Warning! This is really long! And also, i don't own a digital camera, so my pictures are poor quality.
PAPEETE
It was really humid, and cloudy while i was there. The islanbd of Tahiti is very VERY expensive, so hostel it up if you go. There were fucking mango trees outside my window. The streets of the city were a little dingy, but not dangerous.
Papeete airport with the island of Moorea in the back.
The only decent hostel on the island of Tahiti is Teamo Pension. An old bag runs it, but there's little petty theft. I spent my time there inside since it was raining. We watched Law and Order in French (Fresh Prince too!). My fav part was the four Tahitian transvestite prostitutes that were staying down the hall from me, they couldn't walk in heels, and they changed outfits every hour. I heard that there's a really good hostel on Moorea that overlooks beaches, but i didn't have time to take a ferry over there.
Papeete streets.
AIRPLANES
In case you're interested, Air Tahiti Nui is the international carrier to the island. Air Tahiti handles travel to other islands in Polynesia. Next time i go i plan to explore the Marquesas and Austral islands. The island i had to fly to from Tahiti was called Ahe. It's a tiny atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. An interesting fact is that one of the islands on the outskirts of the Tuamotu is where France did there air and ground nuclear testing. The polynesian government is still complaining about this, a day didn't go by that the subject wasn't in the news. The airport of Ahe is a dirt runway and a hut, best fucking airport ever!
AHE
Ahe is set up kind of like a ring of small islands with a large lagoon in the middle. Everything is imported by boat. There is no ground water, so all the water we drink or use to wash comes from the rain. All electricity comes from the wind or the sun. Some places have generators for bigger jobs, we had a small one on the farm.
My little blue bungalow on the motu (island) Kamoka.
THE FARM
The farm it self is about fifty meters out into the water. It is built on top of the reef. The bridge to get there is two feet wide and there's only railing for about twenty feet, leaving you tetering five feet above sharp reef. Walking back to my house drunk was a trial, but i never fell off the bridge. I would watch sharks swim underneath during the day.
the bridge
On a clear day you could look over the edge of the farm and see all the way the the bottom of the sea floor. There are tone of fish living beaneath the farm, they would eat the scraps. I saw huge puffer fish, sharks, octopus, eels, parrot fish, and many different kinds of fish. Sometimes a really large napoleon fish would come by, it was a meter long and it wanted to steal the oysters.
napoleon
You can only imagine how good the fishing was. One day the owners 8 year old son only had a spool of line, a hook, and some oysters. he caught three fish in fifteen minutes. This was one of them, a smaller napoleon. It was so beautiful that we threw it back.
little napoleon
My bungalow was very tiny, it just had room for a bed and a table. I had one roomate, a large rat that liked to jump on me while i was in bed. It stole my soap, but i found it hidden behind a door later on. The mosquitoes are annoying, but even worse are the nono flies, i counted forty bites on one leg at one point. They itch like crazy. Even more annoying are the hermit crabs. I hope they get forgotten by evolution. That fucking clicking sound all night long! There's thousands of them, you have to kick them out of the way when you're walking on the island. There were cute geckos in my house too. And sometimes the dogs would sleep on my little porch.
my little room
FISHING
The best activity is spearfishing. Tone of sharks come around while you're swiming and fishing. And please no vegetarian whining, when you're in the middle of nowhere and most meals are rice and canned veggies, eating the little animals is justified, especially since there's no way we could diminsh the population. It's also the cleanest form of fishing, you only hurt what you intend to eat, not like line fishing which involves throwing back, or net fishing which is terrible. We would catch grouper, parrot fish, napoleon, unicorn fish, and mnay other tasty species.
After a day of fishing
Fish
LIFE
I would have to get up at 5 in the morning for work. We would work until lunch, which was the only meal we would get, then work again til 3.5. Then i would shower with cold water out of a bucket, it wasn't pleasent, but you get used to it. The evening were filled with chess, sudoku, beer, weed, solitare, and sometimes a little french tv. What do you expect? At night there is very little to do.
