Marquesan pictures?

OK, I could be wrong, but I think it was here at Tiki Central...a while back someone had posted a link to a page with a lot of pictures of Marquesan style tikis. Actually, I think the pictures were from the islands themselves.

If anyone remembers where that was, I would appreciate directions. Otherwise, I would also be thankful to see any random Marquesan pictures in this thread. I have started working in concrete "artificial stone", and I have found just the right sort of mold to cast the right sort of block for carving one of these. I think. }:)

OK, do you want me to cry?

I have scoured the interweb and only found a few. I am trying to get an idea of what these things generally look like all the way around.

They kind of remind me a bit of some of Giger's stuff, actually. I wonder if he studied them, like Picasso with the African statues and masks.

Barracuda magazine had a cool article an issue or two back called "Tiki of the Marquesas" with lots of pics...lots of cute buxom females doing their best Betty Page, too!

Many thanks!

I found the article...and lots of alluring photographs and a recipe for peanut sauce. Good, good, good.

here are pics from my honeymoon in Tahiti- there's lots of marquesan tikis throughout

http://www.tiki-shirts.com/gallery/frenchpolynesia

Fatuhiva-

Can you pass along a rough outline of your intinerary? Which hotels- and more generally, your recommendations?

Beautiful pix!

Exactly the inspiration I needed this cold grey wintry morning :)

Heh, before I saw the message, just seeing the name "fatuhiva", I knew it was my lucky day. }:)

These are, in fact, the pictures that I was referring to. Many thanks!

On 2003-01-30 04:13, Sabina wrote:

Fatuhiva-

Can you pass along a rough outline of your itinerary? Which hotels- and more generally, your recommendations?

In Papeete, go stay at the Royal Tahitian in the suburbs. It is unaltered 60s modern with Tiki, a nice little pool, beautiful gardens and a black sand beach AND not too pricey. Tell'em I sent you.
The pool bar and the real bar have very nice Marquesan carvings in them. All "Tahitian" Tikis are actually of Marquesan style, the ancient Tahitians did not worship figurative effigies. Economic needs brought Marquesan carvers and Tatooists to Tahiti were they opened shop to benefit from the greater tourist trade.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2003-01-30 15:18 ]

ok here is the breakdown:

flew from AZ to LA (late)
RAN to TahitiNui flight to Papeete, Tahiti (miss it and you're out of luck)

Got in at night in Papeete, Stayed in the Beachcomber Parkroyal (now Beachcomber Intercontinental) (best hotel on tahiti for those looking for upscale) there are others, but this one was the best i saw at least.

3 days in Tahiti
3 days on Moorea (also beachcomber parkroyal there, although there are some other nice upscale ones there: The new Sheraton & The Sofitel seemed like the nicest ones..

Back to Tahiti, get on Radission ship "paul gaugin"

7 days on there- went to Moorea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, Raiatea

back to Tahiti
back home

Expensive: yes
Worth it?: yes

Tahiti and the Society Islands are more than breathtaking. I just hope they remain a relatively obscure destination so that the Waikiki effect doesn't happen. French Polynesia is a very special place and I hope it stays that way for a very long time..

sometimes when I think of how the French treated these islands vs how the US treated the Hawaiian Islands, it makes me shudder. But then again, the French were blowing some of them up with nuclear bombs, so go figure

[ Edited by: fatuhiva on 2003-01-31 01:08 ]

Indeed the French detonated 200 hydrogen bombs over and under the Mururoa Atoll and another one from 1966 to 1996. Radionucelides may even be leaking into the Pacific from these tests and will if the atoll collapses. They also totally disrupted the way the people lived, drawing them to Tahiti and the Mururoa Atoll for a wage economy. Now many of them live in slums on Tahiti. We can only hope the French don't want to modernize their weaponry and decide to conduct nuclear testing there again.
Mahalo nui loa for the pictures. They are marvelous,

Sincerely,
Cuisson

absolutely all true-

I heard that people from other islands would migrate to tahiti, not find a a place to live and end up sleeping in trees

I say nuke the French. Put them all on the atoll and flash one more nuke for old time's sake. Ungrateful bastards...first we (the British and Americans) bail them out of WW1, then WW2, then Viet Nam, yet they treat us like we owed it to them for being the impertinant goofy snobs that they are... There was an old saying about sissy French helmets...always dented at least once (where they dropped it to run).

Fatuhiva,
Fantastic photos of French Polynesia ! I went to Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine & Bora Bora a few years back, and your photos brought back great memories of those wonderful islands. Thanks for sharing them.

[ Edited by: puamana on 2003-01-31 20:27 ]

Ahhhh :)

Many thanks Fatuhiva I've got a lot of ideas on domestic travel, but the for some of the international, I'm listening long and hard to what other people think are the don't miss! sights.

Looks and sounds like you had a fantastic trip!

It was a very fun trip- I could see where it could possibly have been a hard trip had I not gone with the better accomodations. What I mean by that is, if you are going to send yourself all the way out there, you should try to live a little (rack that CC up) or you might find yourself in a place that kinda sours the trip for you.

Partly this is because I am a sissy when it comes to my comfort bubble, and partly its because Tahiti is just so beautiful, why no go the extra mile and make it an insanely great trip?

One can stay in the islands for very cheap if you want to have a camping-like experience (remember it can get hot and buggy) and that probably wouldnt be so bad because you are travelling cheaply and are expecting things to be no-frills.

However, I saw many places that were still $400-$500 a night and weren't much beyond the hostels.. so I say either rough it and save the money or go with the best hotels. do your research first if you go.

The paul gaugin is an very good deal. the rooms are very nice as you can see in the pics, and you will stuff your face 24hrs a day with incredible food- and I'm a food snob. You get to see many islands w/o having to hotel-hop and you have the peace of mind that your room will be perfect no matter where you currently are.

The only downside is that the daily excursions are a little more pricey through the ship (it adds up fast) and they are each half-day, whereas some companies directly on the islands offer all-day trips that give you alot more time to slow down and relax. For example on Moorea we went with one tour company that met on a dock in the morning and we just cruised around the island and its surrounding motu islands all day at a relaxed leisurely pace. The Tahitians who boat you around and serve as your guides were really great to have around- they were so fun-loving and laid back.. they just love to kick back and enjoy the beauty. They sat around singing songs with their ukeleles in french it was really cool. By the time it was over we had swam with and fed sharks, snorkeled beautiful reefs for hours on end, frolicked around with giant stingrays and had a delicous picnic lunch on a small island all the while picking fruit off trees and eating fresh coconuts wherever we happened to find it. All this for about $70 a person.

The trips from the boat are a bit more rushed becuase they go back 1/2 way through the day so people can stack another excursion on top- although some are setup where you can just kickback on a motu with small boats coming back and forth every 2 hours or so- but there weren't any cruise-around-all-day trips

[ Edited by: fatuhiva on 2003-02-01 01:55 ]