We Interrupt this Practically Perfect Vacation with a TSUNAMI Siren

Moorea Day 6

I start this blog post in the shade of the umbrella next to the pool. It’s almost 4PM and soon time for happy hour. Feeling quite sad but at the same time so grateful to have had this chance to visit this gorgeous country. The sights, people, colors, reefs and all the ocean wildlife I’ve encountered are forever etched upon my mind.

God willing, I will be back here in a few years to experience it all again.

My day began at 5:22AM and to a very loud noise I couldn’t identify. I searched all around the room and finally deduced the sound was coming from outside my door. I pulled some clothes on and peered out my door and the only thing I saw was an empty corridor and the noise—even louder. I went back inside my room and called the front desk to inquire about the noise. This is what I was told. The noise is the tsunami siren. Please come to the front desk immediately. WTF?

I paused long enough to open the safe and grab my passport. It was raining as I hurried to the front desk. There were people gathered and a woman speaking in French to the group. I asked in English what was happening and was told this: The police were conducting a test of the tsunami alarm system. The hotels were not warned but only informed after the fact that it was a drill. They did not control the alarm—the local police did and this alarm had sounded all over the island.

I made my way back to my room and tried to go back to sleep. No luck. So, I started trying to organize my stuff for the long trip home. I gave up after a short time and decided to read and get a shower. After this I went upstairs to the restaurant and had my first breakfast at the hotel. I can only imagine the cost.

I stopped at the concierge desk and picked up my copy of the whale watch. OMG It’s stunning. Of course, I look dreadful but what can you do with hair ‘out to here’ in the wind? But it’s a beautiful summary of the whole excursion. It's far too big a file to upload, but maybe I can figure a way how to add it once I get home. 

It has stopped raining at this point so I decided to go out to the pool. Even at 11:30 the pool was empty as were the lounge chairs! I had my pick. So, I set up camp for the afternoon. It was hot today too. I tried to savor the feeling as I will be missing that very, very soon. Sigh.

About 2:20 I was a little hungry again and chose the only reasonably priced item on the bar menu—guacamole for 550 and a large bottle of water for about the same. I had seen this go by a number of times in the past days here and it looked good. The chips they served with it were an orangey color and I wondered what exotic fruit or vegetable they were made with. Turns out Doritos are very exotic here. LOL Despite that, the guacamole was freshly made and delicious. And the Doritos went well with it.

I am going to go out for my last night here. I want to go someplace that serves crepes. Then the unwelcome task of repacking begins. I want to pack everything in the suitcase except what I will need overnight for the flight, in Phoenix and jeans for the way home. God, I hope I don’t need a coat when I get there.

Kim Kardashian’s ass is here in French Polynesia. A Kardashian looking chick with a butt to rival Kim’s has just pranced in front of me here at the pool. Wow. That’s one thing about being here--Women of other nations are certainly not afraid to let it all hang out. And I do mean hang out. But hey, more power to them. I would not have the guts to wear some of the things I have seen even with a perfect body. If this chick bends over in front of my face again, I’m going to be sick. It’s not like I’m trying to stare at her butt……. Jesus Jenny.

OK, I wasn't going to post it, but she did have it all hanging out there today............And her man was wearing a skin tight suit and it was easy to see how much he loved the way his woman looked. LOL

OK. Here is a photo to cleanse your mind:

I guess I should get up and get moving. Hoping the hotel gives me a late check-out tomorrow as I don’t have to catch the ferry back to Tahiti until 4:45. That will give me most of another day here.  

Back from dinner and most of the packing is finished. (I did get my crepe) I do have to check-out at 11:00am but the hotel is giving me a transit room to use. It’s private and has a place to shower and includes all the toiletries. Nice touch.

Almost time for a glass or two of wine before bed. A long day tomorrow. And hopefully, no molesters on the plane this time. 

I Can't Drive 55!

Days 18 Moorea

Monday: I rented a car today. I am pretty sure it was supposed to be an automatic but when I climbed into the tiny Ford Fiesta, it was a 5 speed. I last time I drove a manual was when I had my Tracer, which was approximately 1997 or so. I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, it came back to me pretty quickly, although I will admit to forgetting to hold the clutch in when I parked the car a couple of times. There was one iffy moment when I stopped at a little store to buy a bottle of water. I had to back out, in reverse, on a bit of an incline AND I couldn’t see the road on either side as 2 large trucks were parked there. I did drift a tiny bit forward but then backed up without revving the engine or jerking the car. I was pretty proud of myself.

