Away we go!

9/3
Delta took us from Jackson to Atlanta on Friday evening. We spent the night at the Westin Airport Hotel. We used SkyMiles for the trip which required a Friday night stay over in ATL. $80 for a hotel room or $2400 for plane tickets, you decide.

9/4
It's finally here. After months of planning and late nights on TTOl the day has come.
Delta #779 @ 10:05am was a full flight and bumpy because of Hurricane Frances coming into Florida.
When we landed everybody clapped and you could feel the excitement. We had a 15 mnute wait at immigration and our bags were waiting for us. We made a call to St. Martin Villa Rentals (SMVR) and got their machine. Could be a problem...
Outside the airport was a rep from Unity Car Rental, five minutes later we were at Unity.
Many of you had recommend him and we can see why. He was nice and the Toyota Rav4, with 11700 miles on it, was in good condition. We had gotten a email quote of $220 plus taxes and insurance. Michael got on his cell and made contact with the SMVR rep. She was there in 10 minutes.
While we were waiting for her or wives went across the street and came back with a 6pack of cold Carib. It was a much better experience than renting a car in Cleveland Ohio.
When we topped the hil going to Dawn beach, we knew we were in for a good week. The view was awesome! We pulled though the guard gate at Dawn Beach Estate and drove down to Bell'Mare. The SMVR rep was nice and showed us the house and we met our maid for the week. Her name was Rosie, she was very sweet.

The Viila
It is less than a year old and in 2004 has rented for 33 weeks.
The views are postcard material.
The bedrooms are large and beds slept good.
Most of the furniture is teak.
The bathrooms are nice and the showers are huge.
The balcony is real big and you have plenty of room to sun or get shade.
The pool was cold and much bigger than it looks on the net.
The kitchen was nice and the frig had some leftover beerater and wine.
Entertainment center was great. Has cable and Nelly,Neil Young, Jimmy Buffett and Enigma all sound good from the Bose speakers that are in the living are and the deck.
It was all we could ask Things that would added more to Bell"Mare
1.Bathrobes
2.Blinds for the windows in bedrooms. That morning sun makes it hard to sleep.
3.Airco in the living area. I didnt see any villa with this but it was warm at night. It was not enjoyable to watch a latenight movie or ballgame.
4.TV in the bedroom

After SMVR rep left the girls changed and went swimming leaving the guys to go grocery shopping. We went to Sang's across from the entrance at Front Street. It was closer than Grande Marche and Rams but the selection was smaller and the Corn Flakes we bought were stale. The rest of the week we went to Grande Marche.
There is another small market on Sucker Garden Road across from the Shell Station. Yang #3. I believe you could buy a sparkplug for a 78 Datsun B210, a single Carib (NO CASES) or a prostitute from my good friend Yang. You can see Yang or one of his sons standing at the door of the market. Yang doesnt speak english, dutch or french, just Chinese. I went in there looking to buy a case of Carib and ask about a TTOL discount. If you drive up Sucker Garden Road and you begin to think your in Mogadishu instead of Phillipsgurg look for Yang. Stop in and say Hi and ask for that TTOL discount.
After an afternoon swiming we decided to go eat at Johnny's Under the Tree. Many of you had recommended it and after a few wrong turns we found it. The ribs were good, the lobster was great but the lady taking orders was mean. She reminded us of the soup nazi on Senfield. She became the BBQ NAZI. Tip in $70

9/5
Got out of bed early to watch the sunrise. a must if staying on Dawn Beach. Walked down the beach about 15 minutes and ate at Ms. B's. SXMNorm was right these were the best ribs. Burgers were good to. Henry worked the grill and Amanda served the food and made the drinks. Tip in $60
That afternoon 3 of us went back up the beach and ate at Mr. Busbys.
They had a guy singing that was pretty good and real funny. We ate ribs, blackened redfish and a spicy chicken pasta. With drinks tip in $80
One of our group stayed home that night. He had to much fun that afternoon. Several children were probably truamatized by what they had seen on the balcony of Bell'Mare. We adhered to the law "What happens on St Martin stays on St Martin" and deleted our digital pictures of the afternoon. I was real suprised we didnt make The Daily Herald.
When we left Mr Busby's it was dark. We made the walk back up Dawn beach in the dark. I do not recommend this. Between the characters at the bar and the wild dogs roaming around, its not safe.

9/6
Nearly every trip report talks about breakfast at Baywatch. It was high on our list. Its still on our list. it was closed the whole week we were there. Had lunch at KonTiki. The service was good, hamburgers and calamari were good and drinks were cold. The bill was high. Tip in $100
Spent the rest of the afternoon at Dawn Beach. We had rented chairs, snorkel eq and cellphone from Craig @ Packlight. We only used the chairs one day. 3 out of 4 snorkel sets leaked also. we should have called and got some more but we didnt. Craig had told us that the NEW cellphone battery wouldnt hold a charge. He was not lying it would be dead in less than 12hrs.
Next time get a sim card for my gsm from Sharon, dont get chairs and bring my own snorkel gear.
That night we ate at Peg Leg per many recommendations. We meet Shawn, headwaiter, bartender, host and ambassador to Peg Leg. What a great guy. We had the T Bone, Strip, rib eye and surf and turf. All were great. we would see Shawn several times.Tip in $160
We had ice cream at a place next door to Peg Leg after dinner, it was good also.

