A speck in the pacific ocean

Soon it was time to once again pack my oyster and prepare for the last stop over on this trip, Tahiti. My usual route would lead me to Hawaii for a few days, which I really love very much. But the airlines conspired against me and thus my trusted travel agent Barry had suggested to aim at Tahiti as an alternative.

I had been to Tahiti in 1977 during my trip around the world. And my memories were somewhat mixed. That had, to some degree at least, something to do with the people and their attitude.

I should point out, that by and large I am a great fan and lover of the Polynesian people. Most of them are very friendly, very helpful, fun to be around, often very good looking. And the top of the crop in my opinion are the native Fijians. And during a few visits to those islands I have never been disappointed.

The exception to that rule seemed to be the Tahitians. In 1977 I did not quite work out what it was which got up my nose. Anyway, I landed in Papeete and was brought to my hotel, the Royal Hawaiian. Very nice bungalow hotel on the water. Nice rooms, all very pleasant.

Entering the room and installing myself I grabbed, as you would do, the printed guest information sheet and there, at the very end of the sheet, somehow was at least part of the answer as to why I have problems with this particular ‘member’ of the ‘Polynesian family’ There it said:

“there is no room service, because the distances are too long”

It was the first time in 35 years of hotel dwelling that the guest information stated categorically that you, the valued customer, could bloody well get off your arse and get your wine or what ever you want on your room yourself.

It is the unfortunate combination of Polynesian laid back attitude mixed with French arrogance which produces something like that.



Since rolling around on sandy beaches in the blazing sun is not my kind of fun and since I was determined not to inconvenience the hotel staff with any of my unreasonable wishes for any service – be it on my room or in their restaurants – I once again took some basic carry bags and made my way to Papeete proper. What I had (mis)judged as being a 45 to 60 minutes walk one way, turned out to be about 2 hours. but so be it.

I got a bit of local flavour on the way. Most of the way goes along the water front and is quite pleasant. Sometimes, though, the main road also leads you into the interior and then things become a bit more bleak. Also this quite different to, lets say Fiji or Mauritius for that matter, let alone Hawaii. But one has to take into account that Tahiti is certainly a poorer place than would be Hawaii, but it would be on par with Fiji and Tonga or even Mauritius and in those places I never saw this kind of uncaring run down of buildings and environment as I did in Tahiti.



None the less, I got myself a very respectable baguette with nice cheese and ham, some fruit salad and, of course, some nice French white Bordeaux and my life was on the right track. Walked all the way back to the hotel and thus earned my keeps, munching on my supplies for early dinner and had some left overs for breakfast as well. And it was here, that work caught up with me again, so the couple of days went by very quickly until it was time for the last leg of the journey back to Sydney and Green Point.