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Life here in Castara is quiet. It limits the choice of food and drink, but we have managed to find the local bar "D Lime" which does a killer rum, often necessitating an afternoon snooze. It is situated just off the beach and does have the feel of sitting at a bus stop, but for two Brit's always in search of a cool drink it has become our lifeline.... And we are learning the art of "limin'" - sitting about in the heat of the day chattering and gossiping about the meaning of life with the restorative powers of a large rum and coke.... The village is scattered up the hillside with the little houses in pretty pastel colours, and there is some local fishing activity on the beach. The other activity seems to be the local lads congregating and smoking a rather fragrant local tobacco.... Ant is thinking of having dreadlocks transplanted to fit in.... The locals are not rude, but they don't go out of their way to make you feel at all welcome, and service in most places can be called surly at best. The only really friendly things around here are the biting insects, normally Ant is immune, but not here. We both look the picture of a pair of Brits just arrived with white limbs spotted with bites, it's so not a good look! But the place is beautiful, the cresent of sand beeing lapped by the Caribbean is picture postcard stuff. Ant has the Blue Marlin suite, perched on stilts over the sea. He spent the first couple of days in the Anchovy room which somewhat reflected its namesake's habitat, dark and damp as in under the sea or in a tin can! But the Blue Marlin suite is just the opposite, possibly the best room location in the Caribbean, and light, airy with amazing views and the continual sounds of the lapping sea. It's a great place to watch the booby birds diving at speed into the water and coming up with their fish.
But our dreams of little seafood places along the beach where we could order what we want and wash it down with a cold glass of decent wine are not to be had here in Tobago at least. Basically the four or so decent restaurants we have found all serve the same. You choose the protein - chicken, shrimp, goat, lamb, beef or veggie (not all avaialable all days....) - and it is served with rice and peas, a bit of salad and an odd vegetable. Or you can have the same choice but with a roti - the version here is a very heavy suet like pancake....
Sunday we decided to go to church as even though the village is small there are quite a few places of worship. But we were obviously on Caribbean time and missed it all. Decked out in our Sunday best, we arrived just as everyone was leaving....
Gill spent a couple of days casing the area of Crown Point waiting for Ant to arrive. Despite this picture of a local beach, the big thing was the noise, traffic, clubs and the ubiquitous loud car steros pumping out reggae at all hours of the day and night. Add that to the fact that the little guest house had louvre windows that didn't actually close meant that the real Tobago experience was sounded out.
So Ant arrived and we decide to head for the hills - or at least up the coast to listen out for the real sounds of Tobago. And we found them. We hired a jeep and made our way, with Gill navigating the long way round (no SatNav here) ending up in in Castara, a small village on the Caribbean coast of less than 500 people. On the way we went down memory lane to the Turtle Beach Hotel which was the venue for Gill's first big adventure some 21 years ago. It was sort of the same but Gill finds her tastes have changed.... We end up in a great little place right on the beach in a quiet cove. It's called the Naturalist Resort - and no, that isn't "naturist".... It doesn't look too far on the map but Tobago seems to be one big hill covered in dense rainforest with the odd little cove beach hiding down a very steep hill. The roads are narrow, winding and hilly but as you round every corner you are faced with yet another amazing view as the blue Caribbean can be seen through the dense rainforest.
Interestingly, it's almost as noisy here as Crown Point with the sometimes crashing waves, the cockerels who pay no heed to dawn and screech all day and the heavy rain sounding like pebbles on the tin roof. But we learn that these natural noises are all together more pleasant and easier to live with.
A long way from home but have arrived at Tobago. Left a freezing Gatwick, but my major concern was getting there early so I didn't miss the flight and settting every alarm I had to make sure. But all was overtaken by a hotel alarm - a fire alarm, luckily a false one, at 7.15am this morning, so was out in the cold rather earlier than I expected! But now here at a place called Kia's Across from The Beach, a little guest house in Crown Point. Perhaps the polite way of putting it, it is very "Caribbean". A good flight with BA. In fact the leg from Antigua (where all the honeymooners got off), I was the only one left up the front with about five other people down the back, a bit like having my own private jet which I have decided I could get quite used to..... Just had a very average plate of pasta in the guest house restaurant.... But guess I was spoiled on the way with good food, champagne and chocolates and more champagne.... So Kia's is a bit of a change of scene..... But hey the rum punches are good - will report on the safety of the ice tomorrow.... And most importantly it is warm, how nice to sit outside at 8pm and be cosy. Wifi is proving a bit of a challenge - so much for hi speed wifi everywhere at Kia's, but am in the Caribbean, so tomorrow will do!Collected from the airport by Wayne, who gave me the full monty on his "tours". Lots of hassle from others at the airport offering taxis and trips but I think we will have to get used to that.
And the good news is the ice was ok so was able to have a bit of an explore today. Not a lot happening here in Tobago, very laid back. The beach near here is Store Bay, but true to form, I arrived and so did the rain! The rainy season should have finished by now but no one told the weatherman, it's been raining now most of the day. But it is warm and I am sitting outside writing this at 8pm in the evening and am not even thinking about wearing a cardi - happy days!
But even happier on Thursday when Ant is due to arrive......
George Orwell would be proud, I have completed my time in Room 101 and escaped without ever having to cry "do it to Julia". All it took was 3 days of patience and visits to reception and finally I have a decent room.
