One Lap Around Jamaica

I haven't done a TR in quite some time.....please bear with me.

Arrival at MBJ was the easiest ever. I cleared immigration and noticed I had been given a full 90 days on the stamp! All I had said was, when asked how long I was staying, "Ten days, but maybe longer...". Customs was painless as well, since I wasn't packing frozen White Castles or car parts....just sayin....

Was outside the airport and with Rob and Lisa in under thirty minutes...more like ten......and off it was to Chalis Car Rental. The folks at Chalis were certainly friendly enough, the price for the SUV was 40/day less than the competition and they lowered their deposit requirement by $500 when I sqwawked...the vehicle was clean and ran well, but......it desperately needed new rear shocks....it had over 80K kilometers on the odometer, so this was a well-used vehicle....three years old to boot...we didn't think to check the windshield wiper blades.....BIG MISTAKE....more on the shocks and wipers later....

Then, off on the highway to Kingston......next sight.....the fookin huge cruise ship.....yikes.....then later...the biggest cruise ship I have ever seen....it was.....obscene....seriously. This thing was so big it was frightening...I think it was the Carnival Victory....900 feet long...almost 3000 passengers and over 1000 crew....who would this thing appeal to, I asked myself...

We stopped somewhere before we got to Walkers Wood, I think. Somebody help me out with this one!

Next installment....Walkers Wood and Fern Gully

LOL - lucky for you that you didn't see the Oasis or Allure of the Seas - they are the largest cruise ships and are massive, think 5000+ passengers!

It was the Allure - 05-Jun-13 Allure Of The Seas - from the website:

http://www.cruisefalmouthjamaica.com/shipslist.html

That was an enormous ship!

Ya...I was checking Carnival because I thought it was one of theirs....that was one SCARY SHIP!!!

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Awesome report and pictures,please keep it coming,we need some relief until our November trip to Catcha!!

Keep it coming, we want to see more of Jamaica!

Rock, wicked man, good for you! Sounds like you are off to a great start.

If you are driving a lap around Jamaica at your leisure, stopping whenever and wherever you feel like then you are doing what I dream of one day.
Now if you truly are setting up shop for 90 days as your stamp would indicate then you are a Rock Star!!

Have a blast and thanks for letting us tag along.

Jamb

YEamon Carnival don't stop in Falmouth! I have seen that ship from the pier in Falmouth its F,in huge!
Anyway, don't you have a jobÉ

More Please!

Thanks,

VVHT

Love the lap around Jamaica...looking forward to the rest!

Yes; let's hear more. (By the way ohliz; enjoying your latest blog reports, and wish I was there)

Robster, looking to hear more about the trip that I missed...lol....I wanna be like u when I grow up...Go Braves...

Thanks Frank, glad you enjoy. Still have a couple more to do...hopefully finish before i'm back in JA again :)

Rock...where did you go?

OK...so....next stop....Walkers Wood! I know everyone has seen/used the Walkerswood jerk and seasoning products, but there is a town by that name as well! Rob has posted a pic of the Walkers Wood Post Office previously...perhaps he could post it in this thread!

We stopped at Lymings....a wonderful Restaurant and Bar with great Jerk. Really great Jerk. Besides Rob and I...just sayin..

The vibe at Lymings was very welcoming and everything was reasonably priced. The view from their deck is of a different plantation than Walkers Wood....but even more lovely....

Here, again, I am counting on others to post the pics! My camera battery was dead (an ominous portent of things to come with this camera)....just sayin....

After Walkers Wood, it was off to the Fern Gully. What a beautiful place. The road had recently been repaved and it was very smooth going. The sheer cliffs, the verdant vegetation, the semi-rainforest effect....all combined for a magical drive....I would love to do this drive with a Porsche Speedster....just sayin!...

Then...it was really time to make tracks to Kingston...the sun was setting and we didn't want to arrive at the Mayfair Hotel after dark...driving at night in Kingston is.....well......fookin challenging....just sayin....

Next installment......."We Arrive at Our New Home...and its a Fookin Compound!"

I need to quit the "just sayin".........just sayin.....

Great start.....keep it up.....just sayin....

