10.5.09

Alright…I’m not going to lie. We’ve reached the point of our trip where we are REALLY bored. We’re still in Raiatea and we seemed to have exhausted everything there is to do on this island. The highlight of our days have been eating, which we are doing too much of. I did try and book a land excursion to the waterfalls and archaeological sites, but they were either booked or the guides were doing water excursions. There are no beaches here and the snorkeling options are very poor. I’d kayak to that motu I can see from our dock, but the water is still unpleasantly choppy. There are no movie theaters on this island, no bookstores selling English literature of any kind, the board games are all in French, you need to hire a guide (who are all busy) for any hiking into the jungle-like conditions of the inner regions of the island, and all the TV channels are in French. When we were in Japan we were fascinated by the television shows since they were so bizarre but the same can’t be said for French programming. It’s incredibly dull.

I’ve checked off everything I’ve wanted to do so far:

- Snorkel.

- Shop for pareo, pearls, vanilla, and shell jewelry.

- Ray and shark feedings.

- Bicycle around an island.

- Eat local specialties such as poisson cru.

- See a dance spectacular.

- Visit an archaeological site.

-Kayak.

- Visit a motu and have a traditional Polynesian feast.

- Drink tropical drinks.

- Visit a vanilla and pearl farm.

- Blog lots and lots.

-Get a tan. (We both have painful sunburns.)

We both can’t wait to get off this island. We’re going crazy with boredom. This is my first tropical paradise vacation and probably my last for quite awhile. We’re the kind of travelers who love lots of activities, and French Polynesia is basically all about relaxing. 4 more days of this. I don’t know how much more relaxation we can possibly take!@# Next trip we’re taking is going to be to a giant city.

I don’t know why anyone would want to move here. We really miss movie theaters, bookstores, interesting neighborhood walks (nothing but bug infested jungle here,) and food like Mission burritos and Middle Eastern platters of hummus and babaganoush.

Yesterday we didn’t do much of anything. We spent the morning reading our books and the afternoon driving in a loop around the island. I have read everything of ours there is to read, but I did find a trashy English language novel in our hotel lobby about suburban housewives. I don’t want to read it but I am desperate for something to read.

Since I currently have all the time in the world, I’ll continue to blog. Things I’ve noticed about this place:

· They serve French bread with EVERYTHING. Every meal, not matter what it is, they plunk down a bowl of French bread. And for breakfast? They eat juice, coffee, and FRENCH BREAD. I can’t wait to eat some cereal or oatmeal. I don’t care if I never see one of those long baguette thingies ever again.

· The food options are extremely limited. Basically all they eat here is fish covered in vanilla sauce, beef, and chicken. French food. And don’t forget lots of tropical fruit. If you are lucky you will get to eat pizza or Chinese and even then it seems kinda Frenchy.

· You can’t drink the water unless you want to get sick.

· They sell two kinds of beer here: Hinano and Heineken.

· There are maybe 2 radio stations and both play a blend of dance-y music like reggaeton and American hip hop. T-Pain and Sean Kingston are VERY popular here. They crank the dance music in the supermarkets where I’ve seen stock boys singing “Somebody call 911, shorty fire burnin’ on the dancefloor.”

· There are roosters and stray dogs everywhere, even in absolute middle of nowhere we’ve seen them tooling around on the side of the road. The roosters totally suck. They crow nonstop and are very irritating in the morning. I think they are the reason why everyone on these islands wake up at the crack of dawn and nod off around 9 pm. The dogs like to nap in the road or chase your car. I have yet to see canine roadkill.

· There are lots of hermit crabs that live on the side of the road that get smooshed by the cars.

· There are very cute little chameleon-like lizards (geckos?) that make chirping noises at night.

· There is absolutely no night life on any of the islands.

· The Tahitians don’t really smoke but almost all the French people do. It’s been a hard thing for us Californians to accept. Where we come from, smokers are basically the devil. I’m shocked to see the French people lighting up all over at all times.

· They don’t think they recycle here and the concept of being green hasn’t caught on here yet. I can’t imagine the amount of fossil fuel that’s burned transporting goods to the island.

· Almost all the Tahitian women wear their hair the same way. Very long and in a bun with a flower tucked on one side of their ear, depending on their marital status. And yes, the men wear hair flowers too.

· All the islands seem to be in a perpetual state of construction. Every little town seems to have at least one construction site that seems to have been suspended halfway through completion.

· They really are on island time here. Everything seems to take forever or doesn’t happen at all.

· Everyone says hello and smiles at you here. It’s taken some getting used to for me, since I’m used to living in a giant city where nobody makes eye contact with you.

· The tourist make-up is predominantly French people. I’ve seen a few other American couples at the airports on the smaller islands. Only at the major resort of Sofitel did I see more international travelers. I thought I’d see more Japanese and German people like I do back home but I haven’t.

· I haven’t seen a lot of modern technology like cell phones and the internet here.