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Pastimes : A New Era - Consider the Possibilities -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carol who wrote (6)	11/24/1997 9:43:00 PM
From: Mike McFarland	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 272

Yeah, you both have good points I cant really argue with. Here is my little story though: My wife and I just got back from a trip to French Polynesia. FP is really pretty civilized--right?--The french keep the roads paved and communications up, lots of tourists, etc etc...so it is really just like here right? And you would think that the French (who had a state-run dial up network long before the internet became all the rage here) would pretty much keep the islands running efficiently, just like back in Europe. Wrong. We had a wonderful time down there, but I really felt like communications were at a third-world standard. One day we were going to take a ferry to another island--only a note is waiting for us...(in french) the Ono Ono is cancelled for "raison meteorologique", no way to get further information, we end up going to a travel agency in Papeete and end up flying. And then just before our stay is up, we start hearing that there may be a "depression tropicale" forming...somewhere. The papers show a 36 hour old satellite image, the TV weather report very crude and simplified...and I end up finding out from a snack-shack fellow that the local police had already gone through town and warned a few people to prepare for a tropical storm. I remember one day asking a girl what the weather was going to do...she smiled and shrugged--nobody really knows or cares what it is going to do! During the last El-Nino French Polynesia suffered a series of strong tropical storms and hurricanes which devistated some areas in the island...especially some of the coral. You would think that in this day and age basic meteorologic info would be available, but I could not find any. Oh, and finally...to make a call to the states--$12 a minute from the Cooks bay hotel. Yikes--dont expect any $20/month internet access in FP! Actually I rather enjoyed not having any weather information or news on my vacation...and from what I could see the locals down there have no use for information either. (Oh! finding out when the bus would come by was like pulling teeth..."oh, it will come by sometime...")