trip report from two years ago, Sorry so late

[Brianfrommass]

My girlfriend (Shannon) and I (Brian) have a trip planned for june 2012 to negril. I have been travelling to jamaica for 8 years, i have been for short trips 4 days and trips that lasted 6 weeks. I have been a boardie for a long time, but dont post much. Shannon has only been 1 time and the june trip will be her second trip to jamaica. Her first tripis what i will be reporting about. It was 2010 (two years ago) in May. I have to give some added info and background to paint a good picture. For our may 2010 trip i used the boards to get the most of my trip, and owe this board a BIG THANK YOU.
but i have to apoligize for my style of trip reporting, bare with me and thanks for reading

First about me, I been going to jamaica for 8 years, I am 31 now. A friend of my parents lives in redground, I call him Uncle dave. he has two daughters under ten, and has friends that have become my jamaican family. I take care of them by bringing down things they need or want. They take care of me when i am down there. I have stayed in sheffield (outside negril) in an unfinshed house with no doors or windows for a month, it was roughing it, and i didnt mind at all. I always rent a scooter for the entire trip. I am also big into snorkelling.
I am a dj by trade and on one month long stay, i decided to dj at a party in the hills, I was the only tourist, they were shocked that this white boy new dancehall music and lets just say i killed the crowd (in a good way). Since then i have dj'd parties both in jamaica and in the U.s. that were dancehall style bashment parties. I was dubbed by elephant man (the energy god), he called me "energy jesus" and it stuck as my dancehall dj name.
Now because i am a dancehall dj my gf Shannon has fell in love with the music. We attend events in our area and i am a known dancehall dj. She listens to a radio station out of Sav la mar called Linkz96. She listens to them over the net everyday at work. Me i am a hits 92 fan.

Now on to some trip background. We went in may 2010, for ten days i think. Its been two years since this trip, i dont have notes, but this trip had historical signifagance, so details will come easy i hope. The two main reason's for this trip was - 1. Shannon never been to jamaica. I pulled one of those sleep over and never leave moves when i moved into her appertment in sep 2009. In dec 2009, i went to jamaica for a month by myself from dec 13 2009 til jan 15th 2010. She was on the phone with me like everyother day. She was gun ho about seeing the place she heard about for a month over the phone. so it was gonna be her first trip/vacation. 2 second reason was my mom was going down with 3 friends and she wanted a small party on the beach for her 50th birthday. while we were up here planning trip, a promoter heard i was coming down and asked me if we wanted to do a party together, I would dj. So, we planned to throw a "moms link up party" on mothers day at the fisherman bar right at the start of the cliff road. An awsome boardie (sorry forgot your name) went down to the billboard and took a picture for me of the sighn with my name on it.
The guy painting the sign messed up and put me as the promoter and not as the dj, and put sound alone with no other djs. oh well, its advertised, so good to go. well no go, because there was some sort of issue at the bar a week before the event so, the party got cancelled thanks to babylon. no worries, went to a party and the hills and killed it. but i geeting head of myself.

So in planning the trip, i was in charge of setting things up since my gf thinks i am a ja expert. Shannon and i would be taking a flight saturday morning that took off at 6am in hartford ct, and we would be on the ground in ja by noon.my mom would be coming down wensday, so we had a few days to get stuff together for her party. Well i was in charge of picking and booking mine and shannons hotels. My mom was handling her own hotel and things. So for her first trip, i figured an all inclusive for part of the time would be a good idea. I found on expidia.com that let you book airfare and only part of your hotel stay if you wanted to. So we decided to split the trip, 6 days non a.i. and 4 days A.i. Over the years, on the way to negril we pased this huge place they were building called the :grand palaidieum. I like big resorts because of the options of food and bars. I found on expidia 4 nights with airfare at grand palladiuem for $744pp. That was perfect for us, and we would stay there our last four days of our trip. So what to do about the first 6 days. I am a cliff guy, but the gf is a beach lady. So i came to the boards and pleated my case. well one of you wonderfull people suggested the blue cave castle. I rember thinking, G O A L. I have seen this place many times from the sea and on pics here on these boards. I did my research, 60 a night on the water. Knowing nefril pretty well, wasnt sure if i would find closer to the water for cheaper than that. So i emailed blue cave castle for our first 6nights. so we all booked, now on to the show

