Going to Tahiti!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Day 2 (August 5, 2016)

Hilton Hawaiian Village has pretty much everything you could possibly need without having to leave the resort at all, even a post office. However, everything is very expensive on-site unless you shop at the ABC store, which is kind of like a CVS but the ABC store also sells clothing and alcoholic beverages. To save money, definitely shop at the ABC store. They’re everywhere in Waikiki, almost literally. When we were in the shopping district on Kalakaua Avenue there was an ABC store on every block.

Not only is clothing expensive at the shops in Hilton Hawaiian Village, restaurants are as well, of which there are a number on premises. After checking out prices of the various eateries for breakfast, we decided to try Eggs-n-Things, which is a Japanese owned chain and has primarily a Japanese patron base. If nothing else, I figured it’d be an opportunity to speak Japanese again to native speakers, which I don’t have much of a chance for at home. The atmosphere was as frenetic as I’d expected. Everyone spoke Japanese there, which was cool and all, but the patrons near us must’ve all gotten collective and instantaneous whiplash by turning their heads so quickly whenever my wife, who doesn’t speak Japanese, said anything in English. It was quite comical, actually. Most Japanese visitors to Hawaii do not speak English at all, even though they take English classes every year in school from when they are very young. Let’s not get into how little sense that makes in this post. Oh, they recognize many English words, and even know what they mean, but they cannot construct sentences with them. Because of this, when they travel to places like Hawaii, they tend to congregate in areas and buy from vendors that cater to them. There are even tour busesthat service the Japanese market only.

Anyway, back to Eggs-n-things. I really wanted to like the food, but it was horrible, bordering on inedible in my estimation. Native Japanese people must like whipped cream… a lot. Eggs-n-Things has a pancake platter that comes with a 4 to 8 inch high mountain of whipped cream I swear I must have seen at almost every table. No, I didn’t try it; early onset diabetes is not what I went to Hawaii for. Because we could not finish our meal, we paid and left hungry. It would have been nice had the manager offered to remove what we didn’t eat from our bill, but he didn’t. Oh well, it’s not like I could have explained what was wrong with the food anyway, everything just tasted off to us. Still hungry, we decided to go to Cinnamon’s restaurant at the Ilikai Hotel, which is just a ten minute walk from the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Breakfast was really good and the price was quite reasonable. I highly recommend it.

Later, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I didn’t care for it. An hour’s ride on the bus to waste most of the day watching bored, culturally and ethnically nebulous people play dress-up. It didn’t seem authentic to me at all. I am also not in love that it is run by the Mormons, but that’s another story.

We arrived back at the hotel in the early evening and walked around the resort taking a ton of photos.

Late in the afternoon, from our balcony, we saw a truck drive onto the beach in front of our hotel and the driver begin taking out and setting up what we originally thought was electronic equipment. Turns out they were setting up for the weekly Friday night Fireworks display, which we had a front row seat for from our balcony! It was amazing, and close, and loud. :slight_smile: We’d never been that close to a fireworks display before.

Oh yeah, before I forget, McDonald’s in Hawaii serves rice and Spam for breakfast. :slight_smile:

Day 3 next.

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Edit window timed out. This is the photo of the McDonald’s breakfast sign in Hawaii. Please pardon the error in my previous post.

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And here is the photo of the truck setting up for the fireworks display. Sheesh, guess I really am done for the day. Again, I apologize for linking to the incorrect photo.

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Day 3 (August 6)

We awoke, packed, dressed, and said our goodbyes to the view off our fabulous balconies in our room at Hilton Hawaiian Village. We then had breakfast at Tropics Bar and Grill at the resort. Yeah, it was expensive but by this point, we were beyond caring. Breakfast was pretty good. Here is a photo of our fruit plate, the aroma of which was intoxicating, especially the cantaloupe. We then checked out and took a few more photos of the Rainbow Tower where we stayed at Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The next leg of our trip started with a midafternoon flight out of HNL in Oahu. The plane was, again, a Hawaiian Airbus A380, so the less I say about the business class experience, the better. We arrived 6 hours later at Aeroport De Tahiti Faaa at approximately 9:45 PM, and here is where it began to get interesting.

Instead of leaving the plane and walking along an enclosed gangway to the terminal, we walked down approximately 20 steps to the tarmac outside the terminal, and then another 50 or so feet to the terminal itself. Pardon the blur at the beginning of the video. Once in the terminal, everywhere we looked there were throngs of people, most of whom were passengers from other flights and other airlines, but many were airport workers.

An airport employee guided us, along with passengers from all other newly arrived flights, to the Immigration queue. When we finally reached the immigration official’s stand at the head of the queue, he asked us, in French, for our passport and form. I passed him my and my wife’s passports and the forms we completed on the plane, only to be told that they were the wrong forms and we needed to complete “this form.” He pointed to a table a few feet away where other passengers were writing frantically, some cursing, and asked us to complete the new form and come directly back to him and not to go to the back of the queue again. This was the first time my French came in handy as otherwise I probably would have gone to the back of the queue as other passengers did.

