A Visit To Papeete

Tuesday 2 January

Another lazy morning – not having to get up for breakfast means you can laze around with a cup of tea for as long as you like. It was nearly 11.00 before we finally emerged and met with a nice lady on the Tahitian Tours desk to arrange a tour around the island for tomorrow afternoon. As we have to book out by 11.00, rather than sit around all day waiting to be collected for the airport, we thought we would take the opportunity to see a bit more of Tahiti.

This was also our main objective in catching the bus to Papeete this morning. We ran across the zebra crossing outside the entrance to the hotel to catch the bus to town – traveling in the opposite direction than we had thought. The bus is a larger version of the tuk-tuks on Koh Samui – they have a lorry front, with a seating area behind as long as a railway carriage, with benches down both sides (our return bus even had a bench down the centre aisle as well and stated it was able to carry 38 adults or 51 children). You paid for your journey when you got off the bus – even though it was a flat fare of 130 FPF (French Polynesian Francs) per person, each way for any distance. I still have not got the hang of this money and find converting the cost of meals or drinks almost impossible – I think there should be around 180 to the GBP at the present exchange rate, but that too varies considerably. Another thing that is very confusing is driving on the wrong side of the road – we had it ‘sussed’ by the time we left China – four months ago now - but since then driving has been on the left, the same side as we are used to – and now we have to get used to traffic from the right again – it seems so much more dangerous.

The road to Papeete was a bit like a country road at home – twisting and turning through semi rural countryside, passing through a couple of small settlements with a few shops, and the odd hotel along the way. Only when we passed the airport – a white sprawling “mini town” with a separate cargo terminal to the passenger terminal – did we see any sign of bustle or activity. We have watched from our balcony, all sizes of planes land here throughout the day – from small bi-planes to the large passenger jets - and sometimes heard them at night too – obviously servicing the myriad of islands that form French Polynesia.

Papeete town was much larger than we expected – lots of roads of small shops, a large container and ferry port where the big cruise ships dock and lots of zebra crossings where the cars do slow down to let you across the road. Today was another Public Holiday here (and maybe tomorrow too), so most of the shops were still closed after the New Year celebrations. Bars and pavement cafes were busy, but otherwise only the souvenir / touristy shops seemed to be doing any trade. The town seemed to be planned on a grid system, so we wandered up and down looking for something different. We found a multi-screen cinema showing films we had never heard of, and a very large church, looking regal and magnificent with its newly painted exterior in cream and tan in the centre of town. The doors were open and we could see candles burning inside – but there was nothing to say which denomination worshipped there. We also found the golden arches of Maccy D’s – the Cook Islands is the only place we have visited so far that has not had either a Maccy D’s or a KFC – here both restaurant and drive through were very busy – perhaps because it is a cheap meal option, as most other places on the island are quite expensive – a bottle of beer is between 3 and 5 GBP, a pizza almost 15GBP. I did find a hairdressers open where it was about 25 GBP for a cut and 60 – 80 GBP for highlights – about the same as I would pay at home – but I was a bit nervous when all I could see them doing was cutting men’s hair! The whole town looks as if it needs a bit of attention – parts of the shopping area were very tatty, and even though I know a large number of the shops were closed, it didn’t have any atmosphere or buzz – just separate people all going about their business in an isolated manner.

The sun, when it shines here, is unrelenting and we soon needed a drink. We found a bar with a big shady area on the pavement, and we sat and “traffic watched” for a while. This is another country that imports a lot of used Japanese cars, and almost every car on the road comes from there. There are a few mopeds and scooters, but not nearly so many as other places we have visited. They are very fond of the open back trucks where families and friends clamber in the back to ride to their destinations. We had another wander around the town before looking for the bus stop to return home – they don’t actually have bus stops here, and buses don’t just stop on being hailed – but everyone seems to know where to wait. In the end we returned back to where we got off the bus when we came into town and almost immediately a bus came along and the driver said he was going our way. We climbed on and had a different tour of the town as the bus meandered its way out of the shopping area. Up on the hills behind Papeete, there were lots of expensive modern apartment blocks with great views out to sea. We retraced our route back to the hotel, and by the time we got there, it was lunch time. Today we shared a pizza – a large plate size, thin base with lots of topping that was good – with a salad and another couple of beers.

I then decided I had to catch up on the blog for yesterday and try and sort out the piccys of the New Years Eve meal to put on the blog. (Why does everything on the computer take so long?) Hopefully we will be able to post again either tonight or tomorrow. This took the rest of the afternoon and it was soon time to get ready for dinner again – I had thought about a swim, a walk and another drink before dinner, but blogging takes forever. Colin had relaxed, reading – he has nearly finished all my books now, so will be reverting to his MP4 again soon.

We arrived at the restaurant for dinner (there is no choice now – only the TIka restaurant and bar are open) just as the rush for the evening was leaving. I had been doubtful if we would be able to get a table for a while, but we were shown to a semi-circular booth – where my boobs immediately collided with the side plate! Not feeling starving after our lunchtime pizza, I chose a simple Italian salad with roasted vegetables and mozzarella, while Colin opted for a local dish of chicken cooked in coconut milk with vegetables and wild banana and accompanied by rice and breadfruit chips (the plant the brought back to England by Captain Bligh after the Mutiny on the Bounty). We were both keen to try breadfruit – another new taste – but fearful it would be like the taro chips we had on the Cook Islands. We needn’t have worried – breadfruit is the consistency of our potatoes, but a slightly drier taste. We both enjoyed our meals and wandered slowly around the hotel grounds before returning to our room to finish blogging and connect to the internet if possible tonight – time may be short tomorrow if we get up late again.

We are really pleased we have visited Tahiti – it was only be default really that we ended up coming here – flying direct from the Cook Islands to Easter Island meant we had to change planes here in Tahiti, but wait almost twenty four hours in the airport. Consequently we changed our itinerary to shorten our stay in the Cooks and have a few days here. The weather has been superb and the hotel is really great – might get a bit fed up with the menu if we were staying a month - and it has been really relaxing. We do not fly out until just after midnight tomorrow night (well Thursday morning really), so will enjoy our tour of the island and see as much as possible during the day.

PS Have tried to put piccys on blog but failed. As time is running out on connection – will try again when we are connected next - hopefully in Easter Island.