Raphael Kessler

Bora Bora has become a must visit island destination for the glitterati. It is not only celebrities and millionaires that holiday there, though the role call at Bloody Mary's is quite an impressive list. I like to think that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Heseltine turned up for dinner and drinks together, to discuss politics and basketball. Whilst at the table next to them, Quicy Jones was telling John Denver that his music was crap, David Copperfield and Rod Stewart fought over who had a bigger bouffant hairstyle and Rowan Atkinson pretended to be Stephan Grappelli's waiter who was being given musical instruction by Tommy Lee. Unlikely perhaps, but after a few drinks all sorts of things could happen. I was thinking that Jane Fonda could have given Marlon Brando work out tips, though he probably would have decked her. 

Anyway, Bora Bora is a lovely looking atoll and would be a hell of a lot nicer if someone demolished the majority of the resorts and hotels there. They are an eyesore and almost as environmentally unfriendly as the French government's habit of detonating nuclear devices in a porous hole. The over-water bungalows (photo 4) have had a devastating effect on views and the coral, killing masses of it and as a side-effect removing a whole section of the local ecosystem. I have no idea why there is a hut in the middle of the water, but there was and I thought it looked nice, so took a photo of it (photo 5). 

People go to Rangiroa for a different reason to Bora Bora. The main reason to visit Rangiroa is to dive, where it is really exceptional world class diving. The atoll is almost a perfect circle as seen from the air, with a circumference of about 200kms.