The speed limit around the island is 60. The signs say: Rappel 60.

There is only one road around the island with several turn offs to the mountainous interior. Off I went in a counter clockwise direction. I encountered what is known as the ‘bad road’. It is the same road only a part of it was damaged during heavy rains. They are in the midst of repairing it but have quite a bit to complete. As with everything here, the repairs move on island time and no one is in a hurry. It’s nice though because it forces you to slow down. I had zero incidents of road rage!!!

I came up to the top of a hill and there was a scenic overlook. Stunned once again, I pulled over to take some pictures. I cannot imagine waking up every day to scenes like this. It was honestly like this all around the island.

I stopped at a variety of places looking for the perfect gifts for myself, my mom and my sister. My Mom’s being a late birthday present and my sister’s being a future Christmas present. I am positive I am not going to find anything for my sister because when I returned the car, I had nothing.

I went into a pearl shop called Eva Perles and found a gift for myself. It is the single most extravagant jewelry purchase I’ve ever made. I am not a big jewelry person but this pendant spoke to me. I worked with the owner, a lovely French woman, who has lived here for many years. She owns the shop. As I was the only customer at the time, she was very informative but not ‘in my face’. 

I ended up purchasing a grade A with a very good luster, baroque shaped pearl. She hand wrote the certificate of authenticity and noted the color as follows: Peacock bleu heart, rose body color and emerald green overtone. Now, at first I was drawn to a more purple colored pearl. However, when we went outside to view the pearls the purple one looked dull against my skin but the one I bought looked beautiful. Maybe because of the orange-y base tones of my skin and the green-ish color being complimentary?  Well, enough of that, I am thrilled with the purchase.

And here is a sort of blurry picture, that doesn't do it justice...

I also went to the Lagoonarium near the ferry dock. It’s 3200 and you park your car near the dock and a boat comes and takes you to the motu. It’s about a 5 minute ride. They have a website if you google and the pictures on the website are true to what the place looks like. It is open from 8-4 and you can stay all day if you like. I stayed for about 2 hours. I wanted to snorkel and was not interested in the fish feeding.

They had a series of buoys in the water with rope between each buoy and stated if you wanted to snorkel you MUST hold onto the rope. You could tell why almost the minute you entered the water. The current was very strong and I’m not sure even a great swimmer could have made their way without crashing into coral heads or being carried away. The coral was in decent shape and there were many, many fish. Some of them were very large and you could feel it when they bumped into you. There were also the resident stingrays and sharks milling about.

It was a good snorkeling place but a difficult one. Once through the snorkeling area was enough for me—it was tiring.

I missed lunch and most of the places were closed until dinner time so I headed back to the hotel and made do finishing up the stuff I bought. I have a can of tonic and a yogurt left! I estimate I saved myself about $200 buying food and water at the store.

I spent the remainder of the day by the pool just reading and then at the bar having my 2 complimentary mai-tais and watching the sunset over the mountains. Tough work but someone has to do it!!

I retired to my room and from there watched another Polynesian show complete with fire dancers. 

Oh and in case you were wondering, this is the view from my bed: 

Killing me Softly With His Song

I was up with the dawn today. Not really but I was up at 6:45. I needed to be at the dock at 8AM for the Whale/Dolphin watch. I boarded the ship to a gaggle of quacking like noise as there were only French people aboard. I asked the ‘captain’ if anyone spoke English. He said “Madame, we all speak English”. Oooookay. I’m familiar with this scenario. The same thing happened in Papeete on that whale watch. They are very good during the briefing but after that, not so much. And that was the same thing that happened here. I heard English twice until we docked. Mostly, I just smiled and tried to figure out where to look.

But the most excellent thing happened this time—we found a whale. The catamaran had a microphone they lowered into the water when they spotted a whale. I heard LIVE whale song. It was so amazing. It was a young male just singing his heart out. One thing I did learn during the briefing, to give you an idea of their size and weight, the tongue of the whale weighs as much as the catamaran does.

This isn't the best one but I can only upload 100 MB. The chirpy-clicky noises are dolphins. We were told that the dolphins like to hear whale song and actually sometimes if the dolphins are hanging out in one area, there could be a whale near by!

