Why this Journey
I have joined a sperm whale watching trip in Dominica in mid January and an expedition by boat from Puerto William, Chile to Walvis Bay, Namibia in March. As a result, I decide to stop at Amsterdam, London and northern eastern part of Brazil during this journey.
January 8-9: Amsterdam & London
I left Hong Kong on KLM in the afternoon on 8 January and spent a night in Amsterdam. The only things I did on the following day was to have a good breakfast before spending four hours in the Rijksmuseum which I last visited over 30 years ago. Then I took a 5:20 pm flight to London and spent two nights near the Victoria Station.
My only programme in London was to visit my former boss and his wife and Emily, a good friend. I had a pleasant bus ride to Oxford and a quick tour of the Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library and the church of the University College. It was wonderful to see Steuart who will soon be celebrating his 91st birthday and Margaret. I took a bus back to London after lunch and was able to have dinner with Emily in London. The older I get, the more I treasure every opportunity to meet friends.
January 11: Barbados
As there is no direct flight to Dominica, I had to fly with BA and spend a night in Barbados. It was an 8-hour flight and I arrived in Barbados at 5:30 pm. Barbados is expensive: a room in a guesthouse in Christchurch cost almost USD70. It was dark and I had to pay USD20 for a short taxi ride. Unfortunately I did not see Barbados at all as my connecting flight would be leaving at 10:20 am the following day! Luckily I found my way around and took a minibus to the airport from the Christchurch bus depot and paid only 3.5 Barbados dollars. If one can travel around taking local transportation, it is fine.
January 12-14: Bataka & Ti Kwen Glo Cho, Dominica
I had been in Dominica twice by boat while I was living in New York from 2001-2006. It was the first time I flew in. I booked a guesthouse in a rural area in Bataka and the taxi cost USD40 which was almost the same amount I paid for the room. Anyway, the owner Kevin is a nice helpful young man who runs this guesthouse. I met two nice French young ladies, Manon and Justine who arrived on the same day.
On January 13, I shared a taxi with them to travel from Bataka to Portsmouth with several stops along the way. The coastline is beautiful and we spent some time exploring the Red Rocks. We also visited a chocolate factory. Finally we arrived at Portsmouth to watch a local carnival. The original plan was to take a boat ride on the Indian River. But we had no time. I dropped my suitcase at the Picard Beach Cottage in Portsmouth where I would be staying from 15 to 23 January. It turned out to the best thing I did. Without a heavy suitcase, I was able to travel around easily and travel like the locals in minibuses.
After watching the small scale but authentic carnival, I took a minibus for EC10 to Roseau ( 1 USD = 2.5 EC) where I was picked up by Melinda of Ti Kwen Glo Cho guesthouse in Wotton Waven. It was not a long journey (about 5km) and I was charged USD25 for the transfer. Terrible!