After providing the official the correct form and having our passports stamped, we exited the immigration area and had to wend our way through baggage claim, which looked more like a flea market than an airport service. We exited baggage claim and were met by seemingly the entire citizenry of Papeete. I exaggerate but there must have been over a hundred people there, mostly women and children, facing the doorway from which all passengers exited. There were people everywhere. Faaa is a very small airport so to see that many people in a relatively small area at nearly 10:00 PM was unexpected.

We then went to the currency exchange kiosk to change some US money to Tahitian. Tip #1: Do not exchange US money for Tahitian. There is a fee for the exchange, thereby making the exchange rate unfavorable. Save time, money, and frustration of been ripped off and do what we learned a few days later, go to an ATM where you will receive your cash in Tahitian notes directly, at the current exchange rate, and without a fee. There is actually no reason to bring American money to Tahiti as most places won’t take it, and those that do will rip you off on the exchange.

We had no idea where to go at this point so we walked to the entrance to the airport, to get some breathing room, which was less than 50 feet from where we exited Immigration. After a few minutes trying to get our bearings, my wife turned around and saw our travel agency’s sign. We walked over and saw our names in a list on a whiteboard. A woman walked up to us and said “Iaorana, are you Mister and Misses ‘onomatopoeia’?” That was the first of hundreds of times we would be addressed with “iaorana” during our vacation. After acknowledging our identities and showing her our photo IDs for verification, she placed leis around our necks and guided us to a curb just outside the airport, which was much quieter than inside. The representative provided us a booklet with vouchers for our hotels, meals, excursions, airline transfers, dinner reservations, etcetera. Every item in our itinerary was broken down into individual vouchers. The representative went over every voucher in the booklet and asked me to sign each after review. It took about 5 minutes to go over everything in the booklet but, I have to say, I thought the process was thorough and efficient and, in the end, I was comforted by the fact that everything, including dates, times, locations, and contacts, was in that booklet. Naturally, my wife snatched it from my forgetful hands and guarded it like it was gold.

A few minutes later, a shuttle bus drove up with the travel agency’s logo on the side, and we and approximately 10 other couples filed inside after leaving our luggage on the ground behind the shuttle to be loaded. We were driven from the airport to the Intercontinental Resort Tahiti, which was just 10 or so minutes away, again thank goodness as by now it was nearing 11:00 PM and we were wiped.

At the front desk of the Intercontinental, we were greeted with another “iaorana”. The attendant looked us up, found us, and asked for the voucher booklet. She tore out the page for the hotel accommodations and the pick-up for the following morning. She then gave us a key to our room. All checked in, we went to our room to drop off our backpacks and seek out some food. There was no room service after 10:00 PM but one of their bars was still open and, although they only sold bar food, that was better than nothing. My wife and I shared a chicken club sandwich and a bottle of club soda and went back to our room.

A few things about the Intercontinental: My wife and I have stayed at a number of Intercontinental Hotels over the years and have always considered it upscale. The Intercontinental Resort Tahiti was not. Other than the grounds, which we didn’t see until the following morning, everything else was much less than impressive. As we were using the Intercontinental for overnight accommodations only because our flight to Bora Bora was the following morning, we didn’t expect to get their best room, but the room we did get should not have been associated with the Intercontinental brand in any way. It was dingy, the furniture was old, dull, marred, and nicked, the room had an old smell, not dirty, but kind of musty, the bathroom looked like it was straight out of the 1940s with old tile and stained grout, the carpet in the room was worn, and two of the lighting fixtures didn’t work. We were so tired at this point that all we wanted to do was get to bed but, when my wife checked the patio door, she realized not only would the patio door not lock, it would not even close. She called the front desk and asked to be moved to a different room only to be told there was nothing available. We suspect voucher holders were relegated to a certain set of rooms they very well may have been out of. The attendant said she’d send a technician to check out the patio door. Within a few minutes, the technician arrived, and within a few minutes of his arrival the patio door was fixed and could be closed and locked. I thanked him and within 10 minutes of his departure, my wife and I were probably on our third dream.

Here is a photo of the leis we receivedat the airport.

Day 4 next.

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I’m enjoying your adventures. Thank you for sharing!

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Day 4 (August 7) - Part 1

It is 6 hours earlier at home than in Tahiti, so for the first 4 or 5 days of our vacation we woke up between 1:30 and 3:00 AM, unable to go back to sleep and with nothing to do but putter around the hotel room as everything was closed. Luckily, the hotels began serving breakfast at 6:00 AM and, depending on the hotel, at 5:00 AM.

On our first morning after arriving in Tahiti, we were one of the first couples at the Intercontinental’s breakfast buffet. The selection was very good but hoo-boy was it expensive, because we didn’t have a breakfast voucher for the Intercontinental and had to pay out of pocket. Here are a couple of photos of the dining area at the buffet. Imagine having live music playing as you eat your breakfast with a nice breeze wafting through. I have to say, it was pretty great.

