Lai and I were married on July 27, 2019. About a year prior, we sat on the couch discussing our plans and the topic of a honeymoon came up. Both of us were working long hours at work as well as putting in time each night organizing the wedding. The prospect of a honeymoon seemed so far off and we were more focused on getting the wedding right first. That said, we decided that we needed to think about where we would go. The stress of work and wedding planning narrowed the choice significantly: we wanted to go somewhere warm where we could relax on a beach. I jokingly named the most iconic beach island I could think of, Bora Bora. We laughed, paused, looked at each other and immediately started a Google search for “honeymooning in Bora Bora.” A year later and two days after our wedding, we found ourselves waking up in paradise.
We flew from San Francisco to Pape‘ete, on the island of Tahiti. Pape’ete is the largest city on the largest island in French Polynesia, a semi-autonomous “collectivity” of France. We spent our first night on Tahiti before taking the 10-mile ferry to Mo’orea the next day. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Mo’orea is possibly the most beautiful place on the planet. The ferry towards the island was, for lack of a better word, epic. The hilly, jungled, volcanic outcropping rose into view and neither Lai nor I could take our eyes off it.
We spent the first week of our honeymoon on Mo’orea, splitting our time between relaxing on the beach and exploring the interior of the island. The Polynesian people are some of the most hospitable, welcoming, and wonderful people I’ve ever met. Our absolute favorite person was our tour guide, Étienne, who took us on a hike through the “bush”, or jungle in the center of the island. A wonderful man who educated us on the history of the island pre and post-colonization, and the effects that French colonization had on his people. We left our time on Mo’orea with a tremendous respect for the Polynesian people, as well as a clearer, first-hand view into the effects of European colonization.
As we jokingly suggested a year before, our next and final honeymoon destination was Bora Bora. Bora Bora is a collection of small islands about 170 miles away from Tahiti. We returned from Mo’orea to Tahiti by ferry, then took a quick flight to Vaitape, the largest town in the island group.
Bora Bora is famous for its barrier reef and lagoon, and wow, is it warranted. The islands were once a singular volcano that slowly depressed into the ocean, leaving a ring of coral that keeps the interior of the island surrounded by a pristine lagoon. When I say pristine, I mean cyan-colored-water pristine. On one afternoon, Lai and I went on a snorkeling tour. At our first stop I was first off the boat and took an opportunity to look underwater while Lai was getting ready. I almost inhaled water. Words cannot describe what I saw (but here I go trying anyways). The lagoon is so densely packed with marine life that it felt like I was on the set of a live-action Disney film. Millions of fish, sharks, jellyfish, eels, and other animals were swimming all around me. It became immediately obvious that the boat was just a blip in this massive expanse of life, representing all shapes, sizes, and more colors than I can name. If you’ve seen “Inside Out” then you’ll know what I am describing - a core memory. A memory so beautiful that I will be impossible to forget it. I immediately surfaced, accidentally inhaled some water, and cough-yelled at Lai to hurry up and look below. She grumbled for a second, fixing her mask before diving underwater. I could hear her yell of delight from above the surface.
