European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse The passion and Promise of the ultimate tropical Island Byke Kringle Washington Post it remains the quintessential tropical Island rising like a Green Cloud wreathed Mirage above the Tumble from the Sharp ridges above its verdant High sided valleys. Orchids Hibiscus and Jacaranda overhang its pathways As Well As Tiare the slender leafed polynesian Gardenia tahitians claim As their own. And along a Shore of Coral and Boulder and wave washed Sand Palm Trees sift the Trade winds with Sun silvered fingers. So Lush and fragrant is the Island that sailors swear they can scent it Days before they see it. For a Hundred Miles around Tahiti they insist the Pacific Breeze blows redolent with Coconut and Gardenia. Tahiti embraces you years before you Ever arrive tugging at myth and memory and teasing you with Promise. Somewhere above the great Plains in route to the South Pacific i found myself seated next to a quiet bespectacled Man in his sixties named Joseph Becker a consultant on the computerization of libraries. He was getting off at los Angeles and Learned of my destination with interest. I be always dreamed of running away to Tahiti he said softly staring into the distance. I picture myself Teumer Pater miss Tahiti 1989, Clad in an intricate tahitian costume and headdress. Dressed in cutoffs playing piano in some bar with a cigarette hanging out of my Mouth. Sort of like Hoagy Carmichael. Now i Don t play piano and i Don t Wear cutoffs. In fact i Don t even smoke. But that s always been my i thought of Becker often in Tahiti for fantasy and reality play tag there like High spirited children. No land anywhere remains More freighted with expectation and illusion. The lonely seek love there the old seek youth. The heartsick fugitives from the video game craziness of the late 20th Century come in quest of a simpler life. Nearly 21/2 centuries after British and French explorers Samuel Wallis and Louis Antoine de Bougainville stumbled into what they proclaimed a new Eden Tahiti remains the synonym for tropical escape from life or civilization gone awry. Herman Melville explained the phenomenon Best for As this appalling Ocean surrounds the verdant land so in the soul of Man there lies one insular Tahiti full of peace and Joy but ringed round with All the horrors of the half known that quotation can prove a Handy vaccine for disillusionment in polynesia for whatever Tahiti each of us carries in his soul it s probably not quite the one now lying some 2,500 Miles South of Hawaii. The City of Papeete for example is More expensive than Tokyo and in some aspects nearly As Chic As Paris. Scooters and motorcycles snarl among the bougainvillea and breadfruit suburban development notches the hillsides above Point Venus and a sewage treatment Plant squats in Tipper i Valley. Computers Are gnawing away at Paradise these Days not to mention lawyers. But there Are also telephones that work and flawless French cuisine. And just 800 Miles to the Southeast on muru Roa atoll for no purpose that anyone can adequately explain the French government continues testing atomic weapons. A visit to Tahiti then is not exactly an escape from the modern world. It May Well however be a lesson in living with it. For when your Jet screams out of the 3 . Sky after the nine hour flight from los Angeles you Are greeted despite the hour with softness Flowers and song. A tahitian Valine with a smile like a Caress tucks a welcoming Tiare Blossom behind your Jet lagged ear murmuring softly do Cement do Cement. Do Cement should be somewhere on Tahiti s coat of arms. Appropriately inexact in translation softly sweetly gently the word embodies for a Button Down world the caressing ambiguity of polynesia. Tahiti for example has a Way of serving up your fantasies in unexpected Guise. If tahitian Maidens no longer swim out to Greet your ship they still flirt with unashamed mischief and timeless allure from every airline counter and car rental Booth. If the muscular warriors who so endeared themselves to capt. Cook labor today As construction workers and businessmen their paddle propelled outrigger canoes still race the Island s lagoons a heart straining six hour sprint around Moorea remains the conditioning exercise of Choice. And if a microwave Tower today crowns the Summit of mount Nauru wild strawberries Reward those who Brave the Mountain s slopes and waterfalls still crystalline and drinkable Cool the Fern shaded Glades As they did for Herman Melville and Paul Gauguin. Tahiti welcomes the modern world As it did the first Western sailors with open arms. But it never loses its essence in the giving. Even when they do it for Money they really do it for love wrote Gauguin of tahitians. He had in mind a somewhat narrower context but the larger truth endures embracing not Only the people but the Island and in fact All of polynesia. The Rustle of the pan Dana branches the murmur of the surf on the reef the whisper of the Trade winds through the Flower strewn valleys All plead the same tender caution Tahiti s enduring identity has been that of the Arcadian Isle to which the world weary might escape. It lured Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers Melville and his american whaling colleagues. It lured Gauguin with his Canvas and Rupert Brooke with his pen. It lured Marlon Brando to such an extent that he bought the nearby atoll of Teti Aroa and lives there today. And it lures the Aloha shirted tourists that de plane at Faaa Airport these Days in