Tahitian Sunset

Needless to say, Tahiti is gorgeous. Our hotel is on a beautiful and impossibly soft black sand beach. The weather is perfect. The sunsets over the neighboring island of Moorea are breath-taking.

In an effort to make anyone who reads this a little less jealous, I will console you with the tales of exactly how expensive Tahiti is; the answer is, mind-bogglingly expensive. With the exception of New Zealand, Charlie and I have been visiting countries in order of increasing cost, as follows: India (dirt cheep); Cambodia (really cheap); Laos (pretty darn cheap); Thailand (rather cheap); New Zealand (kind of cheap); Australia (surprisingly uncheap); and Tahiti (OMG! That costs how much?!). I would like to blame it all on the French. Because any country that has been invaded by French people is basing its pricing nowadays on the Euro which makes the prices hard to bear when all I have is US dollars.

But the truth is that it is really all the fault of George Bush. What with two wars going on and the banking crisis leading to astronomical debt, the dollar is just shit. So there is another thing I have against that evil little man. It is all his fault that renting an Economy-sized car in Tahiti costs at least $125 a day and a basic hamburger for lunch runs about $27.

However, it is not only a problem for Americans. On numerous occasions and without prompting, local Tahitians bitterly complained about how expensive things like food, gas and clothing are for them. Apparently, everything is taxed highly in order to ensure that all the unemployed Tahitians get good benefits, employed Tahitians enjoy a decent standard of living, and all Tahitians get great healthcare. As one of our taxi drivers said - people in Tahiti enjoy the same social welfare and benefits enjoyed by people in French, plus they get to live in Tahiti. Where do I sign up?