trudged downhill, carrying the basket with the severed head of her would-be husband on her head. She was getting warmer and warmer carrying the heavy basket and the waters in the stream were very enticing. So she finally put the basket down to take a cool dip in the water. But right away the ground started shaking and the basket disappeared in the ground. And where the basket was, soon a small tree started growing up. It was long and slender, just like the eel.

Years later the princess came by and saw the tree. It was now mature and bearing a lot of fruit. Like the eel, it was slim and straight, topped by a bunch of enormous leaves. It was the first coconut tree on earth. She was curious how the fruit would taste. So she climbed up the tree and harvested a coconut. With her machete she sliced off a section of its top, which uncovered a flat surface. On that surface were with three holes in a triangle, as if they were two eyes and a mouth. She could smell the sweet nectar inside the fruit. So she made the mouth hole a bit larger, put the coconut to her face, and then drank the sweet juices of the fruit to quench her thirst. She was happy and satisfied.

And then princess Hina remembered what the prince of Eels had said to her just before her brother had cut off his head: “You will kill me today, but one day you will kiss my lips and my body fluids will then enter you.”

Princess Hina and the Moon

Princess Hina, who lived on Mototapu, used to to look at the Moon as it came out of the horizon and wondered how the Moon would look like close by. Being a can-do women, she decided to explore. So late one afternoon she took her canoe, and paddled through the Teavapiti pass in the reef; that is also the direction to the horizon, where the moon would rise. Her timing was impeccable, because she arrived at the horizon just when the Moon appeared, and so she gingerly stepped on the Moon. She had arrived on the moon and she didn’t need, as Doug Pearson noted, a capital outlay of billions of dollars, as the Americans did, to get there.

What she found was that the shadow on the moon was actually a huge banyan tree. She climbed the tree. And then she noticed that the branches would be ideal to make good tapa cloth. She started breaking some of them off and in that process a few of them fell off all the way to the Earth. And this is how the banyan tree came into Tahiti. And we are grateful to princess Hina, an authoritative source, because we now know that the moon is neither Stilton nor Roquefort cheese.

Chickens in French Polynesia.

There are chickens everywhere running around. They behave like regular free-range chickens but they are wild. They also serve an important ecological function by keeping the islands clean of centipedes and similar grisly wildlife.

. left: Wild chickens roaming around.

There are no chicken farms, as far as we can see, and chicken is very much on the menu in may places. I suspect this is where a lot of chickens end up.

!!! I am indebted to Douglas Pearson, lecturer, guide, and master storyteller, for many of the very entertaining stories in this article. He lives in Moorea1.

II: Getting to Tahiti

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:16:14 -0800

The Saga of American Airlines

To get to French Polynesia most people fly into the capital city of Papeete, located on the island of Tahiti. It is a long way to get there. But Air Tahiti Nui flew us from Los Angeles to Papeete in 8.5 hours, which is actually just a few hours more than flying from LAX to Hawaii. American Airlines wanted 150,000 frequent flyer miles in exchange for two round-trip tickets in steerage from San Francisco to Papeete with a transfer in LAX both ways. Layover going out was a reasonable two hours; coming back the layover was 3 days. Yes, three days. I don’t have any strong feelings against Los Angeles, but to stay in LAX for three days when I want to get back home is worse than having to watch Jersey Shores.

We called American Airlines numerous times to see whether this layover could be reduced to a few hours, but no flights were ever available. I pointed out that we were coming in LAX on Christmas Day. Nobody travels on Christmas Day and American Airlines even had a sale going for certain days, including Dec 25, for the LAX-SFO leg. The agent agreed that there were a lot of seats left on Dec 25, but not for the unwashed low-priority masses with frequent flyer miles. She did helpfully offer to get us these discounted tickets, at a few dollars less than what Southwest charges, but it was $25 extra for purchases not through the internet, and then additional bag charges for that leg. And possible cancellation charges too. No, thank you.

But at 7 a.m. in the morning of departure, we were told that the SFO-LAX for our 1 p.m. flight had been canceled, and could we come in for the 10 a.m. SFO-LAX flight. Of course not; and the upshot was that we had to fly out from and back to San Jose. That’s the one in California, not the one in Costa Rica. But at least the return flight from LAX to San Jose was on Dec 25.

Arrival in Papeete was at 11 p.m. We thought we had reservation with Fare Suisse, who would pick us up. But there was a misunderstanding, and there was no reservation. So we ended up in the Airport Motel, maybe 500 yards from the airport and very visible on a hill in front of the airport exit. Heeding a warning from a post in TravelAdvisor, that it was not easy to get there on foot, we took a taxi. For the 5 minute ride to get there, the friendly taxi driver charged us CFP 1,700 or, around US$19. Tahiti is expensive or he was fleecing us, because we were obviously tourists.

Well, French Polynesia is expensive and the standard rate for a taxi trip in Tahiti is apparently CFP 1,000. After 8 p.m. the rates go up 50 %, and after midnight the rates double. Luggage rates are CFP 100/bag. So CFP 1700 was quite standard; he could have charged us CFP 2200, because it was actually past midnight when we arrived at the motel. The Airport Motel charged us US$ 150/night for a small, clean, Motel 6 type room, but it lacked the honeyed voice of Tom Bodett. The air conditioning worked, hooray. And the price included continental breakfast for two, which was watery orange juice, cereal, a large baguette with jam, a croissant, and coffee or tea. And a guest told us at breakfast that the hotel would have picked us up, if we had called them or made arrangements in advance.

But we were in Tahiti. It was somewhat hot and humid, but there was a sea breeze which felt wonderful.

The next morning we managed to get two more couples to join us in renting a large taxi to get to the cruise terminal, which was still about 10 miles away. All of us were going on the Royal Princess for a ten-day cruise of French Polynesia. For 6 passengers and lots of bags the driver charged us CPF 3,000 only. A steal. Most people are actually nice and friendly in French Polynesia.

Papeete.

left: Waterfront of Papeete

Papeete, the capital, has been developed along the waterfront, and downtown is therefore an elongated area adjacent to the harbor. The cruise terminal was right at the middle of the town. The city is compact and almost everything is within walking distance, if you don’t mind the heat. We have our orange umbrella.

Like many capital cities in paradise, the pristine sheen has disappeared. There are too many people around trying to make a living with a few falling off the fringes. Yes, the people are still very friendly, they often get in a group to play the banjo and ukelele on the streets just for fun, there are no beggars or panhandlers, and you feel quite safe from violent crime. Of course, as befitting large cities, there is a lot of petty crime. I used my credit card once and found to my surprise that the receipt showed the full credit card number and date of expiration. No xxx xxx to hide the first 10 numbers or so.. Then I accidentally lost this receipt and the finder gratefully used it to make some purchases. Handy.

After checking in and having a copious lunch on board we took a walk to explore the city. Walking in the southwesterly direction on Boulevard Pomare, the main drag along the water, we passed a quiet, green, oasis. This was Bougainville Park. It sported a lily-covered pond, as well as a gurgling stream, which meandered through the tree-shaded gardens. This used to be Queen Pomare’s favorite bathing pool, when she lived nearby at the Place Tarahoi. Two old cannons were pointing in the direction of the harbor. Looking at the breech of the first one, we saw the following inscription: “Krupp 1899”.

right: Cannon in Bougainville Park pointing menacingly at the “Royal Princess” in Papeete harbor.

So what was this old German cannon doing in French Polynesia?

