PAPEETE, TAHITI and PAUL GAUGUIN

Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia, and has a population of 245,000. Shaped like an upside down Maui, each side formed by separate volcanoes. Beaches are black. The philosophy is not to worry.

Pape'ete is the capital, with an urban population of 136,771, or 27,000, depending on which portion. Called a sleepy town. I can one up that by saying town at sleep, for I made a walking tour, and virtually everything was closed at 2:30PM on a Saturday. Close by is Faa'a International Airport.

Le Marche is the town marketplace. Of course it was closed when I walked by. But that is because it opened from 5:30AM to 1PM. A worthy stop would be the Botanical Garden/Gauguin Museum.

Britisher Samuel Wallis discovered Tahiti in 1767. Of course Captain Cook also landed, two years later.

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist artist, spent the final decade of his life in French Polynesia, leaving behind his wife (photo with wife Mette in Copenhagen) and 5 children at the age of 43. In many ways he was urged to leave by his family.

Few remember that he was first in his 20's a successful Parisian businessman, earning the equivalent today of $145,000/pear as a stockbroker. When the market crashed in 1882, he turned to painting.

He was largely mediocre as a painter in France, so moved to Panama, then Martinique. He made friends with Vincent van Gogh, linked to his brother Theo buying three of Gauguin's paintings. According to legend, in 1888 Vincent cut off his ear when they were both at a brothel in Arles, France. They never saw each other after that again. Left for Tahiti in 1891.

Had a life of controversy in French Polynesia, for he was known for his sexual relationships with teenage Polynesian girls. His first muse and native wife was Teha'amana when she was 13. Below when she was 14. There was a child. He "married" three native girls, all around the same age, and gave them syphilis. As decadent as this all seems, in Tahiti women did marry from the age of 13.

Painted When Will You Marry? in 1892. Sold in 2015 for $210 million.

He first left Tahiti in 1893, but returned in 1895. Entered a new relationship with Pahura when she was 14, and had two children. Passed away in 1903 at the age of 54.

He also did woodwork and sculpture. One, Therese, was sold for $31 million

Interested in any of his 1774 artworks? Click here. Or 2443 of them from invaluable. A self-portrait. Only $1500-$2500.

Okay, we yesterday were in Pape'ete, and adjacent to the Seabourn Odyssey was, of all the ships, the Paul Gauguin.

And next was the Majestic Princess.

Remember? A few days ago I mentioned that a cruise ship had docked in Sydney in November of 2022 with 800 covid-positive passengers. This was the Majestic Princess.

Well, anyway, first lunch, then a walk through Pape'ete.

It looked threatening, but we went into town anyway. We were greeted by Blue-Bar and his friends.

As everything was closed, the only attraction worthy of a photo was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It rained, so we went back to our ship.

A good day of walking. 4679 steps.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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