Kingston, Jamaica

[Ted]

My partner is going to be working in Kingston for the summer.
The kids and I will probably be out there for a few weeks in August.

We don't know anyone there - Max's family broke all connections when they came to England in 1952.

Anyone got any advice?

[Neil Foxlee]

Buy the Rough Guide to Jamaica, which is more highly rated on Amazon than the Lonely Planet guide. See http://tinyurl.com/2yu2bd


Rent the DVD of Life and Debt, a documentary on Jamaica, to see the economic reality behind what most tourists, cocooned in resorts, will experience. http://www.lifeanddebt.org/about.html

Try and get into the country, which is beautiful.

Take great care in urban areas (ie Kingston), and avoid no-go areas.

Don't rent a car (Jamaican drivers are deadly): use a reputable taxi firm.

Tell me how you get on.

[Ted]

Everything Irie.

And I am wearing sandals.

[Neil Foxlee]

Without socks, I hope... (I always get told off).

Good of you to remember my request.

Look forward to further missives!

[Ted]

Back in London. Gustav was no fun. More later.

[Ted]

Bear in mind that I was in JA with my two kids so I wasn´t getting hopelessly stoned, exploring the ghetto, or hanging out at the dance. -In actual fact I didn’t even manage any shallow audio tourism – just had a rather good holiday with my family

West Kingston
Mr. B drove us round Trench Town (his manor), Tivoli Gardens, Jones Town etc. Deeply, deeply depressing. Corrugated iron, piles of rubbish, marga dargs, people sitting around. You know what it looks like, you’ve seen the pictures. But the heat,the smells,the sound, the pressure up close are quite different.
A case of blowback. The JLP and PNP originally armed the gangsters here in the 60s. Drug money means the gangsters no longer need the politicians,so they run the areas as they please. This is partly where JAs huge murder rate comes from. Poor people killing other poor people
Tivoli looks like the worst built 60s council estate you’ve ever seen. Entrances barricaded with old cars and rubble against drive by shootings. Vultures hovering overhead (Really).
Mr. B. helps run a soccer team here. He’s obviously a Trenchtown face as he stopped every few yards to chat .
Its a tiny area. Yet its come to represent JA to a lot of us especially Reggae fans. I didn’t want to go there - cheap holidays in other peoples misery etc. - But Mr. B insisted. Its only a small part of Kingston, let alone JA.

56 Hope Road
Bob Marley’s gaff. (Formerly Chris Blackwell’s). Big old colonial house full of marleyobilia.
Bullet holes in the walls lovingly preserved. As is Bob’s liquidiser – which as our guide intoned blankly was used to prepare his Ital drinks.
I especially enjoyed a room papered with music paper reviews from the 70s – Nick Kent on why reggae is rubbish, various NME reviews of Marley gigs which happened to have write-ups of gigs at the Nashville, The Marquee, The Pegasus etc on the same page.
But really, save your money.


Port Antonio
Its a little port. Bustling is the word I think (see I’m getting the hang of this travel writing thing.
Cruise ships from the US stop off in the big flash heavily policed (= keep ordinary Jamaicans out) marina. Errol Flynns old place at the end of the peninsula.
White people something of a novelty in the market. Sound systems playing every where in the around the shops and market area – its not that they’re huge, each one no more than 2 or 3 hundred watts with a couple of boxes, its just that there are quite a few of them.
My kids realise what Ridley Market in Dalston is based on.

Winnifred Beach
Ordinary Jamaicans at the beach. Food stalls, little beach restaurant (best fried chicken and rice I’ve ever had. Don’t tell Merle I said this), loads of kids, handful of white people. Jamaicans at the seaside are just like anyone else at the seaside - boat trips, horse rides, sandcastles. Only with better music and food.
The locals have been fighting to keep this beach public (all the other beaches in the area have been effectively privatised and charge US $5 admission) – every so often fences are put up and they tear them down (with the help of tourists, I was told, proudly). Its a little piece of paradise just waiting to be fucked up by some greedy developer.

Blades
Its unusual where I live to see unsheathed blades. But walking down the road here you meet guys with large machetes. In bars youths toy with ratchet knives. It may take me a while to get comfortable with this.

The A4
One of JAs main roads. Follows the North Coast from Annotto down to the islands eastern tip and round to Morant Bay. Rutted, potholed, terrifying wagonists in snorting honking GMCs Kenworths etc.
Jamaicans are mainly courteous, sensible drivers outside Kingston.

Top 6 Traffic Hazards
1.Potholes
2.Goats
3.Male Drivers looking/shouting/honking at attractive females
4.Dazed old Rastas wandering into the road
5.Male Drivers looking/honking/shouting at any females not included under 3.
6.Suicidal three-legged tailless dargs

The Hustle
Is everywhere. I don’t mind paying some skint beach dread over the odds for a coffee-bean bracelet. But when quite a prosperous looking restaurant “forgetsâ€

[Gordon Neill]

Now that's what I call travel writing (despite the word 'bustling'). I feel like I was there. Which is just as well as I can't afford it. Thanks Ted.

[howard male]

Yes, great stuff, Ted - thanks. I read the whole thing to Marcia this morning over breakfast. Her mother comes from Annoto so she hooted with glee at it's mention. We've never been to Jamaica and - as Marcia has little desire to go (too many far more attractive places beckoning, and no desire to seek out her roots, I suppose ) - I doubt we ever will. But this vivid and objective report at least gave us an unblinkered flavour.

[Jamie Renton]

A note perfect piece of travel writing Ted. Makes me want to bust out of this damp isle & explore somewhere warmer & more exiting (Ian A, I don't suppose you might want to put an fRoots asignment to somewhere exotic my way? no? no? ... oh well)

[garth cartwright]

Grand story, Ted. I've been to Jamaica (briefly) once and your writing brought back a lot of memories. Tho u experienced a lot more than me - I was there just after a hurricane and I recall it being wet and muddy (beaches too). My flight from Heathrow was cancelled too. Must be part of the JA experience to have an airport nightmare. did u get to read much of Junot Diaz while relaxing in your hammock?

[Ted]

Junot Diaz while relaxing in your hammock

Finished it on the plane over.

Everything Garth and Charlie said about it is right.
Dunno about a masterpiece, but certainly one of my all time favorite novels.

The bit about the mist of arterial blood from machete wounds stayed with me.

[NormanD]

Cheers, Ted, and welcome back. A great read. Now I know what a "ratchet" is.

[Con Murphy]

Yes, a great read, thanks Ted. Now that you are back sitting in your safe European home, do you want to go back there again?

[Adam Blake]

Thanks for that. Glad you're back safe. Well done! See you soon.

[howard male]

Norman wrote -

Now I know what a "ratchet" is.

Yes, but do you know what a 'marga darg' is, Norman? Marcia had to tell me.