route to the cruise ship liberte for a love boat tour of polynesia Complete with air conditioning and color to. Tahiti As Eden has become to Many travel agents Tahiti As Eden esque backdrop. It has very Little to do with tahitians. Flower bedecked dancers swaying to polynesian rhythms Are a part of the gentle tahitian lifestyle. File photo yet the tahitians themselves remain the Best thing about Tahiti. As Beautiful As their Island is As seductive As its lagoons As breathtaking As its Green volcanic peaks As magical its food and As soft and fragrant its nights it is the tahitians themselves who orchestrate the Island s enchantment. Part of the Appeal of these people of course is their startling physical Beauty which has overwhelmed visitors since Tahiti s discovery. In the Island of Ota Heite where love is the chief occupation wrote sir Joseph Banks the gentleman botanist who accompanied capt. Cook on his 1769 exploration both the bodies and limbs of the women Are modelled into the utmost perfection for that soft that is still stunningly True. But there is also As Gauguin wrote something virile in the women and something feminine in the men born of the sensuous athletic Island life which Breeds a kind of beatific serenity. Although today s tahitians Wear jeans and dresses As often As the Sarong like Island pared both sexes still Wear Flowers As naturally As they breathe. Emerging from my Bungalow in the morning i watched girls on their Way to school old women raking the Garden and business women in route to their offices pausing to browse a Bush for just the right Blossom. The attachment to Flowers is so deeply rooted that tahitians Don them unconsciously and appear puzzled when visitors find the practice remarkable. What intrigued me about tahitians was their ability to give what i can Only term conditional while professional enough in their jobs they never As Gauguin said lost themselves in the i was to find this characteristic everywhere in Tahiti where professional relationships Are always less important than personal ones. Establishing a personal relationship takes Only the smallest of gestures a Guidebook phrase of polynesian a few words of French a question about family and then the same eager hospitality that greeted Wallis and Cook takes Over and no tahitian can do enough for Yog. But you can t buy that with Money and tahitians want you to know that. Tipping for example is not Only not customary in Tahiti i discovered it is almost an insult. If a tahitian feels his individual dignity thus compromised or his seemingly endless tahitian patience exhausted by a Job or a task or a situation he May pronounce two celebrated words some Call the unofficial motto of the society islands j Ai flu this Means something like i be had it Only with profound cultural implications. The Fiu Haver May then simply walk away from the offending situation and go contemplate the sea for a week or a year until he feels his self Worth once again intact. For a better window into the tahitian population i boarded be truck which must rank among the cheapest most efficient and most engaging systems of Public transportation on Earth. Every few minutes on the single Road that rings Tahiti s main Island this special conveyance lumbers by another signal example of tahitian adaptation to the modern world. Les trucks Bear gaily painted bus bodies of plywood and Stop for anyone beside the Road. Inbound to Papeete i shared the spotless Interior with a cheerful truckload of Mammoth tahitian mamas with babies grandmothers hauling goods to Market and even chickens and the occasional pig. The owner Driver took great Pride in his stereo system which throbbed with the seductive insistent guitars of tahitian music echoing of love and the sweetness of life. Thus serenaded we Rol de through the snarling two Lane traffic past single motor scooters bearing entire families beneath the balconies buildings and beside a winged cafes to the bustling tree shaded waterfront of Papeete Harbor. Guidebooks had prepared me to shrug off Papeete which they invariably describe As an overpriced sinkhole of Urban blight an unfortunately necessary Gateway to the Sweet serenity of simpler tahitian life beyond. The authors must be jaded indeed. Arguably More French than tahitian the Little City bears the tidy provincial Charm of wide tree shaded boulevards crossed by narrow Balcony Hung streets Small Parks and statues and a sparkling Harbor. Rich in those Hallmarks of civilization bookstores and restaurants it remains As Well a key mid Pacific trading Point where Small warehouses Bustle with front end fishing in the Clear shallow lagoons has changed Little since the first europeans came to Tahiti. File photo loaders and shipwrights Hammer the hulls of dry docked inter Island freighters. We trundled past thatch roofed bus stops through narrow streets to the marvelous bedlam of Papeete s Central Market where routes Les trucks terminate. There As the Happy babble of vendors echoed beneath the High tin roof we poked among colourful heaps of Taro and manioc Rainbow strings of Parrot fish Scarlet baskets of peppers huge White radishes and Leaf wrapped baggies of Home made Poe pronounced Poythre Taro tapioca of French polynesia. Appetite awakened by a bite of fresh from the oven Coconut bread it was then but a Short stroll to the Orange and Black awnings and Blue checked tablecloths of the bar restaurant Cajou. There in the Plant shaded breezeway off Boulevard Pomare we lunched grandly on Poisson Cru the Coconut Flavoured Cevich of