Saying bye to Tahiti

The previous post in this series is here..

We were still thinking and talking of the SCUBA diving experience. Turns out the family did not know that Scuba was an acronym. They were impressed when I explained it to them.

Was telling them about how my brother and me would be glued to the TV screen watching Jacques Costeau and the Underwater Adventure series on Doordarshan. Never thought I would actually be wearing an oxygen tank and fins and jump into the water from a boat.

We came back early to the dinner table, ordered and while our food was being prepared, came and took more photos at golden hour. The colors were different this time given the rain clouds.. a little more ominous looking skies.

Then we went back to bed knowing the next day was going to be an all travel day.

I simply could not sleep the entire night. The wall of fishes kept popping up in my head. Wanted to go back and try diving again. So we called the diving place as soon as they opened at 7 and asked if I could go back. Our ride from hotel to boat was only at 2 PM. The lady said “no diving if you are flying same day. Come back again and you can dive with us on your next trip!”. So I decided to just go spend another hour in the water. It was nice and there was a chilly breeze but the water was warm. Dunked the iPhone in water and tried taking a few pictures. Went back to the room and as soon as I came out of the shower, it rained heavily. We couldn’t even cross the hotel area to go to the lobby to check out. (You can see it in the video). After checking out at 11, we had to spend 3 hours in the restaurant area for our ride to the boat. So we just sat there eating lunch, then fries, then drinking hot chocolate.. and walked up and down and just chatted. It was nice.

Then we went by boat to the Bora Bora airport. There was more drama. The flight to Raiatea was 1 hour late. That meant we would not make it back to Tahiti that night. Our flight to SFO was at 7AM the next morning. We panicked. The guys at the counter said “you have only one option. Cancel your ticket to Raiatea. Instead book a new ticket from Bora Bora to Papette in Tahiti that leaves in an hour”. Poor San scrambled, we shelled out a lot of money for that last minute ticket and oddly, that flight stopped at Raiatea for 20 mintues before going to Papette anyways!! This whole thing with inter island flights is a borderline scam. In any case we had no choice so we went with it.

Once we reached Papette and got out of the airport, we could see the Tahiti Airport Motel directly in front of us on the hill facing the airport. There were no taxis. We waited for 10 minutes and decided to walk to the hotel. Maps said it was s 6 min walk with a 100 ft climb. We walked up to find the gate closed. Then the hotel guy says we needed to walk all around the side street up a hill and then come down to the hotel. We were tired after all that travel and had to walk a good 20 minutes dragging our luggage up a hill. The guy at the reception said “very sorry.. we close the gate because thieves come and steal from the store below the hotel”. That was not very comforting. He was nice though and booked us a taxi to go to the food trucks nearby.

There was no vegetarian option on the food trucks except plain rice. Luckily for us there was a chain called WSK right near the trucks. The lady there spoke some English and agreed to make a veggie burger and veggie noodles. I ate plain rice and drank water which was as good as it was going to get for me.

We waited for a return taxi. We asked for the taxi from the hotel at 7:40 and waited for a long time. When he finally came and dropped us at the hotel he asked for double fare citing it was 8:06 and after 8 the fare was double. We told him all we had was the money for the return taxi. Finally he agreed and took the money. The hotel reception person was puzzled by this and was shaking his head when we told him what happened.

Clearly Pullaiyaar was on vacation again. We woke up at 4:30 the next morning and caught the taxi that had been booked to take us literally across the street to the airport. It was good we had a taxi as it was raining heavily. We got breakfast at the airport and were told the flight would be delayed by an hour.

Finally when we took off, we were two hours late again. French Bee seems to have no idea of punctuality. Two flights and both 2 hours late! Eventually we made it back home after 8PM. There was power, the garage door opened and we were greeted by the smell of wet yoga clothes and towels that had been left in the laundry room for 5 days!

Home sweet home, we said and started unpacking!

At the end of the trip, we collectively thought it was still great. We had travel delays and flight issues everywhere. (we had taken 9 flights in 10 days on the south east Asia trip during Thanksgiving and every flight was on time!. so our expectation was different). Cancelations to booked adventures.. but we had all snorkeled as a family, San and me had a life changing experience with diving and we had great pictures. Also we got to laugh and kid around with just the four of us. We had also met some nice people from the bay area all the way in Tahiti.

A video highlight of us just doing nothing on the last day..

Would definitely recommend a visit, the snorkeling, the scuba diving, the Royal Hotel in Bora Bora .. just book tickets with enough layover time, direct to the location if possible and know the flight routes. If possible book Air Tahiti as they have a larger presence there for inter island flights. If you mix and match between Air Moana and Air Tahiti you will be in trouble with late flights and bad weather.

