One sunrise a quarter is good enough - so did not bother myself for another photography session today morning. Nassau was not well planned - has been happening quite often that we miss stuff because of lack of planning - inspite, no plan was ready on what to do once we reach Nassau.Lazed breakfast and the familiar guilt of being late was walking through my system as I disembarked the ship.Another familiar enemy struck in the form of carelessness as I realized that I had not carried my camera. I had to go through security clearance to get into the ship, pickup my camera , another security clearance and get out.
If you don't make your own plans, someone else's plans will hire you. One Bahamian had a plan to make some money for the day by pulling tourists and taking them around - we were part of that plan for twenty five dollars a head.While he tried to pull in more folks into his bus, some other planmakers pulled his people. We were the only ones loyal and foolish and he sold us to another bus guy. This bus guy left us seated on a bench. By that time, we were getting hold of the dynamics of the tour model in Bahamas. So we walked behind a van guide for twenty dollars.The marketting that the first guy had done had bought us into the forth guy and he has not even given us a commitment on what he would be showing us - I had the fifteen image brochure in my mind where as the van had just two-three spots.
Nassau is a small town. A fellow Tamilian tourist summed it up as he told his wife ' Namma ooru maadhiriye irukka - alukka.. '(It is just like our land - dirty..). Nassau clearly had a lot of poverty and that was slightly intimidating. We had come here to feel happy - but the truth is that the people in the place that is supposed to make you happy are not all that happy. People were generally nice people - even the bus guides mentioned earlier. Did not see a tendency for crime yet though there certainly is a lot of poverty. So, the van took us to a fort and queens steps - the fort was about as big as my manager's house I had visited two months or so back. Queens steps is called so in honor of queen victoria who abolished slavery.The security girl who explained the history to us was very much like an innocent working village girl you would find back in India.
The van then took us to potters bay from where we could see Beyonce's house , Nicolas Cage's house etc but then it is just one of their many houses. The sea water was pretty. In the van group , there was an elderly french couple who had trouble with english and a chinese mother and two teen-aged daughters. The younger daughter took our photographs and everyone in general was very friendly.All through the van trip, I kept taking photographs of the pastel colored houses. The town was very much like a town / rather village in India.
Then the van took us to the atlantis which is the greatest landmark in the town but all it is is a seven star resort. If I had planned it, I would not have chosen to come here - inspite of the fact that it was quite good.
The next spot the van took us to was the surprising one. It took us back and that is when I realized that the fifteen image pamphlet did not belong to this guy and that I did not even deal with him except for the money. But it was worth the money anyway.
Next, I wanted to take in the local cuisine and Divya wanted to do some local shopping. It was lunch time and I remember 'Fish Fry' as a chain of restaurants on the internet that serves great Bahamian fish. Stingy to spend another twenty five dollars for a taxi, we walked along bay street - the shopping plan and the fish fry plan strained and we stopped the walk at Junkanoo beach restaurant. We had grouper and snapper , the snapper was made in local style and was very satisfying. But I still had the longing to eat conch meat and as discussed with our Junkanoo restaurant hostess, conch seviche is a local style of conch.
While walking back to the bay street for shopping, there was one petti-kkada(small shop) that served seviche. We had conch-seviche , was not all that tasty under the pressure of having to return back in time. It was good though. Fish Fry is still a miss in my mind.
Shopping was fine too and Divya bought herself a bracelet and Niya a chain. It was good to have got some time for experiencing the straw-market shopping. Nassau basically needs more time and better planning. Today was good though - the van ride did present a bird's eye view of Nassau.
Once back in the ship, we wanted to get in as much of the ship as that remained before we exited to Miami tomorrow morning. So that is what we did - first we had dinner at Crossings restaurant - I had Cod where as Divya had Thai-style Prawns-Chicken. My mouth is watering as I blog this.That is how the human body is integrated, it is publishing messages and if the listener is running it will get consumed.Human body is one unbelievable machine.
