Roulotte

Polynesian version of fast-food!!

I bet you can do Drive Through as well!

This is the closest you get to a McDonald in Bora Bora. I know, kind of crazy and a little bit out there, but they do not have any chain restaurants (or anything "chain" for that matter, except for the resorts).  

This is where we had dinner last night! I know, my standards is slightly lower than before, but didn't feel like cooking and Daniel got off early. Thought we could make it a try at least.

The Roulotte is like a food court at the mall, where you pick which van you want to order your food from. They do have different menus and there were three of them last night in the dirt parking lot in Vaitape. We ordered from the same to make it less complicated. The difference from the mall though, is that I doubt there are any kind of inspections of these vans (I still feel fine!). The service is at least nice and friendly, which at some places around here are not. That is another blog post!

The portion of the Chow Man that I ordered was HUGE (no wonder there are a lot of overweight people over here) and I might have eaten 1/4 of it. The rest was packed up in a doggy bag for the pregnant puppy who now spends all day on my terrace sleeping. 

At the Roulotte you can sit down at the tables, order to go, and I bet you can do a drive through as well if you don't feel like getting out of the car! I think that is Excellent!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Apple Pie

Is there anything better than home made apple pie, straight from the oven with vanilla sauce? No, there is not! However, don't use too much sugar in the pie crust! I think I was in a sugar coma for 24h!

I'm so excited as we now have an oven! Can you imagine, I have not had an oven in over 2 years! When I lived in St. Martin I had a hot plate to boil pasta on. With that said, I ate out a lot.

Now when I have an oven again I am so excited to start baking and cooking. The only problem is to find all ingredients at the grocery store... Well, I guess there is one more thing.. Me! I'm not a very good cook, at all... Never really needed to cook. That's what friends and restaurants are for, right?!!

Anyway, below is a picture of the proud pastry chef and the Apple Pie!

Anyone with any good, not too complicated, recipes (this includes products and kitchen appliances as I only have the basics), send them this way! Weather it's baking or lunch/dinner ideas! I'm definitely up for the challenge!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Earth Hour

Yesterday was the international Earth Hour. I participated! Did you???

But I was probably the only household in Bora Bora to do so!

I wish more people would have been informed about it, because I don't think the locals decided not to, it was more about "they had no idea". But on another point, not much to turn off here.

Hope you all have/had a great weekend!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

The Visitor

Today I thought a picture of my visitor would fit well here!

Our land lord has 3 dogs, 2 black labs and a pitbull mix with legs on the shorter side. The pitbull, she is smelly, itchy, and pregnant! But oh so sweet!

This morning as I drove Daniel to work, I passed their house on my way back. She looked at me in the car (and did not bark!) as I passed. When I got back home I open the window as usual in the kitchen and the terrace doors to get a nice breeze, made coffee (the instant one! I'm telling you, it's sad when the instant Nescafe is better than all other coffee on the island. Where is the Nespresso?!) and a sandwich. And then when I turned around she was standing on my terrace with her head down looking at me!

Really the sweetest dog I met in a long time! She is just so happy that someone gives her some love (yea, of course a piece of food slips down to her now and then, and YES, hand washing is done like 20 times!) and then she lays down close to you and sleep! Then, when she got her power nap in, she walks off to patrol her domain.

She really need a bath though! She stinks! And I wonder when she will have her puppies... I know absolutely nothing about these kind of things. I really hope she decides to have them at home and not nearby my house!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Housing Options

Finally! A picture of my house, with the terrace (yea, the gardner has failed to show up in a while...). There are 5 similar houses up here on this pice of land. One was unfortunately damaged by the hurricane (the roof literally blew off) so no one lives there of course.

And below is a view of the lagoon from the house. Please note the construction site... A new house is about to be built.  Not too happy with it, but they seem to work once in a while (when they feel like it) so it could take a while before the new house is up. This is actually how far they have come since mid February!
In the back we have a view of the mountain top.

So, I like my house and I think we were lucky when we were house hunting. As I have described before, it a 2 bedroom house with big kitchen and living-room, which is kind of divided with a bar-desk-kind-of-counter. I will work on those pictures! And then of course the terrace where we spend all our evenings. The sun sets to the right of the Motu (small island) on the picture above which we have a nice view of from the terrace. It's beautiful!

Now, most of the locals live slightly different. If you look at the picture below, my first though was "it's a shed". But then I realized someone actually was living there. Please note the blue tarp which is wrapped around the "terrace" part in front of the house... (I know, small picture, but I hope you can still see). This house is located on the other side of the fence which separates the two areas.

Then to another house, which is located just as you reach the bottom of the hill. It is constructed by various pieces of sheet metal for roofing! I am not an expert, but I don't think A/C is necessary here as there are plenty of air ventilation holes all around.

Please note the stick in front of the bike, which holds up the door, and also the crocked door to the right!

This is how many people live here in this island, or something very similar. But I don't think they are poor (well, I guess they are not rich either, but it's not like they can't afford eating). I believe the locals are very materialistic though. It's not about the house they are living in, it's more about the big truck, the big flat screen TV, (the beer) and so on. And I think they are happy with what they got (Hmm.... something to think about...). 

Also, several family members (and generations) seem to live together. I guess you kind of have to when only one one or two people work per household (now, question is -are they too lazy to get a job?, -can they get a job?, -do they want to get a job?). So, unless the family needs to buy that big monster truck, or the new, even bigger flat screen, only enough people seem to work to make sure there is food on the table.

This island is very much behind the rest of the world in many ways. I am still astonished on how they live here, but they seem to enjoy their life, which you can see (and hear) through their music and songs.

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Laundry Gambling

I have my own washing machine now and are quite excited about it! The
only thing I miss is a dryer. For years now I have been drying all my
clothes and they come out nice, fluffy and soft.

The thing is that my machine takes 2 hours to finnish (60 degrees, 2
big towels, 3 small and a couple of socks!). So, you have to get the
load going early in the morning to make sure it will dry (towels seems
to take forever to dry when you hang them up here).

The other thing is that when you turn on that machine in the morning,
the weather might be good, but 2 hours later there might be rain
clouds rolling in behind the mountain top, like they are waiting
behind there until I get the laundry up on the line, and then decides
it's going to be a crap day! And the towels will never dry!

It's a big gamble when you decide it's time to do laundry here,
especially during rainseason!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla
Sent from my iTouch

Pig feet anyone?

Yesterday the neighbor killed a pig! Yea, I know! A pig! In their back
yard! I am not going in to details on this one, but luckily i cant see
in to their yard from the house. Let's just say it was in a more
"rustic" way. And then they played their ukuleles and sang all night.
Celebrating the pig feast?? I don't know, but what I do know is that
they must have been tired today as I didn't hear them until this
afternoon. And now the celebration continues with song, music, the
sound of beers being opened, a "iiiih haaa" here and "hawh haawh" there.

I think it's time to turn up the Bose speker!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Sent from my iTouch

The strays

The other day we got up early as usual to head down to Vaitape and I even started a load of laundry before it was time to get in the car. Well, unfortunately the car had a flat tire. But of course! Especially as I repeatedly asked Daniel to fill it up with more air and finally got it done the day before. So for me, it was just to go back in to the house and have an early breakfast, and for Daniel, it was to pick up a big stick (for protection against the dog pact at the bottom of the hill) and start walking.

Those dogs are crazy. I have teeth marks in the front and the back of the car (on the plastic parts) and claw scratches on the side of the doors. If the gate is open at the bottom I speed by like a crazy person. Damn dogs. And what are the owners doing?? Absolutely nothing. Every dog owner (which would be every local) has at least 2-3 dogs. But all the dogs are more like stray dogs, all having their own territory to watch and they will attack if you pass.

What really annoys me is the owners who really don't give a crap. And sometimes I feel bad for the dogs. They are scabby and skinny. And then there is me who would love a little puppy as company! I have always been lucky, living with room mates with dogs! Then you can take care of them but you don't have the full responsibility of being a dog owner. Oh well, that day might come too one day!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

Back on track

Monday came very fast... The weekend was very relaxing and nice! First on Saturday we bought a TV and DVD from a guy who is leaving the island. We were SO excited! The new flat-screen looks very nice in the corner! Of course we went down to the video store to rent a couple of movies, although, I guess we are way behind the rest of the world in the selection. However, they did have the first movie in the trilogy Millenium based on the books by the Swedish author Stieg Larsson. I was impressed! Now I only hope the store gets the other two as well. 

I'm glad there is a DVD store here, as I only have 2 channels on my TV. And they are both local channels... French Polynesian. But the selection of channels are not that great anyway, if we decide to go with satellite. Most of them are in French anyway, and I have not come much further in my "speaking-French" attempt yet. I was going to start my Rosetta stone CD, but then the computer crashed (I know... bullshit, bullshit... I always find an excuse!) 

The car got an through cleaning and it shines like never before. Well, until we drove down to Vaitape and it was all dusty again. But it sure did look nice!

