TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Enough Doom and Gloom - Remember the Good Old Days

So many things we loved about SXM have changed and we often wish we could return to the happy memories of long ago. Roads that were more like paths; great restaurants hidden in places you couldn't imagine; and the freedom to wander the island without fear of anything worse than a flat tire in the outback......

So many places we loved and lost but for me, the biggest one has to be the Mullet Bay Resort which was my introduction to St. Maarten so many years ago and the restort we primarily visited for the first fifteen years we visited the island. Many an evening spent at the Sweet Tooth or the Grand Casino and the wonderful days lounging under a palapa on the beach at Mullet. Their sunday evening BBQs were great and the entertainment and dancing afterward was always fun. And the Frigate - my favorite island restaurant back in the day. So sad to see all the changes..........and all the wonderful things that today are but happy memories of days gone by.

Does anyone else have this type of memory? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

We remember not seeing any car rentals on island and when you took a cab you told the driver when to pick you up and that you'd pay upon return. Cab was always there.

Remember when Grand Case restaurants had only two seatings 7:30 & 9pm and everyone smoked inside.

West Indies Tavern (now Guavaberry shack) and their .99 happy hour.

Little Bay Beach & Racket Club (pre Divi) a family owned place with a casino, several rooms of different music venues and great food.

Great Bay hotel before Sonesta bought it.

Back Street bakery with delights to equal Sarafina's. Back street was dirt then.

Locals selling wears at the end of the dock.

No tv's. No stop lights, only traffic mirrors. But hardly any traffic.

Remember being able to hike to Pic Paradise with no fear.

Dirt roads on the Dutch side and paved on the French side.

Marigot bustling with shops & people.

To name a few good memories.

It is unreal to me that it wasn't that long ago when I first discovered Orient Beach and only saw sand, trees and ocean. I think there was one other car parked at that beach when we first went in 1987, as I only saw one other person.

I'm sure that Club O was there, but I never saw that part of the beach.

And yes, our rental had to be delivered to our hotel.

Ah yes I remember it well... no guardrails on the hill to Philipsburg, the old road to Dawn Beach, the dirt parking lot in Philipsburg in back of the Government Offices (entry gate and arm installed after it was paved), Great Bay before the boardwalk, the "no man's land" portion of the road on the hill near the current Blue Mall, Marigot before new wharf area, two way traffic through the main road in Grand Case, GEBE brown outs (oh yes that still occurs today, restaurants of years ago - Zachary's in Point Blanche, Sint Maarten Ribs in P'burg, Sebastiano's in Grand Case, Cha Cha Cha in Grand Case, Fish Pot in Grand Case, Ric's Place in P'burg - later Simpson Bay.....

No developments or rental chairs on Pinel with a small motorized skiff as a ferry.

Our first visit to the island, the road 'over the hill' not only didn't have guard rails but it was actually under construction to expand it from the original dirt road to an actual paved two lane road. That first trip we were pretty content to stay at Mullet Resort and only rented a car for a half day tour of the island. We almost couldn't find Marigot and there was nothing BUT the original Club Orient and a lot of sea grape on all of Orient Beach. It was a spectacular site to see and experience. Nobody cared if you were naked or dressed because most times there was no one else there but you. In the very late 70s and early 80s we started to wander the island far more freely and widely and thus began our forty year plus love affair of SXM.

1981, beautiful Mullet Bay resort with open air lobby check in, a real golf course, lunch by the beach in a real restuarant, A frame houses on Simpson Bay, My friends father's house on Simpson bay where Characters is now, unpaved roads on Dutch side, beautiful Marigot especially by the lagoon. had to use francs on French side, unspoiled Orient Beach with only 6 people on the whole beach, the old airport, Mrs Busby's and the other beach bar, picking up hitchhikers, a full beach with sand by the nude beach in Cupecoy with that beautiful rock sticking out of the water, being nude at the cave in Cupecoy (below the Cliffs) with 5 other couples, no power in the middle of the night, no traffic, very few people speaking English on the French side, when half the tourists on the Dutch side were Dutch, more topless women, very few timeshares, when most of the people on the beach were not overweight, when Mullet bay resort was the most beautiful and sophisticated place I had ever been to, no drugs, guns and crime, no cruise ship passengers, wild dogs and goats everywhere, when every store in Maho was occupied. It still paradise but wow was it better than... I wish many of you could have experienced it. It was the beginning of a love affair that has lasted a life time..beautiful when we were young, older and not as pretty but still committed...

