Jessica had read about someone’s trip to the Bahamas online and became intrigued to visit the islands.  The people she read about had stayed at the Royal Tower of Atlantis, so she also wanted to stay there as well.  Given that Atlantis has a number of hotel offerings, James decided to check out the options.  While reading the commentaries of the various hotels, James didn’t see that much of a difference between the Royal Tower and Coral Tower to justify almost $200 more per night difference that was being quoted.  After some debate, James was able to convince Jessica that Coral Tower can be just as good of a choice for our visit.

With no direct flights and to keep a minimum number of connections without getting detoured too far, the best choices were to fly out of SFO rather than SJC.  We also decided to fly overnight to Nassau to make best use of time and return in the late evening back to San Francisco.   For the outbound flight we selected a flight via Charlotte that had a reasonable layover.   For the return flight, we selected a flight through Miami with a longer layover, to ensure enough time to clear immigration, as the flight through Charlotte had a layover of only about an hour.  (Although as we discovered later, the US immigration clearance was done in Bahamas prior to our departure, such that connection time would not have mattered as much.)   With the price of First Class tickets only about $800 more round trip for both of us at the time we booked, we decided to splurge a bit.   Even though we know that given the planes used will be Boeing 737 and Airbus 320, there would not be any lie-flat seats, but hope the slightly wider seats with more recline would help make the trip more comfortable.

There were a number of excursions that Jessica wants to try based on the story she had read, particularly to Exuma Cay and the Pink Beach on Harbour Island.   The full day Exuma excursion that she read about required getting to the island early in the morning and leaving late on our own, which was not practical for us.  So we end up booking another tour that departed from Nassau and would return us back on the same day.  For the other excursion Jessica decided to wait until we get there to arrange.  In hindsight, we probably could have waited until we get there to book tours, may have had more choices.

Our flight to Charlotte and the connection went fairly smoothly.   The only thing somewhat unexpected was that no breakfast was served on either flights; only a box breakfast was offered to take with us when we deplaned on our first flight.  We elected to have a light breakfast at the airport instead.    During the short flight from Charlotte to Nassau, the flight attendant passed out US Customs forms along with the Bahamian Immigration form.  That was when we found out that we would be clearing US immigration at Nassau before we board the plane on our return back to the US.   We wouldn’t need to have worried about a short layover on our return flight that typically is an issue for an international connection at an US airport.

We touched down at Nassau, New Providence just before noon local time.  The trek through immigration and custom at the airport was quick, and we were on the shuttle bus within an hour of landing.   The ride to the hotel took about 40 minutes, which included a ride through the congested commercial center of Nassau and the huge cruise ship port by the harbor.  It is said that this port can hold up to eight of today’s mega-size cruise ships at once.   It took longer to get through that part of town than it took the rest of our ride to the hotel.  After passing the cruise ship port, we quickly reached the bridge that would take us into Paradise Island and our hotel, Atlantis’ Coral Tower.

Our driver made a comment as we were crossing the bridge, that as much as the resort will try to “keep us there with balls and chains”, we should get out of the resort to see and experience the real Bahamas.  The comment may not be unusual when it comes to island resorts.  But as we would discover, given the size of Atlantis, one could easily have been kept busy for a week and eat at a different restaurant every day without leaving the resort.   One thing we didn’t get with our package was a pre-paid meal plan.   We had wanted to try some local restaurants outside the resort, and we heard of problems of settling bills with the pre-paid meals due to the various rules and exceptions.  Plus, at $500 per person for 5 days, it didn’t seem to be a deal.

 

After getting settled into our room, which overlooks the Paradise Island harbor with a distance view of the Nassau cruise ship port from our balcony, Jessica booked a restaurant in Nassau for that evening and then wanted to walk through all the ‘sights’ within the resort itself.  The Coral Tower sits in the middle of the three main hotel towers of Atlantis.  It is adjacent to the Beach Tower, and it is located close to the main lagoons and resort water sport area.  And it is not a far walk to the Atlantis Beach that faces the Atlantic Ocean.

We first went to the Predator Lagoon and Tunnel, just a few steps from outside of our hotel’s back door.  The path to it winds through pools on one side and lagoon on the other side, including an area with numerous Manteel Rays, where a group was interacting with the rays.  We then walked down to the Predator Tunnel where there are glass enclosures with views of the bottom of the lagoon on both sides.   There were numerous kinds of fish and sharks in this lagoon, and most of the fish were large, some as big as the smaller sharks.  One part of the tunnel has a long glass tube that we can walk through from one side of the lagoon to the other side with fishes swimming around the tub on all sides.  As James was ready to take a picture of Jessica in the tube, a large sawtooth shark swam over the top of the tube.  James tried to quickly redirect his camera to the shark but was able to only pick up a shadow of the beast.

 

From the Predator’s tunnel, we walked by the adventure area, where there is all kind of water activities available on the lagoon (for additional fees), including canoes, surf board paddling, water tricycle, etc. Then we headed across the lagoon and headed back toward the hotel complex, getting to the “Royal Spot” that is just outside the Casino with a perfect vantage point of most of the resort’s outdoor complex.  After taking a few pictures, we headed into the casino and walked toward the Royal Tower.   James decided to take a look at the Sports Book and made a couple of small wagers on the following night’s NCAA tournament games.   At the Royal Tower, there is an Atlantis Ruin attraction with various artifacts about Atlantis, a nice attraction but nothing too extraordinary.

We exited the hotel and headed back outside again.  Walking by a Ben & Jerry stand, we decided to grab some ice cream.   One thing Atlantis did well was to enable guests to use their room key to charge for their purchases inside the resort.  It makes things convenient, although they charge 15% gratuity on all purchases.  In fact, at most places in the resort you can only use your room key to charge.  (And as the room key indicated, you can also use your room key to use at the casino as well, though we didn’t try.)

After finishing our ice cream, we headed toward the Mayan Temple area, where there is a water slide attraction that enable people to flow down through a tube cutting across a shark tank on one side and a more typical slide on the other side.   There was a long line of people on these slides (which was free for hotel guests).   For the shark tank, there was another attraction where people can don a small version of the tank suit and walk in the tank with the sharks.  While we were there, we did see a group through the flexi glass along one wall of the tank doing that.

