7 pages in total! Including the video
(21/04/06)
On the morning of departure I was informed by Crazy that he had no money whatsoever and had forgotten to bring his credit card on the trip so I would have to finance the entire thing.
Within 15 mins of arriving in Jamaica I was slapping the newspaper out of crazy's hand as he was reading it while answering questions the chick at Immigration was asking him. His reasoning "They all take forever, so you may as well read".
Within 30 mins of arriving in Jamaica we were in a cab with more subwoofer than back seat, Jamaican music was blaring out of the windows and we had already been offered pot.
Within 45 mins, the taxi driver had pulled his knife out at Crazy (which reminded me of Crocodile Dundee) and semi threatened Crazy due to something, well, crazy he stupidly said and was of course taken the wrong way. When this happened I simply thought "here we go" sat back like I was in front of the telly in the back seat and took another swig out of my beer.
Within 55 mins I had got out 400 Jamaican dollars instead of US$400 dollars from the cash machine, so I had about US$6 to pay the US$60 dollar taxi fare.
Within 60 mins I had realised my screw-up at the cash machine when I went to buy beers, US$1,000 for 8 beers at the supermarket?! I don't think so...
Within 80 mins we were driving down back alleys of the taxi drivers home town, visiting cousins next to the stripped out cars with smashed windshields.
Within 90 mins, all was sweet as I was popping bottle tops from beer using the taxi drivers knife.
Finally, 2 hours after touchdown we arrived in Negril at our resort. A fairly typical start to one of our holidays, with nothing out of the ordinary happening.
The first day was p00 weather, but we still had cool day. We hired a taxi driver to take us round the back roads to check out the scenery. We stopped off at one of his buddies places for a beer:
The conversation quickly turned to growing pot and we asked him if he had a plantation. 10 mins later we were here:
He even said "you take a photo of the grower?", wasn't gonna turn that down:
Um, what can I say here:
We did see a cool hermit crab running around! Check out the video to watch him run around.
Mmm, fell in love with Jerk chicken:
A Jamaican pop band performing on stage in front of thousands:
Where people live:
By Tony Baker: email