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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Roadside Grills

When the sun goes down and the moon comes out more and more we are seeing Bajans breaking out the grills and frying pans and setting up for business along the highways and byways. Here is a sampling of the ones I have tried or noticed on the West Coast.
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Monday, July 28, 2008

West Coast Restaurant Update Needed

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Move Over Oistins - "The Street That Never Sleeps" Is Back

Finally the Baxters Road Fish Fry Village opened last week to the beat of steel pans and Soca. Nevermind it never made it in time for Cricket World Cup 2007, after all the Oistins facility didn't make it either and neither did Almond Casuarina and scores of other still half-done projects that were supposed to help put Barbados on the map during that once-in-a-lifetime Primetime event for the island. Ooo, that brings up again the fiasco and embarrassment of the ending of that series in utter darkness at the new 200-odd million dollar Kensington Oval so I better leave it alone even though the unforgiving Bajan public apparently couldn’t let it go when they showed up at the polls last January.

Long before Oistins there always was Baxters Road and it is good to see the nighttime street vendors in the area finally moving into more convenient and sanitary facilities. The open sewers that once lined this famous Bridgetown street have been covered for a while now and street lighting has improved, but the bugaboos that haunted nightlife along Baxters Road when it peaked in the mid 1990s and eventually sent it into a tailspin especially when Oistins got on the map were the sanitation and safety concerns.

There is more space with this move across the road to the corner of Westbury Road and Barbrees Hill and with the parking at the corner of Barbrees Hill and Passage Road this blogger believes Baxters Road could be in for a renaissance. There may be a concern that this move may draw business away from the traditional brick and mortar shops left on Baxters Road proper so it is now up to those businesses to do new things or make the necessary changes to survive. This blogger will still be strolling over to the Pink Star to collect a few leadpipes and turnovers. I do not expect to see a lot of foreign visitors to the island showing up just yet, at least not in the numbers seen in Oistins (even though Baxters is much, much closer to the West Coast and a large part of the South Coast tourist centers), but especially at this time of year - “Crop Over” - the hoards of returning Bajan-Yankees, Bajan-Limies, and Bajan-Canucks together with the locals should more than keep the local vendors happy in their new facilities.

One personal word of advice to the Baxters Road vendors - fry less tuna and more flying fish and dolphin (mahi mahi). Oops, I keep forgetting that the flying fish have gone to Tobago and even though the Trinidadians can buy up whatever they want in Barbados including our scarce land and largest conglomerate - BS&T, and even Trinidadian Brian Lara now buying into Crop Over itself, Bajans still cannot fish in Trinidad & Tobago waters.

Read local press coverage here.
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Friday, July 25, 2008

Gun Crime

Reaction to last Saturday night's holdup and shooting death in Bridgetown.

Click here for discussion.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Dubaification Of Barbados: Road to riches or Faustian bargain?


Palm Jumeirah off Dubai


One of the proposals announced earlier this month in the first budget of the new DLP Government in Barbados is the creation of "offshore islands and marinas for yachts" to help satisfy the demand for beachfront land for tourism development. The proposal is not new since only last year the then Deputy Prime Minister, now Opposition Leader, mentioned it in connection with the passage of the national strategic development plan. It is curious now that she has not given the current initiative a wholehearted embrace. Of course, back then many who are now on the government benches were at best sniggering when she presented it or outright labeling the entire strategic development plan as not even worth the paper it was printed on as indeed it was described by their intrepid leader, the current Prime Minister and now new champion of the Dubaification of Barbados. As the saying goes - the more things change the more they remain the same.


click photo to enlarge


The massive land reclamation projects the likes of which were hitherto never seen in Barbados or perhaps even the New World, we learned from the Prime Minister that deep-pocketed local and international investors and developers are already lined up to start the digging and the filling. No further details were given by the PM in his 1-page statement (see photocopy above) except that it is all going to cost the Government and the people of Barbados - zip, zero, nada. It will all come out of the pockets of the aforementioned local and international investors. Again, as the saying goes, "if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is," but even if we give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt on the funding, we still have not even begun to count the tremendous environmental, sociological and other costs involved here. A project(s) of this magnitude will fundamentally change Barbados forever. Are we ready for those changes?

