I just got back from my 6th trip to SXM. (My fourth in less than a year!!!). Once again it was wonderful.
One quick note on the traffic and I will drop the subject – I was on the island during Christmas week and the traffic was way worse this time. I was surprised, as it is now officially low season even though Carnival is on. I figured the volume of traffic would have lessened, but I was wrong.
A note to people driving in Phillipsburg: The traffic light near the salt pond/Heineken plane is malfunctioning. It is flashing yellow in both directions. In North America this would mean that it is a four way stop. However it is different here. The traffic going east/west along the Pondfill road has the right of way. They do not stop. The traffic going north/south has to stop and wait for a break in traffic. It can get kind of hairy during peak times as it amounts to a big game of chicken at this intersection. You cannot see the traffic that is coming over the bridge so you must stick your car nose out into the intersection. Then you must decide whether to gun it and hope no one is coming or take your chances waiting for a sizeable break in traffic and risk the ire of drivers behind you who are honking their horns and getting pissed off at you.
Food:
This time I tried the following places: Pineapple Pete’s, Lido’s, Cheri’s Café, BBB, Mr. Busby’s. I also had meals at some previous favourites such as SBB and Island Flava.
Pineapple Pete’s – I went for dinner on Sunday night. I had the steak and my BF had garlic shrimp. Both meals were fantastic. We each had a drink and the whole bill came to $44. Afterwards we played pool at the restaurant for a while. Nice atmosphere, very friendly service. I was impressed. I would definitely eat here again.
Lido’s – thanks for all the TTOL people who suggested this place. Awesome ribs and dirt cheap! The ribs alone were $5. A meal with a huge portion of ribs and two sides was $8. It usually lasted me for two meals. The sides included rice and peas and potato salad. I am not a fan of potato salad so I got Mac and cheese instead. Very tasty. I ate here twice and will definitely go back. This is my new favourite place for ribs.
Cheri’s café – I had no idea the entertainment was a cabaret show. I just figured it was a guy with a guitar singing Jimmy Buffet songs. The show was hilarious and I am so glad I went. Our party of four had a table right up front so we caught all the naughty action.
I had chicken Parmigiana for dinner. The portion was huge. I could not finish it all. It was very tasty. Other members of our group had spinach pasta, fried shrimp and steak/shrimp combo. We all had a drink and the total bill came to $89.00
BBB – I spent two days at Kim Sha beach. I had never been here before. The beach is nice – not my favourite but it has its good points. I like the ample parking space and free chairs. The construction noise was intrusive but I managed to relax despite it. There is a lot of seaweed in the ocean here which is not very pleasant and tends to smell sometimes. But the beach was not crowded and I had lots of elbow room, which I like.
The food is good. I had a burger one day (the meat was good but the bun was stale) and the steak sandwich another day. It was fantastic. It was $9 and you get a lot of steak. I saw Wanda and Neil, who had the new puppy (very cute – the puppy I mean).
Mr Busby’s – I had a few bad experiences here so I don’t think I will go back.
They ran out of ribs when I went for lunch one day. They had enough for one order so my BF got the ribs and I had the BBQ chicken breast (boneless). The food was okay – not spectacular. I have had better on the island. We got the food to go and it came to over $20 without drinks. The majority of the staff was not very friendly, with the exception of Daniel, the owner. He was the only one that was pleasant.
The beach was gorgeous but extremely crowded. Next time I would definitely go down to the end of Mrs B’s where it is less crowded. My BF is Caribbean (he is not from SXM though) and he was quite peeved that all of the beach waiters ignored him while I was out swimming. He assumed it was because of his colour. I can not comment on that since I was not present. However, once I came back to sit in my beach chair, the waiters kept coming by to see if I wanted a drink. They ignored him. The waiters were blatantly hustling for tips as well, which I don’t like. I will tip if I get good service. I don’t like to feel pressured to give a tip just because I am asked to.
When we were leaving, several of the male staff members were sitting around eating their lunch. Once of them made a comment as we walked by and they all laughed very loudly.
My BF told me what they said, as it was in Creole, which is his native language. It was a rude sexual comment about us. I was quite upset and I had to work hard to hold my tongue.
When I went to the parking lot, my car was blocked in by several taxis. We had to go get the drivers to move their cars. Even then there was not enough room to turn around, so I had to reverse out of my spot, out of the parking lot and down the road until I could turn around. Reversing is not my strong point. If you park here, I strongly suggest you back into your spot to make it easier to get out.
