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
PF 2023 (7/10) – Bora Bora: Food at the Resort
Dining at Conrad Bora Bora Nui was a tale of two meals… breakfast, and non-breakfast. I’ll start with the latter. Lunch or Dinner Although we came mentally prepared for the high price tags, it was still difficult to order $30 California rolls or $49 cheeseburgers with a straight face. It didn’t matter that there was
PF 2023 (6/10) – Bora Bora: The Bungalow
With a vacation at a fancy resort in a tropical paradise, it’s impossible to pinpoint a single best thing. That said, this entire trip originated from the desire to stay in an over-water bungalow. I’m happy to report that it more than beat expectations. Booking this particular bungalow was a slippery-slope decision making experience. It
PF 2023 (5/10) – Bora Bora: Conrad Bora Bora Nui
We returned a couple days later to PPT, a dinky airport that was no fun to hangout at. Air Tahiti Nui, like Southwest Airlines, had a free-for-all seating policy. As such, close to 100% of the passengers had already formed a line 20 minutes prior to boarding. Just as we begrudgingly made our way to
PF 2023 (4/10) – Bora Bora: Expenses
Everyone knows that stuff is expensive in Hawaii because everything has to be imported from an ocean away. Tahiti is the same, just even less populated and further from a major port. And then Bora Bora is like Tahiti’s Hawaii. While getting there isn’t so difficult, spending any time in this paradise is bound to
PF 2023 (3/10) – Tahiti: Hilton Tahiti Resort
From Saturday evening to Monday morning, we had a great time at Hilton Tahiti. It was a great way to use up our free night certificates, both because the cash price was high and because it was simply a very nice resort. I was surprised by the resort’s lack of beach access. In my naïve
PF 2023 (2/10) – Tahiti: Papeete and Faa’a
After an easy 9-hour hop from SFO, we landed in Tahiti’s Papeete / Faa’a airport (PPT). This was our family’s first time visiting the southern hemisphere, and first time flying so far west without crossing the International Date Line. French Polynesia is part of Polynesia, and at the same time unmistakably French. It’s a European-owned
PF 2023 (1/10) – A French Polynesian Spring Break
For spring break this year, we upped the game a little… by going to Tahiti and Bora Bora. Staying in an over-water bungalow had been on our bucket list for some time. Hong made a map of all such resorts in the world, though most of the options were never serious contenders next to the
Texas Barbecue
My company started scheduling all internal summits in Dallas a few years ago, and then my client moved headquarters to Austin. Texas went from a distant foreign land to a state that I visited somewhat frequently. As someone with the wanderlust syndrome, I take every opportunity to do touristy stuff. On these business trips to
God of War Ragnarok – a Non-Gamer’s Review
God of War Ragnarok (GoWR) is the best video game ever. Some confirmation bias may be at play here, because I had been waiting for it for a long time. GoWR was the first time in over a decade that I pre-ordered and paid the full price for any video game. Just months prior, I