Well I just got back from Negril over the weekend from my week long trip. The weather was great although seriously windy making huge waves and the visibility poor enough to ruin the diving beyond mid week. I did manage to get wet a few times and the sand, music and Red Stripes were as good as ever.
I stayed at the Beach Club Resort and figured I would pass on what surprisingly and disturbingly happened.
I met my cousin Jason at Montego Bay as he flew in from California for his first trip to Jamaica for some diving. We shared a room on the second floor of the Beach Club and had a great time until mid week. After the two of us were out most of Wednesday night partying we headed back to the room and pretty much passed out. In the middle of the night my cousin wakes up and yells "There is someone in the room!" This of course wakes me up. A guy in the shadows takes off full tilt slamming out the door with my cousin chasing behind him. I jump up and follow but the guy loses us as he runs down to the beach and the darkness. I am screaming at the guy pretty loud as we chase him so many other guests woke up startled wanting to know what happened. Of course security and the front desk respond at this point but seem none to worried or particularly interested. Things eventually calm down and we were off to the room again to sleep it off until morning
The guy apparently climbed up on our balcony and forced the glass slider open, the lock being nothing more than a crappy cheap type that appeared to work off and on. If we had something like a stick in the track he would have had a tougher time getting in for sure but this room didn't have one. When Jason spotted him, he was slinking around in the room looking through our stuff. Luckily Jason was so tanked up he fell asleep in his clothes and had the keys in his pocket including the safe key that held our phones, credit cards, a good amount of money and passports. We determined later the guy only got my RayBan sunglasses and few bucks off the counter. We also suspect a couple of beers may have gone missing but we can't prove that...When we were on the beach in the morning we find out through gossip another room with two women staying in it was also broken into during the same night. They lost a bunch of stuff and were very shaken up by the situation. I was told they made a report with the police, checked out and had no plans of ever visiting Jamaica again. What a shame.
On Thursday night we were having dinner at a beach restaurant eating at the bar with several other tourists and a guy runs up off the beach, grabs a woman's purse and takes off. The people and the friends with them were so shaken by this they left immediately claiming they were going to leave Jamaica the next morning and it was only their first night. This is what will hurt everyone in Negril by keeping tourists away so I hope the police can quickly catch the few bad people ruining things for the many good people.
Honestly, the same great Negril feel that was there on my many previous trips seemed sadly missing this time. Maybe the poor economy around the world and the obvious lack of tourists this year in November with the money they bring has made some locals desperate these days. The beach was almost empty by other same time of year comparisons and the guys trying to sell anything and everything were really, really aggressive. I actually had to step in and stop a Jamaican guy from bothering a lone woman to the point that she was scared and crying. The guy started really arguing with me and only stopped and walked on down the beach when it was very apparent I was not backing down and it was going to get violent.
I believe I am going to skip a few years in Jamaica or at a minimum some of my favorite Seven Mile Beach resorts until I hear things have improved. This decision bothers me as I have been traveling to the same spot for almost 2 decades and have many friends I look forward to seeing every year.
Take it easy all.
-Scott
Originally Posted by JitterBug
