To Jamaica and back

Another check on my travel itinerary for life - Jamaica - Montego Bay and Negril; husband and I made a trip for our anniversary. This was the first trip officially we have had since we got married - just the two of us and to celebrate our anniversary. I enjoy spontaneous holidaying and dont particulary like those "very typical" holidaying that people do, religiously spend the first anniversary at Hawaii or Vegas, yep I find it typical and boring. This time I wanted to go to the Rockies and Banff in Canada and relax a day or two in Vancouver. I prefer the active sight seeing places where you can visit musueums, national parks, scenic drives - I basically need continous sight seeing actively, and travel across places, while my husband needs to relax, he just prefers going to one place and back and whatever activties it is do it in that very same place. Added Jamaica, Hawaii are in the bottom of my list of places to see cos the kind of fun I have had at the beach in Goa and Kovalam in India, I simply think nothing can beat that. I love the beach at Goa and thats it, nothing can match my country's beach. Hawaii might have that extra Polynesian culture attaraction, but which I also had the taste of while living in New Zealand, we had people there from all those Polynesian islands and I was even able to recognize Tongan and Samoan languages sometime back ;)

Anyway P won the battle and we picked Jamaica. As usual last minute packing and rushed to the airport. As soon as we landed it just seemed like a rural town in India. The resort by itself reminded me of coastal Karnataka/Kerala. The banana and coconut trees, the sultry weather etc. First day we explored the resort, checked out the options we had on things to do etc. Since it was a package most of the activities were included in our package including food and alcohol. From second day there was no looking back. We did para sailing and jet skiiing and went sailing. Jet skiing I had already done in Goa, but this time my husband himself jet skiied I was the pillion rider so it was a lot of fun, my husband did snorkling, took wind surfing lessons and happily wind surfed on the Caribbean sea while I enjoyed the Jamaican rum to the last drop (Rum punch/Pina Colada et al; I happen to really savor Rum, so I obviously enjoyed myself). Unfortunately I didnt enjoy para sailing at all, I was too scared to have my life hanging on to a rope, however strong it maybe, and I held on to the side straps so tightly, my arms really hurt for a day or two, while my husband didnt enjoy it for a totally opposite reason, he expected it to go higher and be more fun and he thought the guy ripped us off by taking us only for 10 minutes instead of a good half hour. No way I could have been hanging like that for 30 mins praying and scared! And now I wonder if I will ever sky dive or try the hot air balloon, sigh! Snorkling wasnt my thing either, I cannot imagine 'not breathing', I panic - so I didnt want to put myself through it. Maybe the only place I will force myself to give it a try will be Great Barrier Reef when ever it is, if I ever visit OZ.

We had some good veggie options available at all the restaurants at the resort. We especially enjoyed Zucchini cakes and vegetable kebabs. We tried the Thai restaurant at the resort, one of the days was international food special, so there was really good Italian food too. People were really friendly and approachable. Since they won all those medals at the Olympics while we were in Jamaica, it added that extra festivity. I believe a lot of Indians (Indian origin) are well settled in West Indes. The locals told us that all doctors are of Indian origin there. When I went to the spa, this lady looked totally Jamaican but was mentioning how her grand father was Indian and they all believe that Indians are really beautiful and people with mixed (east) Indian race are considered good looking in Jamaica, now that made me surely proud :) In fact at the spa, they totally played Hindustani music while I relaxed and had my massage and it was a great feeling (I enjoy Hindustani you see).

I have to admit 4-5 days on the beach was great fun. I actually lasted without getting antsy in one place for 5 days at a stretch while on a vacation, which is pretty good. The long walks, the sunset by the beach, and the amazingly soft sand (one of the softest sandy beach I have ever been too undoudtedly is in Jamaica). Not to mention I utlized all my beach wear and clothes which were not used for ages. My sample from work of Banana Boat sun block was utilized to the fullest, but yet we did get tanned a bit.

We also went to the Rick's cafe, apparently voted the among the 10 best cafes in the world. The cafe food by itself was ordinary, but the location was deadly! The sunset was absolutely beautiful. The whole setting was very serene to look at yet the place was very lively, with tourists, a local band entertaining guests with Reggae. And I happened to taste the strongest Rum based drink ever here.

Our journey back wasnt as smooth as the flight to Jamaica, unfortunately the plane had some issues and didnt take off at Montego bay, and passengers were all put up in Ritz Carlton, but the whole day was wasted at the airport. US Airways gave us 5 different reasons every hour (mechanical issue/maintenance issue/ a red light that wont turn off/ reconfiguring something - the highlight was when the pilot announced if he could borrow someone's cell phone to call US and get some instructions from the service center at Pittsburgh or somewhere in the US) and finally the airline said we will only leave next day at 8am and we had to leave Ritz at 5:30am the next day to get there in time. Ritz Carlton was absolutely stunning, a huge hotel, but unfortunately I was tierd to enjoy it and since we had to be at the airport early morning we barely did anything that evening. I was kind of unhappy of losing an extra day vacation at work because of this too. Next day morning, we check in as usual at the airport and the 8am becomes 9am and then it becomes 10am. The pilot and crew members arrive just in time before boarding the 10am flight. And you should have seen the reaction, passengers were absolutely bugged. Obviously the crew members knew in advance it would be that late but just cos the airlines didnt want so many passengers having breakfast at the Ritz they made everyone get up so early and caused inconvenience was the conclusion drawn by everyone. Well the dinner was very expensive at Ritz and then the stay for all the 150 passengers, so I can imagine feeding the plane full of passengers again with breakfast was too much for the airline. They however issued us breakfast coupons of $12 each at the airport, so now that rumor was confirmed. Then the reason we were told for delay to 10am is cos Charlotte airport's customs opens only at 2pm. Ah! so the airlines knew this in advance and they just fooled us and kept us waiting since early morning? I didnt care I just wanted to be in US at that point of time. Passengers were swearing, cursing and taking oaths to never visit Jamaica again. Well I dont know if the country is to be blamed for US Airways cheap tricks but I guess people end up remembering the inconvenience more than how much fun past few days of vacation might have been. But the airline did give some travel vouchers to passengers after reaching Charlotte. And that was another drama, they issued it to some passengers, who advised us to go pick it up as well and when we went to the counter, the person tried to pretend there was no such vouchers that were ever given. I pursued and argued and finally he gave it to us. Hopped on to our flight to Boston and was glad to be home.

Back home, there is so much to catch up, work/emails, friends, family, etc etc Back to routine. Now Jamaica feels like as if it were a dream. Yeah Mon! :)