After breakfast, we walked around the property. Video. Photo. Photo. Photo. It was nice. We suspect, however, most patrons use the Intercontinental as a layover to a different destination as we did. It just doesn’t seem like a destination itself. We then went back to our room to prepare for our departure.

We checked out and were driven back to Faaa airport for our flight to Bora Bora. Check-in was easy. We went to the ticket counter, gave the attendant a voucher, dropped our bags on the scale, took our tickets and went around the corner for the security check, which was great; we didn’t have to remove any of our clothing, empty our pockets, or remove metal or jewelry. We were even allowed to take our bottled water through in-hand. My wife forgot something in her backpack and they allowed her to go out of the security checkpoint, retrieve the item from her backpack, and come back through without a problem. Also, we didn’t have to go through a body scanner, and didn’t see one, nor were we wanded; it felt like 1990 again. :slight_smile:

For the next 20 minutes or so, we sat and waited for our flight. We then handed the attendant our ticket and walked outside to board the small Air Tahiti plane, which felt more like a bus than a plane.

Tip #2: Air Tahiti seats are unassigned; you can sit wherever you want. On the flight to Bora Bora, you want to sit on the left side of the plane, which gives you the best views of Bora Bora and the numerous resorts from the air.

Day 4, Part 2 next.

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Correction on the time swing in my post above. It is actually 6 hours later at home than in Tahiti, not earlier, so when it is 12:00 Noon in Tahiti, it is 6:00 PM at home.

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You’re welcome. Thanks for reading. More coming.

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Day 4 (August 7) - Part 2

The flight from Papeete to Bora Bora is approximately 45 minutes. Note: Because the plane is so small and there is a concern about weight distribution, luggage weighing more than 25 kilograms must be checked and cannot be carried on.

Flight safety instructions and other audible alerts are given in French, Tahitian, and English, in that order. Passengers are served Pineapple juice during the flight, which is fine, but a little too sweet to be refreshing, IMO.

Before we knew it, we were landing, disembarking, and walking toward the tiny Bora Bora airport. After claiming our baggage, which was very quick, we walked over to the St. Regis kiosk, gave our names, dropped our bags, and were led out the back of the airport to the St Regis yacht that would take us to our resort.

Note: Each of the major resorts in Bora Bora has a kiosk and rep at the airport and a corresponding boat to transport its guests. Just walk up to your resort’s kiosk and give your name; they will know what flight you are scheduled to come in on and will be waiting for you.

I don’t know what the boats to the other resorts do, but on the St Regis yacht, we were given a bottle of water and a damp towel to cool down with after boarding. On the ride to the resort, we were so enthralled by the sites, sounds, and aromas speeding by that we forgot to take video. We did remember to snap a few photos. Photo. Photo. Photo. Photo. The color of the water was the most beautiful shades of green and blue imaginable, changing every few minutes from green, to turquoise, to dark blue right in front of our eyes.

After approximately 10 minutes, we passed the Four SeasonsResort Bora Bora, and a few minutes later arrived at the St. Regis, where, upon disembarking, we were given another cool towel and offered a glass of mango juice, which was delicious!

A little about resorts in Bora Bora.

In Bora Bora, the top rated resorts are the St Regis and Four Seasons. They are what every other resort is measured by.

If you want the villa amenities of the St Regis and Four Seasons but at a lower price, definitely check out the Intercontinental Thalasso. There are a number of resorts within the Intercontinental brand in French Polynesia, but the Thalasso is the best of them, by far.

Also the Le Meridien in Bora Bora is the sister resort of the St Regis. It is smaller and their overwater bungalows are also smaller, but still nice. The water outside of the bungalows at the Le Meridian is also pretty shallow, which is great for those who are uncomfortable in deep water. It is so shallow, in fact, that in some places it is just 3 feet deep, so you can stand up in it.

You have four main islands to consider if you are looking for a resort with overwater bungalows: Tahiti, Moorea, Tahaa, and Bora Bora. Absolutely skip the main island of Tahiti. There are resorts there but none of them are rated highly. As stated in an earlier post, I stayed at the Intercontinental in Tahiti on my first night and was very disappointed with the room, and although they do have overwater bungalows, they do not get very good reviews.

The island of Moorea is a level up from the main island of Tahiti as far as offerings of resorts are concerned, some of which are very nice. Another advantage of staying at a resort on Moorea is there is a ferry that can take you there, so no additional flight is necessary once you arrive in Tahiti. There is a high speed ferry and a low speed one. The high speed ferry gets you from the main island of Tahiti to Moorea is approximately 30 minutes. The low speed one takes approximately 50 minutes or so. Don’t hesitate to ask if you want more details.

