Mr. X Does Negril (2010) with No Reservations
Chapter 15 (cont) – MBJ Airport
Touchdown.
Cool
2:47pm we are on the ground. Suppose to be 2:07pm. Considering we left late and get delayed landing flying to foreign country so 40 minutes late is not bad. Try to stay calm. As usual got to wait to get off plane. Wife turns her phone on to get any news of friends. Text Granville we hit ground. Little tired. Little dizzy. Getting my land legs back. Try to stay ahead of soon to be big line of landing planes and people. Bathroom can wait. Lets go!
This is going to be a trip where planning rewards the experienced traveling researcher and cuts all the bs out. I am the man. Get all the way to front and hand forms to customs guy. “Finish filling out forms over there sir” he says. I look at form and somehow I forgot to fill out back questions. Damn. I am big time idiot. Look back and there are about 5 people in line behind me and then there is a gap of 100 yards or so until the next big group of hundreds of people are headed my way. So I step out of line check the freaking 4 boxes (no, no, no and no) that I guess I did not remember despite this being my 8th trip to Jamaica or the fact that I had 3 hours plus delays on plane. Whatever. Don’t mind it being a small thing. No way in hell I am going to let a hundred people jump me in line. Boxes checked and jump back in line before big group gets to desk. Guy waves us through. Takes an extra 3 minutes. No problem.
Talk to Granville on phone tell him it will be just a few minutes. Tired. And apparently brain dead. No time for more stupid mistakes. After we get bags I ask a local which exit for cabs. (remember last year going out wrong exit?) He points. We go out. No tour buses. Cool. Boss sees Granville and is yelling. They both get a text from our friends that they have landed ….
Kool
In Kingston.
Not Kool
Lol. What you going to do?
Fortunately I had read about this exact thing happened to people on the negril.com board. Nothing to do. Way too far to drive. When it takes off it is like a 15 minute flight. No choice but wait. Weather is cleared to land so hopefully they will walk out in a half hour or so.
No big deal we can catch up with Granville. Bar right there. Lug all the suitcases over and plop down. About every 10 minutes I get up and walk around area. Check and see if their flight has landed. Because of the weather all flights delayed. Lots and lots of people waiting for friends and family. Probably about 1% tourists rest local nobody tries to sell me anything. Too funny. Now I could have bought anything I wanted but if you are trying to sell stuff to tourists you are on the wrong side of the airport. I guess they figure if you are on this side not ur first rodeo. If I get anywhere near curb cab drivers are trying to get my attention. They are also doing it to the locals.
I have been back to Jamaica for 30 minutes and I have already got 7 forms of no down. Verbal, head shake, ignore, arm wave, hand wave and finally the single finger wiggle. I know that’s only 6 but 7 is when I really mean Hell to the NO!!!
Nice area to wait. Looks like under a bridge but I guess that’s just the metal roof. Completely opened to the street but since it does not get cold. Does not matter. Food and drinks available several places. Womens Field Hockey Jamaica vs England on bar tv. These are not girls these are women. Bad reception but I am pretty sure I could get into this sport.
They must not have all the state of the art equipment because that board keep saying they were about to land for over an hour. They were in airport for an hour while it only took us 15 minutes to come out. They come out of airport at 430pm. 3 hours late. 1 ¾ hours after we walked out. (Who is that bringing Newbies to the rock since 1969? Nick? Waiting on Newbies since 1969 I bet. lol) If we had known we may have left the airport but the airport board kept saying it was landing any minute. Lines were very long inside airport. We are tired. They are tired. But all excited to finally make it. Once we cram all 5 of us and luggage, lots of luggage, into Granvilles car we are FINALLY on vacation.