We continued our walk around the resort toward the ocean.  We first hit the water at the sandbar that jutted out at the tip of the island into the Atlantic Ocean.   We walked out on to the rocks and took some photos.  We then walked along the water until we hit Atlantis Beach, a beautiful white sand beach that was crowded at that time of the afternoon.   On the beach, there were vendors renting jet skis and all kind of other vendors selling drinks to souvenirs.   After taking some pictures, we headed back to our hotel through the Predator tunnel again.  If nothing else, it was cool in the tunnel, and we were getting hot from our walk around the resort.

It was almost 5PM when we got back to the hotel.  Before returning to our room, Jessica went to the hotel’s Tour center and booked a trip to the Pink Beach for the next day.  With the trip requiring a three-hour boat ride, James decided not to go; Jessica would do this excursion by herself.   When we got back to our room, we took a shower to clean up and a rest for our dinner appointment in Nassau.

The taxi ride to Nassau was an interesting experience.  To get the most bang for each trip, taxis will try to fill a van with people.  As we were to find out later, a typical ride from the Nassau city center to our hotel is $12.  With the van, the driver would charge $4 per person for the trip.  So with 8-10 people per trip, the driver can make $32 to $40 per trip instead of the normal $12.

Our dinner reservation was at Café Matisse, a restaurant that Jessica said had among the best reviews in Nassau.   While we would categorize it as a fine dinning place, the atmosphere and attire is casual.  We chose an outside table to enjoy the early evening light.  Trying to stay local, we ordered a cracked crab appetizer, but while James chose the local Hog fish as his entrée, Jessica decided to go with a T-Bone steak, which was a recommended dish she saw in the reviews.  Both entrees turned out to be very good.  The Hog fish was grilled tender enough that a fork was all was needed, and the squash and cherry tomato were perfect accompaniments.  The steak was also prepared very well, with sides of asparagus and cherry tomato.   Even though we were both full from our entrees, we completed our meal with a raspberry cheesecake which we shared.

We left the restaurant just past eight o’clock and headed back to the hotel.  The short taxi ride to the hotel along the water, with the twilight flickering off the harbor water and boats accentuating the paradise feel, was in some way a perfect way to end our first day.   With an early morning departure for her excursion, Jessica headed to bed and fell asleep almost right away.  James stayed up and finished a basketball game on TV before dozing off.

The next day, we both got up around 6:30AM.  Jessica had to leave for her excursion just past 7AM, while James decided to head to the hotel fitness center for a workout before beginning his day.    After seeing Jessica off in the taxi, James walked through the hotel and casino to the Fitness Center, which is located on the other side of the Royal Tower.

The fitness center is in the same center as the spa facility and has a good setup, with all the machines and free weights; there was also an outdoor lap exercise pool.  After finishing his workout around 8:30AM, James decided to take a detour to check out more of the resort by walking around outside on his way back to Coral Tower.   At that hour, the outside area was still very quiet, with hardly anyone around and most of the attraction were not open.  James walked by the Power Tower area, another set of slides and activities that we didn’t get a chance to check out the previous day.   There is a swimming pool around just about every corner in this resort.    It was kind of neat to walk through the area with the place empty, feeling like you have the whole place to yourself.

After a shower, James decided to walk around the area outside the resort on Paradise Island and see if he can grab something to eat while catching up on a few things.   Just outside of the resort, across the street from Comfort Suites, there is a small shopping complex, Paradise Shopping Plaza.   James had seen people bringing Dunkin Donut coffee back to the hotel, so he decided to see if he can find it.   After finding out that DD also offered free WiFi,   James picked up some breakfast at DD, sat under a big umbrella on a courtyard on the outside patio and catch up on some writing.  The heat wasn’t much of a factor at that time of day, but the humidity can still be felt, especially when there was no breeze.  There were a number of people coming and going out of the shop.   Judging by the attire, there were as many locals as tourists.   And there were also people walking around in the courtyard offering to sell ‘Cuban cigars’ to the patrons sitting in the area.  After about an hour, James decided to walk around the shopping plaza to check out the shops.  James ended up picking up a couple of a souvenir trinkets and some post cards at one of the shops and then walked back across the street to the Marina Village, which is part of the Atlantis resort by the island’s harbor.

 

It was about 11AM and the area was still fairly quiet.  There were some activities at the Starbucks, Ben and Jerry and Quiznos, but that was about it.  While there, James saw Cafe Martinique, which is now a Jean-Georges Vongericten restaurant and decided it would be a good choice for dinner on on of the nights.  The original Cafe Martinique was located where the Atlantis hotel now sits and made an appearance in the movie Thunderball as the casino where James Bond met the villain Largo the first time.

 

 

The yachts lining the harbor next to the village were all nice ‘mini-ships’.   By the resort building, there were umbrella tables lining the harbor.   James grabbed one and decided to continue his writing while doing some people watching at the same time.   It was kind of an ideal spot to just relax and soak in the resort vibe.

After the battery start to run down after another hour, James decided to head to the Starbucks inside the hotel to see if there was an outlet available.  This Starbuck has a setup with outlets along the back wall that let people to plug in.  James ordered a drink and then charged up the Mac while continuing to work on his stories.

To avoid the lunch crowd, James went to grab a bite to eat at Murray’s Deli at the hotel around 2 o’clock.   Not wanting to eat too much but still want to be filled, James decided to get a hamburger, as he hadn’t had one for a long time.  The burger tasted good, and James decided not to eat all the accompanied fries to avoid getting too full.   Afterwards, he checked with the concierge to book a reservation at Café Martinique.   Because Jessica’s return time that night wasn’t certain and the Café is closed the following two nights, he booked a reservation for their last night on the island.

James then checked out more areas in the resort that he hasn’t the previous day, and he wanted to find a shady spot somewhere to do some reading before going to the Sportsbook area in the Casino to watch the NCAA Final Four games and wait for Jessica’s return.

Going to the other side of the Coral Tower away from the center of the resort, James found additional water activities and also a pond filled with baby stingrays and sharks.  These ponds are very shallow and those tiny creatures can be easily seen.   After reaching the ocean again, James walked back to one of the pool areas and found a chair under some shade and did some reading.  After about half an hour, he dozed off for a while, but then awoke again to continue reading until around 5:30PM, when he went back to the room to freshen up a bit and head off to the Sportsbook to watch the games.

