• traveled 16 years ago
Our trip to French Polynesia took place in September 2008. We were on two islands - Bora Bora and Moorea. Flight: via Tokyo to Tahiti (Papiette), then by local plane to Bora. Travel time including connections, ground time, local flight and transfer to hotel: 32 hours. (no delay). air travel Long, very long.
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Our trip to French Polynesia took place in September 2008.
We were on two islands - Bora Bora and Moorea.
Flight: via Tokyo to Tahiti (Papiette), then by local plane to Bora.
Travel time including connections, ground time, local flight and transfer to hotel: 32 hours. (no delay).
air travel
Long, very long. But it's worth it to see all the beauty of unearthly islands later.
Pay attention! and check with the operators for the time allotted for docking. It should be at least 3-3.5 hours. We had only 1.5 hours to transfer to another plane in Tokyo. Plus, our flight was delayed by 30 minutes and in the end it was only an hour. The airport has 2 terminals, like ours, in Sheremetyevo. Therefore, we had to get to the second terminal for a transfer on a special bus, which had to wait 20 minutes (they run every 30 minutes). As a result, we had 20 minutes left before landing.
In such a short time, our suitcases were not transported and they remained in terminal 1. We simply begged at the check-in desk to delay the flight and wait for our suitcases otherwise they would only arrive on the flight 3 days later or we would have to stay in Tokyo with them. So thanks to the responsive Japanese employee who helped us a lot and literally pushed us onto the plane, saying that such a short time for docking was a mistake. This never happens to them. The airport itself is very large, so if anything, immediately contact the information desk.
Meeting at the Tahiti airport.
Flowers. Flowers. The music of guitars and a breath of humid warm air. Finally..
The local airport is very small. The queue for registration, though long, but they work quickly. Everyone is polite, if a little vain)).
We sit on a small plane and we are in the sky on the way to Bora Bora. Shoot and take pictures from the plane, the footage is amazing. Flying on it is not at all scary.
It is small and light, the pilots are all reckless - they take off and land superbly.
A shuttle boat takes us to the hotel.
Hotel in Bora Bora - Bora Bora Nui
Posh. White slippers. Soft robe. The most delicate soap and pastel under a canopy, decorated with flowers. Separate shower room, huge bathroom. Teapot. Everything is.
The pool is very good. Not chlorinated as I thought. The water is purest. Deep. Fruit is brought to the beach. Lots of fish and sponges! They are very large and yellow, a very exciting sight.
sunsets.
Such beautiful ones have not been seen anywhere else. Not in Russia, not in the Philippines, not in Indonesia.
Ocean.
A lot of different fish. There are no sharks near the shore. But in the evening, sometimes small lemon sharks and a stingray were seen near the houses on the water. We saw whales. Unforgettably. You feel like you're in the Discovery program. The weather, during the week that we were there, was very windy, so that the umbrellas on the beach were never even deployed.
Sky.
Huge.
Huge Milky Way. It seems that you can talk so close to God. Or just talk. Because nature itself listens and understands you.
Service.
People are people everywhere. It's just slower here. 2 hours for dinner is the norm. 20 minutes waiting for the bill, then 20 minutes waiting for the order to be accepted, etc.
We do not justify this by the regularity of life on the islands. Still, people come to relax, but sometimes you don’t want to sit in a restaurant for 2 hours). There was a curious incident: it was already forty minutes after we ordered everything and nothing was brought to us. As a result, we went to understand, but the situation did not accelerate. The islander was upset. And offended. But the drinks in this dinner were at the expense of the restaurant).
The night before, before leaving for another island, we saw a message on the bed on! Russian! the language in which the hotel thanked us for staying there and all sorts of wishes, etc. A pay slip was attached.
Still, there was a little miscalculation. It was very strange to count the water from the mini-bar - each bottle is at a different price. But there was no mood to understand. So they paid and by the way did not receive change. For Russian money, this is about 70 rubles. They were just a little surprised - after all, tips are not accepted in the country.
Flight to Moorea
Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Hotel.