The Seeadler.

During World War I, the Germans wanted to disrupt Allied shipping in the Atlantic by sending out “Commerce Raiders” to sink as many Allied ships as possible. But the Allies had effectively bottled up the German warships in the North Sea, and any warships who succeeded in breaking out lacked bases for the resupply of coal. Yes, they were still using coal then to stoke their boilers.

So the idea was born to equip a sailing ship. The Seeadler was a 1571 ton steel-hulled three-masted sailing vessel 245 feet long. It was equipped with an auxiliary engine and had two hidden 105 mm cannons on deck. These cannons were concealed under and in the lifeboats in a space which was created longitudinally in their bottom. These would have made these lifeboats completely useless in water, but it served its secondary purpose well. The vessel also had accommodations for a lot of additional passengers; they were already thinking about prisoners.

To run the blockade the ship was disguised as a Norwegian freighter carrying lumber; for added measure the crew all spoke Norwegian. The idea was that any inspector would be loath to remove all that lumber to find the hidden artillery shells below. And to complete the deception, one of the officers could don a disguise so he could pass as Josephine, the wife of the captain. The annals also note for good measure that Josephine had big feet.

As the vessel exited the North Sea in December 1916, she was indeed stopped and inspected by the British Auxiliary cruiser Avenger But since nothing suspicious was found, the vessel was allowed to proceed. It was Christmas Day and the inspectors were probably feeling charitable that day. The SeeAdler sailed south and a few weeks later sank two English steamers, the Gladys Royal and the Lundy Island close to the Azores. In the subsequent weeks another 9 French, Canadian, and English vessels were sunk in an area close to the equator.

The Seeadler was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Felix von Luckner, who still believed in old-fashioned chivalry and was highly regarded by friend and foe. He usually stopped a vessel by shooting a shell over the bow of the vessel, boarding the vessel and then taking everybody prisoner before sinking the ship. But on March 11, 1917, Captain von Luckner saw that the English steamer Horngarth had a radio antenna and fearing that that new-fangled invention, also known as radio transmission, would alert the world of his activities, he ordered his crew to shoot at the antenna instead. Which his gunner did, but the Horngarth’s radio operator was killed in this process, apparently the only deadly casualty of the campaign.

Captain von Luckner decided that by now Allied warships had been alerted to look out for him because of the possible radio transmission. So he sailed south, and after a few days packed all his prisoners on the captured French bark Cambronne, and allowed them to sail away to Rio de Janeiro, at the same latitude some 1200 miles away. The Seeadler then continued its journey around South America into the Pacific Ocean.

By then the US had entered the war and about 1000 miles to the north of Tahiti, close to the equator, Captain von Luckner managed to capture and sink three American schooners. By that time his vessel had been operational for 6 months and the captain decided it was now time for some R&R. So he set sail south to Tahiti, but ran aground on a reef on Mopelia island, about 280 miles north of Tahiti. He reported that a hurricane had forced his ship on the reef, but at that time of the year it was probably because he was not familiar with the currents and topology around the reef. After a while the ship broke up, but that one cannon was salvaged and is now still pointing menacingly at the sea from Bougainville Park in Papeete.

Count van Luckner, the German captain, was actually a direct descendant of Baron Nicolas Luckner, a man completely French at heart, and who received the baton of Maréchal of France in 1791. That was also the year when he was awarded command of the French Army of the Rhine. And in 1792, Rouget de Lisle dedicated his famous work “Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin” to him. This work later became known as the Marseillaise. Notwithstanding the above, Baron Nicolas Luckner was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal because of his earlier association with King Louis XVI. He was executed by guillotine in 1794; the Baron was 72 years old. You cannot win them all.

Tahitian Black Pearls.

You will find Tahitian black pearls everywhere, in various sizes and qualities. There is no way to avoid them.

The pearls of Tahiti are indigenous to the lagoons of French Polynesia and are formed in the black lipped oyster, scientifically known as the Pinctada margaritifera. At certain times of the year the oysters produce spawn, which is fertilized in the water. The baby oysters, also known as “spat”, float freely for about a month, and then sink to the bottom of the lagoon, where they attach themselves to coral or are buried and die in the sand. The pearl industry uses submerged collectors in the lagoon to collect the spat, who are then reared to maturity on underwater lines for more than three years. They are then ready for grafting.

left: A Pinctada margaritifera oyster with a pearl in a sac in the middle of the picture, ready to be taken out.

A small mother-of-pearl is surgically inserted into the body of the oyster. Over the ensuing years the oyster will deposit a pearly substance called “nacre” in layers over the nucleus, forming a pearl.

After several years, the oysters are taken out of the water and the formed pearl is carefully harvested through a small surgical incision in the oyster flesh; a larger nucleus is then inserted to allow for the formation of an even larger pearl. The oyster is then put back in the sea for another few years before being harvested again. This can happen up to 4 times before the oyster is spent. Grafting and harvesting the pearl are very delicate operations and the oyster will die if not done properly. Expert grafters will command a salary of in excess of $100,000/year.

Tahitian cultured pearls have to have a nacre layer of at least 0.8 mm to receive certification from the local Board. Tahitian pearls come in different sizes, shapes, colors, and quality. Pearls usually range from 8 to 16 mm in size; they are round, baroque, or circled, and have a quality grading of A, B, C, or D.

If you have a sizable plus bank account and you only want the best, you can go to one of the Robert Wan’s stores, many located in the big hotels, and look what he has to offer. Mayhap you will finally find the perfect grade A pearl necklace for a hundred thousand dollars offered to you by an immaculately coiffed and well-dressed young lady. You know immediately that the markup is huge and that price doesn’t even include the lady, only her smile. Robert Wan also has an interesting pearl museum on the Boulevard Pomare in Papeete; entrance is free.

On the lower end you can find an outdoor stall, where pearls are obviously lower in quality, but much less expensive. And then there are many stores in between, who carry intermediate quality intermediately priced pearls. And as usual, bargain before you buy. My inkling is that the profit margin is 400-1000 %, and most sellers will almost immediately offer you a 20 % discount right off the bat.

If your budget is not too great and you still want to have some reasonable-looking pearls, go to Le Marché, (the market) in downtown Tahiti, just a block or two from the wharf where the cruise ships and the Ameriti ferries dock. Inside the market go up the escalator and walk to the right out of the restaurant. In one of the stalls on the left you’ll find T’ua.

right: Norma standing next to T’ua in her souvenir and pearls stall

Show her this article with her picture and she may give you a good price on the pearls you want. You may have to restring her necklaces, because her stringing is sloppy. And also do not expect an expensive looking piece of certification to come with her pearls.

Well, if you were shopping for your rich Aunt Julia, because you want to be sure she will include you in her will, maybe you should stick with Robert Wan. Or with Tahia Collins. You need big bait to catch big fish.

Le Marché

The second floor of the market has many other little stalls carrying dry goods, handicrafts, and souvenirs, most of them probably machine-made outside of Tahiti. I would say mostly from China, but other countries are now also producing this stuff for the lower end tourist markets. But you’ll also find local wood carvings, pareos, which are the colorful woven fabrics the locals drape around themselves. And even banjos and ukeleles. Most tourists don’t even realize there is a second floor, but it is worth your while just to amble around and take pictures of the market from above. The stuff for sale is generally not of the best quality, but you can always haggle. And after you come home, you put them in a big box and donate them to the local Salvation Army store.