May 2010

I dj'd til 2am the friday night before we left. We had 6am flight out of hartford, not sure where our layover was, but i bet i snuck out somewhere to have a smoke. Flying for me is tough with no nicotene. So we had no sleep before our flight, right from the club to airport, my girl deffently felt like a celeb. The flight was unevent full. in airport it went smooth as always. I did all the talking, my gf just smiled and nodded. I wish she was like that all the time. lol.
Now after you get out of the gates, it was raining, so crammed under the awning, i called my friend jose who was to be picking us up. He was in mobay in traffic, "rain wash out road" he said. I knew he would be there shortly, so i pulled out a battery powerd radio i brought, wipped it out and turned the dial til i found hits 92. My actions calmed shannon down alittle, she was getting overwelmed, be packed in a small space in an unfamilair area. within no time a car pulled feet from our faces, we were sitting on curb waiting. She had a shook look on her face, but all changed when jose jumped out of the car. Loud (like me), Big smile (like me) nice dresser (like me sometimes) and full of posivive energy my good friend jose. He jumps out the car, with his thik accent he says "wha gwaan mi brudda", hugs me and then immedate pushes me aside to introduce himself to shannon. They had never met in person but have talked on the phone. When i stay for a month or buy myself, i usually stay with jose. He is rast dont drink or eat meat. I feel bad because i do and do alot of each. He always make sure i am taken care of. He will go out of his way to make sure i am happy.
they made there introductions, filled the car with our bags and we were on our way. Jose knows i am a big smoker and always stops outside of mobay so i can enjoy my first ja spliff. Not exactly sure where we stopped, but i do rember we stopped at bar it had alot of shade and near sea with a breeze. jose knows me pretty good so he know i get hot easy and always says the first few days i am still defrosting. Now its been two year since this trip so i will do my best to rember tings and not mess up stories.
On the way to negril jose and i pointed out to shannon te grand padliedum, where her and i would be staying for four days in a week. I mentioned to jose that i wanted to rent my usual scooter for 6days.

i just relized this is long and first post so it will have advertisment. so i will continue in a moment in this thread. rmber this is from two years ago

[Marie]

Great start!

[Brianfrommass]

Jose asked when i wanted to get it. I said today at some point but no rush. he said lets stop on the beach road and grab it before we head to our hotel the blue cave castle. i said sure lets do it. I rent from elvis's every time. I have rented for a month a few times and a week rental alot. I go there with a number in my head,a fair number. i feel 200 for eight days is a reasnable pice. 25 a day, they know me and my stlye and we have always made a deal. My requirments are it was to run good, good brakes and i dont care if it got scratches, honestly i prefer alittle beat up. I go into the hills on rough roads, accadents happen. I want something that if i have a ugh oh, its not a big deal. They are very fair with me so i try to be fair with them. I dumped the scooter on a hill once, and went and told them what happend. I was not aware the reason jose brought me there was because all his friends work there, some even stay on his street. So people in the neighborhood seen what happened and reported to them. But i was told alot of poeple had my back on the situation. i was going down a hill when a car was coming at me and people walking on a narrow road with a deadly cliff on the side all this took place. my choices were crash into car, crash int people, fall off cliff or stop right away by laying scooter down and scraping my leg. my opion, i made right move. it was no ones fault, bad timing. thats what make it so dangerous in jamaica on a scooter, alot of obsticales.
So the guy i deal with at elvis's is called black. me and black go way back. He gave me a nice scooter,alittle bigger than what i would usually get, he said i needed bigger bike. All set on paperwork, got scooter. Shannon Stayed in the car with jose. I found out later, he made her very cofertable. she said he started asking questions and they had very nice talk on the way to castle. She said he poited out places and mentioned "brian will take you there he likes that bar" talking about the canoe. He deffently made her feel welcome.

I follewed them on the scooter. i cant descibe how that first drive the beach road is on the scooter. The heat from ja but the cooling breeze as zoom along the road. That first ride is the best. I was going at a nice cruising speed. Took in all the sights and changes since my last reach. Followed jose car to the castle. he stopped in front of the gate. He didd a two tap to the horn, beep beep. Securty let him in and i followed on the scooter kinda throwing the gaurd off. i parked next to another scotter headed to jose car and started to pull bags from the car. now the gaurd got was going on, grabbed a bag and headed twards our room. all three of us followed. Shannon's face was priceless. i did not tell her it was a castle and we were staying in the cactle. i think room 3. i kept calling it blue cave, she didnt have a clue. woops. at this point she is totally over whelemed. She just had an awsome ride with jose to a castle where she would be spending the next week. So at this point we drop our bags, i pull out a few things for jose and uncle dave that i brought from the us. Jose loves pastatio's nuts, so i bring him 5lbs of it. uncle dave cant get good moltrin, so i bring him excedrine, tylonal, the good stuff.
So after dropping our bags we head back to jose car, we had some arons to run including seeing dave and the girls.

