Posts Tagged ‘french polynesia’

Saturday, September 6

Today was a day of relaxation. We laid around the infinity edge pool and both proceeded to get a little too much sun. Good thing we both had tans before arriving here otherwise, in my case, we be burnt and sporting some nice lobster tans! Not cool. Our overwater bungalow that we are staying in is very cool! It’s pretty much 2 rooms: a decent sized bathroom and a bedroom/living area. All the wood trim and accents are Teak wood and it is very neat. In the center of the room under the coffee table is a glass section in the floor that we could view the aquatic life through at any time. Plus, there is a deck off the back with a smaller side deck to swim/snorkel from. Later today Katherine sunbathed some more from our deck and I snorkeled around exploring the coral reefs and the fish that were living below each bungalow. Wow…there are so many types of fish and of all different colors! About an hour later and it was time to get ready for the Polynesian dinner and dance show that the resort was putting on. Dinner tonight was a seafood buffet and they even had tuna sashimi. The Polynesian dancing show was ok and even had some pretty young kids as part of the show. They were very good; one drummer and two little girl dancers.

Friday, September 5…

(Katherine blogging again)

We took the high-speed Catamaran from Tahiti to Moorea. Unlike the regular ferry to Moorea, this boat can venture from pier to pier in 30 minutes where the regular ferry takes 1 hr for the same trip! Learning our lesson from the ultra-expensive Sheraton Tahiti, we decided to venture into the town of Maharepa for some shopping and a visit to the local Supermarche for some snacks and other supplies like bottled water and beer. We hit up Maria@Tapas for dinner at the suggestion of Frommers and were not disappointed. Although we were the first to arrive we were pretty early as we wanted to catch their happy hour (Thursday and Friday from 6-7). They had one of our favorite beers, discovered on our trip to Paris: Hoegaarden. Bob quickly made a friend in one of the (obviously female) outdoor cats belonging to the establishment…a beautiful petite strawberry blond with eyes to match…he was smitten immediately. We ordered some nachos and salsa which our host obviously made herself upon order and proceeded to get the shrimp fajitas for me and the shrimp and tuna in coconut curry sauce for Bob. Both were excellent. More guests started pouring in and we enjoyed our meal overhearing our fellow Americans speak of their various and sundry journeys and lives. (BORING!) Miss kitty got fed at least a half dozen shrimp, removed of their curry and coco sauce by her kind suitor. She ate her fill and then wandered off to see what the other gents might be offering but soon returned to our table and the man of her dreams.
Later after dinner the owner personally gave us a ride back to our hotel, the Moorea Pearl Resort, and we got the chance to talk to her about life on Moorea and such. She was very interesting and gave us a ton of information and was extremely friendly. Meeting these kind of people on trips is great because you get more than just the tourist view of things. We must have chatted for 15 minutes in her car while sitting at the resort. Good meal, good friends, and now time for good night!

Thursday, September 4…

This evening we went to the Belvedere Restaurant…OMG…about 2000 ft above the Tahiti with amazing views of the city below and Moorea across the bay, what an incredible and kinda scary drive up! Honestly after you pass the last parking lot for bikers and runners the path literally becomes what you see inmost major cities as the bike/walk/blade path in parks! Two vehicles cannot pass at the same time, one of them needs to pull to the side (often having to find a spot where this is possible) in order to let the other one pass! The view at the top was definitely worth it, my only regret is all of the cloud cover over Moorea that somewhat obscured the sunset. The food was decent and the price included that harrowing trip to the top (and a liter of wine!), all in all a good deal (5800CFP/ $67).

Leaving the Belvedere, we were able to get the driver (who spoke no English but translated by the bartendar) to drop us off at the Roulettes. Here it was a quick walk to a great micro-brewery called Les 3 Brasseurs. They brewed 4 different beers on site: a lager, an amber, a blanche (wheat), and a cherry beer. Unfortunately they were out of the cherry beer and we did not get a chance to try it. However, the blanche beer was very good (nd we like our Hefeweizen beers!) About one beer in for the both of us and we notice a Tahitian lady at the table next to us who has had “quite” a bit to drink and starts to entice a couple other female patrons into an argument. She is just loud and obnoxious and her friends have to subdue her and all eventually move to another table on the other side of the bar. Too much excitement for us as we find a cab who is willing to take us back to our hotel for a pretty cheap price of 1500CFP (about $20) where the normal price is usually 2500CFP.

