Post #3042 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Jun 29, 2002 12:32 PM

Well, I think you need someone from a cold, dark, rainy climate to really appreciate a place like that...and then it still might get old after some years. The tropical paradise is something to dream about, not to actually realize, that's why Tiki bars, at home and in the neighbourhood, are so great.
Life in the tropics is a struggle, and you have to be fully committed. I have friends that escaped to Fiji and Costa Rica, and they had all kinds of adversities to fight through. One big one is the mentality of the people. It seems that while one is raised in the Western world to first trust your fellow man until convinced otherwise, in exotic locales the rule is that one MUST mistrust to survive. It's not that the natives are mean, they just think you are stupid if you leave yourself an opening. From what I have seen, life in the tropics is great, IF you can afford it and don't have to work anymore.

Tongans are nice people, but they had a little trouble lately when their government's main financial adviser eloped with several MILLIONS from the islands.

The ultimate warning tale is Marlon Brando's story: As the modern white god, a film star in his prime, he gets to realize the dream of every man in 1962 when shooting the "Mutiny on the Bounty": Not only does he get the Tahitian girl, he buys himself his own Tahitian island(!) and drops out of the rat race.
Yet years after, the paradise crumbles, his son kills his daughter's boyfriend, and I forgot who comitted suicide now, son or daughter.....anyway, for any father, that's hell on earth.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2002-06-29 12:51 ]