Ugly American Travel Note
It is interesting to see that there are still Ugly Americans traveling around and giving us a bad name. I suppose that's why many people still think of us as Canadian.
........................
St. Vincent, Bequia and the Tropic Breeze
By Lee | December 16th, 2008 |
After leaving Grenada for that early morning flight up to St. Vincent, the plane flew straight over the gorgeous and untouched Grenadine Island chain. It is a chain of mostly forgotten islands and their slogan is “the Caribbean the way it used to be”. The view from the small prop plane made me excited to get out to Bequia. But not until enjoying a liberating nap in St. Vincent at one of the worst hotels I’ve ever stayed at, the Tropic Breeze-more about that later.
I caught the 11:30am boat out to Bequia, which is an hour away from Kingstown-the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). Bequia is the largest of the Grenadine dependencies and a true treat. Unspoiled is the best way to describe the island. It had gorgeous deserted beaches, no industry to speak of and the nicest people imagineable. I kind of felt like I was on an Italian island because of the little hairpin turns with stone walls on either side of the skinny roads but that was as far as it went.
The way I know I really like a new place is if I can’t think of anything else to compare it to and Bequia was that for me. It was very refreshing. I wish I could say I did something wild or crazy to celebrate the new discovery but I just laid on the gorgeous white sand beaches all day and had some local island food before heading back to St. Vincent for the night. It was a truly wonderful day and if you are ever in SVG-check out Bequia or one of the other islands.
The main reason is that there is really nothing to do on St. Vincent. Everything is lacking in selection including hotels. So I ended up booking a hotel-if you want to call it that on hotels.com. So I show up and they have no record of my reservation and even after I present them a confirmation code and receipt, etc. it’s not enough to convince them that I actually paid my $90-which is a complete ripoff but a man has to sleep.
Anyway, I arrive back at the hotel around 7pm to chill out and watch Monday Night Football-keep in mind there is nothing to do on this island. I get a knock on the door and I knew it was one of the idiots that work at the hotel to bug me about the room charge. The simple fact is that they are retarded and do not know how to use hotels.com service and they said they didn’t even know they were on it. So they ask me how they can find it and I am like, do I look like I know anything about this crap-I just book the hotel and stay at it. It’s your hotel that is listed and I have the confirmation code, receipt, etc. So it’s not my fault.
It actually got pretty funny as the old British owners, a married couple who clearly had been on the island most of their 60 or so years with those accents start shouting at me to pay them the money, especially the man. I stayed highly calm as he continued to shout without having any clue what he was talking about. I was asking him nicely, repeatedly to stop shouting
at me and listen-I felt like I was dealing with a crazy ex girlfriend. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and shouted back at him directly and pointed at him to shut up and listen to me. The jackass then goes “I am going to call the cops if you don’t pay immediately”. Obviously my natural response was to say “I’ll call the cops on you for being an asshole”. This was actually
hilarious as he ran away as if trying to get himself together (because apparently nobody had ever told him what he was before) and call the cops but then he realized he had no reason to and he was being ridiculous. So I turn to his lovely wife and calmly alert her that her husband is a jerk (as if she didn’t know) and if she would simply listen we can figure out what happened with the hotel charge by making a quick phone call.
The bottom line was that she wasn’t thrilled to deal with me but I called AMEX on their lobby phone and got everything squared away. Afterwards she was happy that the situation was resolved and she said she wouldn’t even charge me for the phone call to AMEX. I said, wow that’s kind of you but it was a collect call from outside of the country and they accept all
charges and then in the ultimate cheeseball James Bond line I say “membership has its priviledges” as I almost choked on my own cheesiness.
...........................
As he noted St. Vincent and the Grenadines is still "unspoiled", but at the same time he expects it to be full of Disneyland-type
amusements and the facilities to be at the most sophisticated technological level. Americans are not likely to understand the
contradition involved, and St. Vincent needs tourist income, so try to be patient with tourists, even Americans.
