One Lap Around Jamaica

[Flipadelphia26]

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

[RockRobster]

View from my room at the Mayfair Hotel

[RockRobster]

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

:d

feh!

[johng]

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.

[RockRobster]

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"...

[Bnewb]

Road to Casino...

[RockRobster]

Is that Devon House on the left?

[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..?

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

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

[poolguywindsor]

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!

[Bnewb]

Is that Devon House on the left?

That would be Jamaica House to the left.