All in all, I will not go back here. There are many other great restaurants and beaches on the island to try.
SBB – good, basic food for a cheap price. I am partial to the chicken fingers for $7. I usually split it with my BF since you get so much food. I actually got to see the sunset here for the first time ever. They had a drum band playing while the sun set. It was loud but very dramatic. Afterwards there were some scantily clad women dancing for an hour or so, before the reggae band came on. The males at the bar seemed to enjoy the show immensely.
Island Flava - This is a great new restaurant that I tried at Christmas time. I liked it so much I went back again this time. It is on the boardwalk just down from the Greenhouse.
There is indoor and outdoor seating. The restaurant is run by a former F&B manager from Great Bay Beach Resort and many of the staff members used to work there.
The food is fantastic and reasonably priced. I had lunch there this time and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ pulled pork sub. It was messy but delicious. It was $8.95 and came with two sides.
On previous visits, I had a peppercorn steak ($13.95) and my BF had a whole grilled red snapper ($16.95). Both dishes were great.
Calmos Café – I spent an afternoon on the beach at Grand Case, renting chairs in front of Calmos Café. I was planning on eating lunch there. However, there was nothing that really tempted me on the menu. There were a lot of fancy dishes and I am a very plain eater. The burgers were $11.50 in euros, which is not worth it. So I passed on the food and picked up some take out on the way home instead.
The beach here is absolutely gorgeous and well worth a trip.
Sightseeing
I have been wanting to go to the zoo, St Maarten Park, for quite some time. So I finally managed to tear myself away from the beach for an hour and check it out. Adult admission was $10 per person. The zoo is very small so don’t expect a huge elaborate affair. There are a variety of animals including monkeys, baboons, warthogs, peacocks, parrots, toucans, macaws, caimans, a bush dog, two ocelots, and a coati. There were also lots of iguanas and roosters running around and a bat house. For the kids there were lots of guinea pigs, rabbits and a prairie dog that you could pat.
I enjoyed the visit and got some great photos of animals I probably would not see anywhere else.
One word of caution though – the capuchin monkeys throw rocks at visitors when they get peeved. So stand back from the cage. The monkeys were hurling handfuls of gravel at my BF who was teasing them. It serves him right!
Beaches – this time I visited some new beaches (for me).
As mentioned above I went to Grand Case, Kim Sha and Dawn Beach. I also went to Mullet Bay (my all time favourite) and the back side of Pinel Island. There were no jet skis at Mullet Bay this time, thank goodness, and all was calm and fair. There was some great snorkelling to be had, as per the ecstatic comments of several large groups who were out near the reefs.
I made the hike over to the back side of Pinel to enjoy a bit of solitude and to do my first C/O outing. I did not go in the water sans bathing suit but I did lie out in the sun for a good part of the day in the altogether. There were a few other folks there but they came and went. The only other group that stayed was at the very far side of the beach. We had packed a picnic lunch and lots of drinks so it was a great day. We hung up a t-shirt on a bush as a signal to others that we were there and enjoyed some alfresco nooky as well. It was a great day but very hot as there was no breeze that day.
Water shoes are advised if you go to this part of the island since there are many urchins and lots of coral rocks.
Marina Parking Lot – I tried the new parking lot at Bobby’s marina. It is $1 per hour. It is quite handy for strolling the boardwalk. It is a gated lot and there are security guards around so you do not have to worry about leaving your car. I had stopped at the Rima store before that and had some stuff in the trunk. It was still there when I got back. One reason I did not mind paying for the parking was that I wanted a secure place to leave my purchases as I did not want to carry them around Phillipsburg with me. I will use this lot next time I go to the Greenhouse as well.
Carnival – All of the clubs were dead during the week because there were so many concerts going on at the Carnival Village. I went to Greenhouse, Bliss, Bamboo Bernie’s, Sunset and Q club (it was actually closed) and they were all empty.
There were no big name acts playing at the concerts, so I declined to go to them. I wanted to go to Jouvert morning before I left but was too tired. Maybe next year.
Another fabulous visit and aside from a small negative experience at Mr Busby’s there was no downside to the week. As usual there are too many things I want to do on the island and not enough time. So, I am already trying to decide whether to go back in July or August.
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