On the ground floor, in the market proper, there is a lot of variety. We saw in one small section a row of stalls selling ready-to-eat prepackaged hot food, such as sushi, packages of steamed rice or chow mein, in combination with curry chicken, spicy mutton, Peking duck, or a variety of other stuff. You can also get the local taro dishes, but after seeing how beautiful and lissome the local maidens are, and how their girth expands with age, you may wish to decide on something else less fattening.

What you can do is to walk 2-3 blocks to the Place Vaiete for a satisfying picnic lunch in the shade of the trees. There are even clean public toilets in this park. There are actually many clean public toilets seemingly everywhere in Tahiti. You’d starve if you wanted to make a living selling emergency underwear.

left: The vegetables section of Le Marché

But the time to visit Le Marché is on Sunday morning, between 5 and 7 a.m. Because at that time, everybody comes here to get their supplies, especially for their large Sunday meal. This sounds early, but at that time the place is packed and the lines to the public bathrooms are long. People keep forgetting to cut down on their breakfast cup of coffee before coming here. And isn’t 5 a.m. still very dark in winter? Actually, no. Since Papeete is close to the equator, the longest day all year is only 13 hour; the longest night all year is also only 13 hours. At 5 a.m. there is already a lot of light all year round.

right: Any fisherman wants to buy this string of fish?

For the first-time visitor, there is sensory overload, as you view the myriad colors and smell the exotic smells of the fruits and food. There is a huge variety of fruits, flowers, meats, vegetables, cakes, taro, Chinese duck, roast pork, other local produce and other stuff. But by far the most interesting section is where fish is sold. The fish has just recently been caught in nets, with fishing hooks, or even by spearfishing; these are the ones in bright colors. You will see at least some 40 different species of fish.

The floors are slippery, as water is being sloshed around, but the mood is upbeat and jovial as the fishmongers try to unload their stuff on the hungry populace. The fish better be fresh and good; there were two serious-looking inspectors walking around checking the quality of the fish offered for sale.

left: The fish offered come in a variety of shapes and colors.

The Roulottes on Place Vaiete.

The Place Vaiete is a spacious open park on the waterfront close to the cruise ship terminal. It is very much the center of town. During the day it is too hot to dawdle there, but in the cool of the evenings it is often a very festive place, with bands playing music marching around or performing on the bandstand. The place really comes alive when there is a cruise ship in dock. So does the craft market and the tourist office nearby, where otherwise most of the time the staff is sleeping standing up.

And every day, after 6 p.m. the roulotttes start coming in to set up shop. They are there every day, even on Christmas Eve.These are food-catering trucks and their setup routine is fast and practiced. The cooking area, folding tables, and the plastic chairs appear up and very soon the chef is waving his cooking utensils before a big wok and the crew is to entice you to sit down at one of their tables, look at their menus and order something. Most of the roulottes are operated by Asians, so you’ll see a lot of Chinese or Vietnamese food, fried rice and noodles. Another popular item is steak-french fries. We were surprised to see that one roulotte was even serving saté beef, which we presumed would be beef on skewers and roasted over charcoal. But the dish we received was a chinese dish of beef and vegetables. It was then that we realized that what they were offering was sauteed beef.

With that much fish around, it is no wonder a very popular dish is the ei’a ota, or, in French, poisson cru, or what we call carpaccio. Start with small fresh cubes of fresh tuna or bonito and marinate it in lime juice and a blend of chopped tomatoes, carrots, sliced onion, cucumber, and coconut milk. The stuff tastes real good.

right: Roulottes on Place Vaiete

Then there are roulottes serving crêpes and ice cream; the chefs here are usually French. But what about real Tahitian food. I am sorry but I don’t think I saw any taro or taro dish served.

Surprisingly, the quality of the food is quite variable depending on which vendor we chose. We ate at Chez Mamie one evening , and the food tasted excellent; the next night we tried a different roulotte, and the food was tasteless. Same observation with the crêpes.

Food is expensive in French Polynesia. Even at the roulottes, where the prices are substantially lower; the two of us still paid around $28 to share one order of sautéed prawns and vegetables, a small bowl of rice, and a large bottle of water. That was maybe not enough food for big eaters, but they always serve a free basket of French bread with their meals. And there is neither tax nor tipping. That helps.

III: The Island of Tahiti

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:31:09 -0800

The island Tahiti is not large. The ring road around the island is about 120 kms long, and can be driven in 2-3 hours. Which means that the width of the island is only about 35 kms or so. For such a small island, the mountains are very steep and craggy, with Mt. Urufa looming close by up at 1493 m or close to 4900 feet. The highest mountain is Mt. Orohena, further away, with a double peak reaching some 7350 feet into the skies. In the rainy season these mountains catch a lot of water and little creeks can become raging torrents in a very short period.

If you go inland, you get into very mountainous terrain very soon, and they recommend you use a 4x4, also known as a quat-quat, to avoid getting stuck in the mud. So we went to the travel agency “Tahiti Nui” on the waterfront and booked a half day tour from Tahitian Excursions to go up the mountains.

left: A touring quat-quat on a submerged road.

In the back of a 4x4 Land Rover, we drove around the north of the island to Papenoo. There the surf is wonderful and not surprisingly, there were a lot of surfers having fun. At Papenoo we turned right inland and the road began to climb. On certain sections it seems there is a good road running parallel to the bad road, but our guide/driver of course didn’t even consider those roads; they were for sissies. He took the bad road, replete with big potholes filled with water, and forded through submerged roads in flowing rivers to give us the sense of adventure and value for our money. Our path led us up through the Tamanu Canyon up Mt. Marau, to an elevation of around 4500 ft.

High waterfalls can be seen on the steep walls of the surrounding mountains. Most of these waterfall are fed by springs. At the cascade Topatari, just a few miles inland, there was evidence of human sacrifice in the past. The next one we passed was the Cascade Vaiharuru, 69 m high. At the foot of the Cascade Puraha falls is a lake by the road with lots of hungry good-sized fish swimming around. They would even jump a few inches up the sloping banks to grab the pieces of bread offered.

right: The cascade Puraha in the rain.

Our guide was very knowledgeable. Teive Tiaipoi was a handsome, beautifully tattoed Tahitian, and one of our fellow passengers, an otherwise quiet and rather introverted young lady from Malaysia, really fell very hard for him. If we were not around she would probably forcibly drag him into the bushes. Which he tolerated with good grace, having been married earlier and now being divorced.

Teive was not the regular driver, but was pressed into service at the last moment. He is also a diving instructor and he counts Bill Gates as his regular client. He is, in addition, also one of the top local surfers and the local surfing association sponsors him regularly to enter surfing competitions all over the world. He has surfed in all the top surfing venues everywhere, almost. And as we could see, he was a powerful swimmer.

left: Teive Tiaipoi, our guide. Bill Gates likes him too.

Teive is a modest man and only much later, when I was preparing this journal, did I find out that he is also a local hero. In 2008, Keanu, an 8 year old boy fell into a raging river and was swept away. His father jumped in the stream to save the boy, but was banged against a rock and knocked unconscious. Without thinking Teive and two of his friends, Jules Sacoie and Michel Teariki, jumped in the turbulent stream to save the boy. Teive finally managed to get hold of him some 3 kms downstream, and pulled him to shore. But by then the body was already lifeless. The waters were so violent that both Jules and Michel were drowned and lost. They were posthumously recognized by the local authorities with a gold medal. It was a miracle that the father of the boy was saved. Teive was actually not immediately recognized and thanked, because he left the scene soon afterwards, but only later did the story of his heroism come out.

