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.