At the Sportsbook area, people has started to camp out waiting for the first the Final Four game, Villanova vs Oklahoma.   The monitors on one side of the wall was setup to make two wall size screens to show the game, while there are additional screens to the side to show other sports as well.  Even in a resort in Bahamas, one can find a lot of people that was aligned to one team or the other (or that they just have a wager on the game).   There seemed to be more Oklahoma supporters for the first game.  It was a reasonably close contest for the first part of the game, but Villanova start to stretch out the lead by halftime.   Just as the second half began, Jessica called to say she is back, and James headed back to the hotel room.

Jessica brought back some jerk chicken platter that she had picked up on her way back from the harbor area.  It was still warm.   We ate it while Jessica showed off the inexpensive shells and corals that she picked up at the Pink Beach and James peeked at the basketball game on TV.   The chicken was a bit spicy for James, but was real tasty that James keep nibbling at it despite needing to drink a lot of water.    While playing with her new toys and describing her trip, we ate the chicken.

The Pink beach is on the west side of Harbour Island, facing the Atlantic.   The Island is only about ½ mile wide and 3 ½ miles long, a narrow strip of land.  There is one ‘town’ on the island, Dunmore Town.  Most of the restaurants and lodgings are located in the center to the western part of the island.

The island is said to be the place to go for its tranquility and it pink beach, where the water are gentle with a coral reef protecting the beach from the waves of the ocean.

The pink color comes from microscopic shell animal called Foraminifera, one of the most abundant single cell organism in the ocean.  Bahama’s Pink Beach, with its smooth sand, is said to have the world’s best pink beach.

Jessica’s adventure on the island was mostly enjoying the beach, where there were also horses available for riding.    She had met a couple of Chinese graduate students on the ferry.   They had tried to rent a car on the island to drive around more of the island, but was unsuccessful.  Outside the beach, they just shop around the local vendors near the beach that sells corals, shells and crafts.   And for lunch, they had the local favorite Jerk Chicken, corn bread and conch salad.

 

We also started thinking about where to go for dinner.   The chicken was our appetizer.   James mentioned the restaurants at the Marina village.   We went down to village around 8 o’clock, but there was still a wait of 45 minutes for Bimini Road, the restaurant that serve local favors that we wanted to try.   Since we weren’t too hungry, waiting wasn’t an issue.  It also gave Jessica a chance to walk around the village.   There was a shop for local cake maker Tortuga Rum Cake at the village.  We got a variety pack of cakes to take back home.   Jessica saw people drinking some colorful drinks and wanted to try.  Atlantis resort has a daiquiri shack in the village.  Jessica wanted to try the Rum Punch favor but that one only comes with alcohol; she settled with a virgin pina colada instead.

After about 30 minutes of walking around we went back to the restaurant to wait.  It took another about half an hour before we got seated.   Bimini Road features a number of local favorite dishes.  Jessica decided to have some conch chowder and conch salad, still savoring from what she had from lunch.  James decided to try the conch chowder along with a Cuban sandwich.    The conch chowder was good, but a bit too spicy for James, who end up drinking more than an equal amount of water; thus, was only able to finish about half of the sandwich.

Jessica went back up to the room after we finished, while James returned to the Sportsbook to watch the last part of the Syracuse/North Carolina game.   There were more people there than during the early game.  The game was a bit closer than the 1^st game, but the outcome was more or less determined with a few minutes left in the game.  Still the people there were excited until the end.   Some of the people there probably has something riding on the final score of the game.

The next day we decided to try some of the resort’s water activities in the morning and then go to Nassau in the afternoon, where Jessica made reservation at another recommended restaurant.   We first went to the water slides at the Mayan Temple.   After picking up our daily resort wristband, we first tried the dual tube slide through the shark tank.  The slide has a bit of rollercoaster feel, spiraling downward in a mostly dark environment added to the adventure.  We splashed down just before the straight tube run in the shark tank, and slowly drift though the tube with the sharks swimming outside.  Then we went over to the other side for a straight plunge slide.  That slide was quick and in a way more exhilarating, as one can feel the speed and lack of control as one slid down.  It was important to keep one’s body in right position to avoid any adverse impact when hitting the water.

After finishing with the slides, we took a dip in the pool for a few minutes.  The cool water feel good against the hot sun.   After drying off, we pick up a cold frappe at the poolside Starbucks and wait for the feeding of the sharks.   As the feeding time approached, in addition to people, we noticed that the birds were also starting to encroach into the area.  It seems like they know the feeding time well.   When the caretaker started dropping the feed into water, the birds jumps on the food almost as fast the sharks and other fish in the tank.  As soon as the feed hit the water, there were swarms reaching for the feed from in the water as well as the sky.  The two bucket full of feed took about 5 minutes to distribute to the fish.

We left from the hotel around 1PM and took the short taxi ride to the Prince George Wharf, which is where the massive cruise terminal is located.   This is the main tourist hub of the city.   Probably wouldn’t be exaggerating too much if we say that most of the shops and restaurants there catered to the tourists.   Jessica wanted to walk around first before having lunch.   She had heard a lot about the straw hats in the Bahamas and want to get a locally made one.   We first went to the Straw Market that is just off the Wharf area.

However, most of the hats being sold were either made elsewhere or not to Jessica’s taste.   We didn’t see anything until we reached Pompey Square at the end of the wharf, the site of a former Slave Market.   In the Square, there were a few vendor stands selling straw items and other souvenirs.   We found a straw vendor that looked promising, who was in the process of working on a straw box.  Jessica was able to find a hat to her liking, along with a couple of straw boxes and a vase.

We then walked around a couple of blocks in the area looking for a place for lunch.   James was ok with almost anything, but Jessica want something ‘good’.  We found a Chinese restaurant in the area, but after looking around, Jessica didn’t find it to be worthwhile.   When James went to buy a T-shirt in a store, Jessica asked the clerk for a good restaurant serving local food.  The clerk recommended Lukka Kairi, the one we had made a reservation for dinner that night.

Jessica decided that if the restaurant is good, we could eat both lunch and dinner there.   The restaurant is on the second floor of a building with a view of the harbor and the cruise terminal.    Just as we were seated on a table by the balcony, one of the cruise ship was starting to depart from the terminal.  The enormous size of the new cruise ship is awe aspiring up close.  These ships are literally city blocks floating on water.