Here is a timelapse video of the entire flight from Bora Bora to Raiatea. Glad we did not have to get down again at Raiatea.. the kids had had enough of that airport on the way in. We need to start flights like this along the California coast so the little one can come on a 20 minute flight from Santa Barbara to San Jose. Decided to hold the camera at the window for the entire flight.. have held it longer to catch sunsets and sunrises .. so why not?!

Given I was in two minds about this trip and all the things that came our way, the fact that we were all together through this experience made it all the more interesting and memorable!

Yogagraphy and portraits in Bora Bora lagoon

The previous post in this series is here..

We did spend time in the morning before breakfast taking photos in the lagoon with me doing yoga poses and later in the evening before dinner. This time we came a good hour before sunset time and got some amazing pics. It was not raining and that was a big plus! Will strongly recommend the Royal Hotel in Bora Bora. Fantastic setup, fantastic people!

Earlier in the morning.. or I should say way earlier than sunrise, the roosters that kept us up, ended up right outside our sliding door. I got to drink tea watching them and this cat that wandered around the premises.

The place was full of trees, especially Badam trees.. Told the family they were Badam and they did not believe me. Later we saw a sign naming the trees and was vindicated! The other tree was a “fish poison” tree that is actually toxic to humans. Good they label trees so we learned something.

Here are the photos..

This is a small subset. Had so many good photos did not know which ones to pick..

You can give your camera to any random stranger and get a click and it is frame worthy in this place !!

A video highlights reel..

We had a great dinner after taking pictures. The service was fast on the day after Christmas because they had more staff on hand. We went back to our rooms and went to bed. We had done our exercise for the day in the water..or at least that is how I consoled myself after that heavy dinner and dessert!

Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays and a Coral garden - Bora Bora

The previous post from this trip is here..

The plan was to have a nice nights sleep. I had set an alarm for 5:15AM to catch a sunrise while the rest of the family slept till 7AM. However, the roosters started crowing at 3:45! There was no chance of sleep.

So I missed the sunrise.. Later I learned that we don’t actually get to see the sun through the clouds in Bora Bora in December with the clouds.. only a slight increase in purple hues and brightness increase. So I did not miss anything!

When we went for breakfast the place was calm. We did some Yogagraphy. Then I decided to get in the water for an hour. It was great! Then we went back to the room and got ready for an early lunch.

We had booked a snorkeling adventure trip for the afternoon. It is not easy to just look at each other and stay in hotel rooms. The kids were okay with this plan. We had found just 4 spots for the afternoon with Moana Adventure Tours. Will definitely recommend this company if you are looking for a great snorkeling experience.

They picked us up from the hotel and after a 15 minute drive we got introduced to the captain and guides and were off to the reef. First we were in a shallow area with 4-6 feet water where we could snorkel. There were a lot of sharks and one big stingray that went past us.

After this we got back on the boat and went to a place where the water was 6-7 feet deep. This was tricky and some swimming knowledge was necessary to snorkel and not step on the corals in the coral garden. We were told that this is the only company that is allowed access to this garden as they help maintain it.

They did give us inflatable vests to help float. I did get some help from the guide Mr. Tema to maneuver around the corals and not step on them. One of the other tourists on our boat, a couple from San Diego were nice enough to give me a space iPhone waterproof case so I could take videos and photos under the water while snorkeling. That proved to be a challenge but you can see it in the video. Two of the 8 people still managed to get scratches on their legs and bleed. One of them was Jr. who is an expert swimmer. Mr. Tema quickly sprayed them with something that would dissolve any stuck coral and an instant bandage. He was Mr. Ice cool. He also kept telling us “do not pick any shells no matter how pretty they look”.. later he told us about a neurotoxin on the shells and death in 15 minutes if you get stung.. nearest hospital is 45 minutes away. Thought he was kidding. Later I came home and googled it and sure enough, it is called the “cigarette snail” because if you get stung, you may get to smoke one cigarette before you die!

The photos from this amazing experience.

Here is the video highlights. Have edited more than 30 minutes of video clips to this shorter clip… iPhone goes in and out of focus when underwater.. maybe it is my phone that is getting old.. maybe I should have changed some settings before taking it underwater.. best edit I could do in a rush.

Restricting this post just to the morning dip in the lagoon and snorkeling.. The photo shoots of us with Yoga poses and in the evening light at golden hour (no gold colors though) will be in a separate post!

Note to self and others. Remove Rudhraksha beads before you get into salt water. I usually do. For some reason in the excitement forgot. Some of them almost cracked. Now they are going to have to go through some conditioning to save them.