In the verdant jungle around us are many native plants with wonderful properties. The lantana leaves are used by the locals for its antiseptic properties and rubbed into cuts and wounds to promote healing. Some sections of the plant are boiled in water, and the reduced extract is guaranteed to reduce cholesterol levels. So if you are unhappy with the side effects of your statins, and you hate Pfizer to boot, here is the solution. The wild hibiscus has excellent anti-fogging properties for use in your snorkel masks, much better than your saliva; another part gives a red color is smeared on the skin and is therefore used as lipstick by many, while another part of the flower will remove the color if rubbed over it.

The “mapé” or chestnut trees have sheet-like above-ground roots. Take a stick and hit these roots, and the resulting sound reverberates over a long distance. The trees don’t like it, but it was used for communications in the past. Nowadays this practice is discouraged to prevent over-exuberant tourists from trying to impress the local vahines with their misplaced Taiko drumming skills.

right: Teive at a Mapé tree. The flat roots stick out aboveground.

The tree has other uses. You may have heard of the Republic of Vanuatu. Raise your hand if you do. It really does exist, but it is probably better known by its previous name, the New Hebrides.

In the local mythology of this country, the first female was created from a man. Not by taking the established painless route of removing a rib under anesthesia --that is for sissies-- but by the more direct approach. The poor guy was emasculated by the application of the heated leaves of the mapé tree to his genitals. It would make Lorena Bobbitt proud.

Driving around the island.

From Avis we rented a car to drive around the island on the ring road. The roads are very good. Going west from Papeete, there is even a section with divided two-lane highways, where you can legally go up to 90 km/hr. In comparison to the other islands in the archipelago, Tahiti is well populated. There is a continuous string of little towns and villages we passed by on our drive, with modest homes brightly painted in blue, yellow, or pink. There is an occasional Polynesian style home built of pandanus and woven bamboo. Driving counterclockwise, there is first Faa’a, where the airport is located; then, many miles further we passed Le Meridien, where we spent one night in luxury in an over-the-water bungalow.

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left: One of the structures at the Marae of Aruhurahu.

At PK (that is the distance in km from the center of Papeete) 22.5 a side road led us into a valley where the Marae of Aruhurahu was located. Maraes are ancient gathering places. The people used to meet here for cultural rites, religious ceremonies, sacrifices and burials. There are large squares paved and low walls made from black volcanic boulders. Here were two restored open-air temples. In another area close by there were maraes, where religious archery competitions used to take place.

right: At the Marae of Aruhurahu

At the south end of the island is Papeari, which was blanketed with signs saying “No prisons in Papeari”, to rally popular support against the plan of the authorities to install a penal colony there. Close by are the Paul Gauguin Museum and the adjacent 340 acres large Harrison Smith Botanical Gardens with hundreds of tropical flora collected by Smith from all over the world. Lunch was in a huge restaurant right across the museum on the water. The mahi mahi was very fresh and well done, but as soon as the food was served, the flies came, as many as you will usually find in a garbage dump. It was annoying to continuously wave like a pea-brained half-wit with one hand while tying to eat with the other hand.

The Paul Gauguin museum is a memorial to the French artist, with just a few original carvings and wood blocks, but there reproductions of his work in three buildings. And there are three huge stone tikis from Raivavae in the Austral Islands, where the current inhabitants are clamoring to have them back.

left: On the south of Tahiti Nui was this wall with water coming out from various pipes. People were filling bottles and bottles with this spring water. It must have magical rejuvenating properties.

Tahiti consists of two islands joined together by a narrow sliver of land. You have Tahiti Nui, the big island, and Tahiti Iti, the small island. We drove on the north side of Tahiti Iti to Tautira, some 20 km from the junction, to the end of the road. Although the width of Tahiti Iti is only about 13 miles, the two mountains on this small piece of land rise up to more than 1300 m or 3900 feet. This is the quiet side of Tahiti with many small lodgings for people who like to surf. There is also a nice surfing beach here.

Going back on the East side of Tahiti Nui, the road becomes curvy. At Papenoo we stopped to watch the surfers. A bit further away we turned right in the direction of Point Venus.

right: Surfers at Papenoo. Note that some surfers here have a long paddle.

Point Venus.

left: The lighthouse at Point Venus, designed by the father of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here is a black sand beach, during the day decorated with mostly French, topless sunbathers. But this is not the reason for the name. Because here, on June 3, 1769, Captain Cook led a group of scientists to observe the transit of Venus across the sun. This is when the planet Venus passes directly between the earth and the sun, similar to an eclipse of the moon. But even though Venus is almost 4 times the size of the moon, it is much further away from earth, and so there is only a small black dot traversing the diameter of the sun. The transit time is usually several hours.

Using the principle of parallax, observation of the transit helps scientists calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. I don’t understand even now how they did it, and it is an astounding scientific feat of science in those days. Equally astounding is the fact that the first transit recorded was by the Persian astronomer Avicenna in May, 1032, almost one millennium ago. Transits of Venus are quite rare, with pairs of transits eight years apart, separated by longer gaps of over 100 years. The next transit will be on June 5-6, 2012, and then in December of 2117, which will be too late for most of us. But if you plan to be around at that time, just be sure you have a big supply of Prozac.

There is also a lighthouse on Point Venus, designed by nobody else than the father of Robert Louis Stevenson. There is a plaque on the building commemorating his visit many years later, reading: “ Robert Louis Stevenson, Tahiti 1888. Great were the feelings of emotion as I stood with my mother by my side and we looked upon the edifice designed by my father when I was sixteen and worked in his office during the summer of 1866”.

Point Venus is also the place where Captain Samual Wallis of the HMS Dolphin came ashore in 1767, the first European to land in Tahiti. What he found was a well-developed society, but who was still living in the stone age. The people had created efficient tools and adzes from rocks and flints. They had seaworthy canoes, where the boards were lashed together with rope made from coconut fiber.

right: The canoes were made by lashing the boards together. In the Museum of Tahiti and her Islands.

They had drills, driven by a string, and the drill bit was a piece of sharpened piece of slate or other hard natural rock. The crew traded their usual supply of glass beads and trinkets for food and other necessities. Until somebody offered the natives an iron nail. This was a revelation for them. They found they could make holes much easier to thread their ropes through the wood of the canoes and use it for a zillion other useful things.

And as word spread about this new material, a huge demand erupted. Women rushed to the ship offering themselves for a complete sexual rendezvous for just one small iron nail. But after a while the demand wore off and the sailors had to offer larger and larger nails to get what they wanted. And pretty soon they couldn’t sleep in their hammocks anymore, because all the nails to hang the hammocks had disappeared.

It was a miracle that when the ship sailed away some days later, it was still seaworthy, even though maybe many of the nails from the structure must have been pried away. There must have been a lot of disappointed sailors. Sex was easy on the islands in those days. Letters from the first European sailors describe half-naked women clambering on their ships. There is also a description of the elders of the island entertaining the officers of the ship in their meeting halls where they would sit in a circle and a 12-13 year old girl would be placed in the middle, available for sex for any of the guests, so inclined. And many of them did take up the offer.

But then, in 1797, foot soldiers of the London Missionary Society waded ashore with fire in their eyes looking for lost souls to save. And that was the beginning of the end.