Although this island is only 40 minutes by plane from Bora Bora, the local microclimate seemed very different. No, here again it was +27 and the sun rose just as early and began to bake merrily, but there was no wind at all! Everything seemed great, but the local fish in the coastal waters and right next to the overwater bungalow simply haunted us - we were literally afraid to go down into the water - despite their small size, they attacked very aggressively and poked at our feet, it was very unpleasant.
Then, when we swam nearby near the corals, another species of fish showed its interest in us - as it turned out, it was Tiger Fish. She was already the size of a palm and obviously aggressively tried to attack, so she had to retreat closer to the shore. Therefore, not many tourists who were in the hotel entered the water.
On the last day of our stay at the hotel, we were lucky to see a rather large stingray swimming past the bungalow, quite often the sharks were with their offspring. The hotel hung a warning about the dangerous fish centipedis - it looks like a stone with spikes, and one day we were lucky to see it, really quite a scary fish. Once we went diving - very interesting, we could see 30 meters, very beautiful, live reefs, we heard and saw a whale.
One local feature should be noted - roosters ...yes, yes, you can suddenly imagine that you are not on the edge of the earth in the middle of the ocean, but in the village of Petukhovo - even at night their loud voices could easily wake you up.
Once a year - in September - a tourist day is held on the islands, when those who wish are collected from all hotels and they make a 4-hour tour of the mountains, as well as plantations with different crops - pineapples and ...We were just lucky enough to visit this excursion, it was very interesting, although out of habit then my legs hurt for 2 days.
Drinks for dinner
Paid, not included in the price. On average, one cocktail costs 400 rubles. If you order just water, they bring, for some reason, a large bottle, which, of course, no one drinks all of it, but in fact you need half. It costs about 300 rubles.
Water
Paid in all hotels. Approximately 5 euros a bottle. Cheaper to buy in the store.
mobile connection
Only Beeline works - about 100 rubles a minute.
Megafon, MTS are not there. Maybe it was worth buying a local SIM card, but we did not clarify this issue. A call from the hotel to Moscow for 1.5 minutes cost us 800 rubles. We advise you to think about the method of communication in advance.
Internet
in Bora Bora Nui free of charge, in the common room - 4 computers,
in both Sheraton - $ 20 per hour.
We were on two islands - Bora Bora and Moorea.
Flight: via Tokyo to Tahiti (Papiette), then by local plane to Bora.
Travel time including connections, ground time, local flight and transfer to hotel: 32 hours. (no delay).
air travel
Long, very long. But it's worth it to see all the beauty of unearthly islands later.
Pay attention! and check with the operators for the time allotted for docking. It should be at least 3-3.5 hours. We had only 1.5 hours to transfer to another plane in Tokyo. Plus, our flight was delayed by 30 minutes and in the end it was only an hour. The airport has 2 terminals, like ours, in Sheremetyevo. Therefore, we had to get to the second terminal for a transfer on a special bus, which had to wait 20 minutes (they run every 30 minutes). As a result, we had 20 minutes left before landing.
In such a short time, our suitcases were not transported and they remained in terminal 1. We simply begged at the check-in desk to delay the flight and wait for our suitcases otherwise they would only arrive on the flight 3 days later or we would have to stay in Tokyo with them. So thanks to the responsive Japanese employee who helped us a lot and literally pushed us onto the plane, saying that such a short time for docking was a mistake. This never happens to them. The airport itself is very large, so if anything, immediately contact the information desk.
Meeting at the Tahiti airport.
Flowers. Flowers. The music of guitars and a breath of humid warm air. Finally..
The local airport is very small. The queue for registration, though long, but they work quickly. Everyone is polite, if a little vain)).
We sit on a small plane and we are in the sky on the way to Bora Bora. Shoot and take pictures from the plane, the footage is amazing. Flying on it is not at all scary.
It is small and light, the pilots are all reckless - they take off and land superbly.
A shuttle boat takes us to the hotel.
Hotel in Bora Bora - Bora Bora Nui
Posh. White slippers. Soft robe. The most delicate soap and pastel under a canopy, decorated with flowers. Separate shower room, huge bathroom. Teapot. Everything is.
