I MISS your smiling faces:):)
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I MISS your smiling faces:):)
I have had it and it was great, am a soup lover just tell them not to put the cow skin in or sometimes they use the chicken toe leave that out just give me the broth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Jane
Well, this is an interesting report with insider info, LOL :p Sometimes HiLo or ValueMaster have packages of salted cow skin in the meat area.
Chicken foot soup is usually a different recipe altogether, and I don't eat that stuff either. I will eat oxtail, I will eat goat, just can't do skin and/or foot soup. LOL.Quote:
Originally Posted by Summer
OMG I CANT WAIT TO GET THERE!!!!! thanks for everyone's reports......251 days...not really counting....
I love soup too Summer but without the skin of foot in it, I still don't think I would be able to swallow it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Summer
After the Earth rotated us into darkness, we were starving for a fat AhhBees burger, and once again....we were not disappointed. (well, a little but I will get to that later) I had the bacon stuffed cheeseburger and it was so good we went back 2 days later and got another one. I highly recommend trying everything on their menu at least once. :) The perfect meal just before you go to bed. (leave me alone! I'm on vacation!) ;)
This place even looks cool at night.
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Weird looking bug we found outside on the ceiling in the hall.
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We had a great nights sleep (as I always do in Negril) and woke up early to great the day. The Mirage has no bar or restaurant on site, but they do put out a small complimentary continental breakfast for the guests. It was nice to have the basics each morning. Fruit, coffee, juice, milk, and homemade bread, toast, croissants, and some seriously delicious banana bread each day. (I think it was all from Charella) It was all really good but I'm more of a meat and potatoes guy and by about 10:00 I was always looking for some bacon or something.
I'm afraid to ask but how big was that bug?
Haha!
It was about the size of my thumb.......with legs!
Not a big fan of the insect world but this guy wasn't too scary looking. :)
Guests of the Mirage are allowed to use the beach at their sister property Charella, so on our first day we took full advantage of this. Charella is a really nice place and it seemed like we were treated just like one of their own guests. We got a personal tour of the lobby area, pool, restaurant, and bar area before being escorted to our very own spot on the beach. We knew the Boardie Bash was going on but we didn't feel like drinking yet so we had a small breakfast that was pretty good, toured the grounds a little, and then took a walk down the beach.
We stopped by Sunnyside first to say hi to Maureen and have a couple of blender drinks to try and beat the heat. It was our first full day and I was a hot and sweaty as usual. I know they are better known for $150J Red Stripes but, it's nice to have a mudslide or a dirty banana when it's really hot out. After walking the beach for a couple hours we decided to head down to Firefly and check out the bash.
The princess with her coffee while we wait for our breakfast.
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We stopped by our friend Masons shop to say hello. You should check this place out if you've never been in there. He's a real nice guy and there is never any pressure to buy something. He has some very interesting carvings for sale and he is definitely a true artist. It's not the same stuff you see everywhere else on the beach, but I must warn you......it's HOT in there! :)
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The master craftsman hard at work on another amazing piece.
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Now, we didn't actually know anyone that was going to be at the boardie bash, and I'm really not all that comfortable meeting new people, (especially strangers that you meet online) ;) so we thought we would just do a walk-by and see if we could recognize anyone. Well......we didn't. Julie suggested that we continue up the beach to CW to see some of our longtime friends that we knew would be there and then hit the bash on the way back. We didn't get very far with that idea as luck would have it, and I'm glad that we didn't.
Next up......the infamous JoJo!
Hurry the F*&% UP! This is seriously good stuff! Keep posting!
Thanks,
VVHT
Big Shiny and Mango - I'm loving your trip report and can't wait to hear what happens at the bash! I'm also so happy about your comments about and pictures of Le Mirage. Ej and I are seriously considering that for our cliffs portion of our December trip and this report (and Melody's comments) sure haven't changed our minds at all! Thanks so much!
Hey buddy!!!!
Hi!Quote:
Originally Posted by groove16
Are you gonna tell us where you're getting married at the end of your trip report? ;)
well we celebrate our 26th anniversary in sept...Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG SHINY n Mango
Do you mean Flip? Charela
Thanks for the good vibez...
Looking forward to your experience with the brownies and the rest of your report.
Happy Travels
Skb
Boardie Bash...
I need to preface this next part a bit. About a month before our trip I was fairly active on the board trying to glean some pertinent information on the usual hotspots. A boardie named jojo p invited us on a private cliff crawl that she had set up. We like to bar hop so, how could I say no to that? Turns out we arrived on the same day and she was traveling alone so it only seemed natural for us to set up something fun to do.