Le Meridien, Papeete

We decided to splurge and stay a night in an over water bungalow. These are luxurious, self-contained units with air conditioning, TV, bath tub with tap water, rain shower with tap water, large soft bed, and many other amenities, built in the Tahitian style with thatched roof. They are also expensive. Ours, with tax, was around $450/night. The one in the St. Regis in Bora Bora can run to ten times that much. We were upgraded to a bungalow at the very end, which is nice for added privacy. And, a bottle of wine was waiting for us.

Around and below the bungalows is the lagoon, only a few feet deep. There are bunches of coral and you see in the very clear waters the multitude of beautifully colored fish swimming around above the white sand. Throwing bread-crumbs will attract a lot of smaller fish darting out of the protective cover of the coral to snag the food and then race back. It is quiet and a world apart.

left: Over water bungalows at Le Meridien.

There used to be a landing dock for canoes and a ladder for entry into the lagoon attached to the bungalows, but these have been removed, I presume, because of safety concerns. A stranger could just paddle up with his canoe and enter these isolated buildings. In the other islands, where life is simpler and people more honest, you could just walk down the steps to go into the lagoon. Here you can still get into the lagoon, but you now have to go past the swimming pool and the adjacent beach. As in many places in French Polynesia, the bottom of the lagoon is not very deep for hundreds of yards from shore.

Le Meridien also has a nice-sized swimming pool, not more than 4 feet deep. The pool is rather unusual because it has a bottom of fine white sand.

right: Dining area at Le Meridien.

But just outside the hotel complex is a shopping mall as well as a supermarket. There are restaurants and a pizza parlor, so you don’t have to eat in the expensive hotel restaurant. It is actually a nice place, especially in the evenings, and not that expensive except for the breakfast buffet, which is priced at a ridiculously sounding $50/pp. Heck, you can only eat so much in the morning and doggy bags are presumably frowned upon.

However, after a few days here, you’ll find out these prices are quite standard for a hotel like Le Meridien. If you were in the St Regis in Bora Bora, the American breakfast is around $70 pp. plus another $50 for half a bottle of champagne. A Canadian mother/daughter combo we met on the cruise had spent 3 days at Le Meridien and their bill for food alone was $1,000.

The Fare Suisse.

Reports on the Internet highly recommend this guesthouse. And we were not disappointed. We stayed there for 2 nights in a spotlessly clean, small and sparsely furnished air conditioned room, with a nice bathroom for €85/night. Beni, the owner, will pick you up and bring you back to the airport or cruise ship terminal for free. Which is a very comforting thought, especially if you are coming in close to midnight in a foreign place. He now has 8 rooms and he is running himself ragged picking up and delivering his guests. Even though his place is only a 15 minute walk to downtown Papeete and to the Place Vaiete, it is quiet and away from the traffic.

There is a huge supermarket just a block and a half away, and you store your perishables in the refrigerator in the community kitchen. You can have a good, copious, varied continental breakfast for €10/pp or you can prepare your own breakfast and sit in the same airy dining area. It is a jewel of a place.

IV: The mv “Royal Princess”

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:03:44 -0800

No, not Princess Hina, but the cruise ship from Princess Lines. There is no question in our minds that at our age, the best way to visit this archipelago is by cruise ship. There is an air-conditioned stateroom to repair to at any time of the day; there is an abundance of food included in the passage price; there is no daily packing and unpacking as you visit the different islands; there is entertainment, good books to read, a sheltered deck to work on your tan and, in the case of the “Royal Princess”, Douglas Pearson, a master storyteller, who would regale us with engaging tales of the islands, astronomy, and many other useful and useless items of interest.

We had booked a ten-day cruise, which would be 9 nights on the ship. Starting in Papeete, the itinerary included Rangiroa, Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora, Moorea, and then back in Papeete. Tahiti and the last four islands are part of the cluster of “Society Islands”. Rangiroa, much further away, is part of the Tuamotu Islands.
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right: the mv. “Royal Princess” in the Baie de Maroc, Huahine, with a tender in the foreground.

As cruise ships go, the mv “Royal Princess” is actually a small ship, only 180 meters long and 25.5 m broad, with a maximum draft of less than 6 meters. It has 4 diesel electric engines with a total output of 13,500 kW @ 720 rpm. On our trip we had some 680 passengers and a crew of 350 on board. The cruising speed is 20 knots, but we often sailed slower. The ship was under the command of Captain Ivan Jerman.

To visit these islands you actually cannot have a larger ship, because the few entrances in the coral reefs surrounding the islands are very narrow. In addition, the lagoons are not deep. Even with this small ship, most the time we had to anchor in the middle of the lagoon and tendered ashore.

There is a cruise ship, which plies these waters regularly; it is the mv “Paul Gauguin”. She is smaller than the Royal Princess, with a passenger capacity of around 300. But the Gauguin is more luxurious and substantially more expensive. Passengers on the Gauguin no doubt sneer at the plebeian Royal Princess, packed with unrefined, vulgar peasants on their cut-rate holidays. Wouldn’t you, if you were on the “Gauguin”?.

Rangiroa.

Even though Rangiroa was north-east of Tahiti, we had to get to the north-west side of the lagoon to enter the “Passé de Tiputa”, one of the two main entrances in the coral reef barrier. There is a third, shallower entrance. As I mentioned earlier, the island in the middle of the coral circle had already disappeared under the surface of the water, and only a large lagoon is left. This lagoon is so large that from one side of the coral barrier, you cannot see the other side, because it is well beyond the horizon. This vast inland sea is some 46 miles long and 16 miles wide, which makes Rangiroa the largest atoll in the Southern Hemisphere. Only about 1400 residents live here so, with the Royal Princess around, the population is almost doubled. Everything there started out as the coral reef; if you see large rocks or stones, they have been imported from somewhere else.

The lagoon of Rangiroa is world famous for unsurpassed scuba diving in the warmest and clearest water you can imagine. The most favorite excursion is “shooting the pass”, going in with the currents through either of the passes in the ring of reefs.

From our experience in the Bahamas, we decided it was not necessary to book trips in advance from the ship. You could always go ashore and find a local tour operator willing to offer you the same trip at a much reduced price. This doesn’t always work well in French Polynesia. Tourist traffic is not high, and cruise ship arrivals are infrequent. In the more popular places like Raiatea and Bora Bora, there are local operators offering a variety of tours as you step on land. In other islands, there is very little or none, so it is advisable to plan ahead.

left: The Paradive Club dive shop in Rangiroa.

On the pier in Rangiroa we found a café, a few houses, but luckily also a dive shop, offering snorkel tours for CFP 4000, which is equivalent to $45. They also take US dollars, but then the rate goes up to $50. We found in many places it was less expensive to pay in local currency, which you pick up at any ATM. One interesting thing I found was that the Banque Socredo allows you take as much as the equivalent of $1000 each time. Other banks have much lower limits, just $200 - $300 or so. And branches of the Banque Socredo are everywhere.

right: From the pier in Rangiroa.

A zodiac took us a few miles out to an area called “The Aquarium” and there we spent some time snorkeling around looking at the myriad of different-colored fish around. The water was clear and I even saw a large Moray eel, maybe two feet long. Back at the quay and the dive shop we saw a bus offering a free ride to the local pearl farm. Which we took and which took us to the pearl farm, some 10 miles away. We were traveling on a narrow strip of land, very sandy with water on both sides, the quiet lagoon on one side and the open ocean on the other side. There were shrubs and there were coconut trees; not much else. The farm was the standard type pearl farm and they also sold pearls, of course. The quality of their pearls was actually quite good.