more soon come

[Brianfrommass]

As soon as i reach there are certain things i must do. here is the list - visit with uncle dave even if it for two minutes. get carton of cigerates (marlbro's), a few day supply of ja smoke, and i buy two beach towels for my self (one for shower, one for beach).this time i nedded - new sim card for phone, and to purchase tickets to a concert later that night. Our first stop on our aron run was at cambio so i could get some funny money. Sometimes we use the guys outside cambio, but only if rate is near the rate inside cambio. i watched my mom our first trip almost get scammed, so i double check it like three times. Jose knows the guy, we get the same rate as inside, so i give the the change part extra. they dont just scam to make money, if you give them a tip, even a dollar it adds up.

so with money in our hands we head to scub a dub to buy tickets for a show that night. Now at this point its like 3 or four in the afternoon. I know shannon only ate breakfast in the airport and aint complaining she hungry because she is full of excitment. So I tell jose to stop at the acui tree reasturant on the road to srub a dub. when you take the right from negril on the road srub is on, its down about a hundred feet on the right. Jose and i stop there alot because they have good fish that he likes, and i like there fried chicken. So we stopped and ordered 3 meals, fish for jose, fried chix for me and shannon got fish as well and was taught by a profesional how to eat it. she wasnt a big fan of bones, but she ate it. I went to the store next to the reastuarnt, and purchased i think like 10 box drinks. I love ja box drinks, all flavors exept ginger and sorral. i think i got 12, 6 frozen and 6 non frozen. i drink two with a meal, and wanted both jose and shannon get the same amount of drinks as me. i know the frozen ones come in handy, they melt as needed, sonow with our bellys full we headed to srub a dub.

I am know dummy, i wanted jose, shannon and i to go to a concert later that night and wanted to save money buying my tickets in advanced. So we went to scrub a dub, and there was all kinds of prep going on getting ready for the show. Jose is known by it seems like everyone, we pulled up to the gate, he beeped, i jumped out of the car. jose pointed at a guy, i walked up to him and asked hime for three tickets. He said "its not my show, but hold on". The guy went through the gate and was gone about two minutes. Thats quick for jamaica, he comes back with three tickests and takes my money. I get in the car and jose tells me that was the owner of scub a dub. The show was some sort of ladies night show, It had Sheba, Lisa Hyper, Pamputee, just to name a few. it was when that song "fluffy vs slim" came out. all ladies on the bill.
so now we got tickets, next stop hi-low plaza. In case your wondering this aron trip i am in jose car not on scooter. We stop at plaza so i can get two towels and a carton of cigeretts. My friends i been buying stuff from for years, say "your Back", and send a girl to the back for a carton of my smokes. I felt big when he then said i got two towels you dont saved for you. Wow, a new island map, and a new sunset type. with smoke and towels another aron down. During the time i got tickets, then at plaza shopping, shannon was sitting in hot car. She was fine with it because she was enjoying talking to jose. this was there first time meeting so they both had all kinds of questions. each time i got back in the car i did an eye roll on the topic of there conversation. so next stop uncle dave's for a visit.

more to come

[Brianfrommass]

we take a left off of the cliff road right after the corner on the sea just past the hi-lo plaza. we head into red ground to uncle daves. uncle daves yard is on a back road up in rad ground. on his road it gets really rough. cars bottom out, this road destouys shocks. Shannon is takening in all of this. when we rach daves yard, Nikki his oldest daughter, 7 at the time is sitting on the stairs leading to the house waiting for us. She was playing with her barbies, and had a fresh braid in her hair. When i come to jamaica its a big deal for dave and hisfamily and his friends that are considered family. They get all dressed up, new hair doo's and you can see there excitment on seeing us. Nikki runs over gives me a big hug. I introduse shannon and nikki. Nikki was shy at first but by the time we left she was hanging all over shannon. Dave also has a baby lily anne wha was 1 at the time. she was shy the whole time, but let out the cutest good bye with her ja accent when we were leaving. Introduced shannon to dave and she instantly became confterble. Dave is a typical redneck from my town, he is just like the old men at the bar that my parents hang out at. She could tell he was my uncle, even tho he aint blood, we come from the same.
We caught up with him, he told us what was going on down there and we updated him on what was going on in our small town back home. The big talk was about getting thing all together for my moms 50th bday party a few days away (wensday, it was saturday). we desgussed a menue and who would be preparing what. I gave him some money to get some suppies. we needed to buy chicken to be cooked for the party and veggies and sides. Like some rice and pasta for a past salad. The party was all set to take place at yellow bird. A cottage would be rented and used for the party. my mom and her three friends would sleepthere that night. So party all set, ball is rolling. i got more thing to desguess with uncle dave