We corresponded via PM quite a few times before we left and as it turns out.....I'm not too good at making assumptions. I'm not sure why but, I initially thought that jojo was a guy. Oops! She had a good laugh about it after I told her so I didn't feel too stupid, and we ended up hitting it off just fine. (even though she is a Vikings fan) :)
Back to the bash:
As we were walking past Firefly, one of the beech vendors stopped us to give us his spiel and some woman comes up from behind us and starts to give this guy the business. Now, I'm no genius but, I don't think too many of us would deliberately throw ourselves into a sales pitch from one of the higglers, so I instantly knew who this person must be. So I says, are you JoJo? She looked a little bummed that I figured it out so fast so I could only assume that I foiled her crafty little plan to break the proverbial ice with us. We had a pretty good laugh about that one.
Thankfully for us she had been at the party for a while and was able to introduce us to most of the people there. That was a huge help for us and I'm not sure if I ever thanked her for that so.....Thanks Jo!
The first person she introduced us to was Rob who instantly shouted over to Lisa that "Big Shiny and Mango were here!" It kinda felt like one of those fancy parties where the butler at the door loudly announces to the whole room who you are. I thought that was pretty cool.....until I figured out that Lisa was probably the one who was typing in the names of the boardies that were there for the webcast, then I felt a little less special. :p
We got to meet so many good people that day It would be impossible to try to list them all. I have to be honest when I say that I'm not real comfortable in crowds, and it was a little overwhelming for me to meet someone new every five seconds, but I'm really glad we checked this party out. It was great meeting Groove and Janet, Father Jim, Beebs and Travis, Tattoo Charlie, Ras Walleye, Babalew, Rasta Stan, Ziggy and sooooo many others. Everyone was so nice to us and the only regret I have is not getting there a little sooner. We will definitely be back for this party again next year!
The bar at Firefly is really nice now. We've stopped in there a time or two before they remodeled, but now we will definitely be back in the future. Cheap stripes too if I remember correctly.
The one thing I didn't have was a camera so, please see Grooves report for all of his fantastic pictures. :rolleyes:
Hey Bud, how you translate your wit and sense of humor to the words of your trip report is amazing.
Its funny how you can get a real feel for some people just through a few conversations on this board.
It happened with a few people this past trip. I knew I would love you guys, along with my girl Irie Chic,
and I had a great vibe about Groove and Janet, shoot nextime im getting their phone number so they can report there
comings and goings, im stalking them, lol !!!!
Keep it rollin Big Shiny...Great Report!!
Jojo.....you rock!
Doc......good timing......
We still had some friends to see at CW so when the Boardie party was ending, we told a bunch of people that we would meet them at Drifters a little later, and on up the beach we went. Well, we ended up visiting at CW a bit longer than we planned and never made it to Drifters. It sounds like we missed a pretty good time there but, as it was our first full day, it was ok that we took it smooth and easy. (we felt a lot better the next morning too)
We made our way back up to the Westend and decided to wander up to Seastar for a bite to eat and a few night caps. There were quite a few boardies there, but it felt like we got to that party a little late as well because a few people were well on there way by that time. :)
We ordered some beers and a pizza and sat back to eat and watch the free entertainment. ;) We stuffed ourselves to near bursting again and headed to the bar for one last beer for the road. Katho was there snapping photos from behind the bar. We remembered seeing her in Negril several times before so we introduced ourselves and it turns out that Musikdoc Phil was sitting right there too. We all chatted for a bit but it was getting late and we still had to walk back to Mirage so we bid them ado and hit the road.
side note: If you've never walked that area at night and you plan on doing so sometime......make sure you have some kind of flashlight with you. It's DARK up there! (that was some more good advice that we got from this board)
This pic was blatantly stolen from Katho's FB page. :rolleyes: You're awesome! Look at those smiles! Phil looks like a giant.
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Next installment.......the Car Crash?
Is it safe to walk the Westend you ask? Well, the day we were down on the beach, some crazy driver who wasn't paying attention smashed his car into the power pole right outside the Mirage. I guess they were without power for a few hours. When the pole was hit, it got pushed over into the pipe wata line and that caused a main leak that still wasn't fixed when we left 10 days later. There was water running over the road in that spot the whole time we were there. I asked our driver if/when they were ever going to fix it and he just laughed and said......"what, do you think it will be fixed this month?
A shot of the damage, complete with broken car parts. The pole was sheared off and it stuck back into the ground.
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Then I looked up....
Luckily, there wasn't too much attached to this pole. WOW!!!
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We didn't spend a lot of time standing under this one and I remember walking by it pretty fast after I saw this mess. Our driver said that now they are using more concrete power poles so this will stop happening. Can you imagine?
Wow is right!!
On day 3 we decided to forget about the amazing beach that we love just a few miles away and spend the entire day on the cliffs. (that's why we stayed up there after all) So we staked out our spot under the pavilion that's right down by the sea. It wasn't too hard to find a spot as we were the only ones down there. We did get our Bear friends to stop by and chat a bit on their way out for a snorkel but that was about it. It truly seemed as though we had the whole place to ourselves the entire day, which was pretty awesome I must admit.
