HP Winners Summit Day 2

24 Feb Activity Day 1

The morning was breakfast and presentations from HP management. The guest speaker was Francois Pienaar, captain of the world cup winning Springboks team in 1995, and Matt Damon in Invictus. Hate that movie because the All Blacks lost, though I think it is the one loss that contributed to nation building in South Africa. He is a humorous and inspiring speaker.

The activity at noon was a submarine ride in the coral reefs North of Nassau island.

On the way to the reefs.

One person submarines. As there weren't enough submarines, we were split into 2 groups. One of the ladies in the second group threatened to go to the bathroom underwater. I was glad to be in the first group.

Wang Theng getting into one. These things are like riding sea horses. Not very manouverable and one speed only, slow. However the colourful tropical fishes are spectacular, and whilst I remember, you can wear glasses. A streamlined swimsuit helps with the speed, I was slowest cause I was wearing bloomers. Good fun and highly recommended.

Sat on the bow of the boat to dry off on the way back.

Dinner was at the Blue Lagoon Island which is a 45 min boat ride from Paradise Island. WT looking very tired on the way there.

Sat with a lovely Malaysian couple from Kuala Lumpur. The girls spent a lot of time queuing for food. Most of the beer were mine, not Jason's. Pat is in the middle.

Shoved the servers away for a shot of WT pigging out. Day 2 done!

 

 

 

 

 

HP Winners Summit Day 1

23 Feb, day 1 of the official HP event.

I went down to the beautiful hotel lobby for registrations. We get to choose an activity for each of the two days. Our selections were, submarine for day 1, for WT a massage at the spa for day 2, and myself lunch at the Greycliff for wine and cigar tasting on day 2.

After registration, we went for a tour of the hotel complex. It is close enough to a hotel with a theme park and casino built in. If you are a guest, then most activities are complimentary (you pay via you room rates). Water slides, aquariums, rapids and underwater tunnels. See selection of photos below.

 

HP dinner was by one of the many pools in the complex. Plenty of Bahamian food and drinks. Let the pictures speak.

 

 

Nassau Bahamas

22 Feb

We walked into Nassau from our hotel on Paradise Island. Paradise Island is connected to Nassau by 2 one way bridges. Vehicles have to pay toll on the entry bridge. Collection booth is on the left side. Drivers with right steer cars have to reach across the passenger seat to pay the toll.

Looking back towards our hotel from the bridge. Our hotel is the second one from the left.

The walk to Nassau took 25 mins on Bay Street. This is the main street in Nassau, and probably the only with a footpath. You have to walk, for most streets on the road shoulder and is not recommended.

We have seen up to 5 cruise liners moored at the wharf in Nassau. The shops cater for the passengers on these liners.

Wang Theng is in there somewhere.

Police directing traffic on Bay Street.

There is a large building called the straw market. Here you will find crafts made from straw, wood, shells and so on. We were told the old straw market burned to the ground (don't laugh).

Went to lunch on this street. Deciding to eat healthy, I ordered a stewed fish and Wang Theng a conch chowder. The stewed fish was actually a piece of fried fish (batter and all) and then stewed, very average. Should have taken a hint from the name of the cafe - Skanz.

Wang Theng wanted to do some more shopping, so we parted for 2 hours. She bought a straw bag, some dresses and some T shirts from Hard Rock Cafe.

Meantime I wandered down to the cruise liner terminal on Prince George Wharf. Checked out the stalls in the terminal and took a closer look at the liners. You can get your hair braided Carribean style here in one of the huts at the terminal.

Then I went to the Tiki Bar where we were supposed to meet. Check out the other Bahamian beer, the High Rock, a bit hoppier than the others and also very nice.

We bought some supplies from the store and took a taxi back to the hotel. Taxi fare is $4 each if there a four people. We didn't want to wait, so that was $12.

For our dinner we decided to eat unda the bridge. The huts selling food is under the outbound bridge from Paradise Island. So again we walked across the bridge and ducked under on the other side.

The area under the bridge is called Potter's Cay (pronounced key). It has fishing boats and 2 rows of huts selling "conch" and other seafood meals. We appeared to be the only visitors there, probably a bit too seedy for tourists at night.

After taking a look at all the huts, we settled on Danny under da Bridge.

