PF 2023 (8/10) – Bora Bora: Vaitape

Vaitape is the town on the main island of Bora Bora. In this part of the world where most of development is owned by major hotel groups, Vaitape is pretty much the only public place a tourist can visit. While still definitely not cheap, the restaurants and shops here are far more wallet-friendly than their counterparts at fancy resorts.

Conrad offered free shuttle to and from Vaitape. Though only 2.5 miles away and took 20 minutes by boat (which happened to be how fast I could run on land), there were only three per day in each direction. There used to be more frequent service, but rumor had it that the resort used the pandemic as an excuse to scale back. Surely Conrad knew what it was doing… allowing its captive customers outside options wasn’t great for business. As a compromise, it also offered a night shuttle and private transport options at higher prices than some flights.

We had agreed that Vaitape was an important stop in visiting Bora Bora. With the rather inconvenient shuttle schedule, we had to strategize in advance when to take the trip and how to maximize the time. After a couple initial draft plans, we decided to go there for 3 hours in the afternoon of the first full day, so that we could (1) stock up on snacks for the rest of our stay, and (2) squeeze in a big meal sufficiently after the breakfast buffet.

Medical Center

Just an hour prior to our shuttle boat to Vaitape, Hong had a minor incident requiring medical attention. We thought there would be some sort of medic at the resort and set out for a quick visit. The thing about Conrad Bora Bora Nui was, while there was a constant stream of staff driving linens around and sweeping white sand off the black stone walking path, it was quite difficult to locate anyone resembling “front desk” personnel. They didn’t pick up the phone or respond to Whatsapp inquiries consistently. The main office generally just had one person on staff and there was always a line. It took us quite a while to even find someone to ask a basic question.

In the span of two minutes, we were given rather inconsistent indications as to whether the resort had a medic. Then they told us we had to visit the medical center on the main island, even though the condition was minor. The experience hadn’t been great up to this point, but thankfully we were headed to Vaitape anyway.

The office staff informed concierge, who communicated our situation with the boat captain and booked us a taxi on the main island. After the brief shuttle boat ride, the captain explained in French the mission to our taxi driver, who spoke limited English. We were offered a fixed price for him to take us to the medical center, wait, and bring us back. The price seemed fair compared to everything else in French Polynesia, but when converted to USD it’d rival the craziest ride share surge pricing. The medical center was merely half a mile away, but there was no walkable road to get there.

The medical center was extremely basic, more so than any rural clinic I had seen. Though considering how Bora Bora had a population half as large as the student body at UC Santa Cruz, it was understandable how it wouldn’t have a state-of-the-art hospital. We started to worry about the logistics – navigating a healthcare appointment back home was challenging enough, and we had no idea how things worked here.

Then the taxi driver single-handedly took care of it for us. He conversed with the registration lady for a couple minutes, during which I had our passports in hand just in case we needed to start filling out any forms. Before I even realized whether the conversation was in French or Tahitian, he started walking further into the building and signaled us to follow. Casually as if visiting a friend’s house, he opened the door to a medical office, and said a few words to the people inside. The nurse, with a decent command of English, greeted us and started asking questions. After some back and forth and Hong basically telling him her self-diagnosis, he checked with the doctor who was on a computer in the corner, and pulled out some medicine from the shelf. Voila and we were… done! Um and… was that it? No ID check, no insurance, no credit card. It felt almost impolite to ask about paying for the visit or the medicine.

The nurse shook his head and smiled: “Ha-ha. This is France.”

For the both of us who deal with the American healthcare system for a living, this was unbelievable.

Lunch at Aloe Cafe

After taking care of the medical visit, we were driven back to the dock. A few restaurants and shops dotted the main road around there, though it was unclear whether some of them were open. We walked by a couple that looked promising on Google Maps but hardly visible in reality, before arriving at Aloe Cafe.

This cute cafe offered mostly outdoor seating, and we had to make a special request to have a table in the shade. It had a nice-looking menu and rather excellent food. We filled up on mocktails and a big French meal. I had a large plate of snail because Ting wanted it. I didn’t dislike it, but that stuff got heavy quickly and not everyone wanted to help. Xuan’s plate of spaghetti Bolognese and Hong’s seafood stew were both awesome. The prices were half of the resort’s, and the food was more delicious.

Shopping

The thing about Vaitape was, it was so darn rural. Even just outside the main port in Bora Bora, sidewalk was nonexistent and the road was barely paved. We walked no more than 1,000 feet and it felt long and treacherous, especially because of the dense car traffic. A neat experience, for sure, to get car exhaust in my lungs and sand between my toes to and from a $100+ a lunch.

First we went to the pharmacy to restock on band-aids. The AC indoors felt so nice that we allowed ourselves to be distracted by the health and beauty products way more than we planned for. There were some fun products such as the Smurfs soap with fun (pear, cola, apricot) scents, but unlike the American pharmacies, there was no shelf dedicated to candies or greeting cards.

Then we went to Chin Lee, a supermarket, for the primary purpose of this visit. Using the resort’s tote bag, we loaded up on instant noodles and chips. I meant to buy some bottled drinks, too, but didn’t find anything interesting enough to bring back. As prices in Bora Bora continued fascinating me, we just dropped $50 on two days’ worth of grocery store junk food.

Return Trip

As planned, we caught the 4:30 shuttle boat to get back to the resort. The lack of signage or proper waiting area at the dock was somewhat problematic, but at least it was easy to spot the other tourists waiting with their Conrad tote bags in hand.

Aside from our family, only three couples were taking this shuttle. Thus we got to go on a rather small boat, offering opportunities for intimate conversations while on open water. Some good humored grumbling about the resort’s lame shuttle schedule later, we learned that two of those three couples were from Northern California, one of which lived in Millbrae just behind our local gym!

PF 2023

1. A French Polynesian Spring Break
2. Tahiti: Papeete and Faa’a
3. Tahiti: Hilton Tahiti Resort
4. Bora Bora: Expenses
5. Bora Bora: Conrad Bora Bora Nui
6. Bora Bora: The Bungalow
7. Bora Bora: Food at the Resort
8. Bora Bora: Vaitape
9. Bora Bora: Bora Bora Water World
10. Bora Bora: the Ocean