Spot the Safers!
Rich found some locals at the Cricket bar (or they found him!)
Rich found some locals at the Cricket bar (or they found him!)
Hidning out of the rain in the DJ booth
Pillagers new kitchen decorations!
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Fortunate Sun
Meet "Fortunate Sun" 177ft of privately owned luxury. She was renamed from "Perfect Prescription" from her drug running days and is now crewed by the Aussies we met at the cricket. We have no idea who her new owners are as the Aussies would not tell us, but she has a interesting history of being previously owned by a drug lord!
Basseterre
Today we spent the day walking around town and doing a bit of shopping, Basseterre is a quaint Caribbean town with lots of old world charm, we did not take any pictures or videos yet but we still have six days so we will defiantly post something to share with you so you know what we are talking about. Posting is a bit trickier with having to walk over the road to beg the Deli for airtime and also having a cricket game every second day.
We caught a taxi into town to The Circus, built and designed to be something similar to the London Piccadilly Circus, but obviously this one is much smaller! Surrounded by small hotels, shops and restaurants we exchanged money and spent some time browsing various touristy shops. We popped into Holland House, the Dutch pub that we have made our favourite watering hole, and bought some orange tee shirts for the Holland Vs Scotland game tomorrow. We have made friends with some of the local Dutch folk and we promised that we would lend our support on Thursday!
After the Dutch pub we took a walk to the Pelican Mall too have a look for some curios and Pirate goodies, not much going on there or at the market, which is kind of like Greenmarket square with stall after stall of the same crap, just replace the carved giraffes and soapstone with Rasta colours and anything with Bob Marleys face on it, yes the Rasta man is big here as well!
Port Zante mall was much better and had more variety, we bought various things from mugs to shot glasses to tee shirts and I even found a big Pirate flag for the pole at Clanwilliam! Nice!
After the Port Mall we took a walk down the breakwater and found the ferry terminal to Nevis, we were planning on going to Nevis today but we changed our plans last night because we are going there when we are on board the Cruise Ship. We have also booked ourselves onto a day sailing trip with a 70ft cat on Friday and that also visits Nevis when we stop at a deserted beach for snorkelling and a beach braai! I hope you are all enjoying life at the grindstone? ha ha! ;)
There was nothing of interest at the ferry terminal so we started looking for a place to eat and eventually settled at the Circus Grill. I enquired about the line fish and was given the choice of Snapper or Mhai Mhai, it was at this time our waitress informed us that Mhai Mhai is another local name for Dolphin. I also realised that I had the Mhai Mhai in Jamaica. Oh dear.
I hope she was confused and is not sure what a dolphin is, Richard (of course) dissolved into fits of silent laughter while it slowly sank into my brain that I may have eaten dolphin. I ordered the Lamb.
After a late lunch we caught a taxi back to our Inn and have been here since making phone calls and organising the rest of our tourist time here in St Kitts.
Tomorrow we are at the cricket in our newly acquired orange tees so if you are watching we will be at our normal possie on the grass next to the big TV.
Cheers!
We caught a taxi into town to The Circus, built and designed to be something similar to the London Piccadilly Circus, but obviously this one is much smaller! Surrounded by small hotels, shops and restaurants we exchanged money and spent some time browsing various touristy shops. We popped into Holland House, the Dutch pub that we have made our favourite watering hole, and bought some orange tee shirts for the Holland Vs Scotland game tomorrow. We have made friends with some of the local Dutch folk and we promised that we would lend our support on Thursday!
After the Dutch pub we took a walk to the Pelican Mall too have a look for some curios and Pirate goodies, not much going on there or at the market, which is kind of like Greenmarket square with stall after stall of the same crap, just replace the carved giraffes and soapstone with Rasta colours and anything with Bob Marleys face on it, yes the Rasta man is big here as well!
Port Zante mall was much better and had more variety, we bought various things from mugs to shot glasses to tee shirts and I even found a big Pirate flag for the pole at Clanwilliam! Nice!