My bungalow
THE ISLAND
The front of the island is covered in jungle, it goes about 100 meters in, then there is about 200 meters of black rock, which is dead coral. This is followed by 200 meters of ocean about 1 foot in depth, it had white sand underneath, then the reef drops off and that's where the waves break.
Me in the ocean shallows
OYSTERS
This is very complicated. They don't just sit out there waiting to be found. The whole process is very controlled. Baby oysters go in baskets to be protected from predators. When the get larger we tie them to a rope and put them in large cylindrical baskets and tie them to the lines out in the lagoon, we had about 27 kilometers of lines. When they get a little larger we take them out decide healthy from unhealthy (Unhealthy ones are scraped out and fed to the fish). Healthy ones get opened slightly so that a grafter can make a small incision in the pearl sac and put a small bead in, the bead is an antibiotic to insure that it will be able to be cut open with infection. They then get tied to the lines and put back. After some time we take them out again and insert a nuclei, a small bead, that the oyster will layer with shiny naker once back in the water. This becomes a pearl. We let it grow for a year before harvesting. Oysters that produce good pearls are given a larger nuclei and put back in the lagoon to breed. My first job was during the harvest, i had to carry large basket of bad oysters, crack them open, check for irregular pearls, scrap them out, then bag the shells. The shell get sent to China to be turned into buttons and nuclei. I probably shucked about 2,500 oysters while i was there. My hands were completly cut up. One of the pearls from the harvest was so perfect that reatil it could be sold for 10,000 by itself, it was large, dark, round, and thick. We harvest 4 times a year.
Pearls
My second job was tying oysters to ropes, and later my job was cutting rope with a red hot knife. We would always hang out on the farm, the island had no lights, and it was full of bugs. You could see beautifull reef if you just leaned over the railing.
Reef with shark
I would spend a lot of time in the hammock. It was always warm there, even at night, i never needed a jacket or socks.
Me
SHARK TEASING
Like i said, not much to do at night. So when we were drunk, we would tie a fish head to a rope, dangle it in the water, and wait for the sharks. We would wait for them to grap on, then we would yank them out of the water really quick. They would let go and fall back in. They eventually ate the fish, so it was win/win.There was never a time when i was swimming that i wasn't swimming with sharks. They just have a bad rep. Only some kinds will bite, and only if you handle yourself like an idiot. The great barracuda are far more dangerous.
Sharky
The work area
THE DOGS
There were 4 dogs, Mutton, Cacawait, Siki, and Banzai. The first two would walk me home at night and protect me from baddies. Siki walked me sometimes, but made me go first. They would help me find the trails through the jungle.
Siki
THE VILLAGE
Most of Ahe's population lived in the village instead of on farms. We would go on Wednesday when the boat came, bringing food, gas, and supplies. I loved those trips because it meant that i got to buy a small juice and maybe a chocolate, sometimes some sort of fruit or a jar of peanut butter (delacacies!!!). The village also meant many cans of Hinano beer.
Friends in the village
Getting gas from the boat
People led simple lives, but no one seemed to be living without. Everyone was happy with their life. I was very happy with my life there, i almost never came back.
Cacawait at the back of the island
VISITORS
There were others like me, visiting from other countries and working for food and board. There was an intern form France, and two guys from Chile.
Me and Chileans
Most all the guys were surfers, and relativly young. I was the only girl on the island, all the guys treated me like the little sister, they were all very protective of me.
A street in the village
The guys at the village
Children playing at the village
UNDERWATER!
I managed to take a few blurry pictures.
Fishes!
oysters
WORLD CUP
We almost talked about nothing else. World cup has been the only important thing for the last month.
world cup magazine!
kitchen
SEX
Although i didn't have any, i did find a few things out that i want to pass on to other ladies having a polynesian experiance. Don't be surprised is condom comes with a question mark. Safe sex is not widly practised in polynesia, many girls have babies as young as fourteen. Be careful out there.
If you interested in this kind of experiance, i can tell you how to go about it. Message me if you like.
I loved French Polynesia very much. It taught me how to do without so much.