So after depositing my stuff I took myself off to have a look around Side. Such a lovely place, built in and around the Roman ruins on the edge of the Med. Little cafe's everywhere and yet again I find myself in designer heaven. Bags and shoes from whatever designer you care to name - Chanel is big here. Not for me of course, I prefer the real thing - says she from behind her £5 D & G specs from Vietnam! And no doormen in black here looking you up and down before they deign to let you in - just a cry of "come see my rubbish, even cheaper than Asda" or the favourite "luverrly jubbly" to welcome you into the designer havens. Bond Street it 'ain't but good fun nonetheless.
Just past the harbour is the Temple of Apollo, which was really impressive blazing white in the sunshine with the blue sea behind. Just the place to stop for a cocktail, but at almost a tenner for a cube, it may just be a very sober holiday! The currency is also a bit odd, the Turkish lira and the euro seem interchangeable and it's never that clear whether the cost is quoted in lira or euro - but at around two to one I have discovered it makes sense to sort that before you order.....
Always fun to try and guess nationality but have met a real expert. Every time you walk past a shop or restaurant they call out in what they hope is the right language for you. At the seaside restaurant of the hotel the guy doing this is amazing. He speaks a little of every language here and its great fun to watch him at work as you eat. It's not just telling the difference between Brits, Germans, Dutch or Russians, Ant and I are quite good at that. But he also seems to have the knack of telling the difference between all of the Scandinavians here, Swedish, Norwegian, Danes His patter differs with each. For the Germans he seems to focus on the seafood and the beer, for the Scandinavians it seems to be tempting them with the weight of the huge steaks and for the Brits? Well that seems to be the cheapness of the food (which it isn't) and dragging them into the kitchens to show them how clean they are - not sure what that says about us a nation!
It's Saturday and as I sit under the olive tree overlooking the ruins eating an expensive but indifferent meal, drinking an expensive and even more indifferent glass of local wine the strains of Turkish music get louder. Being here is a bit like living in a permanent Eurovision song contest, whatever hour of the day or night, Turkish pop is blasting away from somewhere, even at daybreak. Perhaps the muezzins here are a bit modern and play pop instead of the call to prayer, who knows? But this piece of music heralded the belly dancer who wove through the tables gyrating away. Have never quite got to grips with the whole belly dancing thing - here we are in a Muslim country where most local women are well covered and wearing the headscarf, yet a young girl can dance away, minimally clothed, inviting poor Brit and Dutch men to join in and make complete prats of themselves, all for a ten lira note stuffed down her ample cleavage by said men. Bit too close to lap dancing.......
In the search for the perfect piece of kit to take away to meet all my tech needs, I invested in an iPad and this trip is the test as i have left the laptop at home. The plan was to replace the iTouch, ereader and possibly even the laptop and lighten the load. It's great piece of tech but when you delve into it the limitations appear. Hotmail doesn't work in the normal way, you can't attach some things. You need to buy another bit to upload pics onto it (which then you can't send via hotmail). The ebooks I have on my Sony ereader don't work, they use different systems, so I can't download the free ebooks from my local library which I've just discovered, they have to go via the laptop, and as far as I can tell only onto an ereader. But it is a great little entertainment centre, the ibooks are really good, much better than on the ereader, and watching films is fab. Catching up with X Factor on Slingbox for mobile will be great, and best of all there's lots of tech envy as I tap away round the pool. It's also good to be able to turn on and connect straightaway without having to go through the tortuous machinations of Windows loading on the laptop. Not sure yet if I can upload the blog on it - if you get this before I get home the answer is yes, if not then it's a no!
So sadly not a replacement for any bit of current kit, but hey, what's a bit more stuff in the case when I can look so cool - I'll just take even fewer clothes!
“You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world." George Orwell 1984
(Apologies for this late post but thought this ought to go on before I start my winter travels to warmer climes……)
Felt good at Gatwick - think I was the youngest person on the plane. A contingent of loud golfers added to a supply of Saga customers made me feel very sprightly! But this is a serious trip, borne more out of getting a new pin than the need for a bit of late summer sunshine. I had decided on Turkey as it was a new pin, and on Side because BA went there and I didn't have to suffer the indignity of a low coster.....
I was a bit concerned - this was planned as a budget hol - reasonable cost flight and low key hotel. But as the date drew nearer, the hotel was sliding fast down the trip advisor ratings. The main issue seemed to be a couple of dire rooms - 101 and 102. But it is a 62 roomed hotel and I couldn't possibly be that unlucky..... Wrong. I could and I was headed straight to 1984. Late at night I was led up and down various sets of dark stairs and deposited in room 101! Turkish is not one of my many fluent foreign languages but the poor security guy was fairly clear on my reaction. Felt sorry for him, he really he must get a similar reaction every time....
The room was about the size of my summerhouse at home, but without the terrace bit - my only view onto the outside world was through a small grubby window onto a roof next door. Not that i'm into swinging cats but..... Having said that there are rather a lot of cats meandering around here if I ever feel the need.
What made the room even more attractive was the highly polished pine 70's cladding that lined it - walls, ceiling and doors. I felt I would be sleeping in a small shed.
But no matter I was sure I could resolve it the next day. Wrong again... The manager's customer service skills are so well honed on this issue now, I was almost feeling sorry for him at the end of his tale of having ten other people he couldn't even fit into the hotel - obviously they have a severe over booking issue they really need to get sorted. Such a pity, the hotel is really charming, in a fantastic location with the ancient Roman ruins of Side on one side – unintended pun - (a great view of the amphitheatre as you munch your breakfast and then blue Med on the other). But the good news (so far at least...) is that the odd trippy negative about cleanliness seems unfounded. He tells me I will get a better room with the balcony I paid for tomorrow.....
