Expat Living Singapore magazine
May 6, 2008
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Most of us feel entitled to periodic breaks from the everyday grind and the girls-only getaway is a popular form of escape, especially in Singapore where domestic help is on hand to cover for us.
There are few things that get me as excited as the prospect of spending quality time with my two best pals from college. Even more so now that we all live so far away from each other, togetherness is gold. We never tire of rehashing stories about old boyfriends, new diets and the personal baggage we’ve carried around for years. As we travel the road of life, periodic bonding sessions smooth the ride.
In the spirit of meeting in the middle, my two friends and I settled on French Polynesia for a recent reunion. One of the most remote holiday spots in the world, roughly half way between Australia and California, my journey took 16 hours from Singapore via Sydney to Papeete, Tahiti. My pals from America had shorter flights.
Our home for 10 days was the 170-passenger Star Flyer, a lovely replica of a 19th-century clipper ship. Though this one was built in 1991 with modern creature comforts like carpeted cabins with televisions and private bathrooms, the four-masted ship’s full sails, rigging and teak decks set the scene for a pretty authentic sailing experience. When conditions are right, the Star Flyer shuts off its engines and moves under sail power alone. We spent nearly every evening watching the sun set from the top deck with the wind in our hair and the bow sprit bucking in the surf.
The Star Flyer was the perfect setting for three gals who have done their fair share of off-beat travel and who prefer snorkeling and hiking to shopping trips and five-star hotels.
The itinerary included stops at two of French Polynesia’s five island groups, the Tuamotu and Society islands. A vast area stretching across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean, most of French Polynesia’s 118 islands and atolls are what’s left of extinct volcanoes. Many islands are surrounded by gorgeous lagoons, palm-fringed motus (islets) and barrier reefs teeming with underwater sea life.
From one port to the next, we were continually awed by the stunning color of the teal-green lagoons. The best snorkeling was near the island of Tahaa. We signed up for the “Coral Garden Snorkel Drift” and were taken via speed boat to a site near a remote motu. In single file, our small group glided atop the clear water, looking down at the spectacular scene. Fuchsia sea anemones exposed their noodle-y appendages and ridged clam shells seem to smile with bright purple and green lips. I marveled at the electric colors of the Checkerboard Wrasse fish.
Another highlight was the barbecue lunch the crew prepared on another idyllic motu near Tahaa. After snorkeling a few feet offshore and checking out the long spined sea urchins hiding in the craggy coral, we nibbled on seafood kebabs and sipped Hinano beers as a troupe of traditional Polynesia dancers in grass skirts and coconut shell bras shook their lower halves in impossible ways as a chorus of ukuleles urged them on.
In Bora Bora, we signed up for the “Shark and Ray Feeding” snorkeling tour. Our speed boat sliced through the azure lagoon towards the reef as we admired the twin peaks of Bora Bora behind us (unfortunately, our guides didn’t think anything of throwing the anchor overboard into the coral instead of using a mooring buoy). Our small group followed the two hunky guides, each with fistfuls of chum, into the sea. Soon surrounded by stingrays, we giggled and shrieked and latched on to each other like school girls as the creatures rubbed up against us. At the next spot, we snorkeled near a group of black-tipped lagoon sharks (the Star Flyer’s many optional dive trips led to plenty of shark sightings). The excursion ended at a quiet beach where the pastel sea was as warm as bath water and the sand powdery soft. The guides scaled trees, gathered coconuts and hacked them open to share the delicious white meat inside.
PULL QUOTE>>> Exploring the gorgeous teal-green lagoons and palm-tree fringed islands of French Polynesia from the decks of a tall ship was a fairytale setting for our girls-only reunion and an ideal platform for self expression. Rachael was our group’s astronomer, pointing out the Big Dipper and Milky Way one sublime night on deck when the sky was a star dusted sea of inky blackness. Daring Chrissy was the entertainer, turning heads with her wild get-up on pirate night, and I was the pied piper of Happy Hour. Mai tai anyone? <<
In the hopes of teaching us all something about where we were going, Cruise Director Frederic, a tall charming Belgian with sun-streaked hair, lectured in English, German and French from the open decks about French Polynesia’s geography, history and culture. He also handled evening entertainment, which ranged from campy crew and passenger talent and fashion shows to silly games like the Miss Bora Bora contest that had everyone in stitches. Another after-dinner highlight was the 1935-version of the film Mutiny on the Bounty shown on deck.
A big part of the Star Flyer’s appeal is the accessibility and friendliness of the crew. The captain and his staff welcome questions and expect them, and passengers are periodically invited to climb the masts and help heave the lines. We enjoyed harmless flirtations with Frederic and jokes with the poker-faced Vitaliy, a navigation officer form the Ukraine. The three young Swedish water sports assistants were popular, not just for their boy-band looks, but for their helpful attitude; they showed no impatience with three 40-somethings who couldn’t water ski as well as they remembered.
The open-air Tropical bar on deck is the ship’s social hub. We were definitely among the youngest passengers on board by a couple of decades, but no matter, it was a young-at-heart, outdoorsy crowd who enjoyed mingling over mai tais and sharing stories of shark sightings and dolphin encounters.
When some down time was called for, we hibernated in our cozy little cabin. I claimed the bunk that folded down from the ceiling, while my two friends took the pair of beds below. The nautical décor was cute --- navy blue carpeting with golden knots --- and the storage space was adequate for our girly dresses, rumbled gym clothes and wrinkled linen.
We didn’t mind the tight quarters one bit, togetherness was the whole point. We’re counting on steering into the same port sometime soon again.
QUICK FACTS SIDEBAR
• The Star Flyer sails in French Polynesia all year around doing 7-, 10- and 11-night itineraries round-trip from Papeete, Tahiti. Ports include some combination of Fakarava and Rangiora, in the Tuamotu Islands, and Bora Bora, Tahaa or Raitea, Huahine and Moorea, in the Society Islands. Fares start as low as $183 EUROS per person for a 7-night cruise, including all meals and water sports (except diving).
• The rainy season in French Polynesia is November through April; on our March 6 sailing, we had only one rainy day.
• Lagoons surround islands (which are the tips of ancient underwater volcanoes) and are contained by barrier reefs, which are created from the accumulations of coral atop the submerged slopes of the volcano just off shore.
• As the barrier reef continues to grow upwards, clumps of coral form tiny islets called motus.
• Atolls are the final stage of an extinct volcano’s devolution, when the peak is completely submerged and only the barrier reef and motus remain behind.
• For more information, visit www.Starclippers.com.