-Q!
PAPEETE
It was really humid, and cloudy while i was there. The islanbd of Tahiti is very VERY expensive, so hostel it up if you go. There were fucking mango trees outside my window. The streets of the city were a little dingy, but not dangerous.
Papeete airport with the island of Moorea in the back.
The only decent hostel on the island of Tahiti is Teamo Pension. An old bag runs it, but there's little petty theft. I spent my time there inside since it was raining. We watched Law and Order in French (Fresh Prince too!). My fav part was the four Tahitian transvestite prostitutes that were staying down the hall from me, they couldn't walk in heels, and they changed outfits every hour. I heard that there's a really good hostel on Moorea that overlooks beaches, but i didn't have time to take a ferry over there.
Papeete streets.
AIRPLANES
In case you're interested, Air Tahiti Nui is the international carrier to the island. Air Tahiti handles travel to other islands in Polynesia. Next time i go i plan to explore the Marquesas and Austral islands. The island i had to fly to from Tahiti was called Ahe. It's a tiny atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. An interesting fact is that one of the islands on the outskirts of the Tuamotu is where France did there air and ground nuclear testing. The polynesian government is still complaining about this, a day didn't go by that the subject wasn't in the news. The airport of Ahe is a dirt runway and a hut, best fucking airport ever!
AHE
Ahe is set up kind of like a ring of small islands with a large lagoon in the middle. Everything is imported by boat. There is no ground water, so all the water we drink or use to wash comes from the rain. All electricity comes from the wind or the sun. Some places have generators for bigger jobs, we had a small one on the farm.
My little blue bungalow on the motu (island) Kamoka.
THE FARM
The farm it self is about fifty meters out into the water. It is built on top of the reef. The bridge to get there is two feet wide and there's only railing for about twenty feet, leaving you tetering five feet above sharp reef. Walking back to my house drunk was a trial, but i never fell off the bridge. I would watch sharks swim underneath during the day.
the bridge
On a clear day you could look over the edge of the farm and see all the way the the bottom of the sea floor. There are tone of fish living beaneath the farm, they would eat the scraps. I saw huge puffer fish, sharks, octopus, eels, parrot fish, and many different kinds of fish. Sometimes a really large napoleon fish would come by, it was a meter long and it wanted to steal the oysters.
napoleon
You can only imagine how good the fishing was. One day the owners 8 year old son only had a spool of line, a hook, and some oysters. he caught three fish in fifteen minutes. This was one of them, a smaller napoleon. It was so beautiful that we threw it back.
little napoleon
My bungalow was very tiny, it just had room for a bed and a table. I had one roomate, a large rat that liked to jump on me while i was in bed. It stole my soap, but i found it hidden behind a door later on. The mosquitoes are annoying, but even worse are the nono flies, i counted forty bites on one leg at one point. They itch like crazy. Even more annoying are the hermit crabs. I hope they get forgotten by evolution. That fucking clicking sound all night long! There's thousands of them, you have to kick them out of the way when you're walking on the island. There were cute geckos in my house too. And sometimes the dogs would sleep on my little porch.
my little room
FISHING
The best activity is spearfishing. Tone of sharks come around while you're swiming and fishing. And please no vegetarian whining, when you're in the middle of nowhere and most meals are rice and canned veggies, eating the little animals is justified, especially since there's no way we could diminsh the population. It's also the cleanest form of fishing, you only hurt what you intend to eat, not like line fishing which involves throwing back, or net fishing which is terrible. We would catch grouper, parrot fish, napoleon, unicorn fish, and mnay other tasty species.
After a day of fishing
Fish
LIFE
I would have to get up at 5 in the morning for work. We would work until lunch, which was the only meal we would get, then work again til 3.5. Then i would shower with cold water out of a bucket, it wasn't pleasent, but you get used to it. The evening were filled with chess, sudoku, beer, weed, solitare, and sometimes a little french tv. What do you expect? At night there is very little to do.
