Spa Day at Le Toiny

During the low season in St. Barts several hotels offer some pretty good spa/lunch deals, one of which is at Le Toiny, a very exclusive hotel on the far southeast end of the island. The "journee spa" includes a 3-course lunch at Le Gaiac, pool access and a 90 minute spa treatment for 110 euros. After what we have seen so far this was an absolute steal! While I am trying so hard to add humor to this blog, it is just so difficult because there is nothing funny about this place or the service or the people (other than Suzanne and I, who are hillarious), it is ultra-elegant and classy and no matter who you are, you feel like a VIP. I hope that holds true for the rest of our trip. So far, I have been enjoying my new status.

Lunch poolside at Le Gaiac:


Chic decor:



The food of course was again outstanding, and probably one of the healthiest meals I have had in a very long time. We felt a bit odd being that we were the only people in the whole place, but then were glad about that fact when we found out that the "pool" that we could lounge at all day as part of our "journee spa" was right smack in front of the restaurant. Literally. It is actually part of the restaurant decor and is quite small. There were only 6 pool chairs available facing away from the pool toward the sea, but we later figured out why the accommodations seemed so short-handed: because each villa at the hotel has it own pool. I guess then there isn't really a reason to have a big community pool like at our fab hotel in St. Martin. If what we saw today was the lower end of VIP status I'll still take it.

Poolside:


I was a bit disappointed in the spa and the spa treatment for 2 reasons: (1) the spa was actually a small hut in the middle of a hill and (2) the facial didn't hold a candle, or even a match for that matter, to the ones given by Drita at Dita Day Spa in Chicago. I had expected a waiting area with fresh water, lounge chairs and incense but instead had to wait outside of the hut for the prior treatment to end. It was just odd. Then when my treatment was over, the woman never said anything and began packing up her things in the hut while I just laid there. Finally after 5-10 minutes I raised my head and said "um, excuse me, are you done?" and she said "oh yes" and had already filled out my bill. Maybe I should go to a spa in France to see if that is the protocol, but as far as I know, when your treatment is done they either tell you its done of give you some sort of signal like a pat on the head or something. I felt so violated....

I believe I failed to mention that while we were at Le Toiny, The Ambassador had agreed to arrange for transportation to the villa for my brother and nephew, who were arriving from St. Martin today via the Rapid Explorer Ferry. The ferry trip takes about an hour, compared to the 10 minute flight, but you don't have to deal with the airport hassle at Princess Juliana airport, so the extra time may be worth the lack of hassle, so long as there are no major swells that day. It was during my facial that it began to rain very, very, very hard (which sounded pretty darn cool on the tin roof of the hut) and while I was trying to relax, all I could think of was "oh great, they are on that ferry in the middle of this huge storm, they are either not going to make it or they will be so sea sick when they do". Apparently that thought was only a fleeting one because shortly thereafter I found that I had fallen asleep in the middle of my facial.

After my facial was done Suzanne informed me that The Ambassador had emailed and was already at the bar at Isle de France with my brother and nephew, waiting to take us out for dinner. We rushed home and threw on some non-poolwear and headed out for pizza at Le Bouchon, a casual locals hangout with a small outdoor dining area at a strip mall in L'Orient. I must say I was surprised at seeing a strip mall here, but its not like it was anchored by a TJMaxx or full of minivans in the parking lot.

On the drive over we saw lots of neat boutiques and shops in St. Jean that have made it to the top of our priority list for Wednesday. Its a much different feeling than Gustavia, which is full of the high-end french designer stores, I am very curious to see what they have to offer. The question now is, will Suzanne be joining me?? My brother, nephew and I left her with The Ambassador after dinner ........... (cue dramatic soap opera music here)

Recovery Sunday

Notwithstanding our late night, we got up early to take on the beautiful day. Sorry, but in comparison to yesterday today is going to be pretty boring. First was a breakfast of fresh fruit and crepes at La Plage in St. Jean, followed by several hours of sun and beach time at St. Jean beach, which is located right at the end of the airport runway. Its kind of fun to lay in the water and watch the tiny planes take off literally right in front of you. To the right of us was Eden Rock, one of the nicest hotel properties on the island.

