Travels by Bus
See the world on bus, ON foot & on my own.
BARBADOS
A honeymoon destination, not.
Dec 2000
07
days
When people talked about Barbados or the Caribbean, I automatically associated it with romance and beauty. In our opinion, Barbados itself is neither romantic nor beautiful (in comparison to the islands in Asia). It was just a very expensive place which catered mainly to British and American tourists.
Barbados is about 8 hours from London. We flew by Virgin Airlines and they addressed us as "virgin passengers". What do they know?!
Anyway, I love the airline. Each of us had a travellers' kit - a vinyl waterproof bag (for the beach). In it, there was a toothbrush/paste with a duckie at the tip & SMINT (the fresh maker), lip balm (for the beach), a pair of brightly coloured socks/eyemask/ear plugs (for a good rest), and notepad/pen (to take down the number of someone you fancy on flight or on the beach?! Great idea, Richard! And the headsets came in bright blue or translucent white. It really made other airlines dull in comparison.
Being Asian, I guess, I attracted a lot of attention. It's funny coz there were quite a number of Chinese restaurants and shops yet I haven't seen any resident-Chinese during my week-stay in Barbados.
We didn't really have Bajan food except plantain (stir fried bananas). We only had English/American breakfast every morning which filled us up for the day, and Western dinner. If, however, I must recommend places to eat, it will be Ryanne at Rockeley Beach, Bean & Bagel at St Lawrence Gap (very good muffins) and Oistins Fish Market for (grilled) fish/seafood. But the best was on the day-trip, on board Scarramouche!
Oistins Fish Market was fun. There was a mobile disco on Friday night when we were there. Everyone just boogied. There was another outlet playing music from the 20s/30s - older people were dancing and really good at it too. What surprised us was the number of on-lookers though.
We wanted to go on tours like the submarine tour and the safari tour but they ran only on specific days & we seemed to miss them.
In the end, we explored Barbados on foot, and by public bus which was a great way to travel actually because each journey cost only B1.50 (US75p). We went as far as the Wildlife Reserve in the North, and Silver Sands in the East.
Usually there are mini-van-taxis for shorter distances. These are 12-seater mini-van but will pack in as many people as possible. Occasionally someone had to be a hunchback or do the horse stand. The squeeze is bearable but the music is too much. You see, the Bajans likes to turn up the bass so you hear only BOOM-BOOM-BOOM all the time.
We stayed at the Accra Beach Resort on Rockley Beach when we first arrived. We took a leisurely walk on the beach the next day to BridgeTown which is like the capital of Barbados. It was a long walk of about 4 - 5km but we had fun. We met a few seashell-sellers, a lady who wanted to braid my hair, and lastly we came to an establishment called the Boat Yard. It's a drink stop/pub. You have to purchase a ticket of US$10 per person. With that, you get drink coupons and free use of the beach chairs, jet skis, canoes and a floating trampoline platform parked in the middle of the sea for the whole day. We could see why so many people have parked themselves here, but we didn't share in their enthusiasm on a crowded beach so we left after a pina-colada drink. YUMMY!
At BridgeTown, there's a mini marina. It's quite nice to take a relaxed afternoon here. The shopping street is just a stone's throw away. I'm quite surprised to find many jewelry shops here. Obviously catering to tourists but I think they should increase the variety of souvenirs.
Accra Beach Resort has 122 rooms, offering sea or garden view. I prefer small establishments so after 2 nights, we moved to The Gallery on St Lawrence Gap. There were more shops, restaurants, hotels & night spots in St Lawrence Gap which was great. There's also a football field/basketball court but you don't see anyone playing. Actually, while roaming the streets, even in the residential area, we have not come across children playing on the street. Where do the children play???
The real Carribean starts
We wanted to island-hop and the only one available to us was the one-day tour to the Grenadines, the French speaking Caribbean.
We flew there on a 10-seater, twin-engine aircraft which meant 8 passengers because 2 seats were for the pilots.
We took our weight individually before flight. This was also before our breakfast so we wonder how effective was this afterall. The aircraft
fit us just nicely. There was no room for any air hostess and the door was locked from the outside. Made me wonder what happened if someone wanted to fart?! We wouldn't have time to throw him overboard!
After some photo-taking, it was snooze time. Thank God it was only 55 minutes from Barbados to Union Bay.
The airport at Union Bay is just a strip of runway and a shed. We didn't waste any time there. We took an electric tram (which is like an extended golf buggy) to the marina to board our sail boat - Scaramouche - "a wooden Schooner, not a yacht or a Catamaran". It's a beautiful sailboat, very majestic in her way, the first romantic encounter so far on this trip. Drinks and food is served on board. My nonalcoholic friend was brave to ask for the Rum Punch but had to feed to the fish after a sip. Lunch was yellowish rice with the most tender chicken. To think that the cook prepared these in a kitchenette on board Scaramouche?! Some of us have larger kitchen & can't even do half she could!
Christmas carols were played on the radio, much to the amusement of the Europeans on board. I didn't think too much about it until "Chestnut roasting on an open fire". This is definitely not in the Caribbean.
A tugboat was tied to the Scaramouche which was used to bring us to shore whenever we called at a stop - at Mayreau, Tobago Cays and Palm Island, to snorkel or chill. Palm Island is a private resort while Tobago Cays is not inhabited.
At the end of the day, we still didn't know the names of the other travellers on board the Scaramouche but by:
The girl-with-boobs-falling-out-of-her-bikinis; and her diver-boyfriend;
The lucky-son-of-a-bitch-who-were-paid-to-take-landscape-shots-of-the-Caribbean; and his not-so-lucky-assistant because he has to lug the heavy camera equipment bags around;
The old couple who was the envy of everyone. What's their secret to their staying power (in marriage)?
And, finally, us, the couple-who-kept-reading-sex-tips-from-MEN'S-HEALTH-magazine as if on a last-minute panic on sex-tips ;-)
Last but not least, the couple-who-made-out-in-the-sea.
The Carribean islands are as beautiful as we had imagined it to be. That itself made it a nice romantic getaway afterall.
