Many sleeps in Ja. First trip report.

[BaileysMom]

Stop? No, no, no... Don't stop! Write on... I'm intrigued! Did you end up going on the One Love Bus Pub Crawl? I believe it was you who were supposed to go on it the Wednesday night that we were scheduled, (2/10) but unfortunately I got some sort of bug at the last minute and had to back out.

[VVHT]

Lime,

All good, please continue....

Over the history of the board a few have traveled in your foot steps.....

VVHT

[TAH]

Keep it coming, man. We needs our trip reports, needs them.

[limeex2]

Day 2. I am awoken by the sounds of pots and pans rattling for their daily use, then REALLY loud dancehall reggae music on a tired out system. Cloudy again, I check my cell for the time and its 6am. I roll with it,realizing it is yet a another Negril moment and remind myself that this is a $20 room. I toss about and finally get up and figure its time for some morning yoga that is sorely needed.
I take my vitamins and try to figure out how to do my practice on island that is all rock,and that grass seems to grow only in expensive resorts. I try my tiled room. I do fine but just cant catch my groove with all the noise and no mat. Do the best I can with what I have, but end up, tearing up the skin on one knee and elbow. After showering up, as I ready for my morning walk, I meet my roommate. His name is Mahilo. He is from one of the Soviet bloc countries that we mispronounce and now lives in Norway. Nice,well spoken young man.
I have no plans today other than trying the The Love Bus for the first time. As I get to the street, I flip a coin,Heads to right,tails to left. To the left/west it is and off I go. I pick up the pace and walk till my belly says I need to turn around, about face and off I go to my first of many mornings at Sip-a-Bites. Good simple breakfast, lots of locals and a good price. In Minnesota, I have given up on walking in the winter. To slippery. Having fallen once and getting a concussion from it and another from a motorcycle accident, its not worth the risk. walking feels good, so off I go.
I am in no hurry as I check out many vendors. Much of the same items one sees every where here, but also lots of really unique one-of items that I really like. Making mental notes of their location, I start heading west again in search of lunch knowing that the Love Bus will be a alcohol related event. More on alcohol related events later. I stop at Mango ?? again and order up. Lots of locals and this is the first time I am hit up by a very persistent haggler. As I eat, he keeps it up. Hagglers never bother me. I usually lightly shake my head 3 times and say no thank you with out eye contact. Not this time, and one of the very few things that get to me, is bothering me when I eat. Everybody in my world gets 3 strikes before their out and this was no exception. I politely shook my head two separate times, the third, I took my eyes off my meal,looked into his eyes and sternly said "no means no" and stared him down with eye to eye contact. Done deal. The meal was huge and I knew there was no way I was going to finish it. I pushed a good sized meal for myself to half of the container and polished it off. I get up, get another to-go container, fork set and giving my left overs to the haggler, set back to my place to wait for Lenbert and da Love Bus.

[JitterBug]

any barking dogs around where you slept? always looking for cheap rooms but barking dogs is a deal breaker for me . . .

more please . . .

[limeex2]

Many barking dogs. Those are easy to sleep through! I use ear plugs at the bike rallies to drown out the Harley Davidsons. Work great. As I write this I am listening to http://www.alphaboysschoolradio.com/ This is a seriously good reggae station with no commercials and lots of roots style reggae that is really hard to sit too.

[VVHT]

Love the sounds of the West End in the morning.... Dogs, Roosters, cars, bikes, kids & music.....

Lime, if ya on the West End Road and head West, it gets wet real quick!!!

Enjoy,

VVHT

[LivinInThe603]

Great radio station! Thanks! Love your reports, eager to hear more.

The bar crawl took me out and I missed dinner that particular night, even had a new friend from my hotel knocking on my door to check on me, but I couldn't move so I just caught up with her the next day with a sheepish apology :| Still, it was a blast and I'll likely doing it again this year.

[limeex2]

Day 2 cont. As I sit up on my balcony sipping a scotch n water, I assume Lenbert will be using his Jamaican watch. He must have an American version as I see him drive by looking for me 10 minutes early. We hook up and start our trip to pick up others. We hit many stops and I am having a good time as are the others, but the vibe is just not there for me. As soon as I start getting comfy, we move on. I am getting hungry again and am full of liquor, so I part ways with the bus late in its tour and head out. It gets a little foggy from here. I eat and quit drinking for a while and walk back to my apt. My roommate has made new friends and introduces me. They are 2 brothers from my home state of Minnesota. As we find out more hometown info, one of them looks strangely familiar. I enjoy live music of all types and have been trying with no luck to see a local band called Crankshaft and the Gear Grinders http://www.crankshaftmusic.com/#media.
Finally my curiosity gets the best of me and I ask him "You look like Alex Larson from Crankshaft and the Gear Grinders?" With that they both start laughing and Alex explains that he is indeed Alex from Crankshaft. At that point we are all laughing and cant believe the coincidence that has just occurred in my apt in Negril. Yet another alcohol related event! Back home I call these AARE's and have so many of them, I could make t-shirts of them... We coin a new phrase that anyone who has been to Jamaica can related to. We'll call them "Negril Moments". We share Negril Moments, Stripes, subs, scotch and laugh a lot. The party ends as they have places to be. I stumble next door to Jimmies and meet my new friends from there. Now its my turn to get Jimmie going. Last night he kept on me to try the ganja. I start on him with the scotch with the same results, he gives up and we share many bumps and more stories.
I see he has 2 new looking motorcycles over in the corner. We strike a deal for 3 days of riding, cause I am really in need of my motorcycle "fix". I am to meet him tomorrow and we will go off into the back country exploring and ridin. Perfect. We part ways due to me being over-served with party favors. I head to the apt, get the Ipod and start jammin to tunes on the head phones and checking out traffic from 2nd floor balcony. Finding my groove now, checking out passer byes, who should walk by but Marie. I smile and wonder? I flag her down and invite her up. She can tell I have been over-served and giggles. So of course its a good idea to have more. We share a sub, more stories and laughs. We both are kind of flirty, but I know I have had to many party favors to go any further than flirting. We share more stories when she notices my scrapes from yoga. We share a few more stories and as we part ways, she knows I am in no condition to walk her home and promises to stop back in the morning to nurse my scrapes before something happens to them as they are not healing well.

[Vince]

Clap, clap!