Negril Notes
Thoughts - Words - Images - Music - Loosely based on my travels to Negril Jamaica

I thought this was hysterical! Hide the kids, crank up the volume!!

Bat Day v.1

Bat Day v.2

Compliments of The Kid From Brooklyn.com

PNS is taking over! I sit on the computer for an hour each night trying to tweak every imaginable variable to get the lowest fare. What if I left from Newark, maybe Atlantic City? What if I left Monday, or Sunday, or a week later or a week earlier? It’s a few weeks of obsessive-compulsive insanity that in some ways keeps me sane.

Then it’s the hotel. I have an ideal room in my mind though every amenity can be altered as needed either for a better price or for another momentarily more important amenity.

I love to find the cheapest place in Negril which also has the most things on my moving target list. It’s not that I’m poor, but I like the feeling when someone is wowed by my Blue Cave Castle pics and I can say, “All that, and for only $35.00 a night!” All bow to the “Travel Guru”!

My main requirements are a balcony or patio, a mini-fridge, and an indoor shower. I really don’t ask for much. The balcony, veranda if you must, is just a little private space outdoors to read, chill-out and have some “me” time. The fridge is for Red Stripe, water and leftovers. Actually all food goes in there, Jamaican insects are survivors, and will be roomates if you’re not careful. Lastly the indoor shower, I don’t even need hot water, and although I never actually stayed in a place with a communal bathroom, I almost did, once.

There are some niceties like a kitchenette, or a hammock that can push a property several notches up my list. My favorite place, accommodationally speaking, was Banana Shout. We were there just weeks after Hurricane Ivan (10/04), the place was a construction site, but the house rocked. Two verandas with hammocks, a hot plate with a coffee pot, it even had hot water, though the water in Negril is never really cold.

My finalists for my 2006 Easter trip are Traveller’s, Hidden Paradise, Catcha Falling Star, The Yoga Center and Banana Shout. Traveller’s has a great price and always seems so well kept. Hidden Paradise offers breakfast. I snooped around on my last Negril trip, and it too seems like a place that gets a lot of TLC from its owners, but both those places are on the beach side and I find myself becoming a cliff dweller.

Catcha Falling Star is awesome and is currently topping my list. It has everything I want, is beautiful, and Rob from The Real Negril got me a great deal. Banana Shout and The Yoga Center are sentimental favorites, both wonderful places I’ve vowed to come back to.

So you see, I’m a mess!

Any suggestions to further muddy the waters?

Peace

Vinny

I like trains. I take them often. They give me the time and the solitude to read and/or write. So, on Monday I figured the train would be a superior choice over negotiating traffic after the Great Nor’easter of 2006.

After a full days work I walked the half mile to the Hoboken Train Station, I usually ride the subway-esque path train from small Hoboken Station to big Newark Station for points south, Trenton, Philly, home.

This Monday genius boy decided to try the cushy, well heated NJ Transit train out of Hoboken at 6:01, change at Secaucus Transfer Station and pick up the 6:21 Northeast Corridor to Trenton with a connection to Philly.

NJ Transit said they had computer problems and due to the twenty inches of snow, they had to re-route trains all over the state, I think there was a conspiracy to trick a small group of weary travelers.

A big red sign lit up at Track B in the Secaucus Transfer Station, each train line has a corresponding color, the Trenton line is red. The sign read “Northeast Corridor 6:21PM Track B.” An announcer parrots these words and in a few seconds a huge friggin’ train pulls in with the word “TRENTON” festooned all over it in big bright lime colored LED letters.

So, being trusting, I stepped aboard, the doors closed and the computer generated car announcement said “Train to Trenton, next stop Newark Penn Station.” I sat back in the comfortable maroon faux leather seat, and felt good about my decision to go this route. I had a window seat just one stop ahead of the hoards that come aboard at Newark making it a standing room only trip.

“What was that?!?” my brain screamed!

He repeated, “THIS IS THE SUMMIT EXPRESS, PLEASE DISREGARD THE CAR ANNOUNCEMENT, I REPEAT, THIS IS THE SUMMIT EXPRESS, THIS TRAIN IS GOING TO SUMMIT.”

I freaked! I felt like a trapped animal! I scurried to and fro scratching on the windows as the station disappeard into the night, trying to get my mind around what just happened.

Standing in the aisle, I could see through several cars to an older conductor speaking to a petite Asian woman with flailing arms, and a really exasperated looking Indian guy. As I approached the situation I realized the kindly older conductor was a burned out government employed jack-ass with the empathy and slack-jawed cluelessness of a newt (please feel free to substitute the slimy invertebrate of your choice).

After she was done and got no satisfaction, I chimed in, but soon realized I was wasting my time talking to a brick wall. I don’t mean to disparage brick walls, at least they stand firm while you talk to them, he just held up his employee ID.

I didn’t get mad, ballistic asshole man did not make an appearance. A fellow traveler told me the head conductor is up front and that I should go talk to the boss. So I walked through half a dozen cars and found the boss.