And didn't you feel like Mullet was the end of the world?

Forgot to add our discovery of Orient. We were staying at hotel at LeGallion and walked down a path that opened up to a magnificent view. Because I was looking straight ahead I didn't notice a couple on the beach until the man asked if we'd be joining them.

There was nothing there except three naked couples; no chairs, no buildings, no anything but pristine beauty.

Oh and in Marigot the water came up to the door of La Vie en Rose. That was before they filled in that area.

Although our first visit was later than some (2002) we too have seen many changes. There was a dirt road driving to Dawn beach where there was no condo�s, no Westin hotel. Ms B�s had her tent up as well as a couple of other beach/restaurant vendors including Scavengers. We loved Dawn Beach when we first started visited SXM. It was our beach of choice. Orient was well built up by the time we started visiting but Cupecoy still had no high-rises and the Cliffside bar/restaurant was a joy to sit at and watch the sun go down and drink a mudslide which was one of their specialties.

We visited Marigot often and fell in love with Bar de la mar where I ate the biggest grilled shrimp I had ever seen. The Caravanserai was a small 2 or 3 floor hotel where we stayed twice and Sunset Beach Bar was a small place where everyone who gathered easily talked about their visits and how great this and that was. We had many fun Halloween experiences at the Kissing Fish, SSBB and Lady C. The island has changed much in 15 years, many places are gone. People who we have met and became good friends have passed on and some no longer travel there. We are grateful to see the island at the end of this month for the 23rd time. Hoping for peace and safety.

[color:"blue"]Remember the yellow airport? When you got off the plane on the tarmac and walked into the building where steel drums were being played. Picking up luggage in that hot, hot,old room. When leaving the island, having them open your luggage in front of everyone. Mine was always an overflowing MESS! Along with the countless wonderful places we always went to. And still do. It's tradition to go to the same places for some reason! Our best times were: Meeting our French young friends Silvana and Kelly, Dave's 50th bd party at Talouga Mango with some TTOL friends and musician, Flash Tropical, and picking up the thousands of beautiful pieces of sea glass on our secluded beach. SXM...Magical.[/color]

I remember our first time at Mullet bay in 1991 for our honeymoon. Greeted at with a drink at the first stop when you drive in. All the little houses on the golf course. Wonderful restaurants and casino on the property and I loved the little bus that drove you around the mullet grounds. The beach had excellent restaurants and fun crab racing, etc.... AND yes lets not forget that little airport!!!!!!! St Maarten is still my favorite place!

Other things that come to mind:

The incredible ribs at Zachary's
The oisseau at Bar de la Mer
The crab races at Mullet Beach
No Pelican timeshare - perhaps no timeshares at all......
Our first trip was a packaged trip and we didnt even have to claim luggage at the airport. It was delivered to our room at Mullet.
Dressing in formal wear EVERY night for dinner and casino time
Our first dinner at Antoine's and meeting the Captain and Madame
The first year we brought our girls and they brought their friends and the van we rented
Simpson Bay lagoon before it was built up - no Lee's or restaurant row like we have today
And one of our favorite memories after 1983 - driving past the outskirts of Marigot and checking to see if the goats (sheep?) were still climbing on and all over the row of derelict cars parked on the right.
The wonderful little restaurants you 'heard about' but had to struggle to find
No TVs, no telephones to speak of
And someone mentioned the open air front desk at Mullet - we were there the week it was built. We checked in at the inside office and checked out at the new open air reception desk all in the same trip
We were on the island and got to see some of the drawbridge being floated in place and likewise, when the causeway span was brought through the same bridge

