Travel tips to the French Polynesia

After seeing the film "Six days and Seven nights" with Harrison Ford and Ann Heche, I fell in love with the French Polynesia most of all Tahiti. I decided to visit this part of the world so far away but so beautiful that you can not resist the temptations.

I made my research about this French territory on the internet and travel books like Lonely Planet and some others, drew out my plans and spoke to my hubby, who saw my plan interesting. He added his childhood dream destination Easter Island in Chili and we then started the travel preparations which included booking and buying of flight tickets, making hotel reservations and transfer flights in and around the islands.

Type of transportation:

When traveling to these destinations (Tahiti, its neighbouring islands and Easter Island), you need to determine the parts of the islands you wish to visit. You equally need to consider the means of transportation most suitable as regards your financial capability.

Some people prefer visiting the French Polynesia on a cruse ship, while others prefer arriving by air and visiting the inlands.

Transfer truck at Vaitape Village (le truck Bora Bora)

Visa enquiries:

The French Polynesia is a French territory, not a French department and thus can make their own administrative decisions so if you are one of those who need a visa, you should address your demand to the necessary visa authorities. You can get in formations from the French embassies, consulates and if you are in France, you can get in formations at the prefecture.

Flight reservations:

For the flights, you need to book in advance say at least a month in advance. I advice you reserve your internal flights to, within and from the islands because there are no constant flights and some times there might simply be a flight per week (maybe the carrier services have added more flights that I do not know of). The flights are safe except for a few accidents reported lately.

Flight schedule in and around Polynesia (Tikehau Airport)

Accommodation reservations:

You need to prepare your lodging accommodations. You have different possibilities which can vary from half-board (demi-pension), complete-board (pension-complète) or you can simply book for room in a hotel and eat out in restaurants. My advice is that you take a complete-board(either in hotels or "pension-complète") if you will have to stay in small islands, because it will be very difficult for you to find a restaurant or a supermarket that sells everything you might need for a meal.

If you are visiting Bora Bora, Rangiroa, Tahiti Iti or some bigger Islands, you can make whatever choice you wish to concerning your accommodation. But if you want to spend say your honey moon at the Meridian in Bora Bora, the Pearl beach resort in Tikehau in the Touamotou Archipel, in the Marquise Achipel or some smaller islands, you might want to consider the complete-board, except if you can afford the stress of needing to take the speed boat at all times you wish to eat away from your hotel. And remember, the transfers are at your cost.

Dancing with the locals (Bora Bora)

Mount Otemanu (Bora Bora)

Taking a walk across Vaitape (Bora Bora)

Polynesian dancers

Polynesian islands, seen from the sky

Xmas polynesian dance concert

What to pack:

The Islands are often warm with at most 32°c, so you can pack light. Don't travel like me, remember to be ready for at least a special night out, with a special dress for the ladies and a special party look for the boys. You never know he might be preparing a surprise!

When going to the beach or going for a walk, your sunscreen needs to come handy and always cover your head because the weather can be very scorching.

Take guard:

If you intend to visit the Marquise Island, take care of the tiny insects (nono) that bite mostly in Ua Pou around the natural spring bath. This sort of fly leaves in the sandy paradise beaches, waiting to bite you when you innocently rest on the beach. Apply your mosquito cream all over your body and enjoy your bath.

Ua Pou spring bath

The 7 pillars of the sky, native meaning of Ua Pou (Marquise Islands)

Polynesian tattoo

In general, the French Polynesian travel was a very interesting and an unforgettable journey. The Polynesians are peaceful people and proud of their culture and identity. We met with lovely people, learnt from the mayor as well as the professor of a small community of 400 and 1200 inhabitants respectively. He talked to us of the culture, the beliefs and the difficulties that the Polynesians undergo to import building materials and food stuffs; he said that this is due to the distance that exist between the territory and other neighbouring countries.

Easter Island:

After 3 weeks in Tahiti, we took a 5 day trip to Rapa Nui like the locals call their island. It was a 6 to 7 hours flight from Papeete on the Lan Chile air line. Arriving at the airport, it took the immigration officers a while to find out the immigration rule regarding my nationality.

When I inquired why this was so, they made me understand that I am the first black to visit the Island, they told me they have never seen a black person ever before, except on the television.

This explains the reason why I became a star in Rapa Nui. I only spent 5 days on the Island but I was a friend to almost all the locals. They invited my hubby and I to night clubs and in house parties, I hear people call my name when I walk past the streets and people want to take photo with me. It was a lovely experience.

Tongariki, the 11 Moais of Isla de Pasqua

Orongo volcano (Rapa Nui)

One error we made and wish any future traveller to any distant destination never makes, was that on arrival in Easter Island and after a quick shower, we took to the streets. Guess what, we fell sick that night and learnt our lesson. You should always make a pause after a long flight before pursuing your visit.