The pool is very good. Not chlorinated as I thought. The water is purest. Deep. Fruit is brought to the beach. Lots of fish and sponges! They are very large and yellow, a very exciting sight.
sunsets.
Such beautiful ones have not been seen anywhere else. Not in Russia, not in the Philippines, not in Indonesia.
Ocean.
A lot of different fish. There are no sharks near the shore. But in the evening, sometimes small lemon sharks and a stingray were seen near the houses on the water. We saw whales. Unforgettably. You feel like you're in the Discovery program. The weather, during the week that we were there, was very windy, so that the umbrellas on the beach were never even deployed.
Sky.
Huge.
Huge Milky Way. It seems that you can talk so close to God. Or just talk. Because nature itself listens and understands you.
Service.
People are people everywhere. It's just slower here. 2 hours for dinner is the norm. 20 minutes waiting for the bill, then 20 minutes waiting for the order to be accepted, etc.
We do not justify this by the regularity of life on the islands. Still, people come to relax, but sometimes you don’t want to sit in a restaurant for 2 hours). There was a curious incident: it was already forty minutes after we ordered everything and nothing was brought to us. As a result, we went to understand, but the situation did not accelerate. The islander was upset. And offended. But the drinks in this dinner were at the expense of the restaurant).
The night before, before leaving for another island, we saw a message on the bed on! Russian! the language in which the hotel thanked us for staying there and all sorts of wishes, etc. A pay slip was attached.
Still, there was a little miscalculation. It was very strange to count the water from the mini-bar - each bottle is at a different price. But there was no mood to understand. So they paid and by the way did not receive change. For Russian money, this is about 70 rubles. They were just a little surprised - after all, tips are not accepted in the country.
Flight to Moorea
Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Hotel.
Although this island is only 40 minutes by plane from Bora Bora, the local microclimate seemed very different. No, here again it was +27 and the sun rose just as early and began to bake merrily, but there was no wind at all! Everything seemed great, but the local fish in the coastal waters and right next to the overwater bungalow simply haunted us - we were literally afraid to go down into the water - despite their small size, they attacked very aggressively and poked at our feet, it was very unpleasant.
Then, when we swam nearby near the corals, another species of fish showed its interest in us - as it turned out, it was Tiger Fish. She was already the size of a palm and obviously aggressively tried to attack, so she had to retreat closer to the shore. Therefore, not many tourists who were in the hotel entered the water.
On the last day of our stay at the hotel, we were lucky to see a rather large stingray swimming past the bungalow, quite often the sharks were with their offspring. The hotel hung a warning about the dangerous fish centipedis - it looks like a stone with spikes, and one day we were lucky to see it, really quite a scary fish. Once we went diving - very interesting, we could see 30 meters, very beautiful, live reefs, we heard and saw a whale.
One local feature should be noted - roosters ...yes, yes, you can suddenly imagine that you are not on the edge of the earth in the middle of the ocean, but in the village of Petukhovo - even at night their loud voices could easily wake you up.
Once a year - in September - a tourist day is held on the islands, when those who wish are collected from all hotels and they make a 4-hour tour of the mountains, as well as plantations with different crops - pineapples and ...We were just lucky enough to visit this excursion, it was very interesting, although out of habit then my legs hurt for 2 days.
Drinks for dinner
Paid, not included in the price. On average, one cocktail costs 400 rubles. If you order just water, they bring, for some reason, a large bottle, which, of course, no one drinks all of it, but in fact you need half. It costs about 300 rubles.
Water
Paid in all hotels. Approximately 5 euros a bottle. Cheaper to buy in the store.
mobile connection
Only Beeline works - about 100 rubles a minute.
Megafon, MTS are not there. Maybe it was worth buying a local SIM card, but we did not clarify this issue. A call from the hotel to Moscow for 1.5 minutes cost us 800 rubles. We advise you to think about the method of communication in advance.
Internet
in Bora Bora Nui free of charge, in the common room - 4 computers,
in both Sheraton - $ 20 per hour.
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