The menu of Lukka Kairi may not be extensive, but as Jessica had read, they are innovative and surprising good.   Even though the portion of the dishes were not big, the restaurant’s dish is made and served to be shared.  This worked out very nicely for Jessica, who wants to try a lot of dishes.  Of course, in this case, we also have two opportunities to try different dishes.   The one dish Jessica wanted to try was the fried snapper, but that wasn’t available that day.  We end up selecting the kale Caesar salad, creamy grilled asparagus, conch fritters, lobster mac and cheese, hot dipped chicken, and the catch of the day.   We both also had the restaurant’s own fruit punch, which turned out to be very good.

All the dishes turn out to be great.  James really liked the conch fritters and the asparagus while Jessica was partial to the chicken.   As we didn’t really have breakfast, we were able to finish everything without problem.  The small portion size of the dish was ‘tapas like’ and gave us wanting more at the end.  We probably could have eaten more, but given we were to return for dinner was going to be in only a few hours, restraint was practical.

We walked around the city some more to work off our lunch and trying to pass the time before dinner.   We walked a couple of blocks west up the hill and wandered into some interesting places.  We passed by the Pompey Slave Museum, Pirates Museum and reached the government house buildings, which seems like the colonial style of grand building.   It might have been because it was Sunday, but all the museums and buildings were closed.   And with the cruise ship crowd mostly gone, many of the shops were starting to close.   We started looking for places to just sit and rest to wait for our dinner reservation at 6:30PM.

We found a café/bar in one of the alleyways that was still open.  We ordered the minimal:  Two beers, an ice cream and some fries to just pass the time.  Jessica used the WiFi of the café to do her stuff on her phone while James watched the baseball game on the TV.    The café closed up around 5PM, so we had to leave.  As we walked around, we see that all most all shops were now closed.   We stopped at the Pompey Square which was empty now for a little rest before heading back to Lukka Kairi.

They were able to seat us despite arriving much earlier than our reservation; the same waiter served us.   Given the short gap between our lunch and dinner, we selected only five dishes this time.  Four new ones plus the conch fritters (which James really liked):  Conch fritters, Conch salad, Grilled lobster tail, Drunken grilled flank steak and Grilled pork tenderloin.   Jessica again ordered the fruit punch while James tried the infused fruit water.   As was with lunch, all the dishes were delicious, and despite the relative small portions of the dishes, we weren’t able to finish them – just too much food within too a short period of time.

Despite the early hour when we returned, Jessica decided to just turn in for the day to get rest up for our early departure the following morning for the Exuma Cay tour.  Exuma Cay is an area about an hour of high speed boat ride from Nassau, which some described as some of the most beautiful waters in the world. We selected a tour that let us depart from Paradise Island.  The package included picking us at the hotel to the pier. The Pier turned out to locate within a short walk from our hotel, just beyond the Marian Village.

Our boat has a cover cabin behind the pilot house, which has about six or seven rows of seats that could hold 5 to 6 people each row.  There are additional seats in the front of the boat which was not covered.  We took a seat in the covered cabin section.  The ride out was fairly smooth in that section of the boat; we did not feel any rough waters even when the boat was cruising at high speed.  We were able to take a few pictures of islands until we went into open waters.

Our first stop of the day was at Allan Cay, which has indigenous iguanas on this tiny island.  The crew gave us some sticks and grapes which we would use to feed the iguanas on the island.  There were quite a number of iguanas, both large and small.  And they do seem to like the grapes that were used to lure them out and take their pictures.

After we finished feeding the iguanas, we went to a private island, Ship Channel Cay.   The island has a small landing pier and a few wooden buildings along the beach.   The island has a long stretch of white sand beach, but the water around the island had a number of mantel rays and sharks swimming along the beach and shores.

The first group activity was feeding and petting the mantel rays.   This was similar to what we had done on our trip to Tahiti.  The staff lined up the people along the beach and gave everyone some feed.   They gave instruction on how to feed the rays and then let some of the rays swim along the people line to give people a chance to feed and pet them.

But the more interesting activity was the “shark feeding”.   One of the staff had lured some sharks close to the beach and then another staff used a large fish to lure them closer to the beach.  He put the fish at the end of long rope and flung it into the water, as he pulled the rope in, the sharks would follow the bait.   And when one the shark bites onto the fish tightly, the shark was lifted out of the water.    Within a few minutes, the sharks ate all the fish on the rope.

 

Before lunch, another activity available to the group was snorkeling around the island among the sharks and rays.  The lunch buffet featured mostly dishes such as fish fry, grill pork and chicken, rice, potato salad, Johnny bread, etc.   Conch salad was not on the lunch menu, but another activity in the afternoon was the conch salad demonstration, where one of the staff member ‘cut up’ a couple of conch for a fresh salad.   The empty shells were given to a couple of the kids in the group.

Not long after the conch salad demonstration, the sky opened up.  At first it was a light rain.  Then it stopped for a while, and people went back out to the beach to play and stroll around.   But then it started raining fairly hard again, and everyone got inside the main room or under the covered deck area.  After more than half an hour, as the staff prepared to head back to Paradise Island, the rain didn’t seem to let up any.  As there is not enough seats in the cabin with covering, a few of us has to sit in the open seats in the front.  James volunteered to sit upfront.  As one of the last ones going back onto the boat, there weren’t any seats in the cabin.  It was lucky Jessica was able to grab a seat inside.  Initially, it didn’t feel too bad, but James was glad he was wearing swim trunks instead of regular shorts because despite the rain coat, he was completely drenched before the boat even left the pier.

Once the boat got going, the water hitting the face starting to feel stronger and stronger, such that James had to put his head down and could only look to the side.   Behind James, some people start to sing the theme song to Gilligan’s Island.   And then the ‘wave bump’ started as the boat sped up further, making this more and more like a rollercoaster ride.  It was good the thick raincoat helped to insulate the cold well.   It was hard to figure out whether it was rain or the ocean water that is spraying onto the deck.  The salt that James can taste from the water hitting his face suggested that there were some sea water mixed in at the very least.  The one thought that came in James’ mind was a hot shower when he got back to the hotel.