Tahaa has one resort I can highly recommend, and that is the Le Taha’a Island Resort and Spa. We actually considered the Le Taha’a, based on reviews but, by the time we decided to try to book, they were sold out.

Bora Bora is the ultimate destination for high-end resorts. A downside is you have to fly there, so yeah, another fight after arriving in Tahiti, so that’s not wonderful but, for what you get on Bora Bora, it is absolutely worth it if you have the time and the inclination and want a total pampering experience.

We walked up an open air set of steps into Reception and Registration, which looked straight out of a 1950s movie. It was large, well-designed, tastefully-appointed, and all the staff wore matching uniforms with vests. The front and back entrances were expansive and completely open to the outside. It really did feel like the world of a different time.

We went to the what we assumed was the check-in area (we were right), and were enthusiastically welcomed by two attendants behind the counter. My wife literally looked behind herself believing the grand welcome was for someone else. I laughed. :slight_smile: When I gave them our names, the enthusiasm only increased. Listen, I am sure they do this for everyone but, I have to admit, it felt good to be treated that way. I asked if they needed the voucher booklet and, as my wife began to go through her bag for it, one of the attendants began reading our daily itinerary from their computer, asking me to verbally confirm each item, including the class of overwater villa we would be staying in.

During the process of checking through everything, the attendant stopped, looked up, and said “I see you are celebrating your 25th wedding anniversary with us! Congratulations!” The other attendant, who was preparing our keys, also said “congratulations!” My wife asked the attendant about a meeting we were supposed to have with the wedding planner. The attendant looked at my wife, smiled, pointed behind my wife and said “please look there.” Standing approximately 3 feet behind my wife smiling back at us was the wedding planner Adelaide Le Masson who we’d communicated with so often in the months prior to our arrival, and a woman named Nozomi who we would soon find out was to be our butler for our stay.

Adelaide walked up and, instead of shaking our hands, hugged us and welcomed us to the St. Regis. She asked if we wanted to meet with her after checking in, or if we preferred to go to our villa first. We told her we’d like to unwind after the trip. She said that was completely understandable and gave us her card to call her when we wanted to schedule the meeting. We completed the check-in process, were given the keys to our villa, and then told that Nozomi would take us from there.

Nozomi, who at a little over 6 feet, was much taller than any Japanese woman I have ever met, led us back out the front entrance of Registration to a vehicle that looked like an over sized golf cart with seating for 8, and asked us to get in. Nozomi drove us through the property, pointing out attractions along the way, e.g., pools, cabanas, spa, bikes, gym, restaurants, beach, shops, snorkeling gear, canoes, wake-boards, etcetera. By the time we arrived at our villa, our heads were spinning. The St Regis property is huge; it took approximately 20 minutes for Nozomi to take us from Registration to our villa, of course she took a course that brought us near all the resort attractions.

The St Regis resort is so big they provide bicycles for you to ride around the resort to the various venues, pools, spas, restaurants, shops, and beaches. Just take a bike from one of the stands, ride it around, and then back to your villa. The resort crew is supposed to pick up the bikes over night from where guests leave them and take them back to the registration office, but our bikes were always outside of our villa the next morning where we left them the night before.

Upon arrival at our villa, Nozomi helped my wife out of the cart and walked us to our door and said “Welcome home.” We smiled. She opened the door for us and let us walk in ahead of her. The place looked and smelled so clean and fresh. We didn’t know where to look first. Nozomi walked us around, first to the living room where, on the dining rooms table there was a bottle of champagne, a box of chocolates, a few pieces of fruit, and some cookies and other confectioneries (please pardon the dark photo), then the bedroom that opened onto the balcony, then the [URL=“https://pix.sfly.com/3TVOdC”]enormous bathroomwhere we saw our luggage, prompting my wife to ask “how did our bags get here before us?” to which Nozomi smiled and replied “magic” which, with everything we’d seen so far, seemed as though it could have been possible. Here is a short video of our villa. I didn’t capture the living room in this one.

Nozomi then led us out to our balcony, which is nothing less than amazing.

With regard to the overwater villas themselves, you have 4 options at St Regis: Superior, Deluxe, Premier, and Royale.

Superior - Approximately 1500 sq/ft, with living room, bedroom, huge bathroom, and large deck with table and chairs for eating and 2 loungers.

Deluxe - Approximately 1500 sq/ft, with living room including a small dining table, bedroom, huge bathroom, and large deck with table and chairs for eating and 2 loungers, plus a view of Mt. Otemanu from your deck.

Premier - Approximately 1900 sq/ft, with large living room including a small dining table, bedroom, huge bathroom, and large deck with a built-in hot tub, table and chairs for eating and 2 loungers.

Royale - Approximately 4000 sq/ft, with a large living room including a dining table, 2 bedrooms, 2 huge bathrooms, a huge deck with a plunge pool you can actually swim in, and the best views of the mountain.

Of the four, I recommend the Premier if it is available.

Day 4, Part 3 next.

