Part 37, page 411

Transcript

The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.

The best hotel-bargain has got to be a place in Tahiti near downtown Papeete where you pay 150 francs ($2[guess: .14] for a room. Unless you want a door, then it's 200 francs.

Across from the cruising boats on Papeete's waterfront is the Stewart Hotel (about $10), a favorite among cruising people who want to get off their boats. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the big glassy high-rise hotels where you pay $50 and more to meet other tourists.

I stumbled into a happy compromise: the aging Te Puna Be Air, a hotel four miles outside Papeete frequented by Americans and Europeans who visit Tahiti often. Quiet, charming and inexpensive by Tahiti standards (about $20-$22), it's sandwiched between two American-style luxury hotels and you can hike over to their white-sand beaches.

One of the charms of the Te Puna Bel Air is its inconsistencies: I met four women from Sacramento who were staying there and they had no hot water (I did), I had a wasp nest on my balcony (they didn't), they had ice in a refrigerator (I didn't) but I had a bottle of Scotch (they didn't). We pooled our resources and soon felt we had a luxury suite.

Also, we met island people who treat the hotel bar and restaurant as a local hangout. Two of us explored a nearby reef with [guess: Arabian] scuba divers who live in Tahiti, and while we [guess: explored] on the surface, they went down 150 feet and brought up black coral.

They called it coral whips, and it looked like wire coathangers someone had straightened out. They said it sells for about $360 a pound locally.

ISLAND-HOPPING BY BOAT

Inter-island freighters offer expeditions for visitors: one is a 40-day trip with steps at 116 islands and atolls, and it costs about $300. For the visitor on a brief vacation, John Stegenga of the schooner "Candide," four years out of Marina del Rey, suggested this one which he took:

"The 'Timi Hani,' a 150 foot diesel freighter, leaves Papeete every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. You sleep on deck with other travelers, including many Tahitians who sing and dance at night, and there are always people playing guitars.

"The freighter puts in a Huahini, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora and you go ashore and buy food at the Chinese grocery stores that are always close to the docks. You cook on deck.

"The 'Timi Hani' brings you back to Papeete on Sunday or Monday and you have spent about 700 francs ($10) plus groceries for a week-long tour of some of the most beautiful islands in the South Pacific."

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DB Cooper-14595