A look towards Tensing Pen
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Sweet view
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The super model pose?
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The princess looking for dolphins
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One thing we always try to abide by on our trips is to NOT become one of those people on the show "When Vacations Attack". We generally take it easy and don't do things that might hurt us or otherwise ruin any part of our stay. Well, as most of you know, one of the big draws to the cliffs is the "cliff" diving and there were plenty of spots to jump off at Mirage. Julie didn't like the idea of course, and took NO part in it but, I couldn't stay on the cliffs and not jump off the perfectly good cliffs right?
The seas were angry that day my friends......that's no joke. I'm a decent swimmer but it was still a little freaky. I was a little afraid of jumping in and not being able to get back out. I decided that I would start at the lowest platform, luckily it was the one closest to the ladder. I think there are about 6 or 7 different spots to jump that are each at different heights ranging from about 5' to about 40'. After the first one didn't kill me and I didn't get eaten by sharks, I tried them all. (much to the chagrin of my overprotective wife who did NOT participate) :) It was fun and I got to feel like a little kid again. Then after I jumped from the highest one, I went back and stood on the railing to jump off of that.....then Julie yelled at me to put a stop to my shenanigans and back to the lounger I went. :) Unfortunately princess is not too good with the camera so I've no pictures of my daring feats, but........we did get one nice video of her thumb.
One more from the balcony
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That night we were both a little fried out so we just made some drinks and hung out on the balcony and enjoyed each other's company watching the sunset. I know some people will think I'm nuts but I think some of the best times I have in Negril are when we are just hanging out together relaxing and not thinking about work or anything else in the real world. Just peace, serenity, and total relaxation. That's what our vacations are all about. We don't feel like we are wasting a night because we decide to do nothing........ we like doing nothing.
Next up......Moving day!
(aka "let's get the heck off these boring a$$ cliffs" day) ;)
"That night we were both a little fried out so we just made some drinks and hung out on the balcony and enjoyed each other's company watching the sunset. I know some people will think I'm nuts but I think some of the best times I have in Negril are when we are just hanging out together relaxing and not thinking about work or anything else in the real world. Just peace, serenity, and total relaxation. That's what our vacations are all about. We don't feel like we are wasting a night because we decide to do nothing........ we like doing nothing. "
I think that makes for a PERFECT day....... Nothing like time slowing down chilling on the West End.
Daring feats... lol. You seem like a pretty well centered dude, I like your style. I don't think it's wasting time at all doing nothing while on vacation. The misses and I sometimes spend entire trips essentially doing nothing, it's great.
We are all about that too. Some of the best nights are eating take out on our patio. Enjoying the sound of the tree frogs and the wine we brought from home.
Well... I have slipped away from the track again and this is one of the best 1st time trip reports I have ever seen... You have a great way of painting a picture with the words and humor. I can't imagine a dud pub crawl after the blast we had last year....I guess you just need the right people to make it happen. Thanks for sharing your trip...especially for us, since we didn't make it down this year...Great Job !!
Wow!
Thanks guys!
I guess I have to keep going then? :cool:
I want to post the last of our cliff pics before we head to the sand.
When we got to AhhBees the first night I was told that they were out of their delicious brownies. Ok, no problem. We will be around for a few days, plenty of time to stop back. Well, when we got there two days later I was told that they weren't just "out" of them, but that the lady that makes the baked goods is OFF the island! What? No Brownies? I gave everyone involved a bit of a hard time about it, especially the waitress. Aubie assured me that she would be back in a couple of days, even though the waitress (can't remember her name) said more like a month. (Riiiiiiight) Oh well, there's always Jenny's. Mmmmmmm......Jenny's.
This is one Julie actually took of my expression after I found out. (why do I have the same shirt on in every pic?)
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See the wire hanging down off of the current lines? A real eye gouger. You don't really see stuff like that at home.
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Not sure what this was but it looked cool so I took a picture of it. Insect nest of some sort maybe?
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This is that bar jojo was just talking about. It is a cool little place. We must sound like total drunks on here but we really don't go out drinking very much at home at all anymore. That's another thing about Negril that we love. You can bar hop a lot and never have to go to the same place twice. Great bar to person ratio. ;)
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Myth of the Cliffs
Okay, you boardies were right about a lot of things, but I would not say everything I've read on this forum is completely accurate. I remember reading a few different accounts that said some people like staying in the Westend better because there were no peddlers. We found that to be untrue.
The cliffs do have peddlers and not just a few either. I would say that pretty much everywhere we went there was someone trying to sell you something. I will admit that they weren't quite as pushy about it and a simple "no thanks" worked every time, but they are out there. It didn't really bother us as we are no strangers to the routine but, I thought I would just mention it so others were aware.
