Tahiti Day #3: Papeete

February 8, 2019

TAHITI ISLAND, French Polynesia – After two days driving all around Tahiti Iti (Small Tahiti) and Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti), it was time to check out the capital city. Mom shopped for several hours at Papeete Market, we strolled along the waterfront, and I did a quick walking tour on our third day on the island before our cruise departs in two days.

Got up at 9:48 a.m. at our villa in Afaahiti. Ugh, I was exhausted despite sleeping 12 hours. After breakfast, we departed at 11:41 a.m. in our rental SUV for the 63-kilometer (39-mile) drive to the capital, pulling into the Avis lot downtown at 1:02 p.m. We rented our SUV from Avis at PPT airport and the agent there mentioned we were welcome to park at the downtown location when in Papeete. That’s quite nice!

We spent a bit less than five hours in the capital. Mom made a beeline to the Marche Municipal, the Papeete Market.

The first floor contains a fish market and numerous grocery stalls on one side, with vendors on the other side hawking flowers, baskets, soaps, perfumes, hats and headdresses, and other miscellaneous goods. The fish market was almost totally empty; apparently it’s busy early in the morning.

Upstairs there’s a cafe, pearl and jewelry shops, clothing stories, and souvenir shops.

From the second floor there’s also great views down to the ground floor and all the colorful produce and other items for sale.

Mom headed upstairs to start browsing clothes and jewelry while I walked around taking pictures. I absolutely love going to the town marketplace in a foreign country or territory. You get a real glimpse at local life as most of these markets are geared toward residents, not tourists. This market was a mix with stalls for Tahitians on the ground floor and the upstairs shops more targeted at visitors.

Mom shopping at Papeete Market
Mom shopping at Papeete Market

We flew to Tahiti on my 42nd birthday three days ago. Mom was kind enough to buy me a blue-and-purple Tahitian-designed shirt as a birthday gift.

I pulled Mom away from the shops at 2 p.m. so we could sit down and eat lunch at Cafe Maeva on the market’s second floor. Mom ordered a tropical salad, which was gigantic. I had a French Polynesian specialty, poisson cru au lait de coco – raw fish marinated in lime juice, mixed with vegetables and topped with coconut cream (served with white rice).

I found poisson cru to be similar to ceviche, but not as flavorful.

Mom continued shopping after lunch while I took some more photographs and then sat down at the cafe to check e-mail and Facebook. I finally dragged Mom out of the market at 4:19 – only for her to head immediately into some of the shops on the street.

About 15 minute later, we crossed the waterfront avenue to Place Vaiete, a plaza that’s quiet during the day by comes to life at night with numerous food trucks, music, and performances.

We strolled along the harbor for about half an hour, coming upon a fascinating display of outdoor artwork: vividly painted shipping containers.

The tropical heat was getting to Mom, so she sat down beneath a palm tree and read her book while I set off for a 40-minute walk tour of the French Polynesian capital. I saw the residence of the French high commissioner, Tarahoi government complex, Assembly of French Polynesia, several colorful murals on buildings and electrical boxes, Papeete cathedral, Kilometer Post 0, and Papeete City Hall before returning to Avis at 5:45 to retrieve the SUV. I covered 1.3 miles on my walk.

Picked up Mom along the waterfront and we then started the trek back to Tahiti Iti, stopping at a lookout at 6:30 to watch sunset.

We returned to Taravao, the main town of Tahiti Iti, at 7:15 and walked into Restaurant T.K.T. Panda, a Chinese restaurant.

I was blown away by the high prices of everything in this local Chinese restaurant. We ordered just one dish to share, curry chicken, which cost PF1,800 ($17.05). It was okay. The portion was quite large at least for the high price, and we had some leftover chicken and rice.

Mom eating dinner at Restaurant T.K.T. Panda in Taravao

We asked to take the leftovers with us. When the bill arrived, I was shocked to see we had each been charged PF300 ($2.84) for our rice bowls as well as PF100 (95¢) for the take-away container! That’s the first time in my life I can recall ever being charged for a to-go box! Wow.

Returned to our villa at 8:28 p.m. Drive 128 km (79 miles) today.

As Mom unpacked the leftovers from the plastic bag (no charge for the bag!), she realized only the chicken was in there. Our remaining world’s most expensive rice was not in the bag! We were both infuriated, first that that restaurant forgot to pack up our rice (or thought we didn’t want to take it with us?) and second that we failed to check the bag before departing T.K.T. Panda.

Our leftover tray from Restaurant T.K.T. Panda in Taravao without the expensive rice — Our leftover tray from Restaurant T.K.T. Panda without the expensive rice

That horribly expensive dinner and the whole debacle with the leftover rice left me feeling so angry. But the rest of the day was enjoyable. Having now seen pretty much all of Tahiti Island in three days, we will relax tomorrow, our final day at the villa before boarding Oceania Marina on the 10th for a 12-night cruise to seven other islands of French Polynesia.