O TAHITI TELE

some people say the perfection doesn't really exist they say the Greeks couldn't quite build it that da Vinci never really painted it james hylton had to invent shangri-la well just the same we all go on looking for it and a few a very few same they've actually found it here the great French navigator Bougainville described it he wrote Nature has placed it in the best climate of the universe embellished it smiling me enriched it with all its gifts covered it with handsome inhabitants tall and strong she herself dictates their laws they follow them peacefully and form perhaps the happier Society which exists on the globe legislators and philosophers come here to see established what in your imagination you have not dreamed of the land he was describing was the Haiti finding as paradise hasn't always been easy it's far removed from our so-called civilization and Tahiti might still be out of our reach were it not the efforts are daring pioneer travel agents then came the breakthrough the first they finally got it all together and now your Tahiti dream trip is a piece of cake on any one of a number of major airlines once you're here there are several local carriers the ply daily to neighboring islands air Polynesia air tidy and the et air tour service the flight operations center at the big new jet per at variety called papa you'll love the quaint native customs a few minutes from the airport is the capital of poverty and the time of your life don't worry about accommodation you can forget the old days when you lived either under a tree or off it they've made some changes the Tahara is a good example buying food and service and 200 air-conditioned rules or the niceties and a view straight out of Michener the my Ava Beach Hotel is just down the road and is pure luxury great food and entertainment a swimming pool and a lagoon to go along with one of the best white sand beaches in Tahiti a glass-bottom boats is a really spectacular ride and if you get tired or watching this then you can catch them the Haiti boasts some of the finest sport fishing in the Pacific for something a bit more intimate you can check in at the Royal Tahitian Papa eighties garden hotel it's a little like living in a bouquet of flowers you can die matter Lagoon and enjoy a sparkling beach of black sand just around the corner is downtown 30 ad and the kontiki hotel first class of course with a spectacular sky restaurant overlooking the unique panorama of the Pattaya waterfront pick up a bargain in any shot at shell necklace from the pages of Vogue well it costs the dollar here noelite the Tahitians you've got to admire of people who not only boycotted traffic meters and won but also found a better use for the polls by cracking open coconuts this is our own decent version of the Holiday Inn in poverty tanu ánewá rainbow Indonesian bridges the luxurious Tahiti Travel Lodge which features a combination of classical accommodation with over the water bungalows on a lagoon setting with a view across the famed sea of the moon our future on poverty treat yourself to a circle tour of the island and discover Tahiti Point Venus where Captain Cook erected a monument to commemorate the transit of the planet Venus the heaters countryside is everything the travel posters promise unspoiled and endlessly beautiful and whatever you go you're welcome did you ever visit a coconut plantation family-owned and operated fresh off the trees it's a different taste altogether poverty and hunger are literally unknown in Tahiti everything you need here grows on a tree or swims in the lagoon bring your lunch on the tour the island is one big picnic site and the water is so pure it never needs treatment and neither will you these just may be the best oranges in the world and they taste all the better because they're so hard to come by these beauties grow wild high in the mountain mists it's a three-day trip on foot to bring them down to the town and it's well worth it in some ways that the Haitians just like the rest of us they go to church in their Sunday best during your tour you can wander in the Botanical Gardens and visit the place where Gauguin lived the Segoe game museum here devoted entirely to his works Tahiti abounds with magnificent waterfalls one of the favorite hotels here is the Tahiti village there's entertainment a really beautiful white sand beach and excellent food you might like to take an excursion into the nearby valleys an extraordinary experience don't leave your clubs at home Tahiti is one of the best golf courses in a South Pacific but what te T has most of the beauty and color everywhere as the Sun Goes Down popaty comes alive night clubbing dining dancing you name it the ad has it another day another island beautiful Nuria shimmers on the horizon just off to Haiti five minutes away by plane a little longer by boat across waters of resemble Easter Egg Nuys and in a fabulous cooks Bay your boat docks at the entrance to the lovely a