Here are some pics of Walkers Wood and Lymings

The post office

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Lyming
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At the Bar
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I watched much of the 2008 US presidential election on the Mayfair Pub TV. I loved that bar.

So it is now dusk on a Wednesday evening as we pull into the parking lot of the Mayfair Hotel in Kingston. Did I mention that the roadmap that came with the rental is actually less than useless? This would be a recurring theme...

The Mayfair is laid out in a compound like setting with individual buildings and villas scattered about the property, which is very large. One could imagine this being some embassy compound or residence compound for embassy workers...anyway, the property is very clean and check in was a breeze. Off to the room......and...

My room is one of four directly above the bar and was Room#1! Two double beds, clean bath, spotlessly clean room, bed linens were soft, beds firm...and the a/c worked. There was a pleasant balcony with two chairs overlooking the pool area...which...after 430pm turns into a courtyard recreation area, complete with its own music and food and beverage service from the Pub. The pool, by the way, was large, clean and deep. The landscaping on the property was restrained yet tasteful and pleasing.

We took Wednesday's dinner at the Japanese restaurant on the property. I know, a Japanese restaurant in Jamaica?!? It turned out to be an excellent choice. The sushi was fresh and expertly prepared. Yum. Then....it was off to The Pub. The Pub is a cute little bar with maybe ten stools at the bar and seating for maybe twenty five or so folks. At capacity..it is elbow to elbow crowded! The bartenders are quite pleasant and more than happy to sell you a Q of your favorite liquor and provide an ice bucket with tongs! Very classy! This was to become a theme over these three nights! Since it was a Wednesday night, by the time we made it to our rooms, the grounds were very quiet and sleep came easily!\

Next up: "If it is Thursday it Must be the Marley Museum..."

Thanks Rob, for adding pictures to this trip report. What is this Amateur hour?

:D

View from my room at the Mayfair Hotel
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by flipadelphia26

thanks rob, for adding pictures to this trip report. What is this amateur hour?

:d

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feh!

For those of you interested in one lap around Jamaica I found the area between Port Antonio and Kingston around the East end of the island to be quite interesting and worth the time. The scenery and topography is very unique and different from most of the other areas on the island in some areas resembling desert complete with cacti.

So, Thursday morning's dawn broke to find me wide awake and incredibly thirsty. The Pub doesn't open until 10a, so no help there...off I set on foot. After all, this is Jamaica, right? There must be some little pushcart or stand with something to drink, right? Well, 3 kilometers later....I can report two things...the first is that the nearest place is a PetCom that is about a two klik walk one way and the second is that the streets were crowded with folks on their way to work and I was the only Caucasian to be seen! Nobody so much as smiled or said hello...same as in Manhattan...Kingston is a workaday city and folks are working, not hustling or beggy-beggy. I could only imagine what they thought of the goofy touron wandering aimlessly at 7am!

Back to the hotel and the office was opening...lo and behold they have a water cooler!!!! Saved!

After the dynamic duo get up and ready, its off to the Bob Marley Museum. Here was the first, outside of a nightclub, instance I encountered of overtly locals v. visitor pricing. The difference was HUGE. Oh, and no cameras inside..FFS...even the Louvre lets you take pics! Anyway, the house really sticks out in the neighborhood, but was a very cool place. It was nice to have a glimpse inside of Bob's personal life and be in the room, looking at the bullet holes from his 1976 assassination attempt!. The tour was worthwhile, even if the "special video" is a repeat of a previously aired documentary...

The RS and food at the museum were VERY reasonable! If you could eat or drink here without buying a ticket...it would be a cool hangout! The tour and our time at the museum totaled around two hours, and no matter how big a Bob fan you are, that should be more than enough time!

Now at this point we are FAMISHED. Why not eat at the Museum you ask? Well, we had other plans....Usain Bolt's Tracks and Records restaurant! Of course, we had never been there and only a vague idea where it was...but....we found it! I wasn't expecting good food at all, so I was pleasantly surprised by both the quantity of my Red Peas Soup(the biggest bowl of soup I have ever seen, until Mandeville...moren that later!) and the quality, it was excellent. The decor was interesting with more flat screen tv's in one place than I had seen before! The service was just OK, though. A VERY interesting mix of locals....with no signage on the street, you almost had to be a local to find the place!