Huahine.

The next morning we left for Huahine, a day sailing away. On our journey we passed Makate on starboard, a 24 sq mi island, which had been uplifted from the sea, with steep cliffs rising up to 80 m on some places. There used to be a town there, called Vaitepaua, but it is now deserted. In the middle of the 19th century it was a busy place, as phosphate was mined by hand on the island.

left: The steep cliffs on the north of the island of Makate. Phosphate used to be mined here.

The local Polynesians sneered at this manual labor, so the owners had to import workers from China, Japan, and Indochina (now Vietnam). Most of these workers went back home, when the mine closed.

One interesting fact was that the local natives placed their dead in coffins, which were then placed in horizontal holes in the face of these steep cliffs, high up in the air.

At Huahine, the Royal Princess had to maneuver through the a narrow opening in the reef to get into the Baie de Maroc, between Huahine Nui and Huahini Iti. These two islands are connected to each other by a bridge over the narrow channel. On the other side of this channel is the Baie de Bourayne.

At one time the two islands were connected to each other by a narrow piece of land. But one day, Hiro, the great Polynesian warrior and God of Thieves, plowed through this piece of real estate in his great war canoe, forming the channel. He must have wanted to go to the bathroom badly on the other side of the bay and this desire created the extra umpff to slice through the land. To show how he was able to do this, there is an etching of his huge paddle and a fish hook on a large vertical rock. As you enter the Baie de Maroc, the rock is on the right. The paddle was at least several meters long.

When Hiro decided it was time to join his ancestors, the locals reverently placed his manhood on the hill across the channel, on Huahine Iti. Over time it has petrified into solid rock, and now you can see the rock which, with a bit of imagination, is in the form of a phallus. albeit on the stubby side. This rock is called “Ure o Hiro”, which translates to the “Penis of Hiro”. He must be some guy.

right: The good-sized rock called “Ure o Hiro” on Huahine Nui. Note the size of the coconut trees for comparison.

Except for a small hut selling pareas and tourist souvenirs, there was nothing else in the docking area. There was Le Truck, which was the local bus, which took us, for $5, to Fare, the main town on Huahine Nui, some 15 miles or so away. On arrival there was a small restaurant and some shops, with a few people milling around, as well as the main pier for the local boat traffic. The biggest building of the city seems to be the public toilets on the beach. You do have to get your priorities right.

left: The beach close to Fare in Huahine.

So we walked for about half a mile along the beach until we found a place where there were more people sitting in the shade or swimming or snorkeling in the clear water. We waded a bit in the water, because we didn’t have our swimming gear with us. And then had a picnic lunch of sandwiches which we had taken along from the cruise ship.

right: The main street of Fare, the capital of Huahine. Behind the tree is an open air market, there are shops on the left.

The town was not more than a street long. It was a quiet and relaxed place. There was an internet café, but just before we planned to enter the place, the shutters went down for the afternoon siesta. You have to get your priorities straight.

The market was still open, as well as a supermarket. Nothing much to do. So we just took the bus back to the boat. There were one or two tours available that day, but when we arrived, they had already left. But Huahine does look more laid back and more quiet than e.g., Bora Bora.

There is actually much more on the island, which we missed; tropical gardens, maraes, diving and snorkeling sites, a pearl farm, a private picnic luxury cruise, etc., most of them eerily similar to those you’ll find on the other islands. The jaded traveler could say that once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all. Well, tell that to Casanova.

The Royal Princess left Huahine for Raiatea in the late afternoon. The ship had to use its bow thrusters to be aligned in just the right direction in the Bay before moving out through the very narrow channel in the reef. The channel markers were not more than a feet on each side of the vessel as she sailed out to open sea. No wonder large cruise vessels cannot visit here.

Raiatea.

The “Royal Princess” made her entrance through the Passe Teavapiti in the early morning and then proceeded to her berth. This is the only stop, besides Papeete, where no tenders were required.

left: The harbor of Raiatea

The ship was moored right against the dock and after we disembarked, there was a building right on the quay where several tour operators were busily hawking their trips. We chose one, with a pretty decent itinerary, comprising of a fish farm, a vanilla plantation, the river, a pearl farm, and a swim. It was priced at $50, but he accepted CFP 4,000, which was around $45. The trip was on a 30 passenger motored barge all along. One of the passengers insisted that we visit the Marae Taputapuatea, and the captain/guide reluctantly agreed. That was lucky for us, because this marae was a very important place. But during the trip the guide suddenly said that the pearl farm was closed that day. That was a white lie, because we found out later that the farm was open. But we were quite happy with the exchange, because we had seen enough pearl farms by that time.

right: A fish farm on an island between Raiatea and Tahaa

The fish farm was small, on a small motu (island). Here we were offered fresh papaya and coconut juice for refreshment. They only has a few ponds and there were turtles in one. The vanilla farm was half an hour further away on the island of Tahaa, which is north of Raiatea. Growing vanilla beans is a very labor-intensive process and the yield can swing wildly up and down, dependent on many factors. The farm is organic, i.e., the plants are not in a hothouse, but outdoors on the slopes of a hill. Because there are no bees in Tahiti, these plants have to be pollinated manually, early in the morning.

left: On a small vanilla plantation

The vanilla plant is actually parasitic and lives best on a mature acacia tree as the host. This particular factory produces about 6-10 tons of vanilla/year, and is run almost singlehandedly by a woman in her forties. She offered us fruits and drinks and there was a small gift shop carrying vanilla and related products, as well as the usual products in the tourist trade. Life can be hard, even in Paradise. The young kids nowadays don’t want to work hard; they want the easy life.

From there we motored to the Faaroa river, which is the feed to Tauroa Bay, an extremely interesting topological phenomenon. Imagine, these islands are very hilly, with tall mountains around. Water falls down along steep rivers and streams directly into the lagoon. But here is a river, where the water flow and the level drop are both very low.

right: lush vegetation on the banks of the slow-moving Faaroa river.

What you get is a slow moving, fairly shallow river like what we saw in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon, with dense foliage, trees, and flowers on the banks. But this river is only 200-300 meter long and therefore aptly named the Faaroa, or the “Long River”. For their topography it was a long river.

Then we motored to the Marae Taputapuatea in Opoa, an awesome place of platforms and other open structures made from black volcanic rock. Raiatea was considered the most sacred of all of the Society Islands. The chiefs of the Allied Kingdoms of Polynesia used to journey by canoe to hold tribal meetings and ceremonies at this Marae on the southeast side of the island. It was considered the religious center of Eastern Polynesia.

At one time human sacrifices must have been performed here, because thousands of human skulls were excavated in 1969. By 1000 AD the marae was already established and significantly expanded over time. It fell into disrepair and disuse after the missionaries succeeded in saving all the available souls in the area. So it fell on the archeologists to restore the site. And that they did, starting in 1994.

left: Note the black volcanic boulders used to build this marae.

There were only a few visitors around when we arrived there. It is now a sad and somber place, with the ghost of the memories of temple drums and the dancing population faded away into eternal silence.... One can easily imagine the chiefs in elaborate garb presiding over meetings, feasts, and sacrifices, singing, talking, and arguing with each other..... Here was history; but here history is no more.

right: Another area of the Marae Taputapuatea

The tour boat took us to an island close by. It was clearly uninhabited, but it had bathrooms, outdoor showers with tap water, a big open building with a thatched roof, BBQ pits and picnic tables. So we stayed there for an hour and swam in the clear waters looking for fish in the small clumps of coral on the sandy bottom. About a quarter of a mile from shore was a helicopter, which had plunged in the water and is now resting there, in not more than a few feet of water.

