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SK got to go to Jamaica, any advice?

Silver King

Silver King

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Nov 29, 2002
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Punta Gorda
Yeah, yeah, SK realizes there's 1200 murders a year there, knows about curried goat, roti, rastas and ganga; Irie mon.

But youngest son is getting married in what they call a "Destination" wedding, at Sandals in Ocho Rios.

Everybody says don't leave the resort, but SK is a man of the peeps. Ran and delived yachts to Mexico, Antigua, Bahamas, Detroit, Miami- never had no problems. Plus one of SKs college teammates is coming; 6'8" scary looking white boy with a fro. With the young guys we could throw a hell of an offense on one of those criket fields.

Anybody been there recently?
 
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Not me. But, if you survived Detroit, Jamaica won't be a problem.

Am I correct that the youngest is the first to get married? Funny how things work!
 
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Choctaw_fan said:
Not me. But, if you survived Detroit, Jamaica won't be a problem.

Am I correct that the youngest is the first to get married? Funny how things work!
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Yes Choc, youngest first, Middle will be next, probably Feb or March. Oldest nowhere close, he might leg it out into his 30s. Two great young ladies who my late wife knew, but would have adored knowing they would end up as daughter-in-laws.
 
Went to the same resort for my honeymoon. Dunns river falls is a must
Resort Also has a pretty nice golf course
Also went zip lining on some mnt there. That was fun. And the scuba diving was pretty cool
 
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Silver King said:
Yeah, yeah, SK realizes there's 1200 murders a year there, knows about curried goat, roti, rastas and ganga; Irie mon.

But youngest son is getting married in what they call a "Destination" wedding, at Sandals in Ocho Rios.

Everybody says don't leave the resort, but SK is a man of the peeps. Ran and delived yachts to Mexico, Antigua, Bahamas, Detroit, Miami- never had no problems. Plus one of SKs college teammates is coming; 6'8" scary looking white boy with a fro. With the young guys we could throw a hell of an offense on one of those criket fields.

Anybody been there recently?
Click to expand...

So, I guess I am qualified to give you my 2 cents given I was born and spent the first 27 years of my life there, and over the past 33 years, have gone back 16 times. St. Ann's parish, which is where Ocho Rios is, is one of the two nicest parishes in the island. Jamaica's topography is among the most beautiful of any country I have ever been to. So if nature is your thing, it is fair to the eye.

How safe is it? That largely depends on you. Jamaica is a rough country and I would never recommend a neophyte go out on his/her own. However, for an experienced, well traveled individual whose head is screwed on properly, I would not worry too much. Jamaicans by and large take people at face value. If you seem cool, then all is irie. If they think you are a jerk or an idiot, then all bets are off.

I have never had the pleasure of meeting you, SK, but from your posts, I am inclined to believe you will be okay, even if you stray from the reservation. BTW, the property you are going to is top notch. Enjoy the trip and tell the happy couple I wish them many years of happiness together.
 
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DarterBlue, that's what I was wanting to hear. Thanks for taking the time. Maybe its something I brought from football, but I learned early in my captaining career to respect others and their culture - you often find how well that works with the first Custom Agent's you deal with in a foreign port.

I remember being in Mexico for three weeks as a young captain working on a 58 Hatteras. We had a different group of 20-25 year old Domino's Pizza Managers come in each week for three weeks (That was a bit of heaven for a tanned handsome guy in his 20s as each week had at least one hot single girl who came with a brother or a female manager).

A few among that group, not many, showed their asses like the stereotypical "Ugly American," you could see the disgust on the local's faces. On my few times off, I went into some of the Mexican towns, not tourists places, ate at their restaurants and used my high school Spanish to communicate, they couldn't have been more engaging once they saw that. That has worked in most of the places I've been to. I also try and practice a lot of situational awareness.
 
Damn, five days of flat out, love Jamacia - Cuban Cigars, all you can drink all day. Even got into the markets and ate some real vendor food, (Oxtail, Curried goat, they do some cool stuff with eggs; Akki and Smoked Marlin). It was awesome. Never got to the falls, we were pretty busy with rehersals and seeing family (Had 58 there).

Darter Blue, the islanders we came across in the farmer markets were great. My buddy's wife wanted to find some whole nutmegs to take home. They were very engaging,lots of fruit there you don;t see, everyone took time to explain it, ofer samples. One even had some fun when my buddy's wife when she asked how hot these tiny inch long peppers were, and the guy said try one. She did and it lit her up, we all busted out laughing, he got her a bannana to cut the fire.

Almond and breadfruit tress everywhere. We busted open some almonds and ate them, they're all over the beaches.