Ok......I think that's it.......off to Crystal Waters!
Thanks for a great report!
Good stuff.
Awesome TR and photos!
Lots of great photos. Thanks for taking the time.
hehehe....did u ever get a brownie from aubie...i did not...i did yellowbird, Jennys, guy with the bread box on his head, and the guy across from negril escape...
"The cliffs do have peddlers and not just a few either. I would say that pretty much everywhere we went there was someone trying to sell you something. I will admit that they weren't quite as pushy about it and a simple "no thanks" worked every time, but they are out there. It didn't really bother us as we are no strangers to the routine but, I thought I would just mention it so others were aware."
Big Shiny,
They followed you from the beach! :)
Thanks folks!
I hope you like Chapter 2 also.
Haha! That's the same thing Julie said.Quote:
Originally Posted by VVHT
I never got one either. He needs to get a back-up baker.Quote:
Originally Posted by groove16
"guy across from Negril Escape"??????? We need to talk! lol
Back to the glorious beach!
I hope that I didn't sound like we hated it in the cliffs, but I think this experiment proved to us that we are pretty much "beach people". Not that we wouldn't stay in the cliffs again, it was pretty cool and we loved the different vibe and views. I think we were both glad that we tried something different, but we find the hustle and bustle of the beach action more to our liking than the quiet solitude of the cliffs. Everybody has there preference, and I think having all those different choices of things to do and places to go really adds to the charm of vacationing in Negril.
Day.......uh.........whenever.
(this is tricky because we usually never keep track of the days when we are there)
We wanted to get to CW and back to the beach in a bad way so we skipped breakfast, said our so-longs, and got our stuff packed. We were on the road and on the way to Hi-Lo by about 10:00 am. We grabbed our groceries for the week and we were off to Crystal Waters! Woo Hoo! (I have also been told by a lot of the regulars at CW to keep quiet about the place but, we found out some new information from the owner this trip that makes me think us regulars will never have to worry about losing our reservation to someone else) Such an awesome place!
Now, I'm not gonna go on-and-on about how much we love Crystal Waters. Everyone has their favorite places to stay........and simply put, this one is ours. I will say that we have stayed there over a dozen times now and they have NEVER given us a reason to go anywhere else. The owners are great people that appreciate their guests and treat them with the utmost respect. You can easily see how that relates to the rest of the staff. Every person that works there appreciates and actually loves their job. We interact with all of the staff quite a bit and it is really refreshing to never have to hear about the usual "work politics" that we get so much of at home.
In fact, there was a new housekeeper that had been hired since our last stay. She was SO happy to be working there and it really showed. She was always singing or humming some tune when we saw her. Every time we said hello she told us how blessed she was and it truly seemed like she was thrilled to be there. That's just another thing I find refreshing about the Jamaican people, most of them really appreciate things like that.
Anyway, the property is composed of 9 private villas of 1, 2, or 3 bedrooms. You get a personal housekeeper/cook that cleans the villa and will prepare two meals of your choosing each day. The meals are FANTASTIC! Anything you can think of from burgers and pizza to some of the best lobster and other seafood dishes you could imagine. I am a pretty picky eater and they have no problem making dishes "to order" for me anytime I ask. Their meals are actually another reason we don't have much exposure to a lot of the restaurants in the area. I couldn't imagine finding anything better than the home cooking deliciousness that we get right at our own table in our own villa.
A few shots of the property.
This one is looking out towards the beach.
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Julie and Everett (security extraordinaire.....saved my arse a few times haha!)
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The new bar at Country Country. soon come
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Can't forget a shot of the never used pool. (before the wall went up)
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And one sunset for good measure. Just missed the green flash. :(
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Up next.........Let's Crawl!
Last April Rasta Stan took me over to Crystal Waters to meet Indy Bob and Cindy and I loved the place they were in , I am sure it was a 2 or 3 bedroom ( cant remember ) Kitchen , living room , bedrooms. Was like a little Cottage. Do you have any pics of the inside of your stay ? Oh Ya great report !!!
Great trip report so far! Still waiting for the part (multiple parts) where you keep trying to avoid me! LOL
Yes Roy......
I have quite a few from the interior of the villas but most of them are on an old camera and I'm too dumb to figure out how to get them on here to post. I'll tell you what.....come on down for a personal tour in November and you can see the place in person. :)
MIDIRI.....
What can I say man? You pretty much saved the last 2 days of my vacation whether you were there or not. (that story is still coming up) It doesn't seem like you missed us much from the pics I saw on FB. ;) Besides, you know I can't hang with you professionals every night.
I have decided that this day by day stuff is too hard to keep track of so the rest of this thing is just going to be a few stories about some of the memorable times we had during our beach leg of this trip. I need to make a little time to write it up so I can get to the end of this thing soon. Please stand by.....