Time for bed, catch you in the morning.

Wednesday, September 3)

(Katherine still blogging)

We woke up at 7:30, showered, dressed and headed into town. Le Truck (basically a converted truck bed with seats and a cover that acts as the most common local bus) picks us up across the street from the hotel and takes us into town for 130CFP (about $2) each. Once in town we discover Papeete (Pa-pee-et-tay)…wonderful! All the sights and sounds, busy but still very small. We head first to a bank to change some American dollars for Francs then head to get some food. We stop at a small stand and get a water, ham and cheese Panini and a giant baguette for Bob that I’m pretty sure consisted of ground beef and barbecue sauce all for about $13…thank you Frommers and Lonely Planet books because if we’d eaten at the hotel the whole time we would have blown our entire budget in Tahiti in 3 nights…and probably would have been very disappointed (remember horrible Mojito…) We move on to a wonderful little Bikini shop called “Blue Glue” and the absolutely beautiful and friendly staff there. I pick up this gorgeous large bamboo “purse” for 6800CFP that turned out to be the purchase of the trip. This thing was beautiful and bullet proof…it was our shopping sack and “carry everything while still looking gorgeous” bag. We’re talking our camera, my purse, sunscreen, bottle of water, swimsuit wrap…seriously, this fit everything! We took it grocery shopping with us everywhere and it held a great portion of what we purchased without issue. Next we headed to the open air market. Just wonderful, all the fresh fruit and produce as well as flowers when you first walk in…reminded me quite a bit of Granville Island in Vancouver, BC. We stopped and purchased several gifts for the ladies back home in the US and Canada…some wonderful shell necklaces that were handcrafted there. We moved on to the other side and found some astonishing fresh fish…Swordfish steaks twice as large as what I pick up in AJ’s for 1000CFP or about $13…for the whole thing. We were both ruing the fact that we didn’t have a mini-kitchen in our room because we would have been cooking up some amazing fish dishes! There were all kinds of tuna as well as blue marlin and mahi mahi. We picked up some totally awesome bananas as well as a pineapple and headed across the street to a pharmacy to grab some bug spray (at this point I should have started just spraying Bob down with the stuff every 4 hours whether he thought he needed it or not as he soon became a human pin cushion of mosquito bites!).

Bob got a little frustrated here because he was hungry and everything was closed. He apparently missed the part where I told him that it looked as if everything closes between 5 – 6:30/7:00. I got very frustrated because the place that we had picked via the Frommer’s book had apparently disappeared…the Voodoo Bar Lounge. Of course with the lack of street signs and a very general map from the guidebook even this tiny little metropolis became an exercise in frustration! We eventually settled on the fact that indeed we were in the right place but the restaurant was gone…replaced by something I do not recall the name of now. We did happen upon a little find, I absolutely LOVED the décor and the bartender was friendly if a little effete. The Mango Café?…yes, spelled with the question mark. They had a happy hour starting at 5:30 which we took advantage of until nearly 7 when we decided we’d try to find one of the three restaurants we had picked as possible dinner choices. One happy hour drink in particular was made with the whites of a fresh egg. Bob’s been pretty adventurous and opted to try this drink, Pisco Sour. We ended up at Lou Pescadou…Italian and pizza. There was a steady line up of locals picking up at least 3 boxes a piece of the pizza and the staff was friendly and the food, excellent. The portion size was a little too much and there was a bit of a language/translation barrier, but all in all I would suggest it.

After we hit the Roulettes for an amazing Crepe…chocolate, apples, vanilla ice cream flambéed with an alcohol I don’t recall…really, really good! And, the people watching was great as well. These roulettes are all on the waterfront and there were choices for everyone, but predominantly Chinese type food.

Katherine’s Blog…(since Bob is still at the airport in our wedding and honeymoon story, I figure I’ll start with the honeymoon).

Tahiti Arrival
Tuesday, September 2

We arrive at about 10:00 pm and the transfer by Marama tours was very nice and got us to the Sheraton quickly and politely. Porter brought the bags to our room and we went to have a drink. Mojito…gross…not recommended! Bob had some local beer, Hinano, also pretty yucky. This totaled more than $25…after this we never bought anything other than an hour of internet in the hotel. Bedtime!