For example, it was widely rumored in the last election campaign that the new government plans to introduce casino gambling to Barbados. Without going into all the allegations, it is quite obvious that placing the casinos on the "islands" would immediately outmaneuver the anti-casino gambling lobby in Barbados; but the "mainland" will still have to live with the costs and consequences. The Prime Minister promises to go about his tasks with prudence and care but we all know only too well that coming from a politician usually translates as expedience, and we also know the latter is usually very, very costly.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Atlantis Sinks

One of the oldest hotels in Barbados, Atlantis Hotel, has sadly come to an end.

Click here to read post.
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Monday, July 21, 2008

Evironmentalist Challenges Six Men's Marina

"SIX MEN'S BAY in St Peter is the largest remaining coastal pond on the West Coast and a marina should only be constructed there if the developers are prepared to replace what will be lost by destroying the pond.

This is the recommendation of Professor Robin Mahon, director of the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill."


Read rest of article here.
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West Coast Blog: Can The "Hole" In Holetown Continue To Co-exist With Tourism Development In The Area?

West Coast Blog: Can The "Hole" In Holetown Continue To Co-exist With Tourism Development In The Area?
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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Favorite Restaurants

Share your favorite South Coast, West Coast, Bridgetown, East Coast and Inland restaurants.

Click here to read post.
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Friday, July 18, 2008

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Garrison

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Bevan Springer On Barbados Tourism

"Barbados' bedrock tourism sector has been given renewed focus by the Prime Minister David Thompson's new government. There is hope that his leadership along with that of Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy, and Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority, Ralph Taylor, will result in some major organizational changes needed to reposition the destination in the marketplace..." Click here to read entire article.
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Monday, July 14, 2008

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Virgin/Summer

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Tightwads

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$50 To Drive In Barbados

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Why Yet Another Barbados Travel Forum/Blog

As some already know, I author a few other travel related blogs/forums about Barbados on the Internet including the Mullins Bay and West Coast blogs. One would think that I needed to try to maintain yet another one like I need a nail in the head. Yet, the idea for the Barbados TravelAdvisor came to me a few months ago when I became more active on TripAdvisor and witnessed several of my early posts disappear from the forum for one reason or another which someone(s) felt violated Trip Advisor’s "strict guidelines." TripAdvisor is very successful and very good at doing what they do so I really have no quarrel with them and will continue to contribute there. However, and I am borrowing heavily from the verbiage of the American Declaration of Independence here (4th of July in the air and all) - it has also become necessary to dissolve some the TripAdvisor bonds and to assume that separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle me, and, hopefully, others as well.

Consequently, I have bitten the proverbial bullet and launched Barbados TravelAdvisor which is a combination of a forum and a blog that hopefully will put most of the mysteriousness of TripAdvisor behind us. I am not seeking to be in competition with TripAdvisor but rather to bring another fuller voice to the Barbados travel conversation on the Internet. I believe that both Barbados and the Internet are big enough for both voices to be heard. Unlike TripAdvisor which is an ongoing business venture, this is all a hobby for me although in the interest of full disclosure, I must say, as some already know that I do offer a little cottage on the beach for vacation rental and I do advertise it on the Internet on my blogs and chats.

Chatting on the Internet is something that I have done and enjoyed going back to the days of the BBS, CompuServe and 1200 baud modems long before the birth of the worldwide web. But chatting alone does not build the successful forum or blog like Barbados TravelAdvisor should aspire to be; you have to create a quality database of information people would want to refer to and the kind of atmosphere that keeps them coming back for more answers. Here is where I will be needing the help of those who will be walking with us. As the blog and forum grow we are going to be needing people to volunteer as moderators and creators of information - not just readers and commentators.
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Bertha Passing North

Click here - http://bbtravel.freeforums.org/bertha-passing-north-t17.html
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Saturday, July 5, 2008

Drunk Driving Laws

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The Forgotten Webcams

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Sugar Hill Not On Cards For Gordon Brown This Summer

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Links

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Housekeeping 070508

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Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July

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Mullins Beach

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Thursday, July 3, 2008

One of my favourite parts of Barbados

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Ketchup

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Sandridge Beach

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The post that started it all

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It's raining bucket-a-drop

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This new Barbados Forum

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Welcome to BarbadosTravelAdvisor

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