Travels & Travails in Barbados, Trinidad & St Lucia
It's been 20 odd years since my first family holiday in the West Indies. Then we spent Christmas in Barbados on the south coast in an old smuggling inn. It had its own beach which disappeared at high tide. The cellar was used for the annual pantomime. We loved it.
Barbados has been as we now say the “Go-To” destination in the West Indies attracting a bevy of A and B celebrities on the beautiful west coast. The Sandy Lane crowd there like to think they are both richer and more famous than you and me. And they are.
Before Barbados, I had been to Trinidad to watch England against the West Indies in the playing days of Beefy Botham, the graceful Gower, Phil Edmonds and Mike Gatting. It was 1986 and we were black-washed losing all five Tests.
Much later I made a film about Both, as he was also known, with the late Frank Keating. Botham had been banned for sixty three days for smoking hash in 1987. One of his sponsors was Nike and on the day the ban was lifted they ran hundreds of billboards across the country with their famous swoosh logo. Underneath were the words: “Both: nice to have you back on the grass".
Of course, the Advertising Agency banned it but not before it had topped the news agenda and made countless front pages. Nike's ad agency knew what they were doing.
Trinidad's lively and colourful capital is Port of Spain which tells you a little as to which European power once controlled it. After the Test match finished early I suggested to Matthew Engel, then writing for The Guardian and editing Wisden, that we grabbed a supper together downtown. We had both tired of the daily offerings in the only four star hotel then in the city.
The taxi driver said he knew just the place. Just the Place was the name of the restaurant (I just made that up) and the chef suggested we tried a local delicacy wild guinea pig. We ordered it. It was tough going and poor Matthew moved it round his plate trying hard to avoid it. Finally, he had his light bulb moment. “I know” he said “if this is guinea pig, I am banned, as a Jew, from eating it. It’s pork.”
I was really in Trinidad as a publisher working for William Heinemann. I had three cricket books in prep. Simon Barnes was writing A Singular Man about Phil Edmonds; Adrian Murrell was busy snapping for his book Cricket Impressions whilst Frances Edmonds was about to be launched with her witty Another Bloody Tour which when published was number one in the best sellers list for ages. Happy days.
The English and French had fourteen battles over the control of St Lucia in the 19th century. It is still not clear why. Maybe any victory against us after Waterloo must have seemed heroic.Between us our only donation was the introduction of snakes; we gave them the boa constrictor but much worse the French introduced the venomous viper.
Last month, we went to St Lucia for 10 days. We were both tired and wanted a break in the sunshine. We were spoilt for choice as there were over 30 resorts to choose from. We decided on the Rendezvous Hotel resort near Castries, its capital.
It’s a couples only resort and once you book everything on offer – the champagne bar, the restaurants, the tennis, sailing, yoga, wine and soft drinks are all as it were on the house. We tried sailing which was such fun. I learned how to do a top spin backhand after 55 years of trying. We enjoyed the beach and sunshine and chilling. The more adventurous couples went rain foresting and hang gliding. We read and slept in the sun.
Wireless was available all over the resort even on the beach! My anecdotal evidence was that most couple had two tablets or kindles sometimes three and were reading, doing emails or watching videos. My how the world is changing. And before you ask….we will not be waiting another twenty years before we return.