Tahiti

Samantha Martin
Mar 18, 2023
3 min read

By Guest Contributor Andre Neyrey

French Polynesia

This was Sam's biggest bucket list item. For years all she ever wanted was a bungalow room over the water in Tahiti. So prior to leaving the USA she already had us booked into the Intercontinental Hotel bungalow room.

We docked in the biggest town in Tahiti which is Papeete. We couldn't check in until later in the day so we hired a great local driver Haine who knew the island inside and out having lived there her whole life. First stop was a short walk into the woods to see a waterfall and some of the beautiful plants and flowers of the island. We learnt how land means everything to Polynesians. Land handed down through generations and when the French arrived things got complicated. Their native language was banned from schools and now land which was in your family for years now needed paperwork and paper trails to prove it belonged to you.

After the stroll and getting some fresh cut fruit (guava, bananas and papaya) we headed to the beach and the well known blow hole. If you don’t know to expect it- when it blows it can scare the shit out of you. Colette has a video we have to steal because when they were there it was more like a light cough coming from the hole but in her video it’s like a tsunami meets a massive sneeze coming out!

We then headed to the lighthouse and the bay where the HSS Bounty from the mutiny was docked to get Breadfruit plants to take to the Caribbean Islands. It took them a few months to gather 1000 plants and as a result some fell in love with the island life and women which along with Captain Blye's personality led to the mutiny.

In the Bay Area there is white sandy parts of the beach from the crushed coral but mostly black sandy beaches from volcanic rock. We also did some shopping for local artisan hand made sarongs and black pearls.

We then visited municipal market that had more sarongs, hand made bags, local arts and craft and food. We ate sandwiches that had bread that was the closest thing to the French bread of New Orleans Po'boys. I guess the French in French Polynesian islands played a part in the bread and pastries. Haine took me to meet a famous local tattoo artist and he explained how each Polynesian tattoo tells a personal story. I had told Sam how I really wanted a tattoo there so Haine made me an appointment for the next day at 9am!

While we talked tattoos - Haine took Sam to Aloha a local dress shop where Sam did some $$ damage but found dresses she loved and looked amazing in. It made my heart happy as she played dress up in the room later that night. And guess what? Only 1 black dress in the bunch! Colors and Polynesian floral designs.

We finally wound up back at the hotel to check in and we're blown away buy the hotel and room. It was everything we had hoped for and more. The lobby was a massive open space build with teak and overlooking this incredible view of the hotel pool, ocean and mountains. A buggy driver aka bellman dressed in little more than a sarong and TONS of tattoos took us to our room which was breathtaking. The room was over the water with a ladder to take you down to swim. All night long guys would paddle in canoe like boats solo or in teams of 2-3.

The only drawback was Sam was SO looking forward to a hot bath as only a shower on the boat and the hot water heated in our room broke in the middle. They couldn't fix it but we didn't want to change rooms so we settled for the 30% discount they ordered! We ordered room service and ate on the deck as more rowers came by in their boats.

We woke up the next morning and after a big buffet breakfast headed out. Haine took me to my tattoo appointment where He did an amazing job and in the 6 hours of the tattooing Sam managed to not only get a prescription written and filled but was surprised to find out it was Marlon Brando grandson Tuki who is a doctor on the island in his own clinic- Tuki is Marlon's daughter Cheyenne Brandon's son! You can't make this stuff up! Sam didn’t want to ask for photos hence her stealth picture taking. Google him - he apparently modeled his way through med school!