male hotel there are several excellent hotels here the Moana Moria the Maria balázs you can dine over the water at the Mahana village or at the exotic Kia Ora Mireya the Maui Beach the Marella gone the Bali Hai or if you want your shangri-la on a shoestring there's a club MIDI trna on Maria to where there's everything from disco decking to horseback riding great food and plenty of it at sundown you can stroll back to the IMA or hotel for entertainment and a genuine native feast away my adorn your off on an unforgettable tour of Tahiti's sister islands mr. Rottier lies a hundred mile from Papa 8a and is believed to be the cradle of Polynesian culture its population is a mere 6500 and most often lovely visit us at the Bali Hai Hotel get a warm welcome including a one gun salute and the natives are friendly imagine if you can a serenity so deep that even the birds know no fear you can walk up and pet them they won't fly away among its many attractions riot air offers the only river cruise in society islands here almost everything grows on trees including kids as night falls you can witness one of the world's great mistress firewalking a ceremony which has been practiced for thousands of years the firewalkers always emerge from the red-hot coals unscathed and no one knows how or why after the firewalk you didn't stroll down the beach with your lady fair and await the dawn according to local legend was a rare flower that grows only on the mountaintop of riot era and it blooms only adorned and only in the presence of truth if you don't find it well too bad go to Vahini and recover from your disappointment at the Bali Hai then visit the open-air museum good or Angora in the drum Oh two islands stay and dine of the kia-ora of a liar's or go to the island that many travelers believe is the most beautiful in all the world fabled Bora Bora it is so lovely that people have been known to burst into tears at first sight of it from the new Bora Bora Airport it's only a 10-minute ride by speedboat but a travel tip if you come by chartered plane had your pilot buzz the village that signals the boat to come and pick you up I remember no buzz no boat bora-bora is so picturesque it seems to have been designed by MGM for a John Hall movie the hotel bora-bora first-class accommodations superb French cuisine for skin-diving the bora-bora lagoon is probably unsurpassed anywhere in the world how about a private picnic very private in fact didn't have your own Island if you want to wonder a customer just see the desk clerk you can be back at the hotel in time for a drink on the veranda the sunset is pure Gogan when it's time for you to leave the island you'll feel better about it if you're returned to pop 80 happens to coincide with the July celebration of Bastille Day they shot the island down and turn the people on highlight of the celebration is the spear throwing competition held in a past draw questionable choice tensions run high the last-minute adjustments to equipment the target is a coconut so what else and they've been pitching these Spears for so many generations they're perfect had it well nearly perfect included in the pageant is a solemn and colorful reenactment of the enthronement of a Tahitian king of the old days did you ever see a foot race in its early days this event wasn't quite as exciting just routine competition and the public yawned then they upped the prize to a keg of rum the celebration immediately got better and has been a winner ever since and the dancers everywhere some people came there to sensuous what the dancers are downright dirty well maybe there are throttle jockeys palm frond weavers and coconut couples these shutters are so good they never miss well over there are peddlers and paddlers Bastille Day is the biggest celebration in Tahiti and it's always standing room only from all over the world they come to poverty it's always party time and everybody's welcome aboard sooner or later everything comes from end including or visit to Tahiti now nobody wants to leave that's why the government insists you have a two-way ticket when you come here but don't let it get you down like everybody else you'll find a reason to return the Haiti they say is a kind of delightful malady that lightens the head and raises the blood of these fabled islands Henry Miller wrote there have been several places I wanted badly to see before I died now it is too late I know I shall never set foot in Lhasa Mecca or Timbuktu nor alas well I ever get to Tahiti Tahiti has always been the earthly paradise small but containing all sorts of wonderful things to say nothing of the inhabitants themselves they have given so much to French if it were beauty alone it would be sufficient but the deletions taught the whole Western world what the art of living is like the amazing thing is that now that the heati is open to tourists from all over the world the people remain intact unspoiled better than seeing a psychoanalyst is seen Tahiti