Passions

Every one in life has a passion. I for one, I am someone who immensely have passion for singing, dancing and travelling.

My father was a choir master in my growing days and I used to sing a lot. At six, I joined the senior choir of my church and went for all choir practices despite the fact that my church was at a 20 kilometres distance, enough to dissuade a little child. I later became a lead singer and then joined the Sunday school choir, where I was the soloist until I left the church.

During singing competitions at the National Head Quarters of my denomination, if our choir master hurts my feelings (I did not tell you dear readers that I was a stubborn child, but for positive reasons), when singing the processional hymn, I will shut my mouth up and will not sing and my sister who was the assistant soloist (she sings alto) will decide to join in, as well as the tenor singer and you can imagine what sort of a situation this can lead to.

How does my being a chorister relate to the issue of passion you may ask. There is a link because being someone who loves music, someone who has an inborn artistic features, immediately I hear the instrumentalists play, I let loose and give the best of myself to the occasion and my choir group always comes out victorious.

Same goes to the cultural and acrobatic dance group that I belonged to (Apapa Atilogu dance group). When the group is invited to occasions and as Africans who dance with passion, we liven up a so tight up corporate parties.

Every one around me believed I was going to become a professional singer or better still, carry on to becoming a professional dancer. Instead, it was my elder sister (the alto singer) who finally pursued a singing carrier.

Today, I am following up studies and I have focused my passion into leisure, cultural and educating travels (of course not necessarily study and professional travels) but to enhance my experiences through travel.

Some images of me with class mates, travel images and some cultural activities.

Lion dominating the way at the Kings Big Game Park Hlane in Swaziland

"Bombayser" discover India's cultural celebration in Lille

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Les Giants de Lille Nord-Pas-de-Calais)

at school and Ping's birthday

Wahala at the Nigeria (a.k.a naija) seme borders

I want to bring to light the difficulties travelers encounter when trying to cross the borders between Nigeria and Benin Republic (Seme border).
Do you dare to travel to the neighbouring countries to Nigeria by road, I advice you add a day to your estimated travelling schedule (that is if you finally make it through the frontier).

For those of us who are adventurous, who love travelling to discover new places, who have made some interesting travels and some in difficult conditions, can testify that this is one place that is completely out of the ordinary.
Given that Nigeria is an active member of the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS), Nigerians who wish to travel either on a business trip or on a leisure trip, once in possession of your international passport or your ECOWAS passport, you are authorised to travel. But at this border, reverse is the case.

I have taken this frontier a couple of times and I have either been obliged to consider renouncing my plans to visit Benin, even worst, I have shed tears twice due to their aggressive manners. When approaching the border, you meet series of check points, police and custom posts all with their Kalashnikov. When coming back into the country from Benin try counting the check points, they are about 22. I have never in all my travels, seen so much gun in the air like as much as you will encounter at this precise border. You only see such situations in areas where there is war or rebels in view, like in N'Djaména Tchad.

Last June when I went visiting my family and after being frustrated with the inconsistent power supply, I decided in August to take a trip to Grand Popo in Benin. To my greatest disappointment, things were still the way they were.
On your arrival, you are greeted with a row of desks without positions written on them, with men and women who are not in uniform and they all demand you make a stop in front of each and every of these desks. Some claim to be from the health, NAFDAC, and a whole lot of others that I really do not remember what the call themselves.
The most annoying part of all this is that while passing in front of all these desks, you are demanded by these so called officials of the state and the country to pay money before you are allowed to go to the next table.
When you refuse to pay because you are fed up of the situation, they threaten to throw you in jail. Even the Hausa tribe at the customs that we used to be proud of are now the ones you should beware of. They believe the country belongs to them and so they can do whatever they wish and nobody can call them to order.When you refuse to pay, they equally refuse to let you go because they do not want to loose out on their piece of the days ration. They find it difficult to believe you when you tell them that you did not pay their other colleagues because they are if I may say, all corrupt.

What worries me most is that in this their shameless act, no one is exempted, even other foreigners are subjected to these treatment. How do we imagine to be purged of the image the world have about us as regards to corruption.
My advice is not only that these people at the border comprising of the corrupt custom officers, the immigration officers, the so called NDLEA officers who after searching your car ask you to pay them to have searched your car, the health officers who do not know how to read the yellow fever card, and the touts who do work for these state officials should all be taken away and sent to centres where they should be educated on how to be true civil servants. There should equally be put in place a high standard or some particular personality requirements. This is important because we should consider the fact that this is the first port of entry into the country and if we keep having such unqualified and some of them uneducated individuals who keep denting the country's image and efforts, the country will find it difficult to advance.

After much said, I am proud to be a Nigerian and that is why I wish issues be discussed and this will help Nigerians in every part of the world to proudly talk of their country to ears who wish to listen.