La Plage:



St. Jean Beach:


Eden Rock:


After a lazy morning, we headed back to the pool at the villa for more lounge time and naps.

Relaxing at our private pool in our Finistere robes and celebrity sized sunglasses (Suzanne refuses to have her picture taken so I guess its just me):



After an even lazier afternoon, we headed out for dinner, looking to find any place that was open on a Sunday evening. The task was not an easy one, but finally we came upon La Mandala in Gustavia, which has Thai-French fusion food. We walked in to a stunning atmosphere scented with the perfect combination of incense and food, and were seated at a candle-lit table overlooking the moon slice and the harbor. Too bad Suzanne and I are not dating because it was probably one of the most romantic places I had ever been, and the food of course, was amazing. We ate WAY too much and came home and crashed.

From Frommers:
"This is one of the most exciting restaurants on St. Barts. It occupies a house on the steepest street in Gustavia, high above the harbor, with a dining deck overlooking a swimming pool. The owners and chefs are partners Kiki and Boubou (Christophe Barjetta and Olivier Megnin), whose nicknames belie their formidable training at some of the grandest restaurants of France."

First 18 Hours in St. Barts

Saturday started out to what most people may describe as a bit of a disaster, but Suzanne and I seem to have found quite a bit of humor in it. We arrived at Princess Julianna Airport at 10:15 a.m., an hour before our inter-island flight to St. Barts, and were immediately informed upon check-in of Winn-Air's new luggage policy of one checked bag (max 21kg) and one carry on (max 3kg). As we scrambled to figure out which unread periodicals (e.g., People, Us, Life & Style) would make the trip, we were informed that we could check a bag standby for $40. Whew! We not so quickly prioritized our items into 2 categories and repacked our bags on the floor near the check in desk, while getting very many dirty looks. In the process, we observed a very angry Frenchman who was informed of the same policy and who insisted that his rollaboard only weighed 3kg. When he was proven wrong, he screamed “FAAAK” and started pacing in a panic. “Bot I am onlvy goving to Sant Baats” (French accent) “I vill pay vatever, I yust need to go”. It was quite the spectacle.

We then checked in with a smile and ventured to the security line only to hear our names being paged to proceed to our gate immediately. We asked if we could skip ahead of everyone but the security chick wasn’t buying it given that another (very snobby) woman did the same thing at the same time and tried to even skip in front of us. Thus the security chick asked if we asked every single person in line if they approved, so I turned around and shouted out “hey everyone, is it OK that we skipped you?” and got a resounding “YES” from the crowd. Another “whew” from our side. We then ran to the gate (after Suzanne got held up again at the second security checkpoint by snobby woman) where the Winn-air staff was waiting for us. They escorted us via bus to our plane, and we were a bit surprised to see our pilot standing outside waiting for us with the door open. Remember when I said I only like to travel to destinations that are a little hard to get to? This is the kind of transportation you must be prepared for:

Suzanne and I immediately both fell madly in love with our pilot, whom we shall call Andy, looking somewhat dapper in his pilot uniform and aviators, asking us if we would like a nice view for our flight. He opened the door for us and as we climbed in to the teeny plane, we turned around to find 3 other passengers, one of which was the angry frenchman. We actually had quite a pleasant 15-minute flight to St. Barts without incident, even with the scary landing strip that I had heard so much about. We arrived to 2 little girls at the end of the runway on the beach waving at us. So cute.