So, late long lunch done it was time to go shopping? Well, let's put it this way....we drove around in the parking lot of the shopping center, OK? What now....CASINO TIME(tm)!!!!!

Next Installment--"How to Break the Bank In Kingston" or "At Least There Is Free Food and Booze"...

Road to Casino...:)

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Is that Devon House on the left?

Man my first meal in Kingston the first time I went was in a casino...I wonder if it will be the same one..?

Quote:

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Nobody so much as smiled or said hello...same as in Manhattan...Kingston is a workaday city and folks are working, not hustling

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One of the things I love about Kingston...I'm just another person walking in a sea of people walking somewhere. I grew up in Manhattan so it felt just like home to me :)

I am surprised this is a trip report from R.R. I am trying to view this through the eyes of a Q of JB, lmao!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RockRobster

Is that Devon House on the left?

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That would be Jamaica House to the left.

So, our bellies full, we proceed to the shopping plaza...which is a great slice of Kingston life. I really liked the shoe store and a couple of clothing shops. Quality merchandise at a quality price. They even had Steve Madden shoes at a fair price, so if I wanted, I could be stylin in JA....but, something else beckoned...the promise of A/C, free drinks and fun!

And....off we went to the Terra Nova Hotel to the Monte Carlo Gaming Lounge! http://www.terranovajamaica.com/ente...ent_gaming.php
However, and much to my dismay, they have done away with their OTB parlor. Which, was the nicest OTB in all of JA!

Now it was time to play slots since their is no live table games(more on THAT in a minute!)....I sat down at a three machine row..next to Rob and Lisa.....first up Keno...no joy...next up some fookin Texas Oil game....BINGO....and then the incredibly racist Chinese Restaurant game...BINGO....so, I had made a little money and I was a little tired of slots...I spied a blackjack game...the oddest one ever! This was an electro-mechanical, opto read analog-digital machine under a glass bubble. What this means is that the machine has a 6 deck split shoe that it deals cards to on a conveyer which sends the cards to a mechanical hand the flips the cards over for you to see and a camera to scan, it then puts your cards up onto the video screens, then turns the card over, sending it along the bottom of the conveyer and back to the shuffle area of the machine, where it shuffles a deck at a time and replaces the cards onto the bottom of the shoe! What a Rube Goldberg design!!! Well, it worked for me! I play a strict basic blackjack, with a progressive betting scheme based solely upon winnings...I set loss-limits and win-goals. I almost NEVER play at home, only on vacation!...I doubled my bank in only twenty hands! I had to slow down my play to take adequate advantage of the free Appleton and Coke's and the great food! They came by with jerk chicken that was good and jerk sausage which was EXCELLENT!! Dang! I;ve never been served food at a table, except in the high stakes blackjack parlor at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas...and then it was only club sandwiches....this food at the Terra Nova ROCKED!!!!

So, with our buzzes firmly in place and my wallet bulging, it was time to return to the Mayfair for some food and drink at the Pub....courtesy of the Terra Nova!!!! FOOOOOOK MOI!!!!

Next up "Q's at the Pub and Funny Things Seen Therein!"

Wallet bulging.........hmmmmm... 100's or 1000's one must ask??? Either way good.

Wicked report!

Jamb

Here is a daytime pic of Usain's Tracks & Records - I tried not to interfere with the business lunch crowd - there were several tables on their lunch break:

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And for lunch, the sliders caught my eye - three spicy jerk burgers with 3 different cheese toppings.... I didnt get a pic of the soup bowl, but it was big!

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Loving this road trip

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ohliz

Man my first meal in Kingston the first time I went was in a casino...I wonder if it will be the same one..?



One of the things I love about Kingston...I'm just another person walking in a sea of people walking somewhere. I grew up in Manhattan so it felt just like home to me :)

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Hey i must agree..NYC born and raised you can walk from canal st to the GW bridge and if your lucky you might get 1 hello...unless you are a beautiful women then you will be fighting them off like sand flies at sunset....