Did I digress? So, from Crossings , we went back to room and came out again to watch the art auction/presentation - brightly colored paintings that I enjoyed photographing. The presentation showed a unique video made by the collaboration of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. The presenter was talking about the theme of the video - destiny as we walked out to the StarDust theatre to watch 'Deal , No Deal' , the original. As destiny would have it, the show did not start for real long and ended when we returned to re-check. A boy band was performing boyish young music, pretty well sung - live performance has it's own charm.Then we again went to Garden Cafe to have our second dinner. First dinner is the term coined for the dinner we have at 7PM given that we will have another at 11 PM(the second dinner).
Divya had purchased a green top at the ship and in exchange had misplaced a grey sweater. So we spent some effort searching for this to no avail.Slept.Had breakfast, of course we woke up before that and after that,we left the ship. The drive back started at 10:30. So, after all that cruise in the water, it was time for some cruise in the road and I had wondered why these people build so many features on cars - a button so that you don't have to rest your feet on the accelerator.Well, I have been realizing the reasons over and over but this particular trip presented the maximum use.
The tank emptied around 12:45. Used to food, we decided to feed ourselves as well. With the tank filled up, I set myself the target of driving the whole tank in one stretch - no one can beat that! Try using pigeon-hole principle to prove that. So, from 13:45 to 20:15, the car drove non-stop to reach the familiar windy hill road and to mark the moment, the petrol-less warning light and sound came up.It was a pretty useful piece of confidence to gain - now four hour drives should be cakewalk.
We went to motherland kitchen, an african restaurant for dinner. This lady was again a motherly endearing lady, very kind and hospitable - unfortunately the restaurant is on the verge of closing down. She felt close to us to share her concerns. Divya ordered lamb101, rice and lamb with spinach where as I asked for traditional african food. She made me Fofu and beef with spinach which were all very tasty.
I emptied my pockets of the cash that I had been carrying for shopping at Nassau.
http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2012/11/miami-great-cay-nassau-ncl-cruise.html
Next, I wanted to take in the local cuisine and Divya wanted to do some local shopping. It was lunch time and I remember 'Fish Fry' as a chain of restaurants on the internet that serves great Bahamian fish. Stingy to spend another twenty five dollars for a taxi, we walked along bay street - the shopping plan and the fish fry plan strained and we stopped the walk at Junkanoo beach restaurant. We had grouper and snapper , the snapper was made in local style and was very satisfying. But I still had the longing to eat conch meat and as discussed with our Junkanoo restaurant hostess, conch seviche is a local style of conch.
I had setup alarm to watch the sunrise. I walked out of the stateroom alone and went to the deck. There were a few others like me who had come to photograph the sunrise, a few folks had come in couples to be romantic , a few had come to offer prayers to the sun god. It was not that great a sunrise with all the clouds but it is the best that I had seen in a very long time. The sunrise from the ship is only slightly different in that there are no waves in the ocean and for the first time I noticed the clouds get a golden lining.If all the gold I saw was real gold, then it was indeed a very expensive sunrise. 
So we walked to the closest beach. The island is privately owned by NCL and is just about 250 acres. Nice blue easy chairs were placed on the beach for us to use. We sun-bathed our feet and face and watched the excellent blue color of the ocean. Set Niya free and Niya embraced the ocean - picking up white stones from the water.She was quickly attached and we could easily see that taking her to the next spot was going to take some effort.
After lunch, we had a nice little sleep at the beach - again at the beach easy chairs but at a different section. When there is so much to see, how can you sleep? That is one challenge with vacations - you want to see everything and you want to do nothing. When I woke up , I consulted the life guard and he advised me to walk down to the man-made lagoon further down.
From the outdoor cafe which was on top deck, miami city looked very attractive. Later on from our balcony, we also got the chance to witness the beautiful sunset against the miami cityscape.I had been missing sunsets a lot but this one came in unexpected and I could not make the best use of the opportunity to capture the beauty in photographs and memories fade faster which is why I am trying to blog.