I told him our situation, somehow becoming the spokesman for our little group. I guess union seniority trumps middle management, since he never addressed the dolt six cars back, but he did raise some hell and called a few people and seemed like he was on our side. It was kind of like the McDonald’s manager that seems personally angry that your Filet-O-Fish came to you sans tartar sauce.

The long and short of it was we had to get off at Summit, walk over to the middle track and take the very next train to New York, get off at Secaucus Transfer Station and try again to get to Trenton. The instructions came along with a most sincere apology.

There were about ten affected travelers on the middle platform in Summit when the very next train arrived, and like lemmings we boarded.

In less than three minutes aboard the train to make right the evenings wrongs, I saw an attractive woman in a red coat sitting across the aisle with a most flabbergasted look on her face. She was speaking to a conductor, “What do you mean this train isn’t stopping at Secaucus!!” she said in calm, shocked disbelief.

And with that same, I live at the teat of the New Jersey taxpayer attitude, deadpan but appreciably less smarmy delivery, “Nope, but you can get off at Newark Broad Street, then catch a bus or taxi to Newark Penn Station, or you can go back to New York.”

I spoke up, but she just listened and replied in the exact same words, though at least her implied “F**k You” gave her just a tinge of personality.

The Lady in the red coat and I went back and forth a few times trying to figure a way just to get on any train headed south.

“It would be funny if it wasn’t happening to me,” she joked.

We decided to split a cab and get to Newark Penn Station as soon as we could, but as we got off the train and to the street, the bus was just pulling up. The only good timing NJ Transit showed all night!

I was actually getting excited, I had a good chance of getting the 7:30 train to Trenton, then the 8:40 to Philly and maybe be home by ten.

I dashed off the bus and all but ran through the station, leaving my new friends behind. I arrived on Track 4 at 7:33, looked up to the board and saw the 7:30 Trenton was running five minutes late, woo hoo! finally a break!

Looking around the crowded platform, I realized my train had several trains ahead of it. I stood there out of breath and confused trying to digest what was going on.

Then came the garbled announcement, ” The 7:28 Long Branch Local will be arriving on Track 4 in ten to fifteen minutes, the 7:30 Trenton will be five minutes behind that, Long Branch first, Trenton Second on Track 4.”

It didn’t take too long to figure the math, I’d miss the connection at Trenton and wouldn’t be home till almost midnight.

I gave in and laughed aloud. Its funny the looks one gets when one bursts into laughter in a public place full of dreary commuters.

I looked up to see the petite Asian girl, the Indian guy, the Lady in the red coat and a few others from the misdirected Summit crew, we’d kind of bonded. They were the only others laughing.

Peace

Vinny
AKA-Disgruntled Traveler

OK, spare me the global warming crap for at least a few weeks, alright!

Wow, 18″ of snow in Philly! Right before I went out to shovel I stopped by the Real Negril website to visit the Sunday Brunch Webcast from Selina’s. It was sunny, eighty degrees with a cooling breeze. April soon come!

It wasn’t too bad shoveling. My downstairs neighbor bought a snow blower last year and handled most of the heavy lifting, but I was still out there for the better part of two hours.

After shoveling I took a walk to the 7-11 to see how bad things were. My street still wasn’t plowed, so I had to trudge through knee deep snow.

I live right off a main road, Rt. 611, and I walked on the plowed part. Before I got twenty yards some clown driving a big stupid SUV roared past me doing about forty five miles an hour. As he blew thru the yellow light expecting his four wheel drive to make up for his obvious lack of sense, off the roof came a huge sheet of snow.

Clean off your damned roof! Butthead!!

Please don’t just clear a peep hole in the center of your driver side windshield! Do you know what happens when you don’t clear your roof? It falls off when I’m driving behind you, it never fails! Common courtesy seems to be less common, in this “I’m the center of the universe” world we seem to have created.

I’m a roof cleaner, I’m also a cart returner and a hose roller. Yeah, don’t leave your shopping cart precariously balanced on a parking lot ridge where the slightest vibration sends it straight for my car. Now my car is a piece of crap, so I mainly write this for others, what can I say, I have a big heart.

What’s a hose roller? Have you ever had to put air in your tire and the hose is laying in mud or where every passing car runs over the now non-working nozzle? I roll up the hose and hang it on the litle arm usually provided. My gift to you.

I hope everyone got dug out today, and take a few moments to clear your roof. I’ll be driving on the NJ and PA Turnpikes tomorrow and if I flip you the bird, you’ve been warned!

Vinny
AKA-Community Activist

Here I go again!

Finally nailed down the details, well at least the dates and flight. I’m leaving the day before easter and coming back 9 days later.

This will be my second April trip, it’s a great time to go. The “Sumer Season” and lower prices kick in April 15th for most of Negril, unfortunately my number one destination The Blue Cave Castle doesn’t drop prices till May 1

I have it down between three places; Hidden Paradise, Banana Shout and Heartbeat. There are a few other possibles, but I plan on booking this weekend and I’m tired of weighing pros and cons.

If any of my Negril friends will be there that week, drop me a line, I know of a few that’ll be around, and a friend from Philly may be coming by for a few days.

Peace

Vinny