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While we are waiting for me to post Day 4 - Part 3, let’s take a few moments to bask in my memory of sitting on the balcony of my villa at St Regis Bora Bora watching the water ebb. Ahhhhhh :slight_smile:

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Day 4 - Part 3

We arrived at our villa for the first time at two-ish in the afternoon, which is eight-ish in the evening at home, and because our bodies were still on home time, we were getting tired.

Before Nozomi, our butler left us, she asked if we wanted her to unpack and put away the contents of our luggage. Although we thought it was a nice gesture, my wife felt uncomfortable about having another person touch (she actually said ‘fondle’, heh) her clothing, so we declined. She also gave us a few envelopes from resort management; one welcoming us, another with coupons for discounts, another with our itinerary for the week, another with the itinerary for the wedding day, another with activities suggestions, and on, and on. It was a flurry of paper. Nice, but inefficient. Nozomi dutifully went through all of it with us. She also called and made a spa appointment for the following morning for my wife.

Nozomi then advised that she was at our service and if we needed anything at all, to call the butler’s line and she will respond to our request. We asked what we needed to do to make reservations at the restaurants on-premises. Nozomi promptly picked up the phone and called each of the restaurants which, unfortunately, had nothing available for that evening, so we made a reservation for the following evening at Lagoon Restaurant, which covered us for tomorrow, but what about today? Nozomi suggested we get something at Aparima Bar when we are ready to eat. Aparima’s menu is somewhat limited, but you can get something at almost any time from there, so we decided to do that.

There are 5 restaurants at the St Regis resort:

– Te Pahu, where we ate breakfast most mornings. Te Pahu also has Indian cuisine every Monday evening, and a Polynesian show every Wednesday evening
– Lagoon - French inspired dishes
– Sushi Take (pronounced ‘ta-key’) - Primarily sushi and sashimi, with other seafood options
– Far Niente - their Italian inspired restaurant
– Aparima Bar - light snacks, lunch options, basic bar food and comparable atmosphere. Aparima is also a swim-up bar, and has 10 in-water seats for patrons who want to eat with a third of their bodies submerged. It’s a neat experience.

St Regis also has a shop they call the boutique, which sells packaged snacks like candy and chips, soft drinks, bottled water, overpriced knick-knacks, and a selection of apparel, also wildly overpriced. I recommend the boutique for the snacks and beverages as although they are still somewhat expensive, $3.50 for a 750 milliliter bottle of water for example, they are far less expensive than the $11 per bottle you will pay from the minibar in your villa. Snacks at the boutique are between $2 and $3 as opposed to $9 to $10 in your minibar.

Tip #3: Ask your butler to remove everything from the minibar, which is really just a fridge, in your villa. You can then fill it up with snacks and beverages you purchase on your own from the boutique or other shops on the main island (which we will get to in my Day 5 post).

Nozomi left us and I decided to unpack. After getting most of my clothing hung and stored, I came out to the bedroom and saw my wife zonked out across the bed. I lay down next to her and was gone in two seconds.

A few hours later I awoke to the sound of running water. My wife was in the bathroom doing who knows what at her sink. I asked if she wanted to get something to eat at Aparima. She was out of the bathroom in a flash grabbing my hand to go… now. :slight_smile:

As we had no idea where anything at the resort was, my wife called the butler line and within 10 minutes a cart was at our villa ready to take us. I forgot what we ate that first night but, whatever it was, it satisfied us. After eating, we had the choice of either calling the butler service for a cart to take us back to our villa, take a couple of bikes from one of the bike stands near the restaurant (here is a photo of one of the many bike stands at the resort), or walk back to our villa. Even though it was truly night by this time, and we weren’t exactly sure how to get back, after asking one of the restaurant staff for directions, we decided to walk… we could always backtrack if we made a mistake.

Note: Bikes, as most all other gear, including swimming gear, canoes, paddle-boards, etcetera, are free to use. Everything is first come, first served, but there was never a time when we wanted something that was unavailable.

Approximately 20 minutes later, we were back at our villa. Two seconds later we awoke and it was 3:00 in the morning. We didn’t even remember getting on the bed, and we were still wearing the same clothing we went to dinner in.

As we could not get back to sleep, my wife began unpacking, and I went and sat on the balcony in the dark, which was very nice.

Fondle. :smiley:

Day 5 (August 8) next.

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Day 5 (August 8)

With a busy day ahead, we had little time to lollygag so at around 5:30 AM we showered, dressed, and walked the 10 minutes to Te Pahu for breakfast. It looked like rain and, sure enough, within minutes of arriving at Te Pahu, it started.

A bit about the weather in Bora Bora. May through October is considered Winter, and November through April Summer. In their Summer it rains, a lot, as Summer is their rainy season. It was their Winter when we were there. Temperatures were slightly cooler during our visit, ranging from between 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and averaging 78 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit, which was perfect, and although it did rain during our stay, it typically lasted between 10 and 15 minutes a day, and occurred typically in the morning. I have to say, however, that even the rain was refreshing as it was typically a misty rain and not a downpour or deluge by any stretch of the imagination.