True bigg, true :) Loving this report, ready to hear/see more!

Thursday night at the Pub.....we apparently aren't full as we ordered dinner...I think I shared a burger...or a fish taco or something yummy and filling....

I think it was this night that a table of 20-something Kingstonians were out partying and one gal in their group had WAY too much to drink. Honestly, I don' think I have ever seen a Jamaican that drunk! She finally pissed off her BF and other friends, but they did come to her rescue when it was time for her to puke and pass out!!! OMG....drama in the Pub!

The Pub is a very friendly place with a very cool vibe. The first two nights, we are the only non-Jamaicans in the place....this would change tomorrow night because of the USA v. Jamaica World Cup Soccer match!

It was midnight, we were full and loaded and it was bed time. The tab, not small by any means, was courtesy of the Casino......thank you TERRA NOVA!!!! Again, it was Thursday and the pool area was quiet...sleep came easily...

Next installment---"Is This the Way to Port Royal?" or "Ummmm....I Think Seaview Gardens Might Be Dangerous".....

Friday's sunrise saw me getting ready for a dip in the pool before heading to Port Royal for a visit. After Rob and Lisa got ready, we left....sometime just before 10am. The traffic was horrendous and since none of us had been there, we relied on the rental car map. That was, as you will see, a strangely fateful decision...

So, we are smack in downtown Kingston, and the best I can make out of this crap map is that Port Royal is past the airport on the causeway......so....I look at the map again and see an airport..."Let's go right Rob....." Well, that was in the opposite direction and towards some very small general aviation airport, NOT the international airport! SO, we drive and drive and realize, eventually, that we are smack in the middle of the industrial wharfs and right across the road is Seaview Gardens.....YIKES! We eventually get turned around, but dead end right into the entrance for some petro storage facility. The nice guard had a chuckle when we told him where we wanted to go! At least he pointed us in the right direction. So, we are now back near downtown and we spied a sign that said "Follow The Hummingbirds to the Airport". Where was that fookin sign 1/2 hour ago????

SO, we followed the fookin hummingbirds and sure enough, they got us onto the causeway. We drove and drove and finally made it to the airport and then drove and drove some more and arrived in Port Royal. We pulled up and noticed three large tour buses....and nothing else....odd......

We walk up to the ticket window where I again experience the "locals v. tourist" pricing scheme. Again, a HUGE difference. Rob and Lisa grab their ID cards and try to hand them to the lady working the kiosk. "Mon, we don take dem cards" "These are our JA ID's" replied Rob. "Oh....thought dem were credit cards! We don take dem!" Everyone had a good laugh and I even got the local's pricing!

As we enter Fort James....an eerie feeling comes over us.....I feel very ill.....we are approached by a tour guide who thanks us profusely for coming out to the Fort and looks at us a bit quizzically...and looks at her watch....and then says...."Thank you again for coming, as you know it is a special day and we have a free movie on Port Royal for you to watch and then you can tour the museum and have a walk anywhere you wish!" "You have the timing perfect!" We look at each other and then at the tour guide who then informs us that we have arrived on the 321st anniversary at the exact time of the 1692 Earthquake and that all these schoolchildren are here to spend the anniversary! You could have knocked us over with a stiff breeze!!! I started feeling even more ill and sat to watch the movie...which was HILARIOUS for the fake British and pirate accents! Finally the odd ill feeling passed and we set about to explore the Fort....the Giddy House, the rotary cannon emplacements, the powder magazines...all had sunk from 6 to 16 feet from the Earthquake!!! The grounds are very cool, the whole thing just blew our minds! The museum is very cool as well, and includes a pocket watch recovered from the ocean(1/3 of Port Royal sunk into the ocean!) that they used to determine the exact time of the Earthquake....which we had also figured out, albeit accidentally!!!

Next Installment--"OMG Look at the Size of These Portions!" or "Oh FOOK That Wasn't a Sweet Green Pepper Slice!!"

This is very exciting. Ready for the next instalment

Lisa has a few more pics, but here are the front entrance to Fort Charles

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Fort Charles
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The Giddy House
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The Historic Naval Hospital
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