Beautiful Bora Bora!

Bon Jour!

I am currently sitting in the library staring out the window at Papeete, Tahiti. This is not part of the Society Islands that appears to be as tropical and exotic as Bora Bora! So, I’m not too upset that I can’t go ashore.

Last night we left Bora Bora at around 4:30 pm and I think I may have shed a tear or two (ok, maybe 10). I am in LOVE with it. Despite the fact that it is extremely expensive, it is absolutely amazing!

The first day in Bora Bora we had to do tendering so I did that until around 10:30. Then I headed over to the island with a friend of mine, Paul. We walked through the few shops that were open (it was a Sunday), just checking out the things that they have. I ended up buying a beautiful Paereo that I fell in love with (it’s purple, of course!). There was a dress that I liked (a bathing suit cover up/summer dress) and it was $50.00 (that’s in American Dollars). All of the prices were listed in Francs but they all took dollars too. Since it was Sunday, there were no restaurants open (not sure if there really were any – very laid back, casual, tropical place) so we found a burger shack of sorts. The only thing on the menu I could read (everything was listed in French and Tahitian) was Hamburger and Cheeseburger. I ordered a cheeseburger (which was delicious) and nothing else – no drink no fries – nothing. It was $10.00! After that, we walked through the flea market full of the shell jewelry and some of the handmade pareo’s – again, not many of the tables were open, but we just looked. I went back to the pier where the tenders were coming in and waited for Sherwin and some of the other boys before we all caught the bus (which was $5.00 each way) over to Matira Beach, which is the public beach about 6km away from the pier. It is the picturesque crystal clear Bora Bora blue water. We found our spot on the beach and dove into the water, which was extremely shallow. You could be a half mile out in the water and it’s not any higher than your waist.

All the boys had to head back to the ship around four, but I stayed and hung out with a few other people from the ship. We ended up going into the resort right behind the beach- the Intercontinental. This is the resort with the bungalows over the water with beautiful palm trees that you always see pictures of when you read about Bora Bora. They let us come back to the bar and hang out on the beach and use the Infinity pool overlooking the water and bungalows. The drinks were awfully expensive but worth every penny and everybody seemed to have bags of chips and tons of candy in their bags so we put it all out on the table and made ourselves sick with junk food! There were around 10 of us out at the hotel until about 7:30 when I had to leave and come back to reality (well, just to work for two hours), but we had the BEST time. It’s a memory I will definitely have forever because we laughed for hours while out there and took tons of pictures!

I worked for two hours (until 10:30) before I headed out the “Bora Bora Bow Party” for the crew. We had BBQ grills going with Hamburgers and Hot Dogs, we had a bar with tons of drinks and a DJ. We stayed out there and danced until about 1 in the morning – the breeze was beautiful, you could see all the lights in the city. The tenders stopped at 11:30 and didn’t resume until 7:00 am so we couldn’t stay ashore – but the party was well worth it. I had some unused glow sticks in my room, so I took them out and handed them to a bunch of people and that was a huge hit!

Our second day in Bora Bora was one “to write home about.” Paul and I, a friend of mine (gay and a cast member, no worries !) decided we wanted to go Jet skiing. Several of our friends did a tour the day before that took 2 hours and they had guides that took them around the entire island on the jet ski’s stopping several times for fresh fruit and to see some of the local sites. I was so ridiculously excited about going. We get to the Jet Ski place and we decided that we were going to share a jet ski (to save money and he was scared to drive it!) . When we arrived at the place, we ran into about 8 other people from the ship (mostly engineers, one guy’s girlfriend, and the facilities manager). We got the guy to give us a break on the price ($206 per jet ski), did the safety briefing and we all picked our jet skis and were ready to go!

After we are all on our ski’s ready to go, we got started – he told us to stay in a straight line with about 50 meters between each of us. Paul and I hung back and waited until everyone took off. All of the sudden (this is 2 minutes after we started) everyone in front of us stopped and I see two people in the water. My first thought was a few people just jumped off – when we got closer to everyone, we saw that a sea and some other pieces had fallen into the water. Turns out, one guy fell off his jet ski and the other one saw him and tried to go the other direction, but the wake/waves caused him to run into the other guy. When we got close enough, the guide (a very scary Tahitian guy) was SCREAMING at our two guys in the water- I mean the F-word all the way…over and over and over and over. I have never in my life seen that much anger in anybody. Mind you, Andy (the guy that got hit) was gritting his teeth he was in so much pain and Tom (the guy who hit him) was trying to help him and had a scared/guilty/terrified look on his face. I finally said to the guide that screaming was not going to fix what just happened and if he didn’t pull this guy out of the water, I was going to. Finally, he helps him out of the water and you can see that Andy’s leg is broken- the bone was sticking out a good 3 inches from his leg.

The guide took Andy to the shore while we sat in the water not knowing what to do. We were silent partially because of fear and the rest because of shock. Eventually the other guide went back to shore to figure out what to do and led us all back to the area that we started. The owner came out and told us it was cancelled and he’d give us our money back. We all walked silently to the hut, got our money back. Andy was sitting there with his legs covered in a towel – you could see his foot was black and blue and it looked like he got scratched up by a cat. Eventually, the ambulance showed up and uncovered his leg – it was cut from his knee all the way down and the bone was sticking out. The poor guy just bit his towel while they wrapped it up and put a temporary splint on it. I had watched it all, no problem – didn’t even flinch.

Once he was loaded in the ambulance and on his way to the doctor (there is only a private doctor on the island – the owner said they would have to fly him to Raitea to get it truly fixed and cast) – I began to feel woozy – my head began to spin, I blacked out and was in a cold sweat and ready to throw up. I knew Paul was standing next to me, but couldn’t see him so I grabbed his arm and had to sit down and drink water until my vision came back. So weird – never had that happen to me before.

Andy ended up back on the tender when Sherwin and I came back. We are in Papeete, Tahiti today and they took him to the hospital before they are going to send him home to Wales later today or tomorrow. As far as Tom, the guy who hit him – he was rubbing his back and said he was in extreme pain – but the Guides ignored him at the place because they were so angry. The infirmary checked him out and they believe he has a broken rib. He was on his way to the hospital to find out for sure what the deal is.

I decided that despite the fact that I didn’t get to do the tour, I still left with one hell-of-a story!

I’m in port manning today, so I won’t be making it off the ship like I said earlier. I’m in the library pretty much all day. The boys are going out tonight because we’re here until 5 a.m., but as of this moment I can’t go. Boo to that :(

BTW…there are so many people on this cruise with the Amazon Kindle. I keep joking with one couple that they are going to donate it in the paperback exchange at the end of the cruise. It is so cool!