Back to breakfast. :slight_smile: Our package included breakfast at no additional charge every morning. Although the resort calls it a buffet breakfast, everything on the menu could be ordered, and custom-prepared, at no additional cost. I am an omelet fan, so I ordered the same omelet every morning: 3 eggs, tomato, spinach, onion, with a hint of cheddar cheese, well done. By the third morning, I no longer had to state my order; the waiter simply came to our table and advised that my eggs would be out shortly. Nice.

The star of the breakfast show, however, was the buffet. It had an amazing and varied selection, and a selection of breads and pastries that were baked each morning on-site and changed every day. Here is a video clip of the morning’s breakfast buffet selection. I don’t believe I have ever experienced such a variety of breakfast items in one location. And yes, Vodka and other alcoholic beverages were part of the buffet offerings.

Near the end of the video, I panned out of the restaurant over the water where you will see two people paddle-boarding, in the rain. :slight_smile:

Te Pahu is an open-air, thatch-roofed restaurant so, from time to time, you will see a bird or two fly through, but they’re not scavengers so they don’t annoy you looking for scraps during your breakfast.

One thing we found interesting, which I will probably mention again in other posts, is although the resort was supposedly booked solid, the various venues and restaurants were not only not crowded, many times we felt we were the only guests at the resort. During breakfast, there were easily many more resort and restaurant staff than patrons, with most tables empty. It may have been the time of day we were at the restaurant as we were typically out and about at the crack of dawn, but we noticed this during other times of the day and at other locations at the resort as well.

During breakfast, my wife took a chance and called the wedding planner, and although she wasn’t there, my wife was surprised someone actually picked up the phone at 6:30 in the morning, who advised that Adelaide was at Te Pahu as well. A few minutes later, we saw Adelaide walking toward our table, smiling as she typically did. We exchanged pleasantries and made an appointment to visit her office after breakfast to discuss the wedding day itinerary.

Over the course of the week, my wife became very friendly with Adelaide, who is in her late twenties and originally from Paris.

After completing our breakfast, we sat for a few minutes looking out at the beach. Here is a slightly unclear photo of my wife’s breakfast, which looks delish, even blurry. Admit it. :slight_smile:

Upon leaving Te Pahu, we met up with Adelaide who walked us over to her office. Adelaide discussed each item in the itinerary for our ceremony on Wednesday, and asked if we wanted to change anything. She also asked about our attire for the ceremony. Adelaide’s office had a number of mannequins wearing wedding apparel depicting the styles of various cultures. Adelaide advised that my wife could choose the style of dress she wanted and Adelaide’s staff would prepare it for my wife in her size. My wife was amazed by this, so much so that she considered not telling Adelaide that she already had an outfit for the ceremony. Ultimately, she did tell her, but some of the dresses in Adelaide’s office were out of this world, and my wife was drooling.

After going over everything Adelaide asked if we wanted to see the ceremony site right now. We said yes, and Adelaide walked us over to the beach where the ceremony would be held. She also showed us the private island where our candlelight dinner would be set up. We then went back to Adelaide’s office where she told us to call her at any time if we had questions.

We left Adelaide’s office and grabbed a couple of bikes from one of the bike stands and rode back to our villa. Here is a photo of the outside of our and our neighbor’s villa. Look at the color of that water!

My wife had a massage appointment at the Miri Miri spa at 9:00 AM so she bolted for the bathroom to take another shower and prepare for her session. At 8:45, we received a call that the cart was waiting outside for my wife. Impressive.

Day 5 - Part 2 next.

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While we await my day 5, part 2 post, scheduled for later today, here is a video clip of the airport in Bora Bora after our 45 minute flight from Papeete, Tahiti on day 4. We retrieved our backpacks and met the St Regis hostess who assisted us with the last leg of our trip, the boat ride to the resort.

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I love this thread. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

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Day 5 (August 8) - Part 2

A few moments later, my wife left our villa to be taken to her spa appointment. The appointment was actually for a couples massage, but I decided not to go so the resort arranged for my wife to use my voucher for a second session on another day, which was very accommodating of them.

While my wife was out, I took a little swim off our balcony. The temperature of the water was perfect and although only about 10 feet deep, I was surprised how clearly I could see the sandy bottom. The water was so clear when I put my head under it felt more like being in a large enclosed pool than open water. The only downside to the almost absolute pleasure I felt while swimming was that the water was very salty, hence the washdown spigots on the lower decks of every balcony. After my swim, I went back inside the villa and took another shower.

When my wife returned, she went on at length about how they served her tea and biscuits prior to the massage, and how wonderfully exhilarating her first ever full-body massage was. Prior to the massage, the masseuse advised that she could completely disrobe if she wanted to. My wife said she was apprehensive at first, but went for it after rationalizing that she’d never see these people in her life again so why not. My wife said the only but not really negative aspect of the experience is the massage was so relaxing that she fell asleep during part of the session and so wasn’t awake to enjoy all of it.