For Jessica, even being in the cabin it wasn’t all good.  Water still leaked from the canvas top and from the side.  And the rollercoaster effect was felt there as well.  About half way through the trip, the rain seemed to let up a bit, but it was still bumpy.  It wasn’t until land became visible on the horizon that the sky brighten a bit.   It was hard to believe the sky was clear as we pull up onto the dock at Paradise Island.   The first thing we did when we got back to our rooms was to take a hot shower.

After getting cleaned up, we set upon where we should go for dinner.   Both of us wanted to stay within the resort.  After looking at the choices, Jessica decided on the Virgil BBQ, located downstairs at the Coral Tower.   When we went down around 8:30PM, there was no seating, but the hostess got us a seating at 9:15PM.   To make it simple, we order the ‘Select Two’ family special, which we picked the brisket and the BBQ chicken, along with collard greens and coleslaw as our sides.   James decided also to order the hush puppies, as he hasn’t had those in a long time.    Both of the meat was done really well.  The brisket had arrived first, so we end up almost finishing all of the brisket but was able to finish only about half the chicken.  But the surprise dish to us was the collard green, which we both liked a lot.

During the meal, James kept an eye on the NCAA Final between North Caroline and Villanova game on the TV at the restaurant.  After dinner, Jessica headed back to the room while James went to the Sportsbook to watch the rest of the game.   The final minute of that game turned out to be a classic.  But what make the experience more memorable was the atmosphere in that Sportsbook, where each play down the stretch was eliciting thunderous responses from the people gathered there.   When Marcus Paige (North Carolina) hit the acrobatic jumper to tie the game, the room shook.   Just when people started to settle down and thinking of overtime, Kris Jenkins hit the 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game for Villanova.  An equal if not louder response erupt from the crowd.  Not sure how many there were Villanova fans or had the right bets or people were just excited by the finish.  Regardless, it was interesting to see excitement of the crowd there.

For our last day, we decided to take it easy; stay on Paradise Island to finish our shopping, and then just relax before our final dinner at Café Martinique.

Around 10AM we set out to the shopping plaza that James went on the second day.   Jessica wanted to buy some more straw items and sea souvenirs, along with something big enough to carry the coral she purchased on Pink Beach.   After looking around a couple of shops, we were able to find something that seem to be big enough.  While not expensive, it did cost more than what Jessica paid for the stuff she had picked up at Pink Beach.   We then headed to the Arts & Crafts Center that was next to the shopping village.  It was more or less a vendor outlet like the Straw Market in Nassau.   However, this center has more local produced items, as well as things like Starfish, shells, etc.   Jessica picked up a few shells and other sea trinkets.  James bought a straw fan with Minons characters sew on it.

We left the Art & Craft Center around 11:30AM.   Given we were already close to the pier, James suggested the Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretville restaurant.   It wasn’t too crowded when we got there.  A few people were in the small pool on the patio.  We sat under an umbrella in the patio looking out over the harbor.    James wanted to order “Cheeseburger in Paradise” but decided to go with the Chicken Quesadilla instead.  Jessica ordered the Shrimp Trio (Blackened Shrimp, Lime Shrimp and Crispy Coconut Shrimp) along with a salad.  The dishes were pretty good, about what we expected.  But the setting of the restaurant does provide the ‘vibe’ of dining in paradise.   Throughout the meal Jessica was busy checking all the pictures she had taken on the trip.

Afterwards we head back to the hotel by walking through the Marina Village again, just taking in the harbor scene and see if there are anything else we want to buy.   We put away what we purchased back in our room and headed back down to the lagoon again.  We first walked around the ‘baby shark and rays’ area and then walked to the beach once again.  James and Jessica were each enthralled at looking at their own things at the beach area, they got separated; each tried to find the other walking around to no avail before ending up having to call each other to get reunited.   We then walked around Predator’s tunnel one last time before heading back to our room getting ready for dinner.

Café Martinique is a gourmet French restaurant, one of the formal restaurants at the hotel.  The dining room is on the second floor, where one can get to by riding the birdcage elevator.  The décor is mix of British and French colonial, with wooden shuttle shades and high ceiling fans.

Jessica selected the sautéed Foie Gras with mango along with French Onion Soup and for entrée, Steak au Poivre with brocolini.   James selected the crab cakes and Heart of Romaine Salad, with the Crunch Roasted Grouper with glazed mushrooms as the entrée.   Both the Foie Gras and crab cakes were great.  Jessica’s Steak au Poivre was almost perfect.  James’ Grouper was cooked very well in terms of tenderness, but he thought the sauce was a bit of the salty side.   Even though we were both full by the end of the meal, as this was our last night, we ordered the Grand Mariner Soufflé for dessert.  It was delicious even if we couldn’t quite finish it all.

After the meal, we took a slow stroll around the hotel and resort area before heading back to our room.  We had enjoyed our time on the island even if we didn’t get ‘outside’ to see the real Bahama as much as we should – we had hit mainly the main tourist attractions.   But this does gives us reasons to come back to the island again and hopefully see more on our next visit.

The French Polynesia evokes stories of Munity on the Bounty and Michener’s South Pacific.   It is a place that produces both romance and heroics. It is a place people go to get away from it all. People from Fletcher Christian to Robert Louis Stevenson to Marlon Brando had come visit and stayed for extended time there.  The French Polynesia islands are volcanic rocks that sit in a location that is far away from most civilization and give people the chance to experience a simpler life.

We decided to spend a week on Bora Bora to experience the beautiful French Polynesia ourselves and to get away from it all for at least one week.   We went during the latter part of February, the island’s summer months and the rainy season. We crossed our fingers and hope the weather would hold up. While it did rain during our stay, most of the rain were short in duration.

Tahiti is only an 8 hours flight from Los Angeles. It is shorter than going to any part of Asia or Europe from US west coast.   Yet, it feels much further away. Tahiti is in the same time zone as Hawaii, which is approximately 2,600 miles northwest away. (Surprisingly, Hawaii is actually some 500 miles west of Tahiti, farther west from continental US from a longitude perspective.)