It took us another half hour to get from there to the Princess. It was a good day.

We left Raiatea later that night and proceeded to Bora Bora, where we arrived early the next morning.

Bora Bora.

Bora Bora is undoubtedly the crown jewel of the islands. It shimmers like an emerald, set in the iridescent turquoise and aquamarine waters of the lagoon, encircled by the reefs like sparkling pearls in a necklace. It is a wonderful place to stay and to enjoy the luxurious surroundings, especially if you have lots of money to spend. The rich and famous come here for their holidays and cheerfully pay the inflated prices all around.

We had met Wendy Hebert on the ship; she and her mother were the only Polynesian passengers on the ship; she lives on Bora Bora. Wendy owns Arc en Ciel, a small shop where you can get good pearls at very good prices, this according to Wendy herself. And she will affirm that with her charming, attractive smile. We actually did buy a pearl necklace from her. If you cannot trust her, who else can you trust?

When we told her we were planning to rent a car for the day, she asked why we wanted to do that. The road around the island is only 25 kms long and you could rent a bicycle and make the circle trip yourself in 2 hours or less.. So she called her good friend Dora, who has a big taxi, and big Dora said she would give us the island tour plus commentaries for $35/pp.

There are some nice hotels on the island; we stopped at the Sofitel for a look at their layout and also to pee. The Sofitel is very nice but the newer and more expensive resorts are on two large motus on the reef across the lagoon. They are the Four Seasons Resort, the St. Regis, Le Meridien, and the Intercontinental Thalasso Spa. To the north, on the Motu Mute, is the airport, so you need a boat to get to any of the islands. Many tourists at these resorts stay there and don’t even bother to go to the island, because a round-trip from their resort to Vaitape, the capital, on the main island, is $35. And life on the island is really several rungs lower than in the resorts.

Almost all of the land belongs to the local Tahitians, and are passed from generation to generation. This makes it difficult to determine ownership because at death a parcel is split between the kids, and so on, and so on. Ownership of a property also includes the beach, so beach access in Bora Bora for the public is limited. There seems to be only one large public beach, Matira Beach, in the south of the island and a taxi/bus will take you there from Vaitape for $5.

left: A cottage industry where pareos were dyed by hand.

We stopped at a place, where they made pareos and where the colorings were applied by hand. They also offered us an extensive buffet of fruits and other local dishes.

We stopped to look at land crabs scurrying around. We stopped at Bloody Mary’s, a renowned restaurant because all the celebrities coming to Bora Bora come here. But the restaurant was closed for renovation. We stopped at other places to make pictures. We looked at the flora as Dora brings us up on the local gossip. And then we went to Wendy and her Arc de Ciel store.

right: The pareo place offered a nice welcome buffet of local produce.

On this trip we passed the over water bungalow where Marlon Brando used to live in. You can now rent this luxury bungalow for $2,625/week. That is only half of what you pay per day in one of the better bungalows in the St. Regis.

Intertwined with Bora Bora are the stories of Marlon Brando, which you can find in Wikipedia and the pulp magazines. This one was told by Doug Pearson’s sister, who lived in one of the hotel bungalows in Bora Bora, when Brando was there filming the “Mutiny of the Bounty”. At that time he was accompanied by his then current wife, Movita Castaneda, who had actually appeared in the first “Mutiny of the Bounty” film in 1935. One morning, very early, there was a big hubbub and as Doug’s sister came out she saw Movita in a major rage throwing furniture from her bungalow in the pool. Marlon Brando was out that night again carousing with Tarita.

The next day we took a private tour from Moana Adventure Travel. We stepped in a Boston Whaler and Rapa, our guide/captain/cook motored us around the island, pointing out the over water bungalows of the expensive resorts from close by. Some of the big luxury bungalows have indoor swimming pools with fresh water, glass floors where you can admire the lighted coral gardens and the brilliant-colored fishes underneath the bungalow, and other “minor” amenities.

We stopped in an area with a lot of fish, especially since Rapa had thoughtfully taken a bucket of fish entrails along as chum.

right: snorkeling in the azure lagoon.

. We snorkeled for about 30 minutes before we motored to another area, about 3-4 deep, where we swam with huge manta rays and sharks. The rays like to be stroked and you can feed them, if you wish. They have no teeth and the food is sucked in their mouth.

left: playing and feeding the huge manta rays

From there we went to a private motu, where Rapa set up a table for two under an umbrella in the shallow waters of the motu. He then proceeded to make lunch. It was a copious 4-course lunch, starting with a shrimp salad, then the main course, which was a wonderfully prepared BBQ of freshly caught mahi mahi, chicken, and beef, a post-course, which was a superb carpaccio of tuna freshly caught the day before by some of his friends. This dish is very popular here and known as ei’a ota or poisson cru.

right: 4-course catered lunch in the water off a private motu (island) in Bora Bora. The Boston Whaler is in the background.

Fruits for dessert. There was nobody else around and the iridescent water was shimmering in turquoise, jade, emerald, aquamarine and other colors of the rainbow. It is difficult to adequately describe the beauty of the scene.

left: Rapa preparing the tuna carpaccio.

We chose this trip, which was top-rated in TripAdvisor and which we had booked earlier from Moana Adventure Travel by internet. This was “The Honeymoon Tour”. Maybe because it was so expensive. We paid over $600 for this 5-hour adventure, but we found out later that a similar tour booked through a hotel or local travel agent would cost 20-30 % more. Add a few minor touches and the price goes up another 50 %. Paradise is not for the penurious.

However, at the same time we were there, Moana Adventure Travel was also hustling passengers from the cruise ship to go with their separate tour for $70/pp in a larger boat with 10-20 passengers, same snorkeling and swimming with the mantas and sharks, and a private motu (not the same as ours) for swim but no catered lunch. Well, times are hard, so even they had to cater to the unwashed masses.

V: Moorea

Sun, 9 Jan 2011 20:46:04 -0800

If you expect Tahiti and Papeete to be the South Sea island paradise you thought, you will be disappointed. But Moorea is different. You do have to fly to Papeete, if you want to visit French Polynesia. But many visitors skip Papeete and try to go to Moorea right away. It is only 11 miles across the Sea of Moons, but the difference in lifestyle is astounding. Here throbs the real heart of an island paradise. Here were the Bali Hai parts of the classic movie “South Pacific” filmed. Here they still welcome you with song, dance, and refreshments.

Geologist estimate that at one time there was a mountain here which reached 11,000 feet in the sky. Moorea is actually the south rim of a crater, after the top blew off eons ago. It is shaped like a heart and covers an area of 53 sq miles only. Like all these islands, the mountains are steep; with the peaks of Tohive’a and Mou’a Roa at 4000 fee and 3000 feet respectively.

As we arrived on shore with the tender from the Royal Princess, (we were anchored in Opunohu Bay) we were welcomed by a Tahitian band and two dancing vahines in their uncomfortable looking half-coconut shells ; there was a table with refreshments and fruits, and there were stalls where local artisans displayed their wares. So we “joined” the band for the tourist picture above. I think it showed the spirit of the population.

right: Temporary outdoor stalls by local artisans in Moorea. These are set up only when a cruise lines stops here.

