I don’t care much for vacationing in Hawaii, and destinations such as Cancun are lower on my bucket list than many people’s. And yet, I much looked forward to Bora Bora. What’s the difference? A coworker asked when I mentioned our spring break plans. I thought it should’ve been obvious, but started second guessing when confronted with the question. Was this tropical beach really that different from another tropical beach? Would I actually love it?
The answer is yes. I thought about it throughout the trip and it took me several days to find my explanation: the sun and the sand are just okay, but I really love the ocean and sea creatures. Activity-wise, that meant snorkeling. Plenty of beaches offer great scenery and water sports, but you can only swim with fish at so many places. Moreover, it takes a lot to get an ideal snorkeling condition, especially for a crappy swimmer like me.
- We had great memories of sea turtles and an octopus at the Black Rock in Maui, but the water was choppy and on the cold side, and thus it was uncomfortable to snorkel more than a few minutes at a time
- The snorkeling trip at Koh Samui in Thailand had gorgeous weather and calm water, but there wasn’t much to see beyond sand and water
- Hanauma Bay in O’ahu offered a good balance between the two, with vast coral reef for fish to live in and good water temperature; however, due to over-tourism, the corals were pretty dead and the fish population was limited
In Bora Bora, at least within Conrad’s private beach during the week of our visit, everything was just perfect: (1) the water was so warm that we could stay in it for hours at a time; (2) there was no wave at all being inside a lagoon so it was possible to precisely control our movements; (3) a diversity of sea creatures lived among both natural coral reefs and man-made Biorocks; (4) plenty of room to spread out with ~26 acres of swimmable ocean for no more than a couple hundred guests.
It was an elitist realization. Coral reef snorkeling, like most interactions with nature, is not sustainable at scale. Make a great experience too accessible and visitors will soon destroy what makes it great in the first place. Luxury resorts like Conrad can afford to sustain an excellent habitat because they charge each guest so much money; on the other hand, we can trust these resorts to prioritize environmental protection because their business depends heavily on it.
At our resort, the coral reefs were everywhere. Colorful corals and lively fish were found along the jetties, under the bungalows, and by the beach. Every time we went to breakfast or the pool, we’d walk by a bunch of beautiful aquatic life. Kind of like the Rainforest Cafe experience, but better.
Swimming
The main attraction of having an over-water bungalow was the idea that we could jump straight into the ocean whenever. Now with a brand-new GoPro in hand, I also imagined myself holding it on a selfie stick and back-flipping into the turquoise water. There were just a couple problems… first, I couldn’t do a back flip; second, I wasn’t brave enough to jump from that height.
As someone with lackluster swimming abilities, I also didn’t have much common sense around water. I remember feeling quite alarmed when hearing that our bungalow sat above more than six feet of water, so we wouldn’t be able to enter the ocean and touch the bottom. After taking some time to get used to it, though, I realized that it was great to have some depth so we could comfortably swim and snorkel around. Some other bungalows entered into the ocean in far shallower or deeper sections.
The kids had been taking swimming lessons for more than a year at this point, and both were far better swimmers than I. Ting was still timid with the ocean, but Xuan was fine to explore the environment and alternate between swimming and treading water. I wouldn’t have dared to do what she did if I didn’t have my snorkel.
Snorkeling
As mentioned above, snorkeling was the most memorable part of this entire trip. In our prior experiences in the sea, seeing a few fish would have been a win. Here in Bora Bora, both the quantity and variety of aquatic life wowed us to no end. It was also my first time seeing wild corals with vibrant colors.
In the deeper parts of the water around the main dock, Conrad installed a few Biorocks – metal structures coupled with some electric current to stimulate coral growth and expand the habitat. They looked cool and housed some impressive fish.
After getting acclimated to the water and used to breathing through a tube, I played a few games of fish stalking. Holding that GoPro in front and kicking my flippers in rear, I latched onto a pretty fish and tried to keep up for as long as possible. I don’t think the fish particularly appreciated it!
The finale arrived during our final 15 minutes in the water. In a shallow part where we all stood up to take a break, Xuan told me in a matter-of-fact voice, “Ba Ba I saw a shark!” She later said that she was quite nervous about it, but she didn’t panic. She had told Hong just a minute prior, who responded with a level of denial and hoped to not encounter it herself.
Reacting with more carelessness than bravery, the only thought that ran through my head was, “whoooooa where?” I immediately put my head back in the water and started recording again. I realized that just because one person saw something didn’t mean the second person also had a chance, but I was desperate to check it out. And it was my lucky day… after just a minute of poking around, I turned my head and saw this 4-foot predator with sharp teeth!
Even though I as looking for him, it was still jarring for a bad swimmer to have his first shark encounter. I had asked our Water World tour guide about this particular creature, who told me that black tip sharks never attacked people. In this moment, I decided to have full faith in this French lady whose name I didn’t even know, and tried to get close to Black Tip by playing my fish stalking game. He was not amused and started to get away, and I followed. In hindsight, it was fun when all I saw was his tail fin. If Black Tip had turned around to face me, I probably would have peed my pants. I did my best to chase him down, and kept up for maybe 15 seconds. Once he had enough of my shenanigans, though, Black Tip just accelerated to shark speed and disappeared into the distance.
PF 2023
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