Andy, before takeoff and after a fab landing:


a selection of nice views from the plane:




After a quick stop at Match right across from the airport for some snacking essentials, we found our way to Villa Finestere in Flamands, literally a stone’s throw from Hotel St. Barth Isle de France. Fi, the housekeeper was there to greet us with a smile and she had made us some snacks (including a wonderfully seasoned whole chicken!) and supplied some beverages for us. This is my fourth experience with an online villa/apartment rental and this one surely did not disappoint. I have yet to have a bad experience with this kind of vacation accommodation and this is the ONLY way to go, trust me. The villa has everything we need and more, including a private pool and a guest house, and is stocked with every pool and beach toy one could possibly need.

We ventured to Isle de France for lunch and some beach time. I’m sure I will say this over and over but the food was excellent (chicken salad – but not the American fatty kind swimming in mayo, the fresh French kind, with fresh thinly sliced chicken among tons of fresh fruit and vegetables), although not cheap. Lunch for the 2 of us with a glass of wine was about $100 US. I know it could be worse but for those of you reading this who want real numbers about cost there it is. The perk, however is that if you have lunch there, you can use their beach chairs and beach service. We took advantage and treated ourselves to some pina coladas on the beach, each of which was almost as much as our lunch entrees…. but so so good!

The right side of the beach, more beautiful pictures of the hotel to come:


One would think by now that after our day of travel, lunch and beach time, we would be ready for some R&R. We at this point we thought we would just run out for a casual dinner and come home and crash. We opted for LeSelect in Gustavia, home of the famed “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. Given that we were going to a pretty casual spot I opted for a cute outfit from my new favorite UK mail order catalog, Boden. This is relevant later, just so you know.
Le Select has a great, super casual (the only plastic chairs I have seen on the island thus far) outdoor patio with no waitstaff, part of the charm is that you order your food and drink from the grill and the bar directly and pick it up when it is ready. The bacon cheeseburger was out of this world, I could have actually had 2 of them…

Yes, the story continues:

We chatted it up with one of the semi-locals who told us we should go to Le Strand for an after dinner drink . We were both kinda tired but I said to Suzanne “come on, we are in St. Bart, lets just check it out.” So we did, only to find that it was very much on the opposite end of the spectrum from LeSelect, with everything from dim lighting, velvet curtains and chandeliers to sexy house music and couchside bottle service. I immediately regretted my outfit choice, knowing there was no way to pull of hip and chic in that “cute” ensemble. Lucky for me Suzanne was wearing a colorful strapless number from Old Navy that managed to attract some local talent. This is where the evening took an unexpected turn. After having an unproductive conversation with the young Frenchman sitting next to me, an American who is working down here came over to talk to us, we shall refer to him from here on out as “The Ambassador”.

Although his southern accent was somewhat painful at times (as a Midwestern gal I do not like southern accents on men, even if its Matthew McConneghey - or however you spell it - sorry, but its true) he was quite entertaining and suggested after buying us some more wine that we head down to Casa Nikki, which is right underneath Le Strand and has a great club atmosphere. I believe it was there that the champagne bottles began to flow tableside, only to continue later at the Yacht Club. I am not quite sure how or when the evening ended but I do know that The Ambassador made sure we made it home safely, probably due to his ulterior motive to spend some more time with Suzanne…………..

We gave The Ambassador a tour of the villa and could not find the lights to the pool area, but walked out there anyway – you know where this is going, right? Yea, I fell in the pool in my stupid outfit. It turned into a bit of a teenage pool party for a while until we gave up and went to sleep around 5-ish. If the rest of the trip is going to be like this I don’t think I am going to make it!

Short Stint in St. Martin

I’m sure there are areas of St. Martin that would make a wonderful vacation but the Sonesta Maho Beach Hotel is not in one of them. Our journey on the island began with a less than friendly cab driver who huffed and puffed when we told her where we were headed. She said to herself like a 5-year old “but I don’t want to go that way! I just went that way and I want to go the OTHER way!” and stared at the cab attendant as if to ask if she could ditch us. She then refused to help with our luggage until I got a bit hostile with her. After our 5 minute ride through what reminded me of Spring Break, I was inclined not to tip on the $9 tab but I didn’t want any bad karma coming back to me.