Wendy was there and she told us to get the courtesy shuttle to Le Petite Village to look at the Tahia Collins store. Well, Tahia Collins is not quite Robert Wan, but pretty close. You can get very nice looking pearl necklaces for just a few thousand dollars each. Those are the ones stringed with their lower end pearls. You have to pay a bit more if you want their Grade A stuff.. By now we could start distinguishing between a good and expensive pearl, and one which is not so good and not so expensive. And Tahia Collins has good pearls.

We went back to the Royal Princess, which left that afternoon for Papeete. The next morning we disembarked in Papeete and walked a few blocks to experience the Tahiti Sunday market. Le Marché at 5-8 a.m. on Sunday mornings is something not to be missed.

Then we went back to the boat, had a leisurely breakfast, picked up our luggage, and then walked a hundred meters on the other side of the pier to catch the Aremiti V ferry back to Moorea. The fare was CFP 900, but that was for locals. Foreigners had to pay higher fares. The catamaran ferry was fast and very comfortable and we arrived in Moorea in 40 minutes. But the ferry docks in Vaiara Bay, on the Eastern shore of the island.

We had reservations at the Fare Viahere; it is listed as a modest pension and their rate was CFP 17,800 per night, breakfast included, which was around $200. They also served dinners at CFP 3,500 pp. Because of the low season they offered to pay for the bus from the ferry to the B&B.

On the way to the guesthouse from the ferry terminal the bus stopped at their customary place to impress visitors with the view of the Intercontinental Moorea. Yes, it was impressive.

left: View of the over water bungalows of the Intercontinental Moorea.

The Fare Vaihere was somewhat simpler, being listed as “moderate”, while the Intercontinental had a “luxury” rating.
It has 4 bungalows with thatched roofs and woven bamboo walls and one edge of the property is right at the lagoon, where you can swim and snorkel. Philippe was running the place by himself, because his mother-in-law had just recently passed away in France, and his wife Corinne was gone for several weeks for the funeral arrangements.

There was internet connection, but you had to supply your own computer. Or ITouch or whatever.

right: Our comfortable bungalow at Fare Viahere, not quite over the water, but still only some 100 feet to the lagoon.

Driving around Moorea.

We rented a car the next day; a small 4-door Citroen with manual transmission and A/C + insurance for CFP 8,800/day. Don’t shirk on the a/c; you’ll need it in the sun. Gas was about $6/gallon, but the island is small and you don’t really drive that many miles. The road around the island is only some 38 miles long.

Our first destination was a stop at the Hilton resort, because the over water bungalows here are said to be one of the best in all of French Polynesia. We asked and they said they could give us one for the next day at the special rate of CFP 55,000/day, which would translate to around $620. My 2008 tour book showed the list prices of these bungalows to be around $1,000/night. If we had more time and more money, we would have said yes to this pretty good deal. The bungalows are beautiful.

left: View from the Belvedere. On the left distance is Opunohu Bay.

The next stop was the Belvedere, a high plateau on the island, with breathtaking views of the two bays, Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay. To get to the Belvedere we had to go inland and drive steeply up. Jorge Novales, another guest at the pension, had joined us. He is a Spaniard from Barcelona, but he now works for Price Waterhouse in Melbourne, Australia.

For lunch we stopped at Daniel’s Pizza, on the south of the island. Daniel has a little shack on the side of the road next to his house, where he had installed a wood-fired oven. He must be the most friendly, positive attitude guy we have ever met.

right: Daniel of Daniel’s Pizza; the best pizza on the island. His wood-fired oven is on the left in the back.

And his pizzas were good too, with a thin and crunchy crust, real French Gruyère for cheese, and also real Niçoise olives for garnish. We had the fruits de mer topping; really superb. You sit on stools at his wooden counter, chat with him about life, politics, the weather, the customers, and enjoy the pizza. If you need to go to the bathroom, he cheerfully lets you use the bathroom inside his house.

Close to the ferry terminal we stopped at a jewelry stand at the side of the road and purchased a decorated piece of what looked like scrimshaw, but which was the bony foot of the nautilus. The decorations were based on Tahitian tattoo motifs, said the artist, a guy from the USA, now called Terehere by his Tahitian name. He was a transplant and now tries to make a living creating artsy stuff for the tourist trade.

left: Freshly caught fish for sale along the roadside.

And yes, fish is everywhere. People sell the fish they caught, at the roadside in front of their houses.

For dinner we went to the three star French restaurant Honu Iti (Chez Roger) on Cook’s Bay. The restaurant was at the water’s edge, and you can step into the shallow lagoon right from the dining hall. It was presumably one of the best restaurants around; it had a three-star rating and the 3-course menu was CFP 5,000. The food tasted quite good, even though service was slow. Maybe because it was Monday and they were supposed to be closed. Or, more probably, we were just being the regular, obtuse, American tourist not used to the leisurely pace of dinner in good French restaurants.

I want to end with a story I was told of the Gump Research Station. This one you will not find in the official publications.

The Richard B. Gump Field Station.

These prestigious research facilities, part of the University of California Berkeley, are located close to the entrance of Cook’s Bay. It is now a premier base for field studies in the scientific disciplines covering biocomplexity. The most well-known of the several programs currently in progress is the Moorea Biocode Project, which endeavors to genetically sequence every species on the island. It aims to create the first comprehensive inventory of all non-microbial life in a complex tropical ecosystem.

Richard B. Gump was the owner of Gump’s in San Francisco, a very upper-class boutique store which sold Asian antiques and other high-valued jewelry, gifts, and art to well-heeled customers and others who just wanted to impress their friends and relatives. After all, something which you could buy for $10 in the flea market would cost $1,000 if it was packed in a box with the Gump’s logo on it. That made him a rich man, so he retired in 1975, sold his store, and deliberated what to do next.

He often spends his time in French Polynesia and in Moorea he also owned a 35-acre estate on the west bank of Cook’s Bay. So he decided he wanted to donate this property to a prominent university as a place, where a research station could be built to help the people he loved, the Polynesians, in agriculture and fishery.

Being a graduate of Stanford University, he contacted the administration of the school with his plans and invited them to come over to view the property, the proposal, and the surroundings. Which they did. And the group liked very much what they saw. So, on one of the last evenings there was a big party to celebrate the very positive results of their visit. A lot of alcohol was flowing and everybody was happy. Richard Gump was so happy, he started imbibing more and more alcohol than he probably should.

And pretty soon he passed out, dead drunk. There was consternation all around. The Stanford brass huddled sorely perturbed around him unsure of what to do. Should they now accept a gift from a person who was a drunk? Was he trustworthy, getting drunk in society? Wouldn’t it be a blemish on the reputation of the school? On the other hand, it was a very valuable piece of property worth a lot of money. Maybe they should just accept the gift and then sell it again, as soon as possible, using about any kind of lame-duck excuse. That way so they could have the cake and eat it too.

The visitors left and went back home the next day. Then they waited for further news and the official documents of the gift. Well, the gift and the documents never came. What they did receive was word from third parties that Richard Gump was in discussion with the administrators of the University of California about donating the property to them. For those of you not living in the San Francisco Bay Area; I can tell you there is fierce competition between these two rival premier institutions of high learning in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So the news was shocking in the extreme. Why had Richard Gump suddenly reverse himself and give the property to Cal Berkeley. Why, he had promised it to Stanford.

Well, Richard may have been dead drunk that evening. But he did hear and did remember everything the Stanford administrators were saying about him as they were standing around him.