Anyway, the guide said to get ready and I wanted so much to go out there and swim but he said only the very best swimmers could go with him. So, I stayed near the boat, heart pounding. The whale was not adverse to us being near him at all. He ‘played’ and put on a show for us. It was so unbelievable. Once again, I was stunned and I think even more gobsmacked than I was in Taha’a. And that is saying a lot. Once back on the boat, I even got a picture of whale tail! I was so excited.

Whale Tail!!!

As a matter of fact, I was so amazed, ready to pee myself—whatever, that I turned off my camera at one point and thought I was recording the whale. I know…. Smacked myself already. But thankfully, there was a professional cameraman on board and he filmed the whole thing and I could purchase a copy for a mere 7000. What could I do? I handed over the money. I get the USB stick tomorrow!

We also saw several pods of spinner dolphins. That was pretty cool too. They didn’t jump out of the water, but surfaced as a group several times as they came up to breathe.

The scenery along the way was so amazing. The water—I know I’ve said it before but it is the most awesome colors I’ve ever seen. My photos look good, but somehow they don’t quite capture it. There were millions of coral heads I would have loved to stopped at, but not this time.

We sailed past the town of Hapati, which is a known surfing area. The waves were a good size and there were about 15 surfers out there. I have never been that close to surfers either!

The 3^rd stop was in about 5 ½ feet of water with a fairly strong current. It was a place to snorkel with rays and sharks. (I actually thought…..again? LOL) No, it was pretty cool. The sharks at this stop got much, much closer. I mean, like 2-3 feet away from you. The rays were insane. They just slithered all over you and let you touch them. It was pretty amazing actually.

And no, the camera was not on zoom here. 2 weeks ago, I would have been climbing up the guide's back ala Miss Lindsey in Grand Cayman!

After we got back to the hotel, I came back to my room for a little lunch. I’d only had a yogurt for breakfast and was pretty hungry. I made myself a little feast of crackers, cheese, salami and 2 graham cracker-like cookies. Then it was off to the pool to read for a bit and cool off in the infinity pool. I got into the other one today. Both are 4 ½ feet deep with wide sitting/laying area at the edge away from the ocean.

I came back from dinner tonight and they were having the Polynesian dinner show on the beach in front of the pools. I can see and hear it from my room. It really didn’t interest me and it was very, very expensive to attend. They are loving banging on those drums. They are dressed in traditional Polynesian outfits. For the men this means that whole thong thing with these woven leaf things around their calves and a crown of some sort made of fresh greens and flowers.

Most of the men here have those beautiful tribal tattoos that are done in a brown color. I don’t know if I said, but they are very important. The man is said to go to the artist and tell his life and family’s story. Then the artist creates the tattoo based on this information with the appropriate symbolic images in the tattoo. They are also meant as some sort of protection for the person. If the men get them done in the traditional way, it is very time consuming and more painful than the needles.  Here is a link to an interesting article if you are interested:

http://www.apolynesiantattoo.com/polynesian-tattoo-history

I am going to get some sort of tattoo on my thigh to symbolize this trip. Not sure what—turtle, ray, fish. Who knows? I’ll keep you posted.

Back to dinner---most of the restaurants around here will send a car to pick you up and drop you back off.  Very convenient as most people don’t rent cars and nothing is really within walking distance. I went to Le Sunset at the Hibiscus Hotel tonight. I had the shrimp with curry and coconut sauce. They were very good. What killed me was the drink menu. I ordered a Hinano and it was $8 (not even the big bottle, just a regular 12 oz bottle). I know we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean but the freakin’ beer is manufactured here and you can buy a bottle for about a $1 in a gas station. Yeah well, it went well with the spicy shrimp! And I brought a piece of the baguette back with me in my purse for a salami and cheese sandwich tomorrow for lunch!

And finally, Jeff Beck this is for you! You know how I feel about birds so I must really, really love you. LOL This bird is the boat's mascot and his name is Broken Beak. He hangs about until the boat really gets moving and then he flies off. He was a just a couple of feet from where I was seated and I almost sh*t when I saw him circling and getting ready to land. 

Bora is definitely not Bora-ing

Bora Bora Day 1

I woke to partly cloudy skies this morning. I hoped it would clear. I was scheduled for Patrick’s ¾ Day Tour. Our Cruise Critic group stuck together and we were all assigned to the same boat. I’ve shared tours now with Brian and Mary, Phyllis and Tony, Steph and Kel and Nerissa.