So many wonderful memories of island days. Over a lot of years we have vacationed throughout the Caribbean on Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Saba, St. John, St. Kitts, Vieques and the Bahamas and we've visited a lot of the other near islands via daytrips and island hopping as well, but I have to say, to this day - none of them has ever satisfied our wishlist the way St. Maarten - St. Martin has. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

The two things I will always remember. The first time I stepped off the plane onto the tarmac at the old airport and the first trip to Orient Beach Club beach. I was sure I had died and gone to heaven.

When the whole upper end of Orient, above Pedro's, was nothing but pristine beach. No need for umbrellas - one could just lie on a blanket under the sea grapes.

Pedro's? When did they build that? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> I remember his barrel BBQ on the beach when you had to tell him you wanted lunch early or he might sell out and you'd go hungry. Oh, yes - I remember it well. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Forgot to add playing Vollyeball at Le Gallion, such a beautiful setting.. My dream is to buy the place and restore it back to what it was...

Cw,

Isn't it wonderful to both have the dreams and the memories as well? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate in this. Just goes to show, there are definitely some benefits to getting just a little older!

I agree Pat, I am so glad I had a friend whose father owned a house on Simpson bay and was invited to stay. It was just after New years 1981. Arrived at night on AA to a rain storm. Next morning it was raining so hard you could not see the water and the house was literally 25 feet from the water. Asked a neighbor how the weather had been and they said it had been raining like this since before Xmas. I'm thinking this is going to be an awful vacation. Sun came out in the afternoon and stayed that way for 10 days. Later that day. drove right onto the runway at the airport because my friends father owned his own plane and he just arrived from PR via NJ after 4 stops. Unloaded 30 bags of groceries from ShopRite, a food chain in the northeast US. LOL. he did it to save money..like I do now when I bring my cooler down..lol.lol.lol <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

My understanding is that area is in the nature preserve, so no building allowed there now, except whatever the government does.

Doesn't that have something to do with why, after all these many years he's been there, they're finally trying to drive Chez Pat off the beach? Now that's a real crime IMO. He's taken care of that beach for as many years as I can remember and deserves to be there. We first discovered that beach finally when Granddaughter Number One was an infant and she's all 'growed up' these days.

Yes, that is all part of the Reserve Naturelle.

Funny you should mention exiting the plane and the tarmac. It's one of my favorites too, that first blast of tropical air. I'd add the Princess Julianna airport bar.... I loved to kill time there before a return flight.

Which bar? The one upstairs at the old airport, or the one outside? I loved both of them, for different reasons. Upstairs had wonderful food and a lovely view of the planes. The one outside was, outside!! When you are minutes away from getting on a plane to the cold North, being able to be outside in the sun and have a drink was fabulous!!!

Agree with both of you. Dear John, however, says one if his fondest memories was the ice cream bar upstairs and outside in the sun at the old airport. There's nothing quite lapping up a melting icream cone in the hot sun knowing you will soon be locked in an airplane for the next four hours and NOT knowing where the nearest lavatory is..... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

Aanother great find for us was LePavillion Restaurant in Simpson Bay back in the early 80's. Simpson Bay then was nothing like it is today and I think this was the only restaurant along the beach with the exception of Mary's Boon Guesthouse. There used to be some sort of construction plant, perhaps a cement plant? - and you turned in by it on the right just before the old bridge, and eventually as you snaked around back there you would come across the restaurant. The food was wonderful as was the service and it was definitely a favorite. We think it was destroyed in a hurricane but I'm not sure if that. So much of what we first knew on the island has been lost and so much new has taken its place.