I'm really getting settled at the house and I have managed to get most of the basic things needed (like the TV, internet, basic kitchen "stuff", etc.). Now I only need a mirror. I have only one mirror in the house, and it's the one in the bathroom. But the problem is that it sits too high, and I have to stand on my tip toes to be able to see anything (well, the top of my face). The real big problem is when I get dressed... I have no idea how I look like. I mean, talk about potential damage! I think all women agree. A mirror is a must! We all know that something might look like it goes together (skirt with a top) but then you put it on it looks like a disaster. Well, I will have no idea when I leave the house! But it is absolutely impossible to find one around here. I saw a small one in the Bora Home store, but it cost like a million bucks (slightly over exaggerating there!). But I guess I have to stay put for now...

Anyway, cheers my friends!

Camilla

Connected

After waiting, waiting, waiting and a smaller breakdown I finally got internet at home, and it's working! Faster than at the hotel as well! Can't ask for more! I can now finally connect with the world when ever I want! Such a relief !

After a week of constant monsoon rain I have finally seen the sun! It's very nice up here by the house as we (almost) always have a nice breeze, and doors and windows are constantly open, until an hour before sunset. That's when all the mosquitos and the sun flies come out and eat you alive. With all the rain we had this past week they went crazy, but I hope it gets dryer and that they disappear soon. I can't stop itching.

Hope you all are doing well where ever you guys are!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla

At the end of the World

Wow, way too long ago I updated here... But I have good excuses. No, really, I do!

To do a little recap of what has been going on in Bora Bora, at the end of the world...

We FINALLY moved to the house and the first week was mostly cleaning (not that it was very dirty, but still) and trying to get settled. I chased several geckos that had moved in to the house while it was empty and I think I got most of them out. They are much smarter than you might think... I chased one out the front door (underneath the door) and then went out on my terrace to relax. After a few moments (we have a "wrap around" terrace from the front door to the terrace) the little creature came running around the corner to try to get in through the terrace door. When he saw me (and I saw him) he stopped and looked at me and like he was saying "SHIT", turned around and ran down towards the front door... I don't think so, so I ran in and guarded the door with the broom!

We also FINALLY got some wheels to take us up and down the hill and around the island. I think it is, no let me rephrase, it is the ugliest car I have ever had! But it is kind of charming at the same time. It's blue, it runs and it takes us from A to B which is a great improvement! See below (Renault Twingo, 2001)

It was my birthday this past weekend and on Saturday we went to Pearl Beach Resort for 1 night. When we arrived there we found out that there had been a Tsunami warning the same morning at 5 am through out the island (big alarm, although we heard nothing!). The sun actually came out so we went swimming before lunch, and then we took a round of mini golf (which I won!!) and then we went snorkeling in the coral nursery and saw many pretty fishes. They are so used to people there so they come right up and are not afraid at all.. They even take a little nibble at you to check out who you are.

After that we took a dip in the jacuzzi at the room and then chilled in the room in front of the TV! So exciting, as we don't have TV (yet) at the house! My channel is CNN! Only English speaking channel (except the movie channel when they show an English movie). Then we had dinner at the restaurant, and it was kind of funny... We were the last ones there, we finished at 9:30pm and by that time it seemed like all the restaurant staff had gone home!

So, we finally got the phone line at home (and I have a cell phone too!), it only took over 2 weeks to get, and it works! Now we are waiting for internet (will probably take at least another week) so I can be connected to the world again. And we are really at the end of the world here... The internet connection is not like anywhere else in the world (fast!) and we are still on the old system... The new cable from Hawaii (I guess that would be broad band. I don't know the right terminology in this area) should arrive this summer. But seriously.... It's 2010! When we picked the internet package we had to choose what speed we wanted and how much down loads we wanted! And it cost a fortune too...

And of course my computer crashed! It has been acting up for the last 10 months (on and off) and I was really good at talking my self out of buying a new computer while I was in St. Martin (remember, St. Martin is duty free, so cheaper!). I thought, "It's not that bad..." Well, guess what.. It was... And now I'm not even sure I will find one around here... I can just imagine what kind of laptops they have here.. "New arrival.. Laptop from 1989!" Great!

Rain season is in full action and I have a new waterfall behind the house in the mountain!  It shoots out from the mountain side, and it's very nice! As long as it does not come close to the house, I'm happy!

Anyway, it's a quick update on the island life here at the end of the world! Hopefully I should be re-connected with the rest of the world soon!

Cheers my friends!

Camilla