........................
St. Vincent, Bequia and the Tropic Breeze
By Lee | December 16th, 2008 |
After leaving Grenada for that early morning flight up to St. Vincent, the plane flew straight over the gorgeous and untouched Grenadine Island chain. It is a chain of mostly forgotten islands and their slogan is “the Caribbean the way it used to be”. The view from the small prop plane made me excited to get out to Bequia. But not until enjoying a liberating nap in St. Vincent at one of the worst hotels I’ve ever stayed at, the Tropic Breeze-more about that later.
I caught the 11:30am boat out to Bequia, which is an hour away from Kingstown-the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). Bequia is the largest of the Grenadine dependencies and a true treat. Unspoiled is the best way to describe the island. It had gorgeous deserted beaches, no industry to speak of and the nicest people imagineable. I kind of felt like I was on an Italian island because of the little hairpin turns with stone walls on either side of the skinny roads but that was as far as it went.
The way I know I really like a new place is if I can’t think of anything else to compare it to and Bequia was that for me. It was very refreshing. I wish I could say I did something wild or crazy to celebrate the new discovery but I just laid on the gorgeous white sand beaches all day and had some local island food before heading back to St. Vincent for the night. It was a truly wonderful day and if you are ever in SVG-check out Bequia or one of the other islands.
The main reason is that there is really nothing to do on St. Vincent. Everything is lacking in selection including hotels. So I ended up booking a hotel-if you want to call it that on hotels.com. So I show up and they have no record of my reservation and even after I present them a confirmation code and receipt, etc. it’s not enough to convince them that I actually paid my $90-which is a complete ripoff but a man has to sleep.
Anyway, I arrive back at the hotel around 7pm to chill out and watch Monday Night Football-keep in mind there is nothing to do on this island. I get a knock on the door and I knew it was one of the idiots that work at the hotel to bug me about the room charge. The simple fact is that they are retarded and do not know how to use hotels.com service and they said they didn’t even know they were on it. So they ask me how they can find it and I am like, do I look like I know anything about this crap-I just book the hotel and stay at it. It’s your hotel that is listed and I have the confirmation code, receipt, etc. So it’s not my fault.
It actually got pretty funny as the old British owners, a married couple who clearly had been on the island most of their 60 or so years with those accents start shouting at me to pay them the money, especially the man. I stayed highly calm as he continued to shout without having any clue what he was talking about. I was asking him nicely, repeatedly to stop shouting
at me and listen-I felt like I was dealing with a crazy ex girlfriend. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and shouted back at him directly and pointed at him to shut up and listen to me. The jackass then goes “I am going to call the cops if you don’t pay immediately”. Obviously my natural response was to say “I’ll call the cops on you for being an asshole”. This was actually
hilarious as he ran away as if trying to get himself together (because apparently nobody had ever told him what he was before) and call the cops but then he realized he had no reason to and he was being ridiculous. So I turn to his lovely wife and calmly alert her that her husband is a jerk (as if she didn’t know) and if she would simply listen we can figure out what happened with the hotel charge by making a quick phone call.
The bottom line was that she wasn’t thrilled to deal with me but I called AMEX on their lobby phone and got everything squared away. Afterwards she was happy that the situation was resolved and she said she wouldn’t even charge me for the phone call to AMEX. I said, wow that’s kind of you but it was a collect call from outside of the country and they accept all
charges and then in the ultimate cheeseball James Bond line I say “membership has its priviledges” as I almost choked on my own cheesiness.
...........................
As he noted St. Vincent and the Grenadines is still "unspoiled", but at the same time he expects it to be full of Disneyland-type
amusements and the facilities to be at the most sophisticated technological level. Americans are not likely to understand the
contradition involved, and St. Vincent needs tourist income, so try to be patient with tourists, even Americans.
posted by Karl Eklund at 4:48 AM
<< Home