New Year’s day
Monday Jan. 1. 2024, Moorea
I woke right before dawn today (which is at 5:33 a.m.) and toyed with the idea of going down to the beach to watch the sun rise. That felt like a nice symbolic thing to do…greet the new year with my feet in the ocean…but it also felt like a lot of hustling to do with only a few minutes to spare, and the sky was pretty overcast. Instead I lay in bed and listened to the roosters crow and appreciated where I was and felt very grateful.
It’s our last full day here, and here are some things I like about this hotel:
The staff: The staff is really nice and friendly and helpful, and most people are willing to speak French with me. It’s a hard job to work here in the heat and answer the same questions over and over again and they are very kind about it.
The room/grounds: The room is a good size. Not uselessly big but not cramped. The bathroom is large (by my standards as my bathroom at home is 5×5). We’ve got a mini fridge full of “free” drinks that is restocked every day. We started out hiding the beers that we weren’t drinking so we’d get more and more and more, until we realized we didn’t actually want to drink that many beers. The closet has a bar on the left and right and plenty of room for two suitcases. The king bed is firm and I slept well right away. While I like the large porch/deck with comfy chairs, when I sat out there the other morning to do my blog I got eaten by mosquitos so I haven’t used it much. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and meticulously maintained, which is hard work here in the tropics. There is a fruit tree right in front of us (guava?) that drops a lot of ripe fruit and though it’s a huge mess it smells delicious.
Free snorkel gear and free kayaks. I did a final kayak around the lagoon today and it’s really heaven out there. Somehow, having the kayaks included and not having to worry about the cost made me feel like I could use them over and over again on a whim.
The vibe: I like the mellow vibe. There aren’t wristbands and guards checking to make sure you are meant to be here. I guess after riding the ferry over and getting past the low-security guardhouse, and being on an island with only 16,000 people, they can relax a bit. The high-security attitude in Hawaii sometimes irritates me. Are you a guest? Did you rent this chair? Are you allowed in this pool? It’s stressful and leaves me feeling like I’m always about to be yelled at for something I didn’t know I was doing wrong. The bungalows here all seem to be the same size and configuration, so the more expensive rooms are priced due to location, so there aren’t big villas or some whole side of the resort that’s the luxury section. The clientele – at least at the moment – is mostly mid-30’s and up families (who brought small children here from France, ai yi yi), extended families meeting up, couples spanning all ages. To say – it’s not a pick up scene full of young single people which is fine with me!
Not so great – the food. The breakfast buffet is good as you can’t go too wrong with crepes and eggs and croissants, but lunch has a very limited menu and much of it bland. Without a car I felt trapped and hungry. Dinner was also an issue because they have shows twice a week and that ties up the main restaurant. The bar serves a very limited menu. We expected more fish but there were only two options; lagoon fish (non-specific) and a named fish. I had the very expensive swordfish one night that was a strange shape…small round pieces like nothing I could imagine coming from a swordfish, and I woke up with a bad stomach in the middle of the night.
Pretty bad bar service, maybe a combo of laid back French cafe style meets island time. No way to get a drink or food at the pool without really begging, standing there wet and dripping and asking for a menu and having the three waiters standing around chatting say, “we will bring it to you,” and me thinking no, you won’t. I’ll never see you again because you are probably going home now.
That said, I had an amazing time here and would definitely come back – with a big bag full of snacks.
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