Pacific

The

French Polynesia

The Covit Way

Those people contemplating a holi day in Tahiti or French Polynesia couldn’t do better than spend $2 US or 200 Pacific francs on the Official Directory and Guide Book for Tahiti,

recently published by Bernard Covit.

Covit is an American journalist

living in Papeete and although his

book seems, more than anything, directed at the Young American Male, it is good fun and informative even for middle-aged travellers. He tears away a lot of the bally-hoo about these enchanted islands but the Tahiti he leaves is still beautiful, crazy, off-beat enough to appeal to many tastes.

The book is bi-lingual, in both French and English, but the advice is the same in either language. As well as the usual information about

currency, documentation, hotels, tours

and so forth he has a lot of other advice that doesn’t come in the regu lar run-of-the-mill travellers’ guides.

But this is Tahiti, of course. And different. Here are a few items as they appear in the book.

ON BOY MEETING GIRL: As a man, if you come to Tahiti solely to seek a sexual holiday, you will be missing a good part of the fun of a real Tahitian stay. It is true that there are numerous opportunities for meeting and going out with local girls, but it is so all over the world.

Tahiti's girls are a little more approach able and easy to know than most. But you are "dead" unless you speak French, are fairly young and nice looking and have money. All the real beautiful or even pretty girls are already "taken" . . .

Experienced male visitors who have given the entire subject careful study state that only three or four out of 10 men who come here find what they are looking for.

The modus operand! of boy meeting girl in Tahiti is comparatively simple in Papeete. There are three or four places you can go to regularly where you can meet them, dance with them, buy them a drink, get to know them and the rest is up to you. There are no "houses of ill fame" in Tahiti. There are many water front girls who will be very friendly to begin with but after a while tell you they are broke, need some money, etc., all non-commercially.

For the girl tourist, Tahiti is the greatest.

There are always such a large number of

unattached males here who are more or less particular and finicky about their female companions . . . Tahiti is NOT a male paradise at all . . . Tahiti of course is wonderful for families . . .

On Cooking And Flowers: There

has been more nonsense and misinforma tion about raw fish written than almost any other facet of Tahitian life with the possible exception of the silly old bro mide about the "flower behind the right ear or the left ear". It doesn't make a darn bit of difference which ear the girl or fellow wears the flower . . . Tahitians can't be bothered remembering which ear, they love flowers and stick them in their hair, their hats and, if it weren't uncom fortable, probably up their noses. This flower business was started some 100 years ago by some near-sighted and passionate tourist who thought "wouldn't it be nice if I knew which girl was in stantly AVAILABLE" . . .

You will find the local white bread delicious-tasting when fresh but refrain as much as possible from eating it. Nu tritionally speaking it is a waste of time and is one of the causes of the rampant toothlessness and tooth-decay among the Tahitians. The bread tastes good but has no vitamins or anything else.

On Morals Generally: Tahitian

morals have been much written about . . .

Many times it's been by fly-by-night writers who come here, stay a few days or a week and are thereby considered experts, by themselves mostly. Tahiti has always been cursed by these week-end journalists who usually meet only Quinn's girls on the water-front. That's like judg ing London and all of England by the street-walkers in Picadilly. Morals are definitely no looser here than anywhere else, speaking sexually. Morality gener ally should be accounted higher for there are no Tahitians who go to bed hungry and there are no orphan asylums or old folks' homes. People are kinder here than most anywhere else. There are countless thousands of decent, hard-working moral men and women of Tahitian blood who would no more think of sleeping around than would your own father and mother (depending, of course, upon the actual morals of your own father and mother).

As we understand it, Mr. Covit’s book is being distributed through travel agents, shipping and airline companies, etc. But if you want one of your own, you should write to him direct at PO Box 83, Papeete, Tahiti. Add postage to the $2 or 200 Pacific francs cost of the book—the' equivalent of 1/- to 1/6, or 10 to 15 cents, should cover it.