After the Port Mall we took a walk down the breakwater and found the ferry terminal to Nevis, we were planning on going to Nevis today but we changed our plans last night because we are going there when we are on board the Cruise Ship. We have also booked ourselves onto a day sailing trip with a 70ft cat on Friday and that also visits Nevis when we stop at a deserted beach for snorkelling and a beach braai! I hope you are all enjoying life at the grindstone? ha ha! ;)
There was nothing of interest at the ferry terminal so we started looking for a place to eat and eventually settled at the Circus Grill. I enquired about the line fish and was given the choice of Snapper or Mhai Mhai, it was at this time our waitress informed us that Mhai Mhai is another local name for Dolphin. I also realised that I had the Mhai Mhai in Jamaica. Oh dear.
I hope she was confused and is not sure what a dolphin is, Richard (of course) dissolved into fits of silent laughter while it slowly sank into my brain that I may have eaten dolphin. I ordered the Lamb.
After a late lunch we caught a taxi back to our Inn and have been here since making phone calls and organising the rest of our tourist time here in St Kitts.
Tomorrow we are at the cricket in our newly acquired orange tees so if you are watching we will be at our normal possie on the grass next to the big TV.
Cheers!
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Some more pics.... from St Kitts
At the shiggady shack with Gibbs after he hit the 6 sixes!
James with Ntini after the SA vs Netherlands game
James in the street after the SA vs Netherlands game
Some of the aussies congregating around the bin during the Netherlands game?
The Dutch pub....
Rich with Ntini
Puerto Rico from the plane
Puerto Rico from the plane
Walking and walking....
After leaving the restaurant – we went back to the apartment at Gateway. It was still warm, and I wasn’t feling hundreds yet, but we caught a taxi to town to see what was happening.
We walked around looking at shops and around Port Zante to see where we are going to board the ship. There was some cool pirate stuff in some of the souvenir stores that we’ll probably go back to check out again before we leave. There were also a few luxury cruisers in the harbour which looked mighty playful, but cos of security we couldn’t get much closer. There was also a Carnival Cruise liner parked in the harbour. One of the shop owners said that it was leaving shortly – and we saw it set sail! He also said that there are about 14-18 cruise liners a month that stop in St Kitts – which is apparently quite low?
We decided to rather chow tacos with mince and stuff back at the apartment and spent the evening watching tv, preparing for the SA vs Scotland game today.
Waking up this morning we sort of just woke up around 8ish and slowly got our things together for the game. We caught the taxi with the other people staying here at Gateway which worked our quite nicely. Some of the Scottish were wearing kilts and the full battle gear – that must have been warm! Also – they had SERIOUSLY PINK FEET!!!!! Someone must really tell them about sunscreen!
At the game we parked off in the usual spot – this time next to some aussies. Lets just say – aussies are a strange breed. Some of them at the game were wearing really short shorts, and they were rubbing sunscreen on each other! We sort of kept quite and minded our own business. But – in spite of this – half of them were also SUPER pink!
Anyways… for some reason Scotland batted first, and posted a score of about 187/7 (cant remember the exact details) in the 50 overs. We came it pretty quickly, and inspite of the rain in the 19th over – we came back to beat them in just 23overs! But – in the last 4 or 5 overs of the match – the bar ran out of rum, so we moved on to vodka and 7UP. Let me just say – they pout the vodka a lot heavier than the rum!
We also spoke to some guys who were out from St Martin watching the game. They are the crew on a ship called the Fortunate Sun – which is about 180ft! They said it’s a private boat, and this was the first day they had off since Jan 22, and the only people using the oat have been the family of the owner. He wouldn’t let us know who the guy was, but at 180ft – he must be worth a fortune. We reckon it may be one of the CCR guys cos of the name? He said we can check it out on Yachtspotters.com
After the game we stuck around to finish our drinks… The SA team came back out on to the field, and played some soccer, and kicked the ball AT each other. We were too far away to get any decent pictures – but it was funny!
We merrily left the stadium and went to the dutch pub again, and had a drink, but it wasn’t too festive, so we went looking for more. We ended up at Subway to get a 12” sandwich each and then caught a taxi home. Didn’t seem like much point in staying in town since we’re going to Nevis tomorrow for a 20/20 match and hopefully to play a good game of beach cricket!
We’re back in the apartment now, about to head to the restaurant now to post some stuff…and hopefully more photos.
Monday, 19 March 2007
Internet
Well after depriving you guys of decent Internet surfing for the last few days we have discovered that the restaurant across the road has a free wireless network and the lady that works here is very friendly and is letting us use it! So... WE'RE BACK!
e-mails to follow shortly :)
e-mails to follow shortly :)
The day after!
Rich here….
We just woke up after a HEAVY ONE. And the aircon in the room doesn’t seem to be working too well! But , lets see… um the Netherlands got beaten quite convincing by the Aussies – much to our disappointment!
We took a bit of a walk yesterday down to the beach at Frigate bay to see what the place looked like. It was pretty cool standing on the hill abt 200m down the road and being able to see both sides of the island. We walked for a bit, then got a lift from an American whose wife was studying at the nurses school. He was on the way to the Marriot to do some gambling, and dropped us off at the road down to Oasis – where we signed the wall. Getting to the beach – the sand was pretty dark, like volcanic type. OMY- Texas walker is on the USA channel now – unreal. Anyways We walked down the beach, and I must say – It looked a whole lot nicer on Friday night. Mr X’s watersports is supposed to be THE place to do jetskiing etc, but most of the equipment parked on the beach looked completely toasted. Walking down to the Marriot, the Banana Bus stopped and the guy gave us his card, and recommended that we organise a trip round the island with him. He showed us his rum, and pumped his sound system to show us his bus. Seemed like a cool tour to go on.
We kept walking passed the Marriot, trying to find a way back. There was a golf course on the left, with a driving range and it seemed like a better idea to go round the back of the golfers, so we did. Maxwell showed up a little while later telling us that we weren’t supposed to be there, and he gave us a lift in his golf cart abt 70% of the way back. Shyte – we had walked a long way! In the cart he was telling us that there were riots etc back in Pakistan cos they were playing so badly, and that the coach wasn’t allowed back into the country. This was after Ireland beat them the day before.
After getting back to the hotel, we were watching the game, and heard that the Pakistan coach had been killed in his room – apparently he was shot? I guess some people take the game a little too seriously! Anyways, we chilled for most of the day and watched tv and made burgers. Around 6ish we headed back to the dutch pub for some drinks. We bumped into the aussies from Friday night, and bought tickets for the Neth vs Scots game on Thursday. We had a beer, then stepped up after that. And did we step up! The rum and coke was in a small cups and was about 70% rum 20% ice and the rest coke. After the first one, I think I was feeeenished, but we kept going. Some of the dutch team rocked up a little later, and I got my pic taken with the guy who Gibbs hit for 6 sixes. He seemed like a pretty cool chap.
James was talking to one of the guys as well, and asked him where he was from. The dude was like “Im one of the dutch players”, he did some quick back peddling to say “Oh yeah, why didn’t you say so”. We’re not too sure what time we left, but at the end if the night, we had about 3 dollars, and 40 Jamaican between us, and of course 2 drinks cos we figured we were going to walk home. Luckily we got a taxi who accepted the money we had.
I woke up this morning, finding my camera on the one couch and my wallet on the table, I thought I drank them both out. James made bacon and eggs this morning, which has probably saved us!
We’re planning on heading in to town today to hopefully post this on the net.
Speak later….
Irie!
We just woke up after a HEAVY ONE. And the aircon in the room doesn’t seem to be working too well! But , lets see… um the Netherlands got beaten quite convincing by the Aussies – much to our disappointment!
We took a bit of a walk yesterday down to the beach at Frigate bay to see what the place looked like. It was pretty cool standing on the hill abt 200m down the road and being able to see both sides of the island. We walked for a bit, then got a lift from an American whose wife was studying at the nurses school. He was on the way to the Marriot to do some gambling, and dropped us off at the road down to Oasis – where we signed the wall. Getting to the beach – the sand was pretty dark, like volcanic type. OMY- Texas walker is on the USA channel now – unreal. Anyways We walked down the beach, and I must say – It looked a whole lot nicer on Friday night. Mr X’s watersports is supposed to be THE place to do jetskiing etc, but most of the equipment parked on the beach looked completely toasted. Walking down to the Marriot, the Banana Bus stopped and the guy gave us his card, and recommended that we organise a trip round the island with him. He showed us his rum, and pumped his sound system to show us his bus. Seemed like a cool tour to go on.
We kept walking passed the Marriot, trying to find a way back. There was a golf course on the left, with a driving range and it seemed like a better idea to go round the back of the golfers, so we did. Maxwell showed up a little while later telling us that we weren’t supposed to be there, and he gave us a lift in his golf cart abt 70% of the way back. Shyte – we had walked a long way! In the cart he was telling us that there were riots etc back in Pakistan cos they were playing so badly, and that the coach wasn’t allowed back into the country. This was after Ireland beat them the day before.
After getting back to the hotel, we were watching the game, and heard that the Pakistan coach had been killed in his room – apparently he was shot? I guess some people take the game a little too seriously! Anyways, we chilled for most of the day and watched tv and made burgers. Around 6ish we headed back to the dutch pub for some drinks. We bumped into the aussies from Friday night, and bought tickets for the Neth vs Scots game on Thursday. We had a beer, then stepped up after that. And did we step up! The rum and coke was in a small cups and was about 70% rum 20% ice and the rest coke. After the first one, I think I was feeeenished, but we kept going. Some of the dutch team rocked up a little later, and I got my pic taken with the guy who Gibbs hit for 6 sixes. He seemed like a pretty cool chap.
James was talking to one of the guys as well, and asked him where he was from. The dude was like “Im one of the dutch players”, he did some quick back peddling to say “Oh yeah, why didn’t you say so”. We’re not too sure what time we left, but at the end if the night, we had about 3 dollars, and 40 Jamaican between us, and of course 2 drinks cos we figured we were going to walk home. Luckily we got a taxi who accepted the money we had.
I woke up this morning, finding my camera on the one couch and my wallet on the table, I thought I drank them both out. James made bacon and eggs this morning, which has probably saved us!
We’re planning on heading in to town today to hopefully post this on the net.
Speak later….
Irie!
St Kitts
We have arrived in St kitts and most disappointingly we have no wireless at the hotel, so our posting will slowdown but we will try our best!
We last posted from the Kingston airport via a rather expensive Credit Card activated wireless network, that was on Thursday so we will try and remember what we have been up to since then!
We checked out of the Liguanea Club at about 8am and drove our hire car to the airport, when we arrived the guys were not there to collect the hire car we backtracked to the Royal Jamaican Yacht Club to admire the boats, very impressive! Mostly big fishing cruisers. When we got back to the airport we had to wait another 10mins for the people who were collecting the car, when they finally arrived we handed over the car without any hassles and went to check in.
The departure lounge was OK, not as good as the one on Montego Bay but we passed some time looking at the shops. We found out that there was a wireless network but it needed a credit card to access it, Richard did the honours, while we sat at the bar and drank out the last of our Jamaican Dollars! And that was the last time you heard from us.
Jamaican Fire Truck
The flight to Antigua was about 3hrs passing over quite a few of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean which made for interesting views. We had about 2hrs in the transfer lounge at Antigua, the shops took up about 5mins of that and the rest was sitting and waiting. The plane that would take us to St Kitts was about the size of a Golden Arrow bus, with propellers strapped on the side! The flight took about 20mins and Im glad the age of propeller driven aeroplane is over as I had quite a headache by the time we arrived, might also have had something to do with the time spent at the Kingston Airport bar trying to drink out J$!
We caught a taxi Gateway Inn with a rather excitable taxi driver, who really liked our Tour Shirts! Most of the people we have met want to join our “Official drinking Team”!
Our hotel is nice, more like a motel, all on one level and is similar to a row of semidetached houses and about twice the size of my flat.
We got a relatively early night after a quick beer and hamburger at the restaurant over the road. The next day was the first SA game and what a game it turned out to be!
The day started well and we caught a taxi to the stadium with the other fans staying here, 2 Aussies, 2 South African on one Scot so that worked out a bit cheaper. The saving in money was short lived once we got to the gate and Rich realised he had left the tickets on the table back at the hotel!! Another US$12 back to fetch them! We rushed back to find that the start of the game was delayed because of the rain the night before, and it eventually got underway at 12:00, 3 hrs late! Im sure you all watched the game so I wont go into details but wow what a game! 3 records broken by SA Gibbs hit 6 6’s in one over Boucher scored the fastest 50 ever off 21 balls and I cant remember the other one!
We have tickets to the “Party Stand” which includes lunch and 8 drinks of choice, no arm-twisting necessary for the rum! They were serving El Dorado 12year old, voted “the best rum in the world” by a panel of clever people, and I agree, it went down like cool drink! After the first couple of rum ‘n cokes we got to know the barman who preferred the Safircans to the Aussies and started getting heavy handed with the rum! We then came up with an ingenious plan of using one drink ticket to get a whole cup of rum and paying cash for a bottle of coke, as you can imagine things went down hill from there!
After the game we walked down to the town square in search of a party, there was a concert in the park but it was flooded with local and no tourists so the search continued! Eventually we found a Dutch pub to gate crash! Everything and everyone was orange, we were in green, thankfully the Dutch are friendly folk and we were soon all good mates! We had good fun with them until it started to empty out, no idea what time this was but I spose it must have been about 7pm, the night was still young!
We caught a taxi to Frigate Bay beach and settled into a beach bar with some American students a few minutes later Charl Langeveld arrived so we had a chat and a few beers with him, he remembered us from the game (we kept offering him rum!) and he was pleased we made the trip all the way from SA to come and support the team!
We decided to find another bar and walked down the beach to the “Siggidy Shack” and found the rest of the SA team! We had a great time with them, what a great bunch of guys! They all had loads of time for us and, like Charl, were really pleased that we came to support them.
You guys who were on the Rugby tour to JHB last year will remember that we were on the same plane as Graeme Smith and that I told him we would be in the Caribbean and that he must keep an eye out for us, AND HE REMEMBERED US FROM BACK THEN!! But he must have thought I was kidding because he was really surprised to see us there! We were stoked that he remembered!
The Officail Drinking Team with Graeme and Ashwell
We hung out with the boys for a bit and decided to go back to the other bar, unfortunately it was around this time that we got separated! I looked for Rich for what felt like forever but it was probably more like 10mins! I then found a taxi to take me home lucky I had the keys! On the way we drove past Richard who had decided to walk back so we stopped to pick him up.
We woke up way too early on Saturday with a hangover of note and no food in the house, so we braved a walk to the supermarket to get some supplies, mainly bacon and eggs! The walk seem to take way too long, it really looked much shorted out the window of the taxi the day before! Thankfully the locals took pity and we were offered a lift in both directions. The bacon and eggs went down well as would be expected and the rest of the day was spend doing nothing but recovering!
Today, Sunday, the Aussies are playing the Dutch and we promised the Dutch we met at the pub that we would be at the game today wearing orange, unfortunately we are not going to make it but I’m sure we will see them at the Dutch pub after that game!
The Aussies are not fairing so good and are 145-3 and unfortunately the Dutch also dropped 2 catches! GO NEDERLANDS!!!
Our Next game is on Tuesday so if we are not able to post before them make sure you keep an eye out for us!!!
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