French polynesia Trevette a Poivre peppered shrimp with Cream and Brandy sauce and Poe papaya ave Coco All washed Down with Tahiti s excellent Hinano Beer. The priorities of tahitian life Are Well ordered but like most things tahitian Seldom exactly what they seem. Driving around the Island for example we remarked on the uncommon length and narrowness of the Roadside mailboxes at every House. Then we Learned they were not for the mail but for French bread. You go to the Post office for your mail. The bread is delivered. And being French bread it is of course made by chinese Bakers. Such anomalies lie close to the very soul of Tahiti. Gauguin for one was fascinated by the elemental polynesian concepts of to the real world and to the unreal spiritual or fantasy world which dance together in the tahitian consciousness like Sun and Shadow in the oleanders. After a while they affect the visitor As Well. One can Only spend so much time beneath the Palm Trees next to topless goddesses rubbing themselves with Coconut Oil before reality begins to blur. Thus one typically flawless morning i rented a Small citroen with a Friend and drove North from Papeete in search of the deeper truths of polynesia. It was an easy and pleasant Day s drive around Tahiti Nui the larger portion of the Island s figure eight shaped land mass. The Road winds beside the water under Green Cliffs and through tidy Flower decked villages of colourful tin roofed houses and playing children. We followed turnoff to such glories As the Clifftop Overlook above Wallis Anchorage in Matavai Bay and the Tomb of Tahiti s tipping King Pomare a sentimentally topped with a Brandy bottle. On the Windward Side the Road skirts sunny,.breeze-whipped coves where mini rainbows dance in the Spray above reefs perpetually pounded by Waves arriving uninterrupted All the Way from Chile. Inland the Green volcanic slopes mount precipitously toward Cloud shrouded peaks. Intent on climbing one of those peaks for a look into Tahiti s Savage and largely unapproachable Interior we found a newly published hiking guide with detailed instructions for the Trail up mount Macau which we Learned was not to be confused with mount Nauru or mount Rau Aru. The trip became a typically tahitian adventure in to and to. Few tahitian roads have any signs or numbers except the main Road around the Island which does t need on and no Road we attempted matched the description in the hiking guide of the route to the Railhead. Finally we sought directions from a Bare chested tahitian Telephone lineman with a body to shame Stallone. No problem he said. We must simply descend the route de Colline and take the Road to St. Hillaire which everyone knows. But the hiking guide does t mention St. Hillaire i said. Where is it on the map mais he said As if everyone knew this too be n est Pas Insique not indicated. He cheered us on reawakened to the concept that much is never indicated on the map of life. We found the Road to St. Hillaire though we never did identify St Hillaire itself and soon found ourselves snaking upward on a dirt Road looking out on a Brilliant opalescent sea and the jagged Beauty of Moorea crowned with Clouds. That was the to. The to turned out to be a sanitary Landfill where the Road appeared to dead end. But then the dead end turned out to be to also for just beyond it at the Edge of a drop off to churn the stomach a Road or some sort of rutted potholed track led up at a 45-degree Angle. We decided to keep driving As Long As we could. Grateful for front wheel drive we gunned the Little car upward its wheels scattering Brick sized stones and bouncing Over potholes. The ruts got deeper. The Road got steeper. Finally we topped a Rise in a Cloud of dust and found ourselves winding Down around a Ridge. To our right the slope fell vertically 200 feet to Jacaranda blossoms blazing in a Jungle of Green. Suddenly we found ourselves dead ending at a Green seam in the a Mountain where a Small chinese Man was farming exquisite giant cabbages on a 60-degree slope with necessarily meticulous care. I leaned out of the car. Nous Cher hons. " we re looking for., i began. Macau he said with a Large Grin. La Bas Down there sure enough the Road continued Down. Across a skeletal Plank Bridge through a Green Tunnel of Trees and then up again and then it unexplained Day turned into a Superb Road of one Lane Macadam winding through a kind of Highland Meadow. We were close to 2,000 feet up now and in the rear View Mirror the Lagoon glowed distantly like something seen from a plane. We drove through wisps of Cloud stopped to pick wild strawberries in a Glen of stunted wind twisted Trees ferns and elephant eared plants. Then the pavement ended and we were snaking up a narrowing Ridge. We could see the microwave Tower atop the Mountain. Finally we stopped and walked across a Small Concrete Bridge. The Tower stood some 4,500 feet above sea level at the Apex of Sharp ridges falling almost vertically to the Valley far below. On one Side of the Ridge we could see a vast Green Valley with a River like a thread of Silver winding sunlit to the sea. On the other Side we could see nothing. The Trade winds were funnelling moist sea air steadily up the Steep Mountainside where it was condensing into a solid vertically moving Clou Bank. We never found out what it hid but through it came the sound of a Waterfall. I thrust my head out into the fog and inhaled. It was Rich with Coconut and Gardenia. Page 14 the stars and stripes sunday february 19,1989 the stars and stripes Page 15
