Life in French Polynesia is a real pleasure, life starts and ends with the sun. You have to be in sync with the local rhythm to really enjoy the place, there is nothing worse than coming to Polynesia expecting to live as in any other cities.
The people are up around 6 in the morning and start working around 7, you don’t have to follow that rhythm but lets say that it is quite nice to have a change from time to time. Besides you wake early and you go to bed early so you still get the sleep you need. The main reason to keep your routine is that there is only one road to go around the island hence going to Papeete, there is a huge traffic jam every morning when everyone is going to the city to work and around 4h00 PM when everyone is driving home; if you stick to your routine you will avoid all that. By leaving work around 4h00 PM even with traffic you have time to go hang out at the beach with your family, time to go surfing, time to go fishing, time to practice your va’a (the traditional canoe). As the sun sets at 5h30PM, staying late at work means not enjoying the sun as much as you should which is sad in a place like this.
If you don’t have too much work you can go have breakfast on a terrace in the city center, you will find all the French pastries you might fancy. In my case, on the days I wouldn’t be too busy I would go for a dive before coming to work. The best dives are done in the morning, as the water is extremely clear and there is almost no current you get great visibility, you just need to be all woken up at 8 in the morning. After the dive there is no muscle in my body that isn’t relaxed.
In the evening you can go grab something to eat « aux roulottes » those are vans that are transformed into mobile kitchen, you can find them on Vaiate square or almost everywhere on Tahiti Island. There you will be able to eat pizzas, crepes, waffles, brochette de coeur (veal hearts on a stick), chinese food, raw fish salad (local dish), tuna sashimi... The local population isn’t famous for eating healthy food, you will quickly see how fat some men and women can be because they love eating a lot. The local dishes are very healthy but consumer society has arrived on the island so people prefer eating burgers and pizzas, every evening cars are queuing up at the 3 Mc Donald’s of the city (they are all located in a 3 mile radius). The Polynesian population used to stay fit thanks to traditional activities but as society changed due to outside influence the youth preferred the American way of life to the Polynesian one.
Here is one story to explain how much people like to eat. It is possible to buy a whole frozen sheep in the shopping centre for a barbecue. If you go there on Friday evening you will see people with carts containing 2 or 3 sheep.
This is the last part of my survival guide, enjoy your stay in Tahiti.
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