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.
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