[Reggae Roy]

Keep it coming (from a fellow Massachusetts boardie).

[Brianfrommass]

Shannon really wanted her hair braided, but not regular braids, full head of mirco braids. Not only small braids on her whole head, but added hair to make longer or suttin. So i asked my go to guy, Uncle dave what and/or who to do hair. Well uncle dave had company in his house, his yard is shared and a girl from ochi was visting a friend in the yard and over heard our conversation. Dave asked if she done hair before, she answered she did that stuff all the time so Zoey, would be braidding shannons hair. We made plans to link up monday and get started on the hair. At this point in the day i am now starting to feel the effects of heat, travelling and no sleep. So we say good bye to uncle dave and the girls and jose drops us off at blue cave castle. I forgot to mention i bring down alot of stuff for my fam in jamaica. i bring the girls barbie dolls and coloring books and things. I gave the girsl each one gift, but nikki new more was comming. I brought a small goodie bag of sweeties for the girls for the first visit, when i left they were all jacked up on candy. Shannon mentioned she felt bad that dave had to deal the jacked up kids.

So when we got back to hotel, we unpacked alittle, used a twin bed to make to piles, stuff for us, the other pile gifts. I finally had enuff of the heat and defrosting. thru on my bathing suit, and waited for Shan to get ready to go down to the water. I brought my mask down and jumped right in. Snorkelled for a few minutes, made sure shannon was fine on the edge of cliff. She didnt want to go in, but did ip from the latter, girly style. We just kinda hung out by the water till sunset. we got out of the water and back to the rooms ajoinning patio with the lower tower room. Burned and watched the sunset. We had made planns for jose to pick us up for the concert around 11:30pm, thats early for jamaica, i thought, i know you old timers going holy crap thats late.
So i took a shower and headed by myself to get me and shannon some dinner before taking nap to go to show. I went to barrel guy in front of fisherman wharf bar. the one you pay the lady and get a ticket. I was supposed to be djing a party there the next night, but the police shut it down before party could even happen. I know the woman, she appoligized that we couldnt have party there, and gave me extra ticket for quaurter chicken, so i was happy. 3 quarter chix later i was back at castle
"what no sides" shannon asked. Its a snack, something in your belly. We snacked and then smoked ourselfs asleep.

well my alarm went off, about 11pm. i wanna say i got atleast a two hour nap maybe 3, but didnt want to get up so hiy dismiss. i thought about how i was waisting 3 tickets to concert. Kinda fell back asleep. I woke up to the phone vibrating. rolled over and about two minutes later i hear a whisper "yyooooooooooooo". It was jose, he was outside the window. I got up in my underwhare, gave jose the tickets. He said put on some cloths man, i said shannon not getting up, dont want get in trouble. "you can go just shut off the light" shannon said. I never put on cloths so fast in my life in the dark. Jose new what that ment so he jumped when she said that to the light switch and turned it off. I got dressed in the dark and jose waited for me in the car. The two amigo's were on our way. No women, on our way to scrub a dub. its about 12:30 at this point. On the way to srub a dub there is cars parked down the street. where the parking lot is for srub a dub is where the concert is tonight, out side. I stood on the pool deck for awhile, it was a nice spot to watch the show. The show itself very entertaining. The song "clarks" by vybez kartel had just came out, so each lady did there own version of the song. My favorite was "slippers" i think Sheba did it. the whole crowd roard when she did her version. we stayed way past the end of show, the normal bird cage part of the bar did not get opened til after the show, wich was after 3:30am. Jose brought me back to the castle, no problems getting back in late.

thats day one. more to come. sorry about my style and spelling. Hopefully gets better

[Brianfrommass]

