My wife and I are leaving on our first cruise May27 on the PG. I have read many useful things on this website about shore excursions, and what to do on board ship, but I was wondering what interesting things there are to on our two day pre-cruise. We will be staying at the Radisson which I understand is near Papeete. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to LCT!!! Glad you found us.

We stayed at the ICB pre-cruise but we took Le Truck into Papeete and walked around Le Marche which is right off the dock. You can eat dinner at Le Roulottes, which are the catering trucks the locals eat at. There is the Pearl Museum, which is part of a Pearl Store. They did charge admission.

We had a party in our room for the other Luxury Cruise Talk people so we trekked to the Grocery Store. That was a very interesting expedition reading labels of things in French trying to decipher if the package contained cookies or crackers. Bring your own grocery bags. They cost us $1.00 each!!!

A buck a bag? Yikes! I would have carried all my purchases in my arms rather than pay a buck a bag! Outrageous!

Actually, I had a backpack with me and for some reason, I had packed a few bags I brought from home remembering that in Europe they need their own bags. We still bought one - not like the freebies. They came in handy and we're more like the handle bags you might get from the mall only plastic. But they did charge you for a sack to put your fresh baked baguette in - they have paper wrapped around the center of the loaf for touching it! People bring their own bags for those too! Best French bread I've ever had!

The Radisson has a twice-daily shuttle into Papeete, so go to the tour desk and find out the schedule. Shopping in Papeete is an obvious choice. The large produce market is really fun, and there are lots of pareos, wood carvings, vanilla beans, etc. for sale. You can suss out the prices, compare them to other shops on the cruise, and then have an opportunity on the last Saturday morning to make last-minute purchases in Papeete. Buy some cold drinks, water and beer while you're at it, since they are very expensive at the hotel.

The beach at the Radisson is very nice, and demands a nice long walk, if you like that sort of thing. I have been told that the little bar off to the right, near the end of the beach, is a great place to go for a beer, haven't been there myself.

I can also recommend the bar/restaurant at the Royal Tahitien hotel, if you want to venture out for something not too fancy, but good. It's not walking distance (and it's hot), but you could cab it. Prices are crazy everywhere for food, so don't be too surprised. It's laid back, right by the water, and the food is very nice, lots of locals go there.

There is a full slate of excursions that you can book at the hotel as well.

Kathy refers to the French bread. We heard a story, perhaps true, that during the Civil War in the States, the blockade meant that Europeans couldn't get rice from the South. Some enterprising fellow started growing rice on Tahiti. But the Polynesians wouldn't work in the paddys. So the fellow imported a whack of Chinese to work the fields.

The fellow made a heap of money. But then the Civil War ended and the Tahitian rice business collapsed.

The Chinese, now unemployed, set up a bunch of local businesses. One was baking French bread. According to the story, the bread that Kathy so admires was almost certainly baked by the Chinese bakers.

Warning: the Polynesians take great delight in telling tall tales to the tourists. I think they may well have a prize given to the most outrageous whopper that they got people to believe. This tale may be a mini-whopper.

-- David

I heard that tale more than once in Tahiti....

Were they really Chinese or Vietnamese? I've never been to Tahiti so don't know - but the Chinese don't have any tradition for bread baking (at least European style bread) while the Vietnamese have a long history of bakeries because of their close ties to France.

Masaki

Good point, Masaki, the French occupation of Vietnam started around the same time, as did the French re-occupation of Tahiti. But from what I can read here: http://www.tahiti1.com/en/indentity/history.htm
they were from southern China, from 1856-1865, most of these returned to China when the bottom fell out of the cotton market. Then later, 1907, another wave came, and these became the base of the prosperous business class.

Wendy - I stand corrected in that case. :) Good article, BTW!

Masaki