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I brought my family
to French Polynesia in South Pacific for
our Spring Break vacation last week. I see the overwater bungalows
picture on the cover of Costco travel magazine every time I go to Costco.
I told myself I will go there one day and I finally did it last week.
We left Los Angeles for Tahiti on Wednesday night
April 8th. It was a smooth flight. We arrived at Papeete International
Airport on the island of Tahiti
early Thursday morning. Since we could not check in our hotel room until
afternoon, we took the public bus to explore Papeete downtown in the morning. I
could have taken the taxi but I wanted my kids to experience public bus
riding with the locals and seeing the local daily lifestyle on our way to
Papeete.
On the record, Papeete is the only city in the whole French Polynesia with a population of approximately
150,000. Papeete is neither modern nor
busy as Waikiki on the island of
Oahu in Hawaii. It is more like the town of Hilo on the Big Island.
We first checked the Market Place. Since this is French
Polynesia, it is not surprised to see a lot of baguettes
sold there. Besides the regular baguette sandwich we see in California, I saw
some Chinese owned sandwich shops sold baguette sandwich stuffed with
chow mein. We also saw Mãng Cầu but it was not ready to eat so we
did not buy it. I was told food is very expensive in French
Polynesia with up to $10 USD bottled water and $30 USD
sandwich. Maybe it is the price at the hotel, airport or at the tourist
places but not at Papeete
downtown. We got cold bottled water in Papeete for about $2.50 USD. A baguette
sandwich is about $3.00 to $4.00 USD. A McDonald value meal is a bit more
expensive ranging from $10 to $12 USD each depending on what we order. We
got a surprise buying plain baguette in Papeete. It is about $0.60 USD each.
The baguette there is bigger and longer compared to the one we have in Los Angeles. The
locals were nice to us. They showed us where to get off the bus and what
bus we should take to get back to our hotel.
During our second
day in Tahiti, we stayed and enjoyed the
facilities in our resort. Our kids had fun swimming in the pool and got
themselves ready for our next destination of Bora Bora.
On our last night at Tahiti, we watched
an excellent show in our resort performed near the swimming pool area.
Bora Bora is another
island of French
Polynesia 45-minute flight from Tahiti.
Bora Bora is a small island surrounded by
numerous motus. A motu is a small piece of land surrounded by coral. Bora Bora airport is built on a motu named Motu
Mute. Because of this unique characteristic, every resort has its own
“water shuttle” to transfer guests from and to the airport.
We chose to stay at
Four Seasons Resort situated on Motu Ome 20 minutes from the airport via
water shuttle. Our room was the overwater bungalow in the resort. We
literally lived above water and could jump right in the shallow lagoon
from our deck.
This is a five-star,
family oriented resort with lots of facilities available for guests. All
the water sports are included in the package except jet skiing. We took
advantage of the facilities in the resort to relax, snorkel, swim and
kayak. The water in the lagoon is literally warm on the surface and is
pleasantly cool below the surface which makes it ideal for snorkeling and
swimming. We did not even need to bring our snorkeling gears. They are
all provided. Due to the shallowness of the lagoon, we felt pretty comfortable
kayaking in the “open sea”. Cold
bottled water is available everywhere. Fresh apples are provided in the
exercise room. The spa is adjacent to the exercise room so we can use the
Jacuzzi and shower after our workout. The resort has pool, ping pong and
soccer table in Teen
Island area.
Internet is also available. We could play beach volley ball but we chose
to play tennis instead. It was an artificial grass tennis court. We had a
feeling of playing Wimbledon Tennis for
a while. Our package includes breakfast buffet. The buffet did not have
my favorite MC fruit Mãng Cầu but it had my second favorite MC
fruit Măng Cụt. Needless to say, I ate all the Măng Cụt
I could handle.
One draw back of
this trip was my son felt ill after we arrived at Bora
Bora. He could not enjoy what we did. We took turn staying
with him in the bungalow with me doing most of the babysitting. When my
son did not get well after taking Children Tylenol for 2 days, I had to
call doctor service for him. It was a pricey call of $300 USD for the
doctor check up. Before calling doctor service, I asked myself this
question: What is more valuable? My son’s health, my peace of mind and a
happy vacation or $300 USD? The
choice was obvious. After taking the medicine given by the doctor, my son
felt better but by the time he felt well enough to enjoy the vacation, it
was time to go home. On our last day of the vacation, we managed to bring
him to Teen
Island to enjoy the
pool table, soccer table, and some kayaking. During my son’s illness, I
credit my option trading philosophy for my calm and clear decision making
to help me live through probably the longest 6 days of my life in Bora Bora.
This Spring Break
Vacation happened on the 3rd week of the month which is
usually the most important week of my business. Before I left for my
vacation, I rolled over my spread positions to May to avoid any surprise
on option expiration day of April 17th. I left only covered calls and one
inexpensive naked put position when I was on this vacation. Since I am an
option seller, time is working over time for me during the last week of
option expiration. The market was nice to me when I was away. I have both
the market and time working in my favor which makes this vacation even
sweeter.
Dennis
Phan 潘家墉
Khai Minh, UCLA, and Investools
Alumni
Los Angeles, California,
U.S.A., 18 April 2009
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