The next item on our loose agenda for the day was to travel to the main island as my wife wanted to see some of the sites, interact with the local population and, of course, shop.

For your reference, Bora Bora is an island surrounded by smaller islands called motus. The motus serve as a barrier between the main island and the ocean. Many of the resorts in Bora Bora are on the motus, requiring a boat ride from the resort to the main island. Here is a drawing of a map of Bora Bora I downloaded. At the top of the map, is the airport, then going clockwise is the Four Seasons resort, St Regis, then Le Meridien, and then Intercontinental Thalasso.

Each resort located on a motu has a corresponding dock in a unique location on the main island where they drop off and pick up their guests. Some of the resorts charge their guests for the ride to the main island, St Regis does not, so we could come and go to the island as often as we wanted, as long as St Regis had a boat scheduled to go to the island. There was one occasion when they scheduled a boat just for us, but I will get to that later.

We rode our bikes down to the main dock, left them in the bike rack, and prepared to board the boat to the main island. Here is a photo of the main island of Bora Bora from the St Regis dock. The most prominent geological feature of the main island is the mountain Mount Otemanu, the peak of which is typically cloud covered.

After a few minutes, we were waved over to board the boat. The boat ride to the St Regis dock on the main island takes, I’d say, between 8 and 10 minutes. When we arrived on the main island, there were a number of shuttles waiting, one to take guests to Bloody Mary’s, a world famous restaurant at which many movie stars and other luminaries have eaten (we meant to visit Bloody Mary’s at some point during our stay in Bora Bora just for the experience, but time was simply not our friend), another shuttle to take guests to Matira Beach, another to take guests to MaiKai restaurant where we would go on another day, another shuttle to take guests to the St. James restaurant, and another shuttle to take guests to the main town Vaitape, which was our destination for the day.

The ride from the St Regis dock to Vaitape takes approximately 30 minutes as Vaitape is on the opposite side of the island. As far as I am aware, there is one main road that circles the island. In Vaitape, the shuttle drops guests off and picks them up again at Robert Wan Pearls. The pearl trade is a major industry in French Polynesia, with emphasis on the sale of black pearls. In Vaitape, which is an extremely small town, we counted 11 pearl shops so there were probably others. Because Robert Wan also has a pearl shop within the St Regis resort, I suspect there is also a relationship between the resort and Robert Wan on the main island, otherwise why drop off guests there.

There are many small t-shirt and souvenir shops on the main island, each more ridiculously overpriced than the last, and my wife went into every one of them. Here is a photo of one called Bora Bora Spirit On the shop’s sign below the image of the sun on the left is the word “pareo” [パレオ] in Japanese. If you know what a sarong is, a pareo is the same thing, only a larger piece of fabric, and instead of wearing it around your waist, it is typically worn by women to cover the areas of the body below the neck and above the knee, and can be tied into various styles. Men wear pareos as women wear sarongs, around the waist only. On the shop’s sign below the image of the sun on the right is the word “t-shirt” [Ｔシャツ] in Japanese, although I would have spelled it [ティーシャツ]. Here is a photo of the inside of another shop.

Every so often as you walk down the right or left side of the road (there are no sidewalks), you will see one of these whiz by. It is the all electric Renault Twizy. Believe it or not, this car(?) holds two people; one in the front and one in the back. We seriously considered renting one from Avis but in retrospect are glad we didn’t as we walked the length of the shopping district in 10 minutes. Neat little vehicle, though. :slight_smile:

My wife bought a couple of knick-knacks for her friends at work while I fought to remain awake as I followed her around like a puppy. There were various shops with various names, but they all pretty much sold the same crap, all displayed to draw in the tourists. Disappointing.

The highlight for me was our stop at Chin Lee, Vaitape’s largest grocery store. It was crowded and had no air conditioning, but it had everything, and at great prices. For example, a 2 liter bottle of water for XPF 106, the equivalent of 99 cents US! Needless to say, we stocked up on water, fruit drinks, snacks, and other items. We walked out of there with 3 full bags of groceries for the equivalent of $18 US. We were smiling so widely, you would have thought we’d either won the lottery or successfully pulled off a grand heist. :smiley: We’d gotten such a good deal, we went back in to pick up a few other items and couple of additional bottles of water. Here is a video clip of my wife and me in the checkout queue at Chin Lee for the second time.

One important thing to note when shopping in Vaitape, the more French you can speak the better. There are shops where at least one of the proprietor staff speaks English, but many who run the local food stands or who are cashiers in the grocery stores speak little English, and some not at all, or at least didn’t acknowledge that they did. Over all, speaking French is simply easier.

After stocking up at Chin Lee, we couldn’t carry anything more, so we headed back to Robert Wan to wait for the shuttle back to the St Regis dock.