I happen to be an early riser. I dont get people who sleep til noon. I am a dj who rocks a party til closing time 2am, then gotta wind down the adrenliene to go to bed and i am still up everymorning before 8am. Jamaica is the worst. go to bed at 5:30 am and i am up at 7:30am. Fyi- i take a nap almost eveyday though around 2pm.
This first morning in jamaica no diffrent, up before 7:30am. i am groggie but awake. i start my morning process wich envoles a morning toke. Shannon woke up to me hacking up a lung. GGlad it was early in the morning, feeling refreshed, she was in a good mood and ready to see jamaica. So we went down so i could wake up with a swim. I love jumping in the ocean and floarting around with my mask on seeing diffrent fish trying to get breakfast.
After a short swim we headeed to the room to get ready for the day. I burn easy, so we have a morning thing where i get covered in sun block if we going out on the bike, so we hit the road all blocked up. Now since i got the bike the day before, shannon has not been on it, i told her to wait until i got thru the gate and she would hop on outside the gate. She hops on alittle nervous, and we head twards town. I can tell she nervous, but smilling and taking it all in. I have been telling her about all these palces and now she seeing them for the first time. it was early, like before 9am whan we toched the road.

Our first stop was the bus park/free beach. I pulled into the craftmarket but tokk a right down the path twards the bar (where the parties are on sundays). We rolled up got of scooter and took helmet off. A guy was raking beach and some other guys had just pulled in with box truck. they were getting ready to unload speakers. the guy raking, new me form over the years being here and there, walked over to me with a fist pound and said suttin like back again. That made shannon smile. I showed her the beach, gave her enuff time to dip her feet in sand and sea. From there we went down the beach road. I started to point stuff out, she said something like "jose should me yesterday" in that annoying voice. so we did a quick up and down the beach road.

So after quick ride i decide i will show her one of my favorite hidden jels in jamaica. Those of you that kno how to get to red dragon from gas station, almost get there. on the road to sav, right before the first gas station,(not scub a dub road) that road before gas station will take you to the corner where the red dragon is. Well if you go straight up that road, past red dragon on the corner on right hand side is the road that will take you to tank hill. Drive all the way to the top of the hill/mountain and turn around. Wow what a view. Uncle dave also has property up there so i showed shannon his land. the roads wrap around up there so we did a quick scence tour.
From there our scooter tour countinued, we went on the road to sav to sheffeild. we stopped a few places along the way so i could let some people know i was in Jamaica. Right buy the negril golf coarse, is where jose lives. I stay with hime on most of my solo trips. i wanted to show shannon where i stay but he had already left for the day and gate was locked. Luckly for us some of the local charictars were around and she got to meet my good frend puntsy. Puntsy an older jamaica women, i was told she was a live one in her day, and still is now. Always singing and dancing. She has this high skreetch voice some say annoiying, Music to my ears. She introduced her self to shannon and started talking to her not paying any attention to me. Oh i get it she is the new and i am the old, ok. Shannon meets half of the neighbor hood, and we head back to negril. We stopped for lunch a small place across from the fire station, its on tank hill road. We order stew chix and curry goat. she aint a fan of the goat so i enjoy it myself. the rest of the day we kinda just chilled at castle, we nappeed until sunset then went to the canoe for dinner,
Georgina always rembers me, but never my name. She rembers i am the guy who stays in sheffeild with no fridge or stove. she know i stay with rasta in the hills. Respect. I introduced the ladies and got started on 2 for 1 rum punches, we ate in patio deck in back when food was ready, we ordered from the couches. I think i got snapper samwich with mango mayo, but not exactly sure, i get that alot. Other than our first night, we went to bed pretty early. our room didnt have tv, wich was fine for us, we had the radio on when we were awake in the room. it was fine. so early to bed day two

[Brianfrommass]

Hahah, i almost forgot, we went to bed early that night, but we met up with jose at the beach park/free beach for the sunday party. we did stay out that night til close til midnight. I know we went to that beach party and shannon had a good time, but was tired and we didint stay out to late. this was the day i was supposed to have my party so i was kinda bummed it got cancelled. Josey told us that he heard about a party in sheffield monday night, but babylon been shutting them down. so we made plans to link up monday night.

[Clarity]

Going to bed at 5:30 and waking up at 7:30 AM? I don't think I could manage that! Impressive!
Oh and we went to the beach park Sunday night party on our last trip too. I remember the huge speakers all piled up on top of eachother, forming this big wall. The bass was so loud that the ground was shaking. We were all dancing on the sand! Fun times.
I'm enjoying your trip report so far, look forward to hearing how your Mom's 50th B-day turned out