S+S Honeymoon 2008

Day 3 - arriving in Bora Bora

At the Faa'a airport in Papeete, you can get McDonalds and the items they offer are different than the US. They have things like Croque McDo, which is basically ham and cheese grilled between a burger bun. It was quite tasty! I definitely got my fill of ham and cheese on this trip. They don't have cool stuff like Croque McDo back in the US.

On inter-island flights, you are required to check all your bags because there really isn't any overhead compartment space. Once you board the 45-min Air Tahiti flight, it is free seating. We had known to sit on the left hand side because that is where you get the cool views. And cool views we did get:

We think this is either Huahine or Tahaa, either way it was breathtaking. It looked like a fairly uninhabited island. The motu (little islands surrounding the main island) looked like they were undeveloped. This is taken through 2 panes of dirty glass so you can only imagine what it' was like in person.

I took a cue from my dear friend Nina, who photographed our approach when we went on vacation to the Dominican Rep this past June. So I took pics of our approach to Bora Bora. So beautiful. I couldn't believe we were actually going to be there.

You can actually see the overwater bungalows from the air! I think our resort is the one on the far left in the picture above.

Once you deplane, you get your bags which they unload on those carts you see behind Steve, and you either take the free shuttle to the main town of Vaitape, or, if you are staying at one of the many luxury resorts on motus, you get private ferry service directly to your hotel. All the motu hotels have counters set up at the airport. We went to the Intercontinental counter, and we were immediately given leis and bottles of water to drink and escorted directly to our hotel ferry. Nice! The ride to the Intercontinental Thalasso is about 25 minutes. They also have a hotel on the main island of Bora Bora, called IC Le Moana and they provide free boat shuttle service between the 2 hotels on a regular basis.

From the dock at the Thalasso, we were greeted by a host, who took our bags and drove us on a golf cart directly to our room! We didn't have to check in at the lobby. Although I did get a pic of the lobby as we passed by:

Apparently having ambassador status is pretty cool. I had booked Emerald level rooms, which are the overwater huts nearest to shore and the least expensive, but we were upgraded to Sapphire-level rooms which are further out to sea and have (slightly) better views. I honestly would have been happy with any room, even the broom closet, as long as it was in Bora Bora.

Note: the Diamond bungalows are all over deep water; you cannot stand in it, but the Emeralds and some of the Sapphires are over maybe waist-deep water. If you aren't a good swimmer, then it'll probably be best closer to shore.

The views of Mt Otemanu, the huge vocanic mountainous thing rising from the center of Bora Bora, were amazing from the walkway to our room

I loved the curved walkways.

Here are some shots of the interior of our bungalow. All the bungalows are the same size. The Thalasso has very modern furniture but still maintains a local feel to the decor. We felt very comfy and we loved our little "hut!"

The TV in the living room has a dvd player so we brought our own dvds, but I hear you can borrow them from the concierge although they might be mostly in French. I assume it's a region-free dvd player as we brought some American and some Chinese movies too and they played fine. It took a white to figure out the dvd player but the trick is to turn the tv channel to 0.

Bathroom with dual sinks. Love the tub, I took a bath every day and I never take baths.

The view when you wake up is amazing. There is a nightly turndown service and they sometimes decorate your bed with fresh flowers and they close all the shades for you...there are a lot of windows in the bungalow!

Although the air-conditioning is great here, there are ceiling fans too in the living room and bedroom. The temperature is controlled by an innovative concept using deep sea water, which is very cold, to cool the rooms providing a very clean source of energy. The AC was very good, too cold in fact that I had to turn it off at times. But it was nice because it eliminated any humidity, and made it very comfortable.

They also gave us a large bottle of water complimentary. Yay!! Considering we paid so much for water on Papeete, this was nice. The coffee table is glass-bottomed so you can see below into the water. At night it is lit up and fish like to swim in the light!

We decided that we would just hang out on our deck for the rest of the day and admire our surroundings. We knew that eventually we would go to town to eat and explore. The room has a nespresso machine, but each pod costs 4 dollars. It also has a hot water boiler, and complimentary instant coffee and various teas (English breakfast, earl grey, mint, camomile). There is also a mini bar but again prices are very high. We ended up taking stuff out of the mini bar to use as a fridge, but we remembered to put it back at the very end. I think the hotel is used to people doing this as they never made a comment about it.

At the IC Thalasso there are 2 bars, one is the pool bar which is part of Sands restaurant, and then there is the lounge, Bubbles. Each day at Bubbles there is a happy hour where you can get 2-for-1 drinks between 5-6pm. This is a good deal considering you pay about 16 USD for a mixed drink so we took advantage of it almost every day. I would usually get one of the tropical concoctions which had either coconut or vanilla ice cream in it, they were yum!! Note that for happy hour, only cocktails (with or without alcohol), wine or beer, were 2-for-1. Things like soda or juice were not included in the deal.

We had dinner at the Reef Restaurant at the resort which is the higher end restaurant. There is a more casual dining restaurant, called Sands as well. Reef offers a buffet show with dancing every Friday and Monday, and breakfast buffet is only at Reef every day. The food at Reef is nouveau-style cuisine with French and Asian influences. I had the Filet the Hamati (Yellowtail fillet) and Steve had the Mahi Mahi. Both were delicious.

The next morning we decided to take the ferry to the IC Le Moana, which is located at Matira Beach, the southernmost tip of Bora Bora island. The ferry runs about once every hour but there are a few breaks each day where they come only every 2 hours. Le Moana is an older hotel, and definitely less modern in decor than the Thalasso. They seem like they are in need of some updating but the pool and beach there were quite gorgeous. If you are staying at the Thalasso, you are allowed guest privileges at the Moana and vice versa. There are day rooms you can reserve in advance if you decide to do this. We loved the Thalasso so much we didn't really see the need to come to Le Moana often.

We walked outside of the IC Moana property and turned right. Our mission was the grocery store nearby. I think it's called Tiare market? It's about a 15-20 minute walk. Note that the main street going around the island is quite narrow and you need to be careful especially because there are no sidewalks. The day was hot but we stopped at a few souvenir stores long the way. We bought some stuff at the market and headed back to the Thalasso since it was so hot!

next up... Vaitape, Bloody Mary's and more!

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