The saga continues!

The Fish

I neglected to tell about the fish adventure on Wednesday in my last report. As we bobbed in the water on Wednesday at Orient, we saw crowds of people down the beach pointing out to sea and looking carefully. We couldn’t see anything. As people closer to us started the same routine, I swam over to ask what they were looking at. They pointed out a strange looking fish on the surface a little further out. It looked to be about 2 ½ to three feet long and looked like it had two tails flashing around. I swam closer to get a better look and found a Barracuda or Tarpon with a fish in it’s mouth. The fish was too big for it to swallow, so it would thrash it around, try to take a bite, and then thrash around a little more. What looked like two tails in the sun really it’s long snout which it could not close over the fish and the fish’s tail.

Thursday night, July 12, we planned to try something different for dinner. We had stayed in our room most of the day and had a light lunch. We left early for dinner and wanted to try the Wajang Doll Risjttafel. We got there at 5:45 only to discover that it did not open until 6:45. We went to Pineapple Pete’s instead, since we were already parked and had not made a visit there yet this trip.

I had a good French Onion Soup and Gretchen had Brouchetta. For the main course, I had their herb crusted Rack of Lamb and Gretchen had the Lobster Thermador ($33). As usual, the service was delightful and the food very good at Pineapple Pete’s. We stopped at Gourmet Marche to replenish a few minor supplies and returned to our room to begin the

Great Chippie Card Adventure!

We had rented a phone from Sharon Harris and used up all the time included with the phone. On Tuesday, we stopped at the Shell Station in Madam Estate and purchased a $20 refill from the Chippie Card vending machine. When we returned to the room, the battery was nearly dead on the cell phone so we put the Chippie Receipt in the safe until we charged and wanted to use the phone. Now, on Thursday evening, we dug out the receipt and tried to update the phone account. We received an innocuous message “The card cannot be used at this time, Please contact Customer Service.” We called Customer Service. The lady who answered checked the numbers and said “That number has already been used this morning.” I argued that it had not because it was in our safe. I asked how we could get this corrected and use our phone tonight. She said “Go to the office tomorrow.” I asked, “Where is the office?” She said “2 Webster Road.” I asked, “can you tell me where that is and how to get to it?” She said “no, call them and ask.” I asked again, “how can I resolve this tonight?” She hung up on me.

I called back and went through the same routine. Again, I asked for directions to the office. The response was, “I don’t know, I’m in Curacao” and again, a hang up.

Gretchen suggested that I didn’t know how to handle this (She used to do telephone customer service). She called back, got the same response, asked for a Supervisor, and got so frustrated that she hung up. The Supervisor couldn’t give her a reason why this could happen, made it sound like it was our fault and didn’t sound like he even cared. He was also challenged in speaking English. He told her to take the receipt back where we got it.

Friday morning, Gretchen called again. She got a more helpful and knowledgeable sounding operator who explained that sometimes the machines don’t get reset and indicated that this sometimes can happen. She explained you would have to go back where you purchased it. And so, on the way to the beach, we stopped at the Shell Station as suggested by the Customer Service supervisor. They said “No, no, no. We do not sell those, that’s just a machine. Go talk to them. I asked where that was. After searching for their phone, which was unplugged, they called UTS and told us to go to the UTS building “just past the Nagico building and the Post Office off Pond Fill Road. It was not on Pond Fill Road but off Back Street. By the time we drove around and asked a security guard at the parking lot for further instruction, we then drove around the block at the building two or three times to try to find a parking space a block away.

After standing in line in the UTS Customer Service Department for five minutes while two local women (I won’t call them ladies} dodged in front of us in the line, a friendly customer service person said “You didn’t buy this from us, it’s not our fault. You bought it from Extreme Communications but I’ll fix it for you. She pulled out a list of new numbers and programmed on in the phone for me. I asked how this could happen. She responded, “It’s a machine, what do you expect. Machines make mistakes.” It appeared that at least half of the people standing in the lines that morning were dealing with the same kind of problem. Next trip, I’ll redo the math and see if we really save enough by renting a local phone to make up for the potential frustration and lost time of dealing with an unreliable phone time sales system.

Friday breakfast was in our room. Lunch was at Baywatch where Gretchen had their Garlic Scallop Caesar Salad and I had the Captain’s Plate with Onion Rings along with the ever present gracious smile and hugs all around from Cheryl. After a sunny day on Orient Beach we returned to our room.

Saturday we did breakfast in, picked up snacks, a quiche, sandwiches and a slice of Pizza at Tap 5 and ate our lunch in the sun on Orient Beach.

Wajang Doll

For dinner, we decided to try again for the Riisttafel. I had never been to a Riisttafel and had no real concept of what this would be. My imagination conjured up something like a Japanese Teriyaki shop. What we found was a nice white table restaurant with an incomprehensible menu with only one item that caught Gretchen’s attention because her Dutch grandmother used to make it. When the proprietor asked it we had any questions, I expressed total ignorance and placed myself in his hands. He suggested the 14 item dinner. The Riisttafal has a long menu with a lot of individual dinners, but also has 14 items for $14.95 each for two or 22 items for a higher price. I had interpreted it as a choice of fourteen different times at $14.95. We chose the 14 item dinner,

Before the main course, I started with a Chicken Soup “that will not be like a chicken soup you know”. It was very tasty chicken broth with large chunks of chicken and other vegetable and sides of chopped lettuce, noodles and a third dish I can’t remember. Gretchen had Spring Rolls. Both were very good but Gretchen liked the soup and wants to go back so she can get her own Chicken Soup.

For the 14 item menu, they bring warming trays to the table and warm your plates, then replace them with small serving bowls of fourteen different items. There was a beef skewer, two other beef dishes, a chicken dish, a pork disk, two vegetable dishes, a pickeled vegetable dish, fried Bananas, deep fried bread, rice, a peanut sauce salad, and a hot sauce that woud clear your sinuses, your chest, your eyeballs and numb your lips and tongue for the rest of the meal. All of the dishes were very tasty.

For dessert, we had fresh strawberries in a mixed berry sauce that provided a beautiful ending to a very delightful meal.

The restaurant is decorated with puppets and art work from Indonesia collected by the proprietor. The restaurant is small and with a wind and rain passing through which encouraged closing the doors was pretty hot and stuffy. The single ceiling fan did not do a good job of cooling the corner where we sat. All, in all, though it was a delightful meal, and interesting experience, and a place to which we will definitely return.

We were told earlier this trip that there are 700 restaurants on the Dutch side of St. Martin alone. I know we’ll never be able to try them all!