Farewell Aimé Cesaire

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The world just learnt of the passing away of a VIP Aimé Cesaire, a renowned french (original of the West Indies) poet and politician.

For those of us out there who might be wondering who he is, Aimé Cesaire is one of the founding fathers of the concept "Negritude", a concept that brought to light the acceptance of the black identity and culture.
This concept came to the limelight thanks to the francophone African literary writers in the likes of the first president of Senegal , Léopold Sedar Senghor.

Aimé Cesaire has been ill for a while but was hospitalised recently. Although I doubted his chances of sailing through due to his fading health (aged 94), I still kept all hopes alive.I wept this morning when I learnt of his death publicized on one of French's national channels (France 2).

Men like him are rare in this world, men who had courage against all odds to fight for humanity and justice, to fight against the tyranny of colonialism and imperialism. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

My happiness is that he left behind him a rich legacy, teaching us to be proud of who we are. I encourage you dear blogers to read about this great mind and some of his writings.

List of some of his inspiring poems:

The atomic rock Cristal, day and night, prophecy, and night tom tom

Labels: Aimé Cesaire gone to the great beyond

Job experience search and the disappointments

Monday, April 14, 2008

Hello comrades,

Remember my job interview of last week (07-04-2008)? OK, I was supposed to wait to be called by the human resource department of the company, previewed in two weeks from the interview date. But I decided to call a week before, and as usual, It is a refusal due to "insufficient level of experience to be able to carry out any post that MIGHT be given."

Such refusals are bound to come up during ones stay in a foreign country (even in ones country of origin), especially in a country like France.
People might believe am a pessimist but the fact is that to get a job in France, even when you have a resident's permit that authorises you to work, it is practically impossible to be employed because the country does not give opportunities to people.
It is more or less impossible to find a job here (whether it be a student job or an experienced worker)and I really can not tell why.I believe that the country is not very welcoming as it claims to be.

Anyway, they say that the kind of welcome that you receive when you travel as a tourist is not the same kind of treatment you get when you finally install as a resident.

I do anyway think that the Anglo-Saxon countries give more opportunities to their settlers and are more open in matters concerning foreign and internal policies than there (mainly European) counterparts. No wonder the Anglo-Saxon countries are more attractive to international carrier seekers, and this makes them better placed to face the competitions that surround globalisation.

Student internship (job) interview

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Hello! dear readers,

Happy to be back to share more experience with you. As I promised to keep you informed of my job interview, I intend to abide by my words. I was called upon for an interview in the north west of France for an internship in the human resource department.As it often entails in the country side, regardless of the post you are applying for, you need to have a drivers licence as well as a vehicle but I happen to not be in possession of any of these documents.

The interview went well and the interviewer was very comprehensive and considerate and considered my personal working experience as professional experience.
As you all can imagine, there are also other candidates applying for the same post. Students here need to acquire professional experience while in school, in order to be competitive and easily fit into the professional world.
But the lady interviewer, a young lady of about 28 years of age promised to call me in 2 weeks time to inform me of her final decision (when she would have met with the other candidates).

I keep my fingers crossed and hope there is no other candidate better placed than I am i.e, a candidate with driving licence, a car, who have acquired more experience within the course of his or her studies, or better still, in a business school.
Here in France, a business school applicant is more priced than an applicant from the university. The reason is that the business schools are more professionally oriented (the teaching technique is centered on enterprises/companies), and the students are advised to go for internships in companies as early as their first year as an undergraduate.

To keep all chances on my side while I wait for a favorable response from the company, I have gone to register at a driving school (which cost the hell, 800 euros ). If I finally do not get the job, I will at least have my driving licence and hopefully a car .

Difficulties of student job search in europe

Friday, April 4, 2008

Since I arrived in France, I have not stopped searching for a student job or a free internship. I am yet to land myself one. It is very difficult to find a student job mostly when you do not study in the capital cities. There are not a lot of internationally oriented companies in the smaller cities, especially in a city like Lille (in the north of France, at the borders between London, Belgium and close to Amsterdam and Germany). Companies always ask for experienced/qualified candidates and I ask how much chances are giving to students who do not have the absolute possibilities to be qualified because they are busy with their paper works.

I received a call this morning for an interview scheduled for next Monday. The job is supposed to be an internship in the human resource department, in a city 3 hours away. Given the fact that I am a foreign student and do have enough holiday to spend away from the city where I live, I do not have to worry about going to work in a far away city because, I already live far away from my home land.

I will keep my dear readers informed about the out come of the interview. It is my first since I have been applying (so you can imagine how nervous I am) . Only a few companies have taken the time to contact me, while some others only reply by mail, informing that even though your candidature is very convincing, they are sorry not to offer you the job because your spoken french is not up to the standard required.

I do not get very sad because I am still in school and do know that it will not be the case when I would be through with school. But one still needs some professional experience to boost ones CV.

I promise to keep you informed.