Bora Bora, Society Islands, French Polynesia
You know those “beach success pictures” that you see on marketing materials? Come on, you know what we’re talking about: the person in their swimsuit,
(obviously a very young attractive person because we all know only really hot people go to the beach…)
sitting on the beach with their laptop,
(like it’s normal to use your computer at the beach…)
Looking very excited because, as the picture implies, they have spent their day playing on the sand
(we’re sure it’s not in the water because their hair is always perfect)
and, “oh I’ll just hop on the internet real quick and check my investments…”
(Come on, how many beaches have internet access? And wouldn’t you be worried about sand getting in the laptop? Or oh I dunno, water? And by the way, how are you even able to see your screen in the blazing bright sunlight? Really, who brings their computer to the beach!?)
“…and oh my goodness I’m a millionaire and I didn’t do anything! You should be like me!”
Yes, that picture. Being as Greg has a history working in the training industry and has strived to actually help people, he has always had a certain amused infatuation for this type of picture. He loves the simple ridiculousness of it. There we were in Bora Bora and we just had to get our “beachside laptop millionaire” photo:
As you can see in the background of the picture, we stayed at yet another overwater bungalow during our time as “normal tourists.” We did want to have an authentic tourist experience, after all. There were a few interesting differences from our other bungalow experience:
You couldn’t really beat the views
Or the back yard
And the dinner shows, while not on par with the Polynesian dance exhibitions, had their own form of heat
It was actually not all that far off from how the locals live. Yes, there are people who are allowed to actually live on Bora Bora. No, it’s not as expensive as you might think and yes, there are a few ways to wrangle your way into this. Most of them involve marriage to someone from the island.
You might be wondering why we were head banging there. The answer to that is over here.
It was so much fun meeting you both on these islands. Bora Bora was beautiful, food was great and we had a ton of fun!
You got some great video to boot mom! It was great to share a part of our adventure with you!
NICE job – miss you guys – so glad you are getting this in. Was in Bora Bora at 34. It has not changed all that much.
Thanks Mary! We’re loving it!
Thanks for this amusing post. I think advertising campaigns are missing a trick by not going the opposite way and showing people in all their messed-up travel glory. Surely we’d all relate to that more and the ad would be more memorable.
it’s all about the target market. 😉