My bungalow
THE ISLAND
The front of the island is covered in jungle, it goes about 100 meters in, then there is about 200 meters of black rock, which is dead coral. This is followed by 200 meters of ocean about 1 foot in depth, it had white sand underneath, then the reef drops off and that's where the waves break.
Me in the ocean shallows
OYSTERS
This is very complicated. They don't just sit out there waiting to be found. The whole process is very controlled. Baby oysters go in baskets to be protected from predators. When the get larger we tie them to a rope and put them in large cylindrical baskets and tie them to the lines out in the lagoon, we had about 27 kilometers of lines. When they get a little larger we take them out decide healthy from unhealthy (Unhealthy ones are scraped out and fed to the fish). Healthy ones get opened slightly so that a grafter can make a small incision in the pearl sac and put a small bead in, the bead is an antibiotic to insure that it will be able to be cut open with infection. They then get tied to the lines and put back. After some time we take them out again and insert a nuclei, a small bead, that the oyster will layer with shiny naker once back in the water. This becomes a pearl. We let it grow for a year before harvesting. Oysters that produce good pearls are given a larger nuclei and put back in the lagoon to breed. My first job was during the harvest, i had to carry large basket of bad oysters, crack them open, check for irregular pearls, scrap them out, then bag the shells. The shell get sent to China to be turned into buttons and nuclei. I probably shucked about 2,500 oysters while i was there. My hands were completly cut up. One of the pearls from the harvest was so perfect that reatil it could be sold for 10,000 by itself, it was large, dark, round, and thick. We harvest 4 times a year.
Pearls
My second job was tying oysters to ropes, and later my job was cutting rope with a red hot knife. We would always hang out on the farm, the island had no lights, and it was full of bugs. You could see beautifull reef if you just leaned over the railing.
Reef with shark
I would spend a lot of time in the hammock. It was always warm there, even at night, i never needed a jacket or socks.
Me
SHARK TEASING
Like i said, not much to do at night. So when we were drunk, we would tie a fish head to a rope, dangle it in the water, and wait for the sharks. We would wait for them to grap on, then we would yank them out of the water really quick. They would let go and fall back in. They eventually ate the fish, so it was win/win.There was never a time when i was swimming that i wasn't swimming with sharks. They just have a bad rep. Only some kinds will bite, and only if you handle yourself like an idiot. The great barracuda are far more dangerous.
Sharky
The work area
THE DOGS
There were 4 dogs, Mutton, Cacawait, Siki, and Banzai. The first two would walk me home at night and protect me from baddies. Siki walked me sometimes, but made me go first. They would help me find the trails through the jungle.
Siki
THE VILLAGE
Most of Ahe's population lived in the village instead of on farms. We would go on Wednesday when the boat came, bringing food, gas, and supplies. I loved those trips because it meant that i got to buy a small juice and maybe a chocolate, sometimes some sort of fruit or a jar of peanut butter (delacacies!!!). The village also meant many cans of Hinano beer.
Friends in the village
Getting gas from the boat
People led simple lives, but no one seemed to be living without. Everyone was happy with their life. I was very happy with my life there, i almost never came back.
Cacawait at the back of the island
VISITORS
There were others like me, visiting from other countries and working for food and board. There was an intern form France, and two guys from Chile.
Me and Chileans
Most all the guys were surfers, and relativly young. I was the only girl on the island, all the guys treated me like the little sister, they were all very protective of me.
A street in the village
The guys at the village
Children playing at the village
UNDERWATER!
I managed to take a few blurry pictures.
Fishes!
oysters
WORLD CUP
We almost talked about nothing else. World cup has been the only important thing for the last month.
world cup magazine!
kitchen
SEX
Although i didn't have any, i did find a few things out that i want to pass on to other ladies having a polynesian experiance. Don't be surprised is condom comes with a question mark. Safe sex is not widly practised in polynesia, many girls have babies as young as fourteen. Be careful out there.
If you interested in this kind of experiance, i can tell you how to go about it. Message me if you like.
I loved French Polynesia very much. It taught me how to do without so much.
-Q!
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
I cannot believe your trip!! I have so much admiration for you for doing it!