The Food Center
Portofinos on Front St.
Pinocchio's also on Front St.
The original restaurant at Mary's Boon
The Frigate along with all the other Mullet Restaurants
Marks in Cul de Sac
Bobbys Marina in P'berg and the Seafood Galley Restaurant there
All of Dawn Beach Resort and Mullet Bay Resort
Midass Muffler at the foot of the hill heading to P'berg
Risdons take out stand and Risdons Ice Cream Shop by the pier in P'berg
The Parrott place
Some of the earlier radio personalities
The Philipsberg Rib Place - in P'berg and in Simpson Bay
Bertines up in the French Hills of LaSavanne
And the phone company in P'berg where you went to place a call home....
Lynettes in Simpson Bay

Along with so much more whose names and specifics I can't remember......

Those were the good old days on SXM that a few of us here were fortunate enough to have been a part of. And I can only imagine what my kids and Grands will recall as their "good old days" memories some day down the road...... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I do remember the Mideass Muffler, but I am happy to see that it is gone, as that roundabout there at the bottom of the hill has been SUCH an improvement!! I remember the first year we stayed on island was in 95, and we routinely spent 45 minutes going up and down the hill to get to Simpson Bay. THAT I don't miss at all!!!

Oh, the good old days.

I fondly remember when my waist was 32 inches, and I weighed 80 pounds less than I do now.

I fondly remember when I had washboard abs.

I fondly remember when I had a full head of hair.

I fondly remember when my weekly pill dispenser wasn't taking up an inordinate amount of space in my suitcase.

I fondly remember when I could smile at a pretty young lady walking down the beach and she would smile back and now they just look at you like you are an "old pervert"

I fondly remember when I could "spring up" from sitting on the sand and now I have to roll over onto my hands and knees and look for a piece of furniture to hold onto as I raise myself up.

Oh, the good old days!!

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Le Pavillion and Marks in Cul de Sac = Heaven!

Now, THAT was funny!!

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

That truly was funny. And yes Pat, it was a cement plant. Went there once for cement and they were out!!!!!!!!!!!
And we used to walk to Kim Sha from SBYC and there was nothing in the way!
Outdoor shower at Indiana's after swim.
LOL
Cheers
irina

The good old days for us was way back in 2012 when we arrived by cruise ship for the day and went to Orient Beach not knowing much about it. We got a free rum punch and our chair rental from Pedro's, and then one from Perch, which was an eye opener! We returned for 7 days last April and will be back again this year! Seems like a lot changed just since 2012.

Yep! We are the same way. Hysterical comments. You should write a book!

Get 2 or 3 ti punches, and the good old days will be back.

Those of us that share your memories used to laugh when people referred to the older folks being "invisible".
Now it's our turn to go unnoticed.
Prior to my first visit to Orient Beach,the girl giving me directions asked if I was going there to "see nude" or "be nude". I responded, "both".
In recent years I keep expecting people to offer me $ to cover up on OB.

A few good memories �

Evening walk along Front Street after rijsttafel at the Wan Yang Doll and feeling perfectly safe.

Lunch at Sam�s while amusing ourselves watching the cruise ship passengers lugging their cheap booze back to the ship and being please with ourselves by not being part of it � that was when there were enough cruisers to be interesting but not enough to be obnoxious.

Chatrou stew at Mark�s in Cul de Sac.

Orient Beach when the only things there were Club O, Pedro�s, and a few souvenir shacks at the entrance. Or our first visit there, when there were literally only 2 other people on the entire beach.

Oh I had forgotten Wan Yang Dahl. Now I recall waiter asking us how many plates and hubby, confused, said we're just two. He then offered 10 or 20 and hubby said we're not THAT hungry. Settled for the smaller count and enjoyed every bit. When hubby asked what are we eating I said don't ask, enjoy.

Long before the internet, we would hike over to Happy Bay on our February vacation and be the only couple on the beach the whole day. Just us and the goats on the hillside.Danny's shelter wasn't even there.

When we stayed at Great Bay hotel we opted for "Mountain View" not because it cost less but because we'd sit on our balcony and watch the goats climb down the hill and across the cars in the parking lot.

Didn't take much to amuse us then after a long day at the beach.