We ordered conch grill and fried Barracuda plus a couple of Kaliks. Danny shooed some of his local patrons away to clear a table for us. The police patrol car cruised twice past us while we waited for Danny's woman chef to fry up our feed. The beer was nice and cold as they usually chill them in ice rather than refrigerate. It was karaoke night at Danny's. The MC could not convince anyone to sing, so Danny had a go, singing a Kenny Roger's number - I believe in you, I believe.

Danny and I, and so that was day 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bahamas Arrival

21 Feb

After 25 hours of traveling and four planes, Wang Theng and I arrived at Nassau airport at 7 pm local time. As in all our travels, the first thing that usually greets us are scaffoldings or renovations. Nassau airport is no different, and the picture posters promises a world class arrival hall, customs hall and baggage collection hall in Fall 2012. I almost expect the last number "2" to be soft coded so that next year it could be Fall 2013.

Wang Theng collecting our carry on because the plane cabin was too small for it to be carried on.

To our surprise, our bag was the third item to emerge for the carousel. So after some speedy formalities, we were ushered to Gary's taxi at the taxi rank. It was an old van and the ride was pretty bumpy. However, we were much distracted by Gary who said we could ask him anything we liked. Bahamas was a British colony for about 150 years (before that it was probably a British pirate colony) or longer. So it is a left hand drive country. However its proximity to the USA means most of the cars are left hand steering. It is hilarious to me to see all these left steer cars on left drive roads. I was imagining a nation of zombie drive cars because there are no drivers where they should be.

We came upon what looked like a political rally and the road was blocked. Gary confirmed it was the PLP party rally, and he pulled out a PLP banner and waved it a bit and was let through. I am sure he has under his seat a banner for the "other" party too. After enquiring where we were from (he had no idea which planet NZ was on), he told us a bit about Bahamas. We got on to the subject of the Bahaman flag.

Gary offered to waive the taxi fare if we could explain the symbolism behind the colours of the flag. We couldn't, so he clarified. There are four colours in the flag, three if you count the two blues as one. The first blue means sky, the gold means the sun, the second blue means the sea. He paused and asked me to guess what black symbolised. Twenty minutes into the country, we were met by a black airport official, a black immigration officer, a black customs officer, a black usher at the taxi rank and Gary himself was black. So I said it represented the people of this country. "Yo smart man!" Gary says. I am flattered and I hope Gary does not read this blog.

When you get onto Bay Road, the lights and towers on Paradise Island dominate the skyline. I asked Gary where the best conchs (pronounced konks) are. He said 'unda the bridge" as we drove "ova da bridge". We got to the Cove and Gary yelled at the concierge to open the door for the guests. Bye Gary.

Checked in and the reception explained the way to the lifts. She had a strong accent so I had no idea what she was saying. We just followed the stream of guests coming the other way. I figured they must be leaving their rooms to go to dinner, and we found the lifts and our rooms without too much trouble (unlike Sydney in 2008 - but that is another story and I didn't blog then).

Atlantis Hotel

The room is very nice much like the Venetian and Pallazo in Vegas. 2 levels, 2 TVs, super large bathroom, and double basin etc.

Our Cove Hotel room

By the time we freshened up, it was 11pm. We needed dinner, the concierge was not a lot of help and said we could get tapas at the Seaglass lounge bar. Disregarding his advice, we strolled across to the Atlantis Tower where the main casino was. Noted a few places of interest to be visited later (and later in this blog too) ie Aura night club, Nobu shushi and so on. We found the Atlas Bar by the Atlantis casino and was showed to a table by the lagoon where many nice boats were moored.

I ordered the most expensive Bahaman beer on the menu the Kalik for $6.25 and a white Californian Zinfindel which turned out to be pink. We speculated that the meal sizes would be large, so we ordered a cheese and garlic bread appetiser and a Jamaican Jambalaya entree (American main) to share. We got the meal size right but it would have been quite useful to have the kids here to help with the eating.

The Kalik beer was fine and typical of most beers from tropical countries, refreshing, cold and lightly flavoured. I then tried the Sands and ordered Wang Theng the Bahamas Tropical Mojito. The Sands was refreshing but bland. I ask the waiter for his opinion, and he said the Kalik is the best, but I should try the Kalik Gold which was not on the menu. I did, twice and it is very good for a tropical beer. Wang Theng by this time (12.30 am) was looking slighty tired from the Mojito and jet lagged (pun pun pun). So I drank the other half of her Mojito (a very useful attribute for a hushband I reckon) and weaved our way back to our room using the same route, though I felt it was longer and needed more concentration to navigate.