I have just mentioned the reply's to my earlier post to my wife, she seriously got misty eyed when she said that she knew we were in the right and did absolutely nothing wrong other than offend them for wearing bathing suits. As I mentioned we have been to St. Martin four times on a cruise before we really did some exploring in a taxi. That is when we fell in love with the Esmeralda and the next year we went with four other couples and stayed for ten days, not enough , so we continued for the next seven years vacationing there with no less than two of our closest friends. Sadly one was very sick on our last stay and he has since taken up residence in heaven. This is the first trip back in a few years and being our 45th wedding anniversary we couldn't think of a better place to enjoy each other or the beach, the rest is water under the bridge.

Carol makes a valid point about alcohol, I truly can't say that is what gave these, ummm, sunbathers, the bravado to demean my wife but when I stopped saying we were sorry and reacted to the big mouth then they moved back to the group they were with. Believe me some really stupid ideas raced thru my head during the 4 or 5 minutes we yelled at each other but when the wife squeezed my hand that was the shock that had me realize what good could come out of escalating an already uncomfortable situation, so we walked back to KKO and toasted ourselves.

Would this stop us from walking Orient again, not a chance. Would we walk so far, probably. And when we were in the Taxi heading back to the cruise ship that's when I looked at my wife and said, we should have phoned the gendarmes and asked them to speak to Mr. Shorty about accosting people walking on the beach, but we all know that he would have told them to talk to his friends to back him up. Oh well, lesson learned .

I thank all of you for the replies as I was positive Orient is clothing optional and as many times before we would always do a stage right and walk back when we reached the "boulder barrier".

Happy Easter to all !