9/7
Had breakfast at the villa, then went looking for the guy with the best job at Orient Beach. Luiz, the swim suit maker. He wasnt there, he comes in after lunch. His place is right behind Baywatch.
We then went to the next "must do" on the list. DK Gem and Deepti. We parked downtown in the government building lot for $2 and walked through the 4 t shirts for $10 people to Front Street and turned right.
They are doing alot of work on the street. I'm sure it is going to be great but dont wear nice shoes there and if you go shopping while its raining you had better have a pair of rubber boots on.
Deepti and Dk have been recommend by so many people and its easy to see why. Nice and patience, courtious and helpful. What good salespeople should be. We looked alot and I got away with just a small pair of earings. If olny we didnt come back.
I had been telling my shopper we needed to go because at 3:00pm the KLM 747 arrived from Amsterdam. We turned onto airport road only to see the big 747 landing. Missed it by a couple of minutes, next time.
We went on to Sunset Beach Bar (SSBB) and had the best cheeseburger $6 and cold beer $2. Got sandblasted when the KLM took back off for home. Great afternoon!

9/08
We went to Grand Case and had breakfast at a little place across from the Rainbow Cafe'. The pasteries were great and so was the coffee. It was so good we tried not to mind the mouse that came out of the kitchen.

Went to Frairs Bay next and stayed at Frairs Bay Beach bar. People were nice and we snorkeled some but there wasnt much to see. We ate lunch there. Hamburgers, calamari and ribs. The burgers were good the calamari tasted like it had come out of a swanson's bag and the ribs were nasty.
Went back by Orient and meet Luiz. Got the bikini we wanted and Luizld her a wrap to go with it. $90
Went by Peg Leg and Shawn introduced us to a new friend. The BBC! Baileys Banana Colada. It as great.
Had dinner at Ric's Place. Burgers and Nachos with tip and drinks $50

9/9
We had been stopping in at Tap 5 on Orient Beach the last several days and getting some pastries. They were very good. We then parked by Baywatch and went looking for a place to hang out for the day.
We walked for a minute and Dom from Friendly Bar came out to us and asked to help us. Several other places didnt even look at us.
Frienly Bar is just that. Dom and his wife Caro were super. We stayed there and had lunch, chicken wraps that were good. His children came in around lunch and it just had that family business feel to it. Our bill for the day $100 Dom and his family acted like they wanted our business, not like Bikini where it seems like you were troulbling them. i would recommend them, he needs your $ and he deserves it.
We then cleaned up and returned to Dk Gems. Needless to say we didnt get away with earings this time. Deepti and Jeff were nice and easy to deal with. I think by telling them your a TTOLer you get through several layers of haggeling.
Back up Front Street on the beach side is a outdoor bar next to the Falconable store. We enjoyed some drinks there several times.
We then went back over to Simpson Bay for dinner. We ate at Pineapple Petes. Its next to where alot of the Rhino Riders come and go from. We were tired of beer and drank Diet Coke that night. It was an open place like nearly ever other and so it was warm. We drank several 8ounce glasses of DC by the time our meal of Jerk Chicken, ribs, salads arrived. The food was good and to wash it down we had several more rounds of DC. The bill was brought to the tacle and to our suprise each DC cost $2. $24 in DC. We thought that was a rip off. It may be standard practice for the island, but it sucked!

9/10
Woke up to the smell of Cubito coffee again. Thanks for the person that responed to my coffee post before we left. Our roommates had gone over to Tap 5 and brought back brakfast. Thanks guys!
Enjoyed a full day of swimming and sun. Had lunch ate Ms. B's one more time and then went back to Peg Leg for supper.
Shawn told us like Im sure he has told many of you. "Your family now, you caome back next year and we'll have a reunion" Count on it Shawn.

9/11
Got up and packed, went over to Orient and ate ate the Fish Bar across from Tap 5. Went back to Bell'Mare and loaded up.
We wanted to go back to SSBB and the others wanted to watch the USM Nebraska game. Go Southern!!!
OUr travel partners dropped us off at SSBB and they went back to Peg Leg.
We got to see more planes come in including our own, have another great burger and one last Carib. They got to see some othe game and one last BBC.
9 hours later it was back to the real world.

Would we go back? Yes
Would we stay at Bell'Mare? Yes

Things we didnt do that we would next time.
1.Fly over to St. Barts for the day
2.Take a sailboat or catamaran and go somewhere to snorkel
3.spend more time in Marigot and Grand Case
4.Eat at the Lido across from the car dealer and KFC in Simpson Bay
5.Eat at Baywatch
6.See that 747 land at SSBB

Sorry if this report is to long. I guess I have read Ed and Sandra's reports to many times. Are those two for real???

Anyway its back to rolling pennies so we can go again.
Thanks so much for all your info. This trip would not have been as good if it were not for TTOL. How else would we know about Ms B's, Luiz, Peg Leg, Deepti and many more.

See our pictures @ groups.msn.com/sxmphotos/pictures

Thank you,
Chris, Debbie, Bobbby, Kelley
Mississippi

PS Dont forget to go by and see Yang and ask for that TTOL discount!