Travel journal: Dec 8 - 25, 2010

     As we disembarked from our cruise ship in Raiatea, a comely vahine offered each of us a beautiful white flower, the Tahitian tiare, which is the national flower of French Polynesia.  Many put the flower behind their right ear. This would signify in Tahiti that the wearer is single, available, and looking. But if you are with your significant other, it is probably safer to put the flower behind your left ear, showing you are married, engaged, or otherwise shackled and taken.

    However, when you feel like throwing caution to the winds, you put flowers behind each ear, showing the world you are taken but still very much available. Or you can put the flower in your pocket, because you are a tourist and you don’t have the faintest clue what is happening around you.

And that is probably the gist of our trips.

French Polynesia