Christmas in Jamaica...

[Exile]

...is good. No place like home...
Quick points.

1. Airport - big improvement...Immigration...smooth, fast...wasn't a lot of people...seems visits down...economic fallout?
2. Baggage handling....sloooowwwwwwww...esp. after flyin thru immigration...needs much improvement...
3. Customs - easy, friendly, fast.
4. Hustlers - not a lot....except for telephone man
5. Coconut man - blocked off with railings on Palisados road...just after roundabout....so didn't make usual stop..
6. Road repairs on airport strip...when will it end..lots of boulders...really can't do much...seem they are rplacing the sand dunes...
7. Road down by Rockfort - in a mess...raod repairs but at least give us a little smthing to drive on nuh...
8. Traffic... Kingston...terrible..good thing I know the back roads..
9. Prices...clothes - reasonable...food ok...gifts - ridiculous..toys...bruk pocket.
10. People seem calm...before the storm? Store people very friendly and helpful esp. the women....
11. Highway - Kin to Map Pen - still the best thing...switch a car for a suv for a day...toll from $230 to $310 plus gas..tek back mi car.
12. Bag a gungo $500 (quart), live tree $5,000, decorations $6,000....being in Ja family and friends for Christmas PRICELESS!!!
13. Still haven't made sm of the necessary culture rounds...creative stuff nuh...waiting on Mosiah et al.

[Historian]

Love This Post!

Thanks for the update, Exile, I really like this post of yours! Nice observation and recording of details. (Number 11 above has me laughing.)

I'm not clear over #4. Why was the telephone man hustling, and what was he hustling?

[Gamma]

selling a call...

[Historian]

selling a call...

Thanks, man! I would never have thought of this! Talk about hustling to make a living!!

Sad that this is taking place at the "gateway to Jamaica," our international airport. In the eyes of tourists and returning citizens and residents, this sure paints a sordid picture of the country they're entering!

[Islandman]

Seems like he is providing a useful service to me!

That would be a very typical kind of business that gets funded by those non-profit microfinance institutions like kiva.org and Grameen bank.

[HL]

Don't look good to me...not a nice welcoming picture.

Can't think of a country with a good tourist industry that has that type of 'hustling' for arriving folks...

That and other things at the 'gateway' needs to be cleaned up!!

Could some get Bartlett on the phone for me.

ThankX!

[Sickko]

Baggage handling at Sangsters much better, last three times I arrived there, bags were waiting for me when I got there.

[Mosiah]

Not sure it's such a bad thing. Visitors to the island, even our very own Jamaicans, usually don't have local cell phones, so these hustlers are offering a service. I know when I travel outside Jamaica, I lock off my phone so as to not pay any roaming fees and I am sometimes in need of a local phone to call whoever should be picking me up. The payphones inside the terminal are not always handy when looking for your pickup.

Depends on how the hustle is done.

What else needs to be cleaned up, HL?