There are good value packages to Tahiti and the other French Polynesia islands. However, if one wants to be picky on dates and accommodation, the price can be steeper.   The number of airlines flying to Tahiti is also limited. From the west coast, there really is only one choice (Air Tahiti Nui), which flies non-stop from Los Angeles to Tahiti.   An unexpected part of our journey was that we seemed to require a separate check-in each segment of the flight, including the connection at LAX.   We flew out of SFO to LAX to connect to our Air Tahiti flight. But after arriving at LAX, we had to exit the domestic terminal completely and walked outside the terminal to get to the International terminal. There doesn’t seem to be any inside link between the terminals. This is different than at other US airport transfers to an outbound international flight that we have experienced. What is also interesting was that we had to get a new boarding pass from the Air Tahiti to get through Security at LAX (the boarding pass we were given at SFO by American Airline weren’t good, but never got a reason why). All of which make the trip feel longer than it actually was.

Upon arriving at Papeete (Tahiti) for our connecting flight, we had to re-check in our baggage as well. And when the system crashed just as we got in line to check-in, we ended up waiting over 45 minutes to get our boarding pass. And we received a hand-written boarding pass; the first ones that we have ever gotten for a normal commercial flight. The flight end up delayed for over an hour to accommodate having to manually checking in most of the passengers.

The Bora Bora airport is located on one of the northern motu islets that encircle the lagoon and Vaitape, the main island of Bora Bora. The only way to go from the airport to the other islands is to take a boat. (The airport is said to be originally build by American military and the first airport in the French Polynesia.) There is a commercial ferry that takes passengers to the main island. We had arranged a private boat from our hotel, Intercontinental Le Moana.   The boat ride to the hotel took about 30 minutes, including a stopover at the hotel’s sister property, Thalasso Resort.

Our ‘room’ was an over-the-water bungalow that sits on the edge of the beach facing the lagoon. There was a terrace & a pier on the side of our bungalow, with a picturesque view of the lagoon and where we can dip into waist-deep water straight from our room. The bungalow is a two-room suite with a small sitting area with a sofa and a glass bottom coffee table that opens up to allow us feed the fish below (which became a daily ritual for us.) The bathroom is generous in size with a separate shower and tub. And as our bungalow sits on top of the water, there were also two life vests in the closet. The TV has only one English language channel (CNN), which we figured would reduce the time we tuned in to the television.

After putting our things away, we headed over to the hotel restaurant for lunch. During check-in we had learned that the hotel restaurant is not serving dinners at that time due to renovation work.   But the restaurant and room service would be available until 6PM each night.   We were considering having early dinner there as an option for some nights, but at lunch we noticed that the menu selections were mainly sandwiches and salads. We weren’t sure whether that would be an ideal option for us. For lunch we ordered a club sandwich and a ham & cheese Panini, along with a salad and fries.   The sandwiches were decent but pricy, which wasn’t a surprise from what we had read up about the prices on the island prior to the trip.

After lunch, we decided to head into Vaitape City, the island’s “main town”, for some shopping and look around the area. The hotel has a shuttle that takes us into town. One of the main product for the island is the pearl, the black pearl to be more specific.   There were many shops in town selling pearls, and Jessica spent an hour and a half in two shops that she had heard about from others. After looking over various options, she settled on a two pearl necklace made from loose pearls, which was a better value than the pre-made necklace strands offered in the shops.

We then went to the local supermarket to pick up some snacks and beverages.   We found that also sell pre-cooked food and decided to pick up some short ribs and chicken & rice as well.   When we returned back to the hotel, we ordered a Caesar salad from room service to go with the hot food we brought back for an early dinner in our bungalow. We ate on our terrace under the late afternoon sky, which provided a nice atmosphere and backdrop to our meal.

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to Matira Beach, the public beach that borders the hotel, to watch the sunset. It is one of the amazing nature’s view to watch the final minutes of the day as sun drops slowly into the distance water. We were able to get a few good pictures of the sunset. After returning to our rooms, we start to check with the picture we had took that first day.   Despite the early hours, we both seemed to hit a wall around 9 o’clock and fell asleep with the sound of the crashing waves all around us.

Both of us woke up early the next morning at the crack of dawn. The main windows of our bungalow faces northeast, so we can see the sun rise over the water as it brightens the sky. We kind of laid on the bed for a while and then spend some time feeding the fish before spending a few minutes on our terrace to enjoy the serene morning view of the lagoon. We head out for breakfast around 8:30AM and started mapping out our day’s plan. We decided to take a walk around the area surrounding the resort first. Then we will try the kayak later in the morning. We also made reservation for dinner that night at a well known restaurant on the island called Bloody Mary’s and arranged for a shark and stingray swim tour for the following morning.

Our resort is located near the southern tip of the island, on the main two-lane road that circles the island.   We walked the length of Matira Beach. There are a couple of snack bars/restaurants along the beach.   On the road, there is a mixture of private homes, restaurants, and shops. And along the road, we can see lots of breadfruit trees. (The expedition of HMS Bounty was to bring back breadfruit plants from the South Pacific to transplant to Caribbean as a fruit source for the slaves there.) There is a convenience store nearby our hotel, as well as a restaurant that offers pizza in addition to the typical local fares. Further up the road, there was an Avis rental, which also rent scooters.   We walked about another half a mile further up the road before turning back to our hotel.

After returning back to the hotel, Jessica picked up a kayak from the resort staff while James went back to the bungalow to put things away.   Jessica paddled the kayak back to our bungalow’s pier. After changing into his swim suit, James joined Jessica on the kayak. We paddled around the resort back and forth a few times, all the while trying to figure out how to steer and keep out of the deeper waters.   We can see the change in the color of the water where the water depth changes. There are also buoy and markers that indicate deeper water. We spend about an hour on the water before returning the kayak back to the beach. We then took a dip in the pool to cool down and recover before returning back to our room.

We decided to skip lunch and just do some reading in the afternoon, and James also tried to catch up on his travel writing while sitting on the terrace; hoping the atmosphere could generate better inspiration!

Bloody Mary’s is located not too far on the western side of Vaitape from our resort. There is a pier just across the restaurant that allows for boats to bring customers to the restaurant. (Most restaurants on the island arrange transport for their customers.) The restaurant offers a simple menu of a few seafood and meat options.   Instead of making selection off a menu at the table, there is a display of the day’s offering where a staffer provided an explanation and description of each item and have patrons make their selection before the taking them to their table.   Jessica originally thought of ordering the steak, but then changed her mind and went with the local Wahoo (ona) fish with a seafood kabob for appetizer. James chose the local parrot fish and a fried calamari as appetizer.   For a drink, Jessica wanted to try the restaurant’s name sake drink; although she realized she didn’t really like spiced tomato juice favor after a couple of sip.

