Post #124850 by Kono on Wed, Nov 10, 2004 7:21 PM

Yeah, my idealized tiki island doesn't come close to existing in the real world.

I love the dichotomy Michener created with the mythical islands of Bali-ha'i and Vanicoro. All the attention was given to the paradise of Bali-ha'i but I got a soft spot for dark Vanicoro myself.

Michener on Bali-ha'i: "Bali-ha'i was an island of the sea, a jewel of the vast ocean. It was small. Like a jewel, it could be perceived in one loving glance. It was neat. It had majestic cliffs facing the open sea. It had a jagged hill to give it character. It was green like something ever youthful, and it seemed to curve itself like a woman into the rough shadows formed by the greater island of Vanicoro."

On Vanicoro: "It was a large and brooding island, miasmic with malaria, old fetishes, sickness and deep shadows. It was called Vanicoro, and in the old times was known as a magic place. Four peaks lined the center of the island. Two of them were active volcanoes. Only the bravest natives dared live on Vanicoro, and they were the last to give up cannibalism."

I've only just read Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" (from which the above is leeched) and "Hawaii" in the last three or four months but his writing does an unbelievable job in capturing the allure that Tiki and Polynesia has for me.

If you could somehow combine Bali-ha'i, Vanicoro, Black Lagoon (as in Creature from...) and Kong Island, and then put there on the beach, an open-air Trader Vic's (with all the requisite tiki decor) that was staffed by Hawaiians, Tahitians and Samoans in traditional dress (esp the vahines, yowza!), I'd pretty much be in tiki heaven. :tiki: