Escape to Tahiti

Have you ever wanted to run away from home? Join the circus? Run a hot dog stand (we’ve talked about this before)? Sail away to Tahiti (you know: Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti,” going native like Gauguin, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Bali Hai“)? Of course; me too. Usually, my escapades are limited to day dreaming over a travel book. Just as one can gain a surprising amount of pleasure from drooling over the pages of a beautiful cookbook—the huge ones like you find on discount near the entrance of Borders—one can also vicariously experience the remote location of one’s desires in a good travel book.

As a kid, I remember reading Thor Heyerdahl‘s Kon Tiki: Across The Pacific By Raft (1950) and Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island (1958). At the same age, I also read multiple books about snorkeling. One in particular stuck in my mind. It was a non-fiction account of a family, with children my own age, who moved to an island in the Caribbean. It was filled with beautiful underwater photos of their snorkeling adventures.

I never made it to Easter Island. I never became a snorkeler. I never made it to the Caribbean…yet. (Although I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express!) But, I know my motivation to visit the places I did manage to visit was fueled by those early travel books. Such books still have a place in my life and I hope they do in yours too.

I was pleased to have recently made the acquaintance of an honest-to-goodness travel writer, David Stanley. Stanley, who is described as “the dean of travel writers,” writes primarily for Moon Handbooks, although he has also authored books for Lonely Planet. Just on the South Pacific region alone, he has three titles with Moon Handbooks: Moon South Pacific (Amazon link), Moon Fiji (Amazon link), and the title I want to discuss here, Moon Tahiti (Amazon link). Here are just a few of the features that attract me to this book:

• maps of entire islands and villages that are clearer than usual;
• wide ranging discussion of the cultural aspects of French Polynesia;
• constructed the way one actually uses a guidebook;
• ordered like the actual travel experience (planning, arrival, etc.);
• visually intelligible layout;
• budget options for every situation;
• an examination of each island group and island;
• historical perspectives;
• vital services and health references;
• practical technical charts;
• additional reading broken down into important categories;
• discussion of language skills;
• information on the arts;
• a discography of folk music of the area;
• good Internet links for further exploration;
• some user content (feedback provided by past readers);
• based only on un-sponsored, anonymous visits.

Those are things that are meaningful to me, the kind of things that catch my eye and make me choose one guidebook over another. But, that list, long as it is, falls short of describing all the features he provides. There is so much to recommend in this book and, I assume, other Moon Handbooks by Stanley. A lot of thought and many years of first-hand experience went into the creation and design of this book. I wish I had had as useful a book for other places I’ve visited. Be sure to visit David Stanley’s South Pacific website (http://www.southpacific.org/) for more information on that region and on other Moon Handbook titles.

Next post, we’ll continue this theme of escaping from the cares of our world by visiting the N. E. Taylor Boatworks in Cortez, Florida. There, they refurbish very large boats including ocean going sailboats capable of crossing the Pacific to Tahiti. The opening picture in today’s post is of just such a boat I photographed at the Taylor Boatworks. The flowers pictured above are plumeria (or frangipani). These, I shot at my sister’s home in Hawaii, but they are equally common in all the South Pacific islands, including Tahiti, as well as here in Florida. The following picture I took from the very southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii, looking directly toward Tahiti and our shared, pacific dreams.