Both the appetizers and entrees were done well. The parrot fish, a white fish, was grilled to a very tender state, and the Wahoo was seared with the right amount of balance. The entrées were paired with grilled vegetables, rice and a salad.   The size of the portions were also just right, and we both finished most of the food. For dessert, we ordered some mango and pineapple sherbet to share.

While waiting for our ride back to our hotel, we noticed on the shuttle stop area the restaurant put on a board of all the famous people who had visited the restaurants, from Diana Ross to Harrison Ford to Leonardo DiCaprio (inside the restaurant there was also a signed autograph from former 49er running back Roger Craig).

The next morning, we woke up a bit later, but still early enough to head to breakfast around 8AM to make our 9AM shark/sting ray boat tour and also to make arrangement for that night’s dinner at Maikai Resort. James decided to go light on breakfast to reduce any potential seasickness affect. (That sailing trip in Monterey 15 years ago still ingrained deeply in James’ memory.)

The boat was approximate a 20-foot long with a canopy over most of the boat and an outboard motor on the back; it was somewhat smaller than James had expected.   But as the boat moved out toward the open waters, it seem to ride fairly smoothly. Our trip would first take us out of the Bora Bora lagoon area to swim with the sharks. Then we would return back to the lagoon to feed and play with stingrays. Finally, we would go to a coral garden to see the fish and corals before heading over to a private small islet for some refreshment before heading back to the hotel by early afternoon.

During the tour, we learned that there was only one water passage into the Bora Bora lagoon, Passe de Teavanui, which is to the west of Vaitape. This is the gateway we passed through to the water just beyond the lagoon where the sharks typically can be found. When we arrived, there were several boats already in the area.   After the boat stopped, we can see a school of small sharks off one side of the boat. With everyone on the boat (including Jessica) hurrying to one side of the boat, the boat tilted strongly to one side. James decided to stay on the other side to try to take a few pictures of a few stray ones that appeared on that side, but did not end up getting worthwhile shots of the sharks, as compared to the ones Jessica was able to get on the other side of the boat. Those who wanted to take a closer view of the sharks jumped into the water for a swim. Jessica went in for a quick dip but didn’t stay too long in the water. She was wary of getting too close to the big ones swimming below.

Our next stop was at the very shallow water off the one of the islets in the lagoon to feed and play with the stingrays. The water was about waist deep and just about everyone jumped into water to get a chance close to the stingrays.   The one caution the boat staff warned is not to step on its tail, which has the sting.   It was fine to pet the rays on its top side, but noted that the ray’s mouth is on its bottom side. Stingrays doesn’t have teeth; it sucks food into its mouth.   Jessica was one of the first ones to jump into the water and quickly had a couple of rays to socialize with. In the beginning, it was all joy, but when a bunch of rays all swam toward her all at once, she turned and hightailed to get away.   And while feeding the ray, she said she almost got her fingers sucked into the rays’ mouth.   But she still stayed in the water for almost the entire length of the time we were there.

The next stop was the coral garden, which is more of a snorkeling event. Jessica passed on the swim.   Finally, we headed to a private islet not too far from our hotel for some drink and snacks. The island provides a nice view of the main island and the lagoon, particularly from atop of the island’s peak. It was there we saw and captured an interesting scene: an incoming storm with a clear line between the storm area and the sunshine part with clear sky.

 

It was almost 2pm when we returned back to the hotel. Jessica wasn’t hungry and just want to eat some of the snacks we had bought and hang out in our bungalow. James went out to grab a quick bite to eat. He went over to the restaurant/bar on the Matira Beach and ordered a hamburger and fries. The terrace table provided a great view of the water and beach area, which helped to pass the time as it took over 30 minutes before the order arrived. During the wait, a short rain burst hit the area; some people scrambled for cover while others just continue on with their water activities. After returning back the bungalow, we both just rested and enjoyed the idyllic setting.

Maikai Resort and Yacht Club is just north of Vaitape City. The restaurant is set elegantly with views of the harbor off one side of the dining room. Unfortunately, it was dark when we arrived and couldn’t see much.   Jessica chose the rib-eye steak with mash potatoes and vegetables, and James selected the curry prawn with rice and vegetables. We also ordered a salad to share.   For drink, Jessica decided on a virgin colada, learned from the lesson from the prior evening. The food was done well, Jessica’s steak was cooked just about right for medium and the curry sauce was simply succulent.   The accompanied vegetables were also cooked at just the right tenderness.   We finished all but a small piece of the steak and some of the mash potatoes to save room for dessert. Jessica’s dessert choice was chocolate moelleux, a warm chocolate cake with a creamy chocolate filling, this version also come with sweet cream and vanilla ice cream on the side.   It was truly a decadent and delicious piece of dessert. Despite being fairly full from our entrees, we almost completely finished the dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we headed back to the hotel and was walking back to our bungalow, we saw the sky filled with stars.   Jessica tried to take a picture of the night sky with her iphone but wasn’t able to get a good picture. We hurried back to our bungalow to get our camera for a try, but also wasn’t too successful with it.   Then we try adjusting the film speed, shutter speed and aperture setting on the camera. We played around for about half an hour, got something a little better but still not a clear picture.

Our body clock seems to have finally adjusted to the local time. After some light reading we went to sleep around 11 o’clock.

The following day we planned to schedule excursions for the rest of our stays, including a kite surfing lesson for Jessica and then just hang around the hotel beach. This would be our laid back day.

After a late breakfast, we went to the concierge to schedule a spa for our last day there and look at dinner possibilities for the rest of our nights. A number of restaurants are closed on Sunday, and some resorts may be difficult to reach as well (getting to Four Seasons would require a $500 boat ride; that’s just for the boat ride, dinner not included.) We decided to go to Thalasso’s restaurant (our resort’s sister property) on the day when we go there for our spa treatment. For the following night, we settled on Sofitel. For that night, we decided to keep it open; Jessica was thinking of a light meal in the late afternoon or go to one of the restaurant nearby the resort.