Here is a photo of Mount Otemanu from the main island with its peak obscured by clouds.

Day 5, part 3 next.

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In my previous post, in paragraph 5, I mentioned a map of Bora Bora that I neglected to link to. Here is the link. Please pardon the omission.

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Day 5 (August 8) - Part 3

As soon as we were dropped off by the shuttle at the St Regis pier on the main island, we could see the boat from St Regis in the distance coming for us.

On the boat ride, as many of the passengers were munching on snacks, I pointed out the sign above the pilot’s head to my wife in this photo. We both laughed. :slight_smile:

After the short trip back to St Regis, my wife asked for a cart to take us back to our villa as we were laden with groceries.

Although we had dinner reservations at Lagoon, we remembered that Te Pahu had Indian cuisine every Monday night and we really wanted to try it so my wife called our butler to see if we could have dinner at Te Pahu tonight at 7:00 and reserve Lagoon for Tuesday instead. After approximately 10 minutes, our butler called back to advise that it was all arranged and asked if we wanted a cart to pick us up at 6:45 PM, to which my wife thanked her and said yes.

As it was already after 6:00 PM, we didn’t have much time so my wife, thinking more quickly than I, bogarted the shower, forcing me to wait until she was done. Yeah, I could have jumped in there with her, but she likes the water hotter than the fires of Hell, and I’m sorry but, no, so I went to the closet to pick out something to wear. After showering and dressing, we both stood outside our villa and waited a few minutes for the cart to arrive.

Upon arriving at Te Pahu, our nostrils were assaulted (in a good way) by the pungent aroma of spices typically used in Indian cuisine. As we hadn’t stopped for lunch during the day, we were more hungry than normal and our mouths were actually watering. We couldn’t wait to eat!

When we provided our names to the maitre d’, he confirmed us on his iPad, brought us over to our table, removed the ‘Reserved’ placard, and advised that the waiter would be over shortly. After a few minutes, the waiter came over, handed us menus, and explained that we do not select items from the menu, that everything on the menu was going to be served, and that the menu served simply as information of what will be served during each course. Worked for us.

There were five courses: amuse-bouche, appetizer, main course, second amuse-bouche, and dessert. We thought amuse-bouche with Indian cuisine a little strange but when in Rome… Here are a couple of photos of the main course, which included a veal and chicken dish. It was moderately spicy, with not much of a kick, but it was delicious and well-prepared.

Musicians played live during our dinner, which is only remarkable until you realize there was live music every night at every restaurant at the resort, but still very nice.

Although our internal clocks were beginning to synchronize with French Polynesia time, it was a little after 9:00 PM when we finished dinner, and we’d had a busy day and were beat, so we thanked the waiter and left the restaurant for the walk home… er… I mean to our villa. :slight_smile:

Note: French Polynesia does not have a tipping culture, and they do not expect to be tipped. However, if someone went out of their way for us, or performed a service spectacularly, we would tip them between XPF 500 and XPF 800 and, in some cases up to XPF 1500 as we did one day after our housekeeper spent more than an hour cleaning our villa. She did such an amazing job we wanted to pack her in our luggage and take her home with us. She puts our cleaning lady at home to shame.

Speaking of housekeeping, and I am speaking of St Regis only here as I don’t have any knowledge of how other resorts work, when the housekeepers clean your villa, they actually clean it. All linens are removed from the bed and replaced, the bathroom is cleaned and mopped, and all carpeted areas are vacuumed. Fingerprints are removed from all surfaces, even lamps. Dining tables are washed, not simply wiped down. Even the balcony is cleaned as well as the loungers. There is a coffee and tea service with coffeemaker in one of the cabinets with an assortment of teas and packets of coffee. The housekeeper replenishes whatever you use on a daily basis.

Also, there is a nightly turndown service your housekeeper will perform for you around 9:00 PM. If you are not in your villa when she comes by, she will perform the service while you are away. If you are in the villa, she will ask if you want the service performed. If you don’t she will hand you two small bottles of water. Two complimentary bottles of water were left in our villa every night. I assume this is part of the standard turndown service but am not sure.

After returned to our villa, we puttered around a bit and hit the hay.

Day 6 (August 9) next.

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Why did you buy all the groceries when you were eating at restaurants all the time?

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It was mostly snacks and beverages that we could consume when we were either out and about or in our villa when everything was closed. We’d purchased a few cleaning and other paper products as well.

Also, we typically ate at restaurants for breakfast and dinner only. For lunch it was either grab and go or nothing at all.

As stated in an earlier post, our breakfasts and dinners were included in our package. Everything else was paid out of pocket and because everything at the resort was very expensive, being able to go to a local grocery store and buy items at prices the locals pay was great.

And finally, we didn’t have a kitchen or even a microwave in our villa, so we didn’t purchase anything that needed to be prepared, cooked, or even heated up.

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We didn’t buy “all” the groceries, but we certainly wanted to. :smiley: