On Board the Carnival Victory: Pirates of the Caribbean

I remember when I was working in MAS, in the Organising Secretariat for the Singapore 2006 IMF & World Bank Annual Meeting, we would receive RSVPs from various governors and Heads of State in response to the social events that we were organising in conjunction with the main meetings. There were a few names from exotic-sounding countries like St Thomas and St Kitts & Nevis. I knew little else about these tiny nations, other than the fact that they were part of the Caribbean. My mind would draw a total blank when I tried to picture their location on the world map.

So the thought of visiting a string of these exotic Caribbean isles proved very exciting to us indeed. Out of the 7 cruise destinations that we covered, we had a couple of favourite ports-of-call while others didn't quite appeal to us very much. This is going to be a picture-book entry. Mainly because writing about 7 places in detail in a single entry is going to keep me up all night. And also, having more pictures goes to prove that we did more on the cruise than check out the buffets.

1. San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dan's done a pretty detailed recap of our day exploring the city like a couple of wet dogs. Thankfully the weather cleared up in the evening and we got a view of the waterfront looking quite pretty in the night.

View from our ship, looking over at the Royal Caribbean vessel docked next to us

2. Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas

We woke up to a beautiful view of St Thomas. Pretty white houses capped with red roofs dotted the hills throughout. Little white yachts bobbed gently on the still waters of the harbour. Simply serene.

A picture of serenity that can still and quieten the most frantic heartbeat

We wandered around the shops a bit but didn't find anything to our liking or budget. There was a cable car ride to a viewpoint on the hill but we didn't go on it because:

(i) it was a gloomy, cloudy day - not the best for photography;

(ii) we had a pretty good view of St Thomas from the ship deck already;

(iii) we were quite fanatical about keeping our spending to the bare minimum after suffering some hard-to-swallow damage in the Bahamas and Puerto Rico; and

(iv) we were quite happy sitting in a Philippino Internet cafe under a speaker blasting songs from the late King of Pop and being amused at the sight of a bustling Philippino community on this tiny faraway isle.

Staying grounded in St Thomas, which has a rather pretty and colourful dockside scene

3. Roseau, Dominica

This is my favourite port-of-call. I loved the riot of colours splashed all over town - buildings in candy hues and old school murals depicting ketchup bottles and tins of luncheon meat (yes, that makes pretty good public art!) It was bloody hot walking around while lugging our laptops and cameras, and my blistered feet (thanks to the awfully long road march to Old San Juan the day before) were protesting like mad, but it was hard to tear ourselves away, even though we were absolutely dying for the air-conditioned comfort of the ship.

For charming the socks off us, Dominca gets the most number of photos in this entry.

Yup, it's true that Chinese food finds its way into every corner of the planet

Who needs to take out advertisements in the papers when you can just paint on the wall?

I love how they even painted half the packet of baking on the window pane, so that the picture looks complete even with the window open.

Maggi brand is really popular here! It's on walls, umbrellas, everything.

Making a big BIG statement

Only the stone facade was left of this old broken-down house. I hope the new owner preserves it.

Still smiling pretty even though I made him pose with this frightfully girly pastel combination of purple, cream and grey.

I love the stone facade and mosiac border on this wall. Man, I even like the swirly patten on the wooden board!

Fruit juice stand against a backdrop of green, red and yellow - a popular colour combination in the Caribbean.

Red, yellow and green combi again at the market place

Checking out the roadside stall selling pirated movies - a luxury we Singaporeans no longer have

Designed to make you thirsty

3. Bridgetown, Barbados

Barbados turned out to be a total disappointment. Maybe it was because we didn't head for the beach like everyone else. Yes, there ARE days when we really don't feel like being at the beach. Mostly cos we are too stingy to rent an umbrella (ever since we had to leave our K-Mart one behind in Miami) and it's sometimes hard to enjoy the beach without an ounce of shade.

We found Bridgetown messy, chaotic, un-pretty and totally charmless, and ended up trudging around town, seeking out unsecured WiFi networks to tap into. Even if it meant sitting on the hard dirty floor in a secret stairway until our butts turned blue from the lack of circulation (see Dan's upcoming entry.)

Excited at being in Barbados...

... but bored to the bones in Bridgetown

4. Castries, St Lucia

We found our way to Reduit Beach after navigating a puzzle comprising narrow city streets and a busy bus terminal, and doing some guesswork as to where we were suppose to get off the bus. We thought that we would finally have a chance to put our new US$5 snorkels to good use but the water proved too murky for us to see much, except for some fishy shapes at shallower depths.

Grilling in the full blast of the sun cos we're too ngiao to pay for an unbrella

Does anyone remember this cartoon from the '80s called The Snorkels?

Waiting for the spit in my mask to dry. It may sound gross but it keeps your mask from fogging up.

5. St John's, Antigua

Oleks, one of the waiters onboard the ship, told us that Antigua was a great beach destination with more than 365 beaches on the island - a beach for each day of the year! A cab driver approached us at the pier, offering to take us to Dickenson Bay for US$10 each way. We weighed convenience against price, opted for the lazy way and hopped on. Less than 10 minutes later, we found ourselves on a touristy patch of sand, dotted with other cruise passengers lolling around on their Carnival Cruises beach towels. As with all other touristy beaches, Dickenson Bay was teeming with vendors hawking banana boat rides, jetskis, handicrafts, etc. A little too crowded for our liking, but it made for a pleasant enough afternoon in Antigua.

Quiet time - in between being approached to buy grass hats, shell necklaces and beads

Pretty blue waters, but not clear enough for snorkelling

6. Basseterre, St Kitts & Nevis

Along with Roseau, we liked Basseterre for its colourful buildings and colonial charm. We settled down to a very simple afternoon programme which involved people-watching from an open-air balcony, WiFi, conch fritters and iced tea. On the way back to the ship, we chanced upon a small park and made a small detour to gawk at a brilliant Flame of the Forest tree in full bloom and to play in fire-engine red phone booths.

Striding through the streets of Basseterre

Watching the world go by at the main roundabout in town...

... from a cheery colourful cafe.

The only time we paid for a meal while on the cruise - conch fritters. A Caribbean specialty. In my opinion - all air (literally) and nothing to shout about

Under the Sea! (literally) Hee hee :P

The sky on fire

Paying homage to the Travellers Palm - in hope that we will be able to carry our year-long trip to full term

And that puts a wrap to our jaunt around the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we didn't get to fulfil our Kokomo Dream - Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and Monserrat were out of our reach this time. We'll just have to put our exploration of the Caribbean Sea on hold for now and come back when we're a bit richer. Maybe in 10 years time, maybe 20, maybe even more. Who knows? But in the meantime, the Kokomo Dream lives on inside us.

"There's a place called Kokomo, that's where we want to go to get away from it all...."

The Mystery Explained?

My sister is notoriously bad at getting her geographical and scientific facts correct. To recap, this is the girl who peered over NYC from the viewing deck of the Empire State Building and asked where the Pentagon was, got Lima and llama mixed up, then claimed that coffee was laced with nicotine and cigarettes contained caffeine.

She left a comment on our blog entry about our electronic equipment going awry and insightfully pointed out that we were within the confines of the Bermuda Triangle when it started happening. And boy did she get the Triangle area spot on i.e. the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, with Miami, Bermuda and San Juan forming the points of the triangle encapsulating the Bahamas.



Known as the Devils Triangle, the region is famous for the mysterious disappearance of a number of aircraft (including an entire flight squadron) and vessels, which were alleged to have vanished in circumstances beyond the boundary of human error, piracy, technical equipment failure or natural disasters.

Stories have it that strong magnetic forces in the region can cause compasses and electronic equipment in machines to go quite bonkers.

There are also tales of these disappearances being attributed to paranormal activity or extraterrestrial beings aka aliens. Which could explain why my sister got her facts straight this time - I have always suspected that she was from Mars...

But yes, it is all rather creepy isnt it?

Going to Port at Puerto Rico

We flew Nassau to Fort Lauderdale to Puerto Rico on 4 July, and were fortunate enough to be descending just as the Independence Day fireworks were going off.

Unfortunately, we were really still quite a way up from the fireworks, so photography was not possible. But still, it was interesting to see fireworks from a top-down perspective, and live instead of on a television.

Speaking of which, I understand that the group of guys Mindef has put together to orgy-nise this year's National Day Parade has cum up with a the slogan and tagline for this year's celebrations. "Come Together" is a great slogan. Really. And the logo is pretty cool too, with fireworks appearing right above the word 'Come'!

Is it my imagination or are there white stains around the words 'Come Together'?

I really have to give this guys a hand. Good job!

Back to Puerto Rico - we were quite annoyed that taxi fare to the hotel was again above our expected budget, because there is a fixed fare system for taxi rides from the airport. Before we set down for the night, we agreed that since the boarding time for our cruise was in the afternoon, we would check out early, leave our bags at the hotel, and see if the distance to the port was short enough for us to walk. The wife also wanted to check out a food court in Old San Juan which supposedly has local and cheap food.

So, next day, bright and early, we checked out and started off for the port. Unfortunately, San Juan doesn't really seem to be properly mapped. The two maps we had were pretty useless, so we went in the wrong direction. We found a local beach that seemed pretty nice, though!

Obviously not meant for big cruise ships

It was quite a nice protected lagoon with clear waters and shower area nearby. You wouldn't want to lay your mats on the beach, but there's a nice grassy area to the side that's perfect.

Well, we trooped back to the hotel, and this time, I mapped our location using the Maps function on my iPod. Then we realised that we were heading in the wrong direction.

Off we went again.


Then we got lost again. It was only when we went into a petrol station to ask for directions that we understood that 'all roads here lead to Old San Juan'. Cool. It's just like Old San Juan was Rome!

Bolstered by the hope that we were at least headed in the right direction, we set off again. And then it started to pour.

Storm clouds trying to hide the mysterious ship

Sibeh suay.

We'd pretty much decided that we would not be walking to the port with our heavy bags, and were mulling over much much we would have to pay for a cab when we finally saw Old San Juan.

Green, Brown, Red and Yellow. I know my colors!

It was really like a little town in Spain! The buildings were all painted in vibrant hues, somewhat similar to what we saw in parts of Madrid. But by this time, we were ravenous enough to just ignore the pretty facades around us, and just raid the food court!

There's only One Way He wants you to go

Remember that I said we were supposed to try some local food at low prices at the food court? Well, it didn't happen. The stalls in the food court served cuisine from other countries, so I ended up with Italian and the wife ended up with Mexican. No Puerto Rican flavors in sight.

And, whether it was due to shenanigans by the hawkers or pure language difficulties, our meal wasn't that cheap either! The stall I went to heaped on shredded turkey meat costing USD 6 to my order when all I did was ask how much it would cost. And the wife was given large servings of a taco and quesadilla when she asked for small. Our meal therefore ended up costing around USD 18 instead of the USD 10 budgeted! Argh!

Ah well, we were never really the type that dwell on misfortune. We made the best of a so-far horrible day by exploring Old San Juan and taking in the vibe and the colorful buildings.

A bar right beneath a residence? Well, your partner won't be complaining about YOUR snoring then!

There's something innately quaint about these buildings with the planters and balconies. You can just imagine yourself taking the leisurely route in life. Wake up, water plants, sit in the balcony, read a book, make a sandwich, snooze, etc, etc then you end up watching the sunset.

Checking to see if he won 4-D

But that lifestyle belongs to others now. Not us. Not yet, anyway.

Satisfied that we have at least seen quite a bit of San Juan, we trudged back to our hotel and dutifully took a cab to the port for our South Caribbean cruise on Carnival Victory. A cruise! That equals plenty of food! We can't wait!

Fruits helps in digestion. And more importantly, excretion!

Woot!