At the concierge we also found out the kite surf instructor was on vacation, so that option was out. Jessica thought to just kayak around a bit. But after hanging out in the lobby for another half hour while our bungalow was being cleaned, Jessica decided to just hang out in the bungalow.   This day also turned out to be one of the more rainy days of our stay, there were more than 4 or 5 showers during the day. Most were short in duration, lasting about 10-15 minutes. One did last more than 30 minutes and was one that actually obscured the horizon out to the sea.  The benefit of the storm was the appearance of a beautiful rainbow after the clouds passed.   The cloud does typically moves quickly through such that the sun can be shinning on one side of the sky while it may be raining directly overhead.

Around 6pm, we decided to head to the restaurant by the resort that was recommended, Fare Manuia. The restaurant is about a 30 sec walk from the hotel road entrance. (But it’s about a 5 minute walk from our bungalow to the hotel road entrance.)   Fare Manuia has an extensive menu, from pizza and burgers to lobsters and foie gras.   The price is not much lower than the resort restaurants, but the portion size turned out to be very generous. Jessica try the curry prawns and the seafood soup while James tried the pasta along with a Caesar salad with chicken. The Caesar salad may have been the best of the bunch, which came with a generous portion of the chicken and was almost enough as a meal by itself. Both the curry shrimp and pasta were decent, but not as memorable as what we had the previous couple of nights.

The showers were still on and off as we were ready to leave the restaurant. We waited until when the rain seemed to have stopped for a bit before heading back to the hotel. We were about 50 yards to our bungalow when the rain started coming down hard again. We got just a little wet as we sneaked back into our bungalow for the night.

The next morning, we were considering to go rent a scooter to check out some of the farther spots of the island that we haven’t seen.   After breakfast we headed out to Avis, but all the scooters had already been rented out for the day. We decided to just take a walk up the road to see what we can find. While it was only 10AM, it was fairly hot. We ended up stopping at Sofitel Marana for a rest and a drink and partake the scenery there. The resort was laid out with the pool facing the lagoon and a full view of its private island about half a mile off the coast. We could see the bungalows of our resort from the pool and beach area.

On way back to our hotel, we decided to stop back at Avis and see if we could reserve a scooter for the following morning to ride around before our spa appointment in the afternoon. When the agent mentioned that a scooter may be available later that afternoon, we decided to rent one for a day (only about $8 more than a 4 hour rental).   We were thinking to take the scooter for a ride to the northern part of the island prior to dinner.  We returned to our bungalow for a rest before going to pick up the scooter later in the afternoon.

Around 3PM, James went to pick up the scooter and really didn’t expect to have much difficulty in handling it. Although he should have second thoughts when the rental person appeared somewhat apprehensive when James had indicated that it has been 30 plus years since he had rode one.   While trying to drive it off the rental lot, at the initial acceleration, James crashed into the wall on the other side of the street about 15 feet away. Luckily, there were only some bruises and scrapes.   And the repair charges came to about $250. Could have been much worse all the way around. The scooter was harder to maneuver than James anticipated; particularly in using the hand throttle. It would have been better if he had some practice on an open lot before taking it onto the road.

In any case, the accident changed the plans for the rest of the day. We went back to our bungalow and just rested and cleaned up before heading out to dinner at Sofitel Resort. Walking just before dusk was much more comfortable than during the day.   The restaurant wasn’t open when we arrived, so we went out to the pool area to relax and to take some pictures of the twilight setting while waiting.

 

Like most restaurants on the island, the menu was primarily a selection of steak and fish. Just to change pace a bit, James ordered the magrets de canard while Jessica ordered the seafood gratin with lobster.   We both also ordered the vegetable soup.   James thought the duck was done very well, may be good enough for a restaurant in Paris. Jessica thought the gratin was ok, but the lobster was the best part of that dish.   For dessert, we had a trio of mango, pineapple and coconut sorbet.

Since it was dark, we took a taxi back as recommended. (A $15 ride for about a mile.)   After returning, we began to plan for our final full day. In the afternoon, we would head to the other Intercontinental resort (Thalasso) for spa treatment and dinner. But due to the scooter accident, the morning was wide open. Jessica decided she might just kayak around and do some swimming in the morning. James planned to rest.

The next morning went fairly quiet as planned. After breakfast, Jessica did some light water activities while James found a nice shade spot to veg out on the beach and then around the pool area.   Around noon, we head back to our bungalow to shower and wash up prior heading over to the spa.

 

Intercontinental Thalasso is located on one of the eastern motu islets. The only way to and from the resort is by boat or helicopter. It’s a much bigger resort than the Le Moana. In addition to the spa, there are also a diving center, three restaurants and two mini-lagoons with plenty of fish. (On the other side of the islet, there is the protective reef of Bora Bora; didn’t found out there is a viewing spot available on the island until after we returned back to our bungalow.)

 

The spa facility at the resort is setup well. At the room for our massage, along with individual showers, there is a glass bottom floor where we can see the fish when we lie face down on the massaging table.   We had chosen a spa treatment with a body scrub, a body wrap and a massage. The spa treatment was good, although James got a bit hot toward the end of the body wrap treatment and almost ready to jump out of it.

We had a couple of hours to spend after the spa session before dinner. Jessica did some shopping at the boutique and pearl store in the resort while James setup a place in the lounge. During twilight, just when the sun had set behind the mountain on the main island, we went to the beach area and were able to take some beautiful shots of the main island that we weren’t able to get at our own hotel.

 

For dinner, Jessica ordered a shrimp and vegetable stir fry while James selected the special poultry dish of the day.   We also selected a vegetable risotto as our starter and a mango chili soup for dessert.  The risotto dish was done especially well; our main entrées were also fairly good, on par with Maikai Resort and Sofitel.   The mango chili soup was different, with a unique spice favor, just may not be to our taste. We did finish the ice cream that accompanied the soup.

 

 

 

 

 

The boat ride back to our hotel was interesting as it was dark all around us except for a few lights that shone on the various islands in the lagoon. We can see the stars in the sky, and James was thinking how his dad mentioned of using a sextant to navigate the seas. It is a skill James would have liked to have had learned.

After returning to our bungalow, Jessica did battle with a cockroach she found wandering near the bed area while James inquired about some hotel charges with the hotel reception. Wanting to be close to nature means that you will also have to deal with nature’s occupants. We spend a few minutes feeding the fishes through our glass bottom coffee table as we wind down our last night in Bora Bora.

The next morning we took a late breakfast and then start to get organized, including getting a few last minute gifts and some final paradise moments before starting our journey back home, feeling much like that we could be like others who stayed here longer, much longer.