April 6th
– 13th 2002
We
had been looking forward to returning to the island all winter, and finally the
time had arrived! This was our sixth
trip to the island. Airways Transit
picked us up before 2 am and we were at the Toronto airport in plenty of time
for our 6:30 am flight. We flew with
Air Transat and the counter was open even by 3 am when we arrived. This allowed us to get ahead of the crowds
and get through the check-in process quite smoothly. We only had two carry-ons for luggage and this time they didn’t
weigh them. Security went equally
well. I only had to take out my camera
after the scan to demonstrate that it worked.
Our
flight down left only about 15 minutes late and was one of the smoothest ones
in recent memory. The plane was an
Airbus A330-200 and appeared to be full – 363 passengers!! Breakfast was surprisingly good. Either that or we were hungrier than we
thought!!
We
arrived at the Princess Juliana Airport by about noon, quickly got through immigration,
caught a taxi and were checking in at Club Orient before 1 pm. We were in Studio 31 this time, which was a
pretty ideal location; about midway between the store and Papagayo’s and close
to the beach.
After
picking up a few essentials at L’Orientique, we hit the beach. What a wonderful feeling to be back
“home!!” During the week we spent time
with many friends from last year including Cathy & Steve, Kevin &
Jeannette, Kim & Ralph, Jim & Bonnie, as well as meeting new ones
including Lee & Sandy and Bill & Nola. One of the reasons we keep returning to the island and
especially Club Orient is the many friendly people you meet.
Every
morning we walked Orient beach meeting many of the same people each day with a
friendly “Good morning!” Unfortunately
the weather was not as perfect as it usually is, and on a few days our walk was
cut short due to rain. In fact the
weather was rather weird this year.
Our first full day was hot & sunny (just the way we like it!) but
with very little wind – now that’s strange for Orient beach!! However, starting on the Monday a “cold”
front moved in and the skies were often overcast, with intermittent rain and a
cool wind out of the north. The change
in wind direction may have been the cause of considerable beach erosion, which
occurred over the next couple of days on the south side of Pedros. We still got a significant amount of beach
time (some each day), but it was a bit frustrating.
One
evening we were fortunate to join Kevin & Jeannette for dinner at a
restaurant in Philipsburg called Wajang Doll (I may not have the name exactly
right). We shared what was called a
rice table, which included 14 different dishes. We enjoyed the evening very much. Other nights we ate mostly at Papagayo’s. The service was actually improved from last
year and the menu, while pretty much unchanged, had a good selection of various
dishes. I had the “Brochette de boeuf”
a couple of times, which was quite good.
One night it was particularly cool and windy so we had our meal
“take-out” and enjoyed it in our unit.
For
lunch we ate at Baywatch (it was nice to see Andy & Cheryl again!)… great
Italian hotdogs & cheeseburgers;
Boo Boo Jams …we like their ribs & very potent Long Island Icetea; La Playa … their club sandwich is
wonderful; Papagayo’s … they were very
busy the day we were there but service was fast & efficient. Linda had no trouble being topless at Boo
Boo Jams and La Playa, and of course nudity was OK at Baywatch &
Papagayo’s.
On
our last night we wanted to try something different, but without a car it was
difficult to travel too far. Most of
the beach bars on Orient close up by dark.
So we decided to walk down the beach to a restaurant we liked last
summer called Le Madras. It’s in a
complex of buildings behind La Playa.
Much to our surprise the waitress was none other than Frederique, whom
we had met last July working at Le Cottonier in the Cul de Sac. She even remembered us!! After dinner we returned to Club Orient by
walking up the beach in the dark. We
had taken a flashlight to help us see where we were walking. It wasn’t too late, so we decided to get a
drink at Papagayo’s. The place was
almost empty, however a guitar player was strumming away, playing many older
tunes. We danced together until he was
finished for the evening, even though we were the only ones dancing. It was a wonderful finish to our week.
There
has been some discussion lately concerning the ability to be nude on Orient
north of Pedros. As mentioned, we walked
at least part of the beach every morning nude before 9 am and had no trouble
(often going all the way down to Mont Vernon). Many others were doing the same. We walked nude twice to Boo Boo Jams at the other end of the
beach at midday and once to La Playa with no problems. There were many other people on the beach
at the time, although most were clothed.
Unfortunately,
the day arrived to return home. A taxi
picked us up about 9 am, arriving at the airport before 10 am for a noon
flight. We learned then, that our
flight was delayed and wouldn’t be leaving until 5 pm!! We actually considered returning to Orient,
but concluded it wouldn’t be worth it.
So we checked our carry-ons once the desk opened, and walked over to the
Sunset Beach Bar. It only takes 15-20
minutes to walk there. The weather
that day was beautiful – sunny and warm.
So we enjoyed some more sun and a few beers, as well as lunch at the
Sunset and watched the planes come in.
We returned to the airport at about 3 pm. It was a mad house, with two very long lines of people waiting
to pass through security. Apparently
one of their scanners was broken. We
finally got through ourselves about 5 pm and boarded the plane right away. It was after 5:30 pm before we left the gate
because we were waiting for the rest of the passengers.
The
flight home was uneventful, arriving in Toronto about 10 pm. It was a long day, but at least we got to
stay on the island 5 hours longer than we expected. The weather this trip may have not been as good as usual, but we
still had a good time and can’t wait to return!!
Don
and Linda