The line at the check in desk at the hotel at 11pm was longer than we had hoped it would be, and it overlooked one of the many bars full of loud drunk tourists. Apparently there are such bars all over this massive hotel campus because as I type this I am listening to the “boom boom boom” of the music coming from at least one of them. This, together with floral bedspreads and curtains, is exactly why I choose not to vacation in places to which one can easily get and ones that have large resorts and casinos. Sorry to those of you reading this who like that kind of stuff, you have no idea what you are missing. Hopefully the descriptions in the days to come will shed some light as to why I prefer the harder-to-get-to places.

See floral bedspread and curtains:


see bathroom:

Post Script about Friendships

Some of you have asked me what my comment about learning bad things about friendships was all about. I know that I might live to regret posting this but the character of certain people has just disappointed me so much that I feel the need to share it. Prior to this trip I had successfully recovered financially and emotionally from being significantly taken advantage of and hurt by someone who I really loved and trusted. I had finally moved on and opened up again to my friends, family and to someone who I thought I might be able to pursue a relationship with. I can't help but be upset with myself for allowing myself to be vulnerable and then getting screwed again, but I guess that's the way to becoming a stronger person. At least it only took a few days instead of years to find this one out. While I am upset that these guys are trying to screw me out of a few hundred dollars, what's most upsetting is the fact that people actually think its acceptable to treat others the way I am being treated. Obviously there is more to it than you will read here, but suffice it to say these guys are being huge jerks. You read the blog, the vacation was amazing. I continue to be baffled.

Allow me to share some correspondence I received from 2 of the "guests" after I sent them a bill for their accommodations, totaling just over $600 - yes, that's the TOTAL for 5 days, 2 people at that amazing villa:

From the Friend of the Friend who was supposed to be our private chef for 5 days, but instead only cooked 2 dinners and left the kitchen in a disastrous state on a daily basis. He volunteered to sleep on the couch rather than sleep with a guy he didn't know. Note how he refers to our accommodations as a hostel:

Joe, Here is a recap of the food bills for the house. Looks like 402.42. Then there is the 75.02 for the first night. I paid cash for everything else and picked up Erin and Noels dinner on the hill. I am happy to pay Erin for the flight obviously, please pay her and I will pay you when I see you. I think she comes out ahead with their food vs. my couch. I would have happily traded anyone $500.00 for a bed and a bathroom. I feel shitty quarrelling over this, but most hostels are between 10-15.00 a night, and you get a bed. P.S. Don’t do this to me again. b

01/04/2008
M P* THE FRIENDSHIP ROSE 01/03M P* THE E. Car Doll596.46 X 0.3719948 (EXCHG RTE) + 6.65 (EXCHG RTE ADJ)
$228.53

01/03/2008
M P* DORIS FRESH FOOD BE 01/02M P* DORI E. Car Doll135.45 X 0.3720192 (EXCHG RTE) + 1.51 (EXCHG RTE ADJ)
$51.90


01/02/2008
M P* CAPTAIN MACKS BAR K 12/31M P* CAPT E. Car Doll195.80 X 0.3720123 (EXCHG RTE) + 2.18 (EXCHG RTE ADJ)
$75.02


01/02/2008
M P* DORIS FRESH FOOD BE 12/31M P* DORI E. Car Doll318.40 X 0.3719849 (EXCHG RTE) + 3.55 (EXCHG RTE ADJ)
$121.99


From the Friend who I thought I could date, but obviously that didn't work out. Please note that there was never an "agreement":

Erin,Our agreement never included me paying for the villa or the rental car. Things didn't go so well for us so I feel you're trying to make me pay for it after the fact. I will pay you for the airfare. I feel like I've done plenty for you and that's that.You knew my situation before I got there and I spent plenty on the group. Brians' deal was to pay for food and cook. You never once told him that he was to pay for the villa. We discussed this beforehand. It's taken me a while to get back to you on this because this just cinched it for me. I don't understand your approach at all.I was going to itemize crap out but decided I'm not going to sink to that level. PS I received your message today. I'll put all of your stuff in a bag and drop it off to you w/ the check.

