Shhh... it's a secret

Easter weekend was pretty crazy.

Pretty exciting.

Pretty fun.

A little bit scary.

We had big plans for the four day weekend. That’s right four day weekend. We had Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday AND Easter Monday off.

Awesome.

We asked around and were told that a certain resort that shall remain nameless was a good place to go. We specifically asked people for a resort with a nice beach.

We saw the pictures of the recommended resort and visited their website. It looked perfect. The price was amazing (local rate) so Nicole booked it and we were off on Friday morning to spend four days and three nights there.

The resort is about 3.5 hours away from our place so we had to catch a bus. It was an uneventful bus ride.

The resort is on an island separate for the island we live on. It’s a short distance off shore but you have to take a boat from the main island to the small island.

Our bus stop was 3 km down a dirt road from the boat launch. We arranged with the hotel to get us a ride from the road to the boat launch. We were a little dismayed that the ride was a regular taxi and that it cost $5 to go the three kilometres.

None the less we were on the way. We caught our little boat and walked to the lobby of the hotel. It looked quite nice and we received our welcome drink as we checked in.

Picture taken to prove we had these bags in case of theft as they sat up there forever


Having to sign an indemnity was a little concerning but we did it anyway. We were quite early and our room wasn’t yet ready which was fine as we had plans to travel to the nearby city and look around.

And we had plans.

Big plans.

Eating plans.

You see there is a Hard Rock Café here and we were nearby.

And we were going to have American food no matter what.

So we took the little boat back over and they called us a taxi and we were on our way and we travelled much further than we expected.
And the taxi was expensive.

Very, very expensive.

But we had fun.

We had a good meal.





We looked around at the nearby resorts.

Very, very nice resorts.

Very.

Very nice.

We paid for a very expensive ride back to the boat launch.

And crossed the water to get to our resort.

While in the lobby getting our key it started to pour rain.

Pour. Rain.

And puddles began to form around the entire resort.

We got our key and a hotel lady led us to our room.

Well I should say we led her to our room although we had no idea where we were going. She was walking behind us barking our orders. It didn’t work very well.

And by this time it was pitch black out and the paths were not well lit and we were walking through deep, slippery puddles.

But soon we were at our room and were sorely disappointed.

We had a bure which is a separate little “house”. We were paying for an ocean view and could see the ocean but it was that little sliver WAY over there.

The room was nice but not great. It was way too big for the two of us and we were lucky enough to have no running water when we first arrived.

We notified the front desk and they stated simply that it was a resort wide problem and they were working on it.

They must have worked quickly as the water was back on at most 45 minutes later.

We cleaned up and decided to go for dinner. Upon arriving at the main restaurant we were told that we could eat at 8:30 pm.

It was 6:30 pm.

We were hungry.

They said they were busy.

The vast majority of the tables were empty.

We said: “!!!”

They said: “You can go to our other restaurant.”

We said: “We’re in board shorts and that restaurant is fancy and cost’s $110 for an entrée and !!!”

They eventually relented when Nicole said “Am I going to be able to eat tomorrow?”

And they sat us down among the many, many empty tables.

And we ordered and the food came and it was terrible.

TERRIBLE

And expensive.

Nicole sent her first try back (Fish – they couldn’t cook fish) because it was overcooked and impossible to eat.

The second try came well after I finished my awful chicken and it was, of course, raw.

So Nicole went without food that night.

And we went back to our room walking through the overly dark paths and puddles.

And we were not impressed.

So we decided to leave the next day.

And go to one of the very nice resorts we saw earlier.

And when we went to check out the next day the trouble started.

Us We be checking out now.
Them But you booked for four nights.
Us No we didn’t. We booked for three nights and we be checking out now
Them Ok, three nights but you not be checking out now. No REFUND
Us We don’t want no refund. We haven’t paid anything. We’ll pay for one night and then we go bye-bye.
Them No refunds. You not check out. We have strict policy. We charge your credit card.
Us We don’t want a refund. We haven’t paid anything. We will pay one night cash. You charge our credit card for the rest and we’ll dispute the charge with our credit card company and you get fine!
Them We offer no refunds. You must pay for all three nights. We will forgive last night’s dinner and change your room.
Us Look, just let us go. You have many happy people enjoying their holiday why do you want two unhappy people to stay?
Them No refunds. We’ll charge you for all three nights
Us We won’t sign the credit card slip.
Them Then we won’t let you leave the island.
Us !!!

After an hour we finally convinced them to let us leave and we only had to pay for the one night and I paid for the meal we were charged for (Nicole’s was taken off the bill the night before).

Pretty ridiculous. We were not happy.

But we were excited because before we had the big fight with the reception folks Nicole had booked us into a very posh resort back in the town we visited the day before.

There are about 6 big, very nice resorts over there. We were getting this room for the same price as the other and it was ready when we arrived (three hours before check in) and was BEAUTIFUL.



















We had an awesome time the rest of the weekend.

So the big news around here…

Well we were told not to talk about it for fear of deportation. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I seriously doubt that anyone with any power is reading this drivel. The following may not be entirely accurate but the gist is true.

Anyway in 2006 there was a military coup. Those folks are still in power today although they are consistently called the “interim government”. The prime minister who was in charge before the coup sued the current government claiming that his ouster was unconstitutional.

The courts ruled in his favour.

What did the government do?

Well the president did what any powerful person would do. He ensured he would keep his power.

He fired all the judges.

ALL the judges.

He abrogated the constitution.

There is now no constitution. (Can’t do something unconstitutional when there is no constitution.)

He stated that he would appoint a new prime minister, which turned out to be the same one as before (the unconstitutional one).

He stated that he would hold elections after the crisis was over.

2014.

He has forbidden any negative stories about the government from being written or shown. He has put censors in the news stations and newspapers.

They have deported foreign press and arrested at least one local reporter for reporting negative stories about the government.

The paper was published with missing pages on Saturday indicating that the stories that were to be there were censored by the government. The main news was cancelled on Saturday and was shortened to half an hour today (most of which was sports).

Just today the government took control of the reserve bank.

But our lives continue on as normal. Our main concern is our funding. If sanctions are put in place we wonder if we’ll lose our funding.

We’ll see.

But it makes for exciting times!


More pictures here:

Easter