Tell you what those brothers can drive those Juta busses. They whip around like the wind. I looked out the window once and we were going around a curve at 60 two inches from a rock retaining wall. They honk, yell, but no middle fingers or guns pulled. Best line of the trip, One Juta bus wasn't pulled up tight enough while unloading his group, our bus has to back out of a curved parking lot. Our driver looks at him, shakes his head and says; "Uncultured."
 
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Sounds like it was a great trip. How much rum did you drink? You normally seldom make spelling or grammar errors.

One down, two to go. At this time of your life, it's great to have boys!
 
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I might reconsider a long held belief to stay out of Jamaica, after that. I trust the writer.

"Good friend beta dan pocket money, yeah."
 
BP, most of my time was spent in the resort – we had a lot of stuff planned like diving, sailing, some played golf. It was an all-inclusive and SK ofund it very tough to leave those beach or pool side bars.

When I did venture out, I noticed right away that all the tourist shopping areas were compounds with gates and walls, and a couple guards at each gate – that says a lot. Those seemed mostly run by Pakistanis or Indians. The farmer’s markets was where you ran into the regular peeps.

A Jamaican-American sitting next to me on the flight gave me some tips, like never accept a ride from anyone in their car – I heard from a buddy who was in a car a couple years back, the driver stopped heads over to a house (probably to pick up weed), a guy slips in with a gun and robs them while he was gone. There are plenty of good taxis and he said to always use those. He was heading to Kingston, to see relatives. He told me Kingston had some great spots, but like any big city, there were places you shouldn’t ever, ever venture into.

From the reading I did, it’s still considered among the most violent vacation destinations in the world. Just two weeks before we got there, two American missionaries were killed North of Kingston. Years ago 39 missionaries were robbed in Kingston. But hey you could come to Ft Myers and see worse statistics than that.
 
Silver King said:
BP, most of my time was spent in the resort – we had a lot of stuff planned like diving, sailing, some played golf. It was an all-inclusive and SK ofund it very tough to leave those beach or pool side bars.

When I did venture out, I noticed right away that all the tourist shopping areas were compounds with gates and walls, and a couple guards at each gate – that says a lot. Those seemed mostly run by Pakistanis or Indians. The farmer’s markets was where you ran into the regular peeps.

A Jamaican-American sitting next to me on the flight gave me some tips, like never accept a ride from anyone in their car – I heard from a buddy who was in a car a couple years back, the driver stopped heads over to a house (probably to pick up weed), a guy slips in with a gun and robs them while he was gone. There are plenty of good taxis and he said to always use those. He was heading to Kingston, to see relatives. He told me Kingston had some great spots, but like any big city, there were places you shouldn’t ever, ever venture into.

From the reading I did, it’s still considered among the most violent vacation destinations in the world. Just two weeks before we got there, two American missionaries were killed North of Kingston. Years ago 39 missionaries were robbed in Kingston. But hey you could come to Ft Myers and see worse statistics than that.
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Sounds like the Westside of the JAX. Blackpopsicle ain't gong over there either, he keeps it safe over there on the Softside, I heard he lives in a gated community.

They put a beating on Nease, who might be as soft as AC.
 
I was there about a month and a half ago, wait until your out of the more populated tourist areas then ask the locals where the real nice authentic places are. Cash is king there too. Bought a bottle of Jamican rum there it was marked 10 bucks I asked if she took cards and she did but the pricing of the bottle jumped to 45 bucks. Other than that enjoy yourself it's gorgeous there and a lot of friendly people.
 
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DarterBlue2 said:
So, I guess I am qualified to give you my 2 cents given I was born and spent the first 27 years of my life there, and over the past 33 years, have gone back 16 times. St. Ann's parish, which is where Ocho Rios is, is one of the two nicest parishes in the island. Jamaica's topography is among the most beautiful of any country I have ever been to. So if nature is your thing, it is fair to the eye.

How safe is it? That largely depends on you. Jamaica is a rough country and I would never recommend a neophyte go out on his/her own. However, for an experienced, well traveled individual whose head is screwed on properly, I would not worry too much. Jamaicans by and large take people at face value. If you seem cool, then all is irie. If they think you are a jerk or an idiot, then all bets are off.

I have never had the pleasure of meeting you, SK, but from your posts, I am inclined to believe you will be okay, even if you stray from the reservation. BTW, the property you are going to is top notch. Enjoy the trip and tell the happy couple I wish them many years of happiness together.
Click to expand...

I think the Locals would be cool with SK FWIW

I realize this post is really late after seeing he already went but looks like I was right.
 
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