We headed out to our first stop—snorkeling with Sting Rays and Sharks. The weather cleared a bit as we made our way to ‘the spot’. The color of the water is just as amazing as you’ve seen in other pictures. There was still quite a bit of chop. After having my feet destroyed by my new water shoes from Land’s End, I was wearing my flip flops. We entered the water – it was only about 3 feet deep. No coral to speak of. Well no live coral anyway.

As soon as the Ray and Sharks heard the boats approaching, they started heading towards us. Our driver, who told us Patrick is his uncle, got into the water in what looked like a thong. I don’t know if that is called a breechclout but I know I’ve never seen one on a man before. It definitely showed off his tribal tattoos.

He began throwing fish into the water and we were immediately surrounded by rays, black tip sharks and tons of little fish. Our guide picked up one of the large rays and began kissing it as he held it. I’ve touched them before but I still ran my hands over their skin. It’s soft and feels a bit like wet velvet.

I think I’ve finally gotten used to the idea of swimming with these reef sharks but I will NEVER get used to those nasty eels you encounter once in a while. They are very snake-like but I never realized how thick they are. Blech.

I have to tell you—I am living proof that sharks are not attracted to blood. We got back into the boat and we were chatting waiting for our guide to bring up the anchor etc…As he walked back to start the engine, he says “Who is bleeding?” We all look down, and I am not exaggerating when I say the floor of the boat, my flip flop and my toe were covered in blood. The cut was on my little toe and I remember hitting it against a piece of dead coral but it really didn’t hurt much. DIRECT pressure needed to be applied for quite a bit to get the bleeding to stop.

That water:

The sun was in and out as we moved onto our second stop—The Coral Garden. It was about 12-15 feet deep here and the water was very choppy. I asked our guide if it was OK for me to get into the water with my foot.  He said yes. That it’s not true what they say about blood attracting sharks. That there has to be 2 elements the shark can sense—1. Blood 2. Increased heart rate. I have no idea if that is true, but there were no sharks anywhere near us at the Coral Garden.

The coral at this stop was alive and well and gorgeous. So colorful. And the fish were very plentiful. I got some very nice pictures of them. We were here about an hour. When I got back into the boat, I could see the damage to my little toe much better as the water had washed it clean. I pretty much sliced a good chunk of it. It’s rather nasty looking. 

(My poor feet are being battered this trip. I believe I am going to have to find new water shoes and I think the cheapie ones are the best.)

I love these fish:

Then we were off again and had a lovely tour of the other side of the island, where all the hotels are located. Patrick’s family’s motu is just beyond them. The sun was shining brilliantly at this point. We pulled up to the motu and made our way sloshing through the water to reach land.

Patrick’s associates had prepared a wonderful meal for us. There was a bit of ceremony as he uncovered the food that had been roasting underneath the ground for hours. A suckling pig, bread fruit, chicken and spinach, taro and plantains. They were also grilling fresh fish—Tuna and Wahoo. In addition to that there were a few other dishes like Poisson Cru and tiny bananas. All the food was served on woven palm frond plates, covered with a single large leaf of some plant and you ate with your fingers, on a table in the water. The sun felt wonderful and was out in full force by then. Beer, wine, champagne and soda were also available. You could have seconds or even thirds of everything. There was plenty of food and drink.

A Bora Bora selfie taken on Patrick's motu:

Patrick, who is not a young man, but a very fit man, clad only in his ‘thong’ gathered us again and performed an authentic Polynesian fire dance with a fire baton. I was impressed. Although, I was talking to his daughter--Vitiare, who I believe is in her late teens, and she was complaining that she is tired of seeing her father’s naked backside!! She is embarrassed and her friends sometimes tease her about it. And she said, he is getting old and keeps doing the dance because he loves all the applause he gets. He does seem like man that LOVES attention and he is quite a showman.

We got to frolic in the shallow water for a bit and then we boarded our boats once again for a trip back around the island and back to our ship.

I enjoyed the excursion very much. While the snorkeling was good, it doesn’t compare to the snorkeling we did yesterday in Ta’aha. I think second place! The water is another matter. It’s the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen.

We are in port overnight. I did go back to shore after I dropped off all my stuff and walked 10 minutes to the right of the port. I found nothing. Maybe tomorrow I will walk 10 minutes left and see what I can find. I would love to find a supermarket—just to look around.

The internet is very bad here. I believe I have free internet at the hotel. If so, I will add lots more pictures, more Bora Bora and the Quad thingy I am riding in Moorea tomorrow!!!  TTFN

A bit of Food Porn