S+S Honeymoon 2008

Our Wedding

We flew from NYC to LAX to get married November 1st at Ponte Family Estate Winery in Temecula, California. It was a wonderful day filled with fantastic memories. It is still all a big blur though since it went by so quickly! Here are a few pics captured by guests from our big day:

Part 1: The Honeymoon Begins

Los Angeles (LAX) - Papeete (PPT)

The next day, after a relaxing brunch with family and friends, it was back to LAX to catch our 4:25pm flights to Papeete, Tahiti, part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. It was absolutely my dream honeymoon destination! We flew Air Tahiti Nui, which was a nice airline, with TV screens at each seat. The flight to Tahiti's Faa'a airport was approximately 8 and a half hours long from LA, not a bad ride to paradise! I hear there are also direct flights from NYC (where we are from), but some guests told us that their direct flights were cancelled and they had to connect through LAX anyways. Worked out well for us that we got married on the west coast! Note: the duty-free at LAX terminal 6 is awesome. We got a bottle of grey-goose vodka for our trip, and even more sunscreen (we totally needed this!)

Intercontinental Beachcomber - Papeete

We arrived at Tahiti's Faa'a airport at approximately 10pm local time. We were greeted with warm tropical air and fresh tiare flowers. Everyone has flowers in their hair here, most often it's the tiare flower. I hear that they are at their most fragrant when picked just beyond the bud stage. It was crowded at the airport, but most of the tourists were non-US, so it didnt' take us long to go through customs and immigration. Our luggage took a bit of time though. Once we made it outside, we took a cab to the Intercontinental Beachcomber resort, which is just a few minutes away from the airport. The fare was approximately 25 dollars USD. We didn't have pacific francs just then but our taxi driver accepted USD. I think they do charge a bit more if you pay in USD but oh well.

The IC Beachcomber lobby had a nice Polynesian feel, everything was open air, and we could feel the warm ocean breezes. We checked in very quickly. You can also change money at the front desk, but the rate isn't great. Since I was an ambassador club member with Intercontinental hotels, we were upgraded from a standard room to a panoramic view room. They told me it was a 3-level upgrade. Sweet! We were also given some tropical fruit drinks to enjoy while waiting. The porter came to collect our stuff and we were driven by golf cart to our room, 193. The room was located on the ground floor which was great as it had a little patio with table and chairs. It overlooked the beautiful sand-bottom pool. Since it was night out, we couldn't really see all this but the porter pointed it on the way there.

When we got to our room, we were pleasantly surprised that it had been specially prepped - the air conditioning was at full blast, and they had a flower arrangement on the bed. They also provided us with a complimentary blue and white pareo (Intercontinental colors) and a drawing of a fish by a local artist! It was a lovely welcome treat. Our room was very cute, it looked like it was recently refurbished and it was decorated in traditional Polynesian decor, but with modern amenities. The bathtub was nice and big too, plus there was a separate stall shower. All the IC bath products smell like the tiare flower which really evoked the spirit of Tahiti. Initially I thought the smell was too strong, but I grew to really love the scent. Now I miss it! Note: they provide shampoo, conditioner, bath gel and soap (only thing that just smelled like coconut), sewing kit, and shaving kit. The conditioner was the only thing I didn't quite like. It didn't do anything for my hair at all. I had to use almost a whole bottle each time I washed my hair! I suggest if you have dry hair like I do, to bring your own bottle of conditioner, especially when you're in saltwater and chlorine all day.

Since we had dinner on the plane, we didnt' really bother to eat anything else. We checked out the mini-bar, and the prices are very expensive. Be expected to pay about 5 USD for a small bottle of water. Probably should have bought some water from the airport before we hopped in the cab. We decided to take a bath and go to bed early as we were pooped from the wedding and the flight.

The next day, we were up fairly early (6am) and the sun was already shining brightly. We took a peek out of our patio and it was gorgeous. We decided to have breakfast buffet at the hotel. It is quite expensive (40 USD per person) but it is delicious. For some reason I love breakfast buffet more than any other buffet meal. Some items they had were made-to-order stations for omelets, pancakes, crepes (avec nutella!), and eggs. A section for fish and meats, sauteed veggies, salad, the requisite bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and yummy pastries. Since they cater to Japanese tourists, I found that they serve miso soup and rice at every breakfast. Also included, but by special order, you can order poisson cru, which is a Tahitian specialty, sort of like ceviche. It's a dish of raw tuna, veggies, lime juice and fresh coconut milk served cold. We had a bowl of this and it was sooo good. After breakfast we decided to lay out by the pool. I'll let the pics speak for themselves as to how beautiful it was.

Pearl Museum and downtown Papeete

Later in the day, we decided to visit town which is a few km from the hotel. We took a free shuttle to the Robert Wan Pearl Museum in Papeete. We then walked over to the main market. It rained a bit during our walk, but it was nice nonetheless. Here are some pics from the museum and town:

These were some items for sale at the Marche Municipal. We shared a croque monsieur (grilled ham and cheese) and a cafe au lait. I didn't have any baby bananas pictured here but they are sometimes called apple bananas I think. The sandwich and coffee came out to about 11 dollars which was a bargain in French Polynesia. The weather was really hot and humid, but we were so excited to be there we didn't care. We walked around some of the shops, and bought some cheap souvenirs and some black pearls (which weren't cheap!).

We took Le Truck back to the hotel. We missed the last shuttle from the pearl museum back to the hotel, but Le Truck is the public bus service that costs about $1.50 USD per person. It goes all around the island and comes very frequently. As we neared the hotel, we saw a supermarket, so when we got off, Steve decided to go get us some light fare for dinner. He came back to the room with a huge bagful of delightful French cheeses, charcuterie-style meats, European-style yogurt, tropical juices, and the most delicious French baguettes. Flour is subsidized by the French government there, so baguettes are only a few cents each and very good. We ate in the comfort of our patio, enjoying the sunset and views. It was easily one of the best meals and cheapest that we had on our honeymoon! Thanks for schlepping to the store honey!

We found a new favorite cheese, Samos, which is like spreadable laughing cow but 10x better. Note: the TV in the hotel only had 1 English channel, CNN. It had coverage of the election all the time while we were there.

The next day, we had a few hours in the morning before our flight to Bora Bora. We ate the rest of our meats, cheeses, and breads and laid out by the pool again. We also lounged around in a hammock we found. I didn't think we would finish all the food Steve bought but we did. We were endless pits during the 'moon.

We took a cab to the airport and checked in for our flight to our next island adventure....

Next... Part 2: Bora Bora!!!!