22 August 2010 - Papeete

We didn't have any formal tour booked for Papeete, we planned to just wander around.

Being a Sunday, many of the shops were shut, but some opened and the locals put on a sort of festival as well with dancing and all sorts of displays.

I don't quite know what to say about Papeete.

I know that we only saw a very small part of the city (and we didn't get anywhere near the main tourist beaches) but what we saw contained some really confusing contradictions. There are a fair few new buildings, and a lot of new-looking infrastructure - for example a really nice park running around the port area, including some toilet blocks that were pretty enough to take pictures of, and what appears to be a new Port Authority building under construction. And, some obviously new and expensive houses being built as well.

Clearly they're attempting to attract tourists to the area.

But, at the same time, there were many signs of a poor economy - bags of garbage in the streets, roads in fairly poor shape, and a number of buildings that are obviously still used for accommodation even though they're in really poor condition. One had an apartment that was almost completely burned out - and it didn't look like recent damage - but all the other apartments around it were obviously still in use.

Unlike Hawaii, I didn't see anything that would make me want to come back. People who have been here before say that Moorea - tomorrow's destination - is a much prettier place, so we'll see.

One thing, we'll have plenty of money to spend tomorrow. The local currency is French Polynesian francs; most places will also take US dollars, but not Australian money. Anyway, we went to the ATM early in the day and got enough cash to get us through the day, and ended up with about $3 worth of francs left in coins when we were all done spending money. However, when we got back to the ship, we realised that we'll also need cash tomorrow in Moorea, so we decided to go back out and get another few thousand francs - maybe $60 or $70 dollars worth. Anyway, suffice it to say that the zero's threw us, and instead of the 7,000 francs we thought we were getting, we're now the proud owners of 70,000 francs - about $800 worth! Fortunately they'll buy francs back from us on the ship, so we will be able to trade it back for Australian dollars, but, how embarassing!