Barbados, Barbados - Part 2/3

Thank you for coming back for more about my trip in Barbados. See last week’s post if you missed part 1/3…

Public transport:
On the second day my travelling companions and I decided to try out the public transports and venture out of Christchurch to Bridgetown… Barbados offers and excellent public transport service and you can go anywhere from BD$2. There are 3 sorts of buses; if you want to get up close and personal with Bajans, get the ZR white buses, where the music is blasting and you are in danger of having someone seating on your laps. Bajans are generally very patient and helpful. Because of that, we could easily get anywhere we wanted to get to. Bus stops (ALL) have girls’ names and do not indicate the location or town name. So you will have to rely on the other passengers to tell you where to get off… if you are shy, you will have to get out of your box if you want to go around Barbados without getting lost! I loved the bus trips!



Butterfly beach resorts beach

Beaches:

There seems to be a beach every 20 houses or so in Barbados, but, the one I kept hearing about was Miami Beach and the Accra beach where you could bring picnics and also buy drinks. My hotel’s beach was good enough, convenient and practical enough for me not to walk too far while wet. And I could always pop to the bar to grab a drink if I needed to. My hotel is just on the other side of the coconut trees on the picture above.




Blue sky from under the coconut tree

The Stiletto catamaran and staff

 Exploring:

The icing on the cake other than the beautiful wedding I attended was the snorkelling trip… Oh my gosh! You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT go to Barbados without taking a trip on the Stiletto Catamaran (above pic) to feed the turtles and visit the shipwrecks deep in the sea. Before I got on to the Stiletto I could not see myself left alone and holding nothing in the deep sea. But the staff of the catamaran was so patient; I was literally taken by the hand and helped in the sea by Sean who was as patient as a saint teaching a kid (40yo kid) to swim. The trip on the catamaran, the snorkelling, feeding the turtles, see the shipwrecks underwater, lunch and buckets loads of alcohol cost BD$175 and it is worth every penny.


View of another catamaran at sea

Fresh fish:
A place you might want to check out while in Barbados is Oistin. Oistin is located in Christchurch and it is where it is at on the Friday night. There is a centre stage with a giant boom box and people willingly expressing themselves on stage with at times extreme twerkings or random ballet moves. Oistin is also the fresh fish home where hundreds of shacks offer you grilled or deep fried fishes lobsters, shrimps and others. Since we did not know what we were doing on our first visit to Oistin we picked the worst shack to have our dinner. Not only were we served frozen fish, half of the accompaniments were not available and then, the waitress was pressurising us for tip… It wasn’t funny at the time and I didn’t want to be the one in the group rising issues with the service again.  I had already done the night before by refusing to pay the service charge on a BD$70 bill because of the poor service in a restaurant uptown.



No queues at Pat's on the Sunday

After our dinner we were joined by more friends and discovered Mr Bellamy fish shack where the boss himself did the grilling. I sat down again tried the barbecued giant shrimps and my mouth still waters at the thought. Just a day before I left Barbados, we discovered the freshest of fresh grilled fish tent in Oistin and it is Pat’s place. Where they do not hesitate to make you taste the fish so that you can plan to have your dinner there… Pat’s place is opened on the Sunday, but on the Friday night the queue is unbelievably long. I now know why.My last day in Barbados was a very rainy one which forced me to rest a bit before the trip home. The transfer coach was much better and in within the expected standard; clean, modern, air con and chatty driver. The Check-in at the airport was quick and having watched many times a TV programme called “Nothing to Declare”, I had made sure not to travel with anything that may cause the UK border force to strip search me. One thing I did learn is that, you cannot travel back from Barbados with more than 1L of Rum and you cannot enter the UK with creamy baked good bought on the Island.


And if it all goes wrong KFC is there for rescue!

If you are planning to travel there, get your change from Marks & Spencer. 600 Barbados dollars are enough for a 5 days trip. Duty free stuff are really really cheap there, but you will need your passport and return trip details in order to benefit from the discount in Bridgetown Malls. UK and EU citizens do not need a visa to enter Barbados so, you can just up and go.

I really enjoyed my time in Barbados and I think 5 days is just the right amount of time to spend in such place to keep it fresh and enjoyable as every day, there is something new to discover.

Enjoy your time there if you are going and do make time to play in sand and sea. Don't worry about getting the sand in your hair... Be free!

 Cio!

 Is your next holiday location Barbados? Check in next week for the checklist. Thank you for reading!

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