In a later email he called me a "puss" and threatened to send out pictures of me that he thinks would embarrass me. PS - it takes a lot to embarrass me, any pictures he has would not fall in that category. If anyone out there knows a mature single man who doesn't take advantage of people and knows how to have a good time without complaining about everything, please let me know!!!!

Saturday January 5

Departure Day from Bequia

Today is the day that Suzanne, Erik and I started the journey back home through St. Vincent and Barbados. As much as everyone in Bequia tried to convince us to skip St. Vincent and extend our stay and just book a cheap apartment, we frankly were too lazy to change our plans and didn't follow the advice. Now that we are in St. Vincent we understand why Bequia is clearly the better choice, no matter where you stay. The magic of the islands doesn't exist in St. Vincent. At least not where we are. I cried today when we went to town to say goodbye to various friends I had made and I vowed to return.

As we drove to the ferry, we passed through a post-funeral gathering at the cemetery on Back Street and the sense of community was amazing. It seems as if black pants and white shirts are the clothes that people wear to demonstrate their respect, and no one made a fuss about the cars passing through, depsite the fact that the crowd was huge. As strange as it may sound, it was one of the neatest things that I saw on the island that demontstrated the culture of respect that its inhabitants have, not just among themselves, but among everyone here.

To those of my friends in Bequia who are reading this who I didn't get to say goodbye to, thank you for your kindness and generosity and for making me feel so welcome. This trip has changed me - for the better - and I have learned a lot about myself and about friendships, both good and bad. The most important thing I learned is that I am just as fun and immature as I always wished I could be, and I hope that never changes!!!!

Friday January 4

OK sorry that the days got a little messed up there, wrong order, but right descriptions of the days. Blog posting issue. Anyhow, we took Jan. 1 off as a recovery/beach day (no post) and I really, really wish we could have just skipped January 4th entirely. After a day like yesterday, a recovery day is inevitable, but we all kind of felt like we had gotten our butts kicked (at least I did), not to mention that I had to deal with the fact that I've almost lost half of my big toe. With the lack of medical assistance / first aid supplies on this island, I must admit I am a little scared of what might happen to it, especially since I have heard that living without a big toe is very difficult.

I can't believe that the time has already come for Joe, Brian and Jill to leave, they had to catch the 6:30 a.m. ferry to start making their trek back to the good old U.S. of A. I hopped in the cab with Jill at 6 a.m. so I could go pick up the TOT that was left down by our departure location from yesterday's festivities. I am pleased to say that the kindness of the Bequians (is that the right word??) once again was evident, as all of the items that I seemed to have been missing as a result of Thursday's activities were kindly placed on top of the spare tire of the TOT. Not sure who placed them there, but thank you :) You see, once people get to know you here, they know what car you are driving. Would make it hard to sneak around here to the extent that you had a reason to sneak around. I can't imagine one but just thought I would point that out.

Although I was scheduled for another dive at 9 a.m., I elected not to risk having to be airlifted off the island to the nearest hyperbaric chamber and decided get some much-needed rest instead. Suzanne and I then determined that the best course of treatment for our current state was detoxifying massages down at Jack's on Princess Margaret beach. That was pretty much the activity of the day, and the rest was spent drinking lots of H2O. As much as we had previously talked up a big Friday night farewell dinner at the Devil's Table followed by drinks at the Frangi, we couldn't muster up the energy and insted enjoyed leftovers from Mac's pizza (which was our lunch), some macaroni and cheese and reruns of Law and Order. Kind of like my usual Friday nights in Chicago. I am getting very sad to leave, and have the feeling that to the extent last night was my last appearance, I may have left a lasting impression ...... Like I mentioned earlier, I always like to go out on a good note...............................