How the simple act of singing one organisation’s praise led to a whl.travel holiday in the Caribbean
By Kim Chai

“Karma works for Kim!” said the email from Pam Logan, the founder of Kham Aid Foundation, a small non-profit I had nominated in the Geotourism Challenge contest in December 2007. Pam congratulated me for winning a trip “anywhere in the world.” 

The author at her anywhere-in-the-world location of choice!

My initial reaction was “Huh?” I’d assumed the contest was to pick the best sustainable-tourism NGO; how come I was the winner? I’d gone with fellow volunteers on an art-conservation trip led by Pam in September 2007 to Kham, on the eastern Tibetan plateau, to help restore centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist murals in a remote mountain village. Breathtaking snow-capped scenery, extraordinary Tibetan art and architecture, the warmth of the villagers and the feeling that we were doing good while having a fabulous time made for an unforgettable experience.

After our trip Pam asked if we would write about it on Ashoka’s Changemakers website, part of a global search for innovations in tourism that sustain, enhance and preserve local culture and place. Hugely impressed by how a single determined individual and her NGO were aiding a neglected minority in a politically sensitive part of China, I was happy to sing their praises. I wrote a few hurried but heartfelt paragraphs on the website, without paying much attention to the contest details.

When Pam’s email landed in February 2008, I was dealing with a new job and a family illness and didn’t follow up; partly I thought “there must be some mistake.” But in April, a representative from Ashoka emailed to say “You won!” Then Len Cordiner of whl.travel, sponsor of the contest’s prize, emailed to ask: “Where would you like to go?” Having never won more than a mug in the office raffle, I was sort of stunned into slow motion as I liaised with Len about the logistics of my trip. 

I was really pleased to win in a worthy cause, rather than in a lucky draw or shopping promo. But the magnitude of the prize dawned on me when I surfed the whl.travel portal, which leads to so many wonderfully offbeat destinations and great choices of accommodation that deciding where to go was really hard. I thought it should be somewhere that I would never have dreamt of going; also someplace warm since I could only take leave around Christmas, but not just a sunny resort.

Roadside food delights in the land of Usain Bolt

Then Usain Bolt won the 100m at the Beijing Olympics and Jamaica popped onto my radar. I figured an island of only 2.7 million that had produced such a character should be interesting! And to me, the Caribbean was a very distant, obscure corner of the globe. All I knew about Jamaica was that it was the home of Bob Marley and Rastafarians – but that made it funky and different enough to hold out the potential of new experiences.

Len put me in touch with Andrew Sharpe of Authentic Caribbean Holidays, the whl.travel partner in Jamaica. My only request was not to be put in a gated international-chain hotel. My boyfriend Tom requested beach proximity. Andrew suggested a few options off the beaten path in the less touristed south, far from the swank resorts up north. I settled on the locally run Treasure Beach Hotel …and it yielded some memories to treasure.

We landed in Kingston on Christmas Day. Yah man! Reggae blasted from gigantic boom boxes at roadside bars on the four-hour drive to the south coast. Despite the public holiday, Andrew met us at the airport with driver/guide Roland Desulme and came with us all the way to the hotel – a bone-rattling, swerving (to avoid potholes) ride that was an eye-opener to Jamaica’s rutted roads and risk-taking drivers!

Spread across a lush hillside, with azure ocean views from its terrace, the Treasure Beach was surprisingly quiet, with less than half its 36 rooms occupied. A few steps down from the pool was the actual Treasure Beach, a curve of coral-strewn sand and strong surf, lined with other small hotels and palm-fronded shacks selling local food and boat trips. Right in front of “our” beach the sun sank spectacularly into the sea, where local families swam alongside the tourists.

Treasure Beach at the aptly named Treasure Beach Hotel

The place was low-rise, laid-back and hassle-free, with just a few vendors hawking wood-carvings and ganja, a couple of farmers selling cantaloupe and ganja, a couple of guys offering taxi rental and ganja and some blissed-out dopeheads smoking ganja. A ganja entrepreneur said it took him only 10 weeks to grow a plant and 5 days to dry it. In a tiny bar called Kim’s Place, a friendly Rasta rolled us a joint, but three puffs made me queasy – what a wimp!

Kim’s Place was named after the owner’s older daughter, and we two Kims took a photo together. The jolly owner told us bars could get a liquor licence just by applying, which may be why Jamaica has the world’s largest number of bars per square mile. Her younger kids played around the bar and a guy came by to strum his guitar. I was glad we were staying in a neighbourhood where it was easy to chat with local folks, not cocooned in an “all-inclusive” resort. Tom stayed in such a resort years ago and said it was “like two different worlds.”

The two Kims at Kim's Place, with the owner in the background

Roland, our very cool, bearded and braided guide, drove us to some South Coast historical places and natural attractions. At the 260-year-old Appleton Rum Estate, amid vast sugar-cane plantations, we saw how molasses was turned into rum, which had a much bigger kick than ganja! At the idyllic YS Falls, we swam under multi-tiered waterfalls cascading 120 feet into freshwater pools, and admired dramatic views at Lover’s Leap, a restaurant atop a 1,700-foot cliff off which, legend has it, a pair of runaway slaves jumped to their deaths. We lunched on the veranda of Bloomfield Great House, an elegant colonial legacy in highland town of Mandeville, where a British air lingers in the church and courthouse dating from 1816. And touring a scenic coffee farm in the Blue Mountains outside Kingston, we learned that 80% of Jamaica’s Arabica typica beans, which make its famous Blue Mountain coffee, is exported to Japan.

I enjoyed these well-run “must-see” sights, but it was just as interesting simply cruising through the countryside, past rustic hamlets, vegetable fields, lots of colourful bars (how can we forget the seafood and music place called Little Ochi in a little village reachable only by a very rutted road!), as many churches of every denomination, and showy mansions built by “returnees” who’d made their money abroad.

Enjoying a local treat at the cow-skin soup shack

“You seeing the real Jamaica, yah man,” Roland said. 

On New Year’s eve we were the only Asians in the crowds watching the fireworks on Kingston’s waterfront. The next day, hotel executive Philmore Knott, father of 13 by four girlfriends known as “baby mothers” (no big deal in Jamaica, we’re told), walked us through Kingston’s deserted streets, which we were warned not to wander in alone due to high crime rates.

And of course there was Jamaican cuisine, washed down with Red Stripe beer, the ubiquitous local brew: Curried goat in the Happy Time restaurant in Maggotty; cow-skin soup from a drive-by shack; parrot fish, grilled conch and lobster on the beach at Little Ochi, the hot hangout where guys impress their dates, Roland said; spicy “jerk chicken” from a roadside barbecue; fried breadfruit, boiled banana, bammy (cassava pancake), and the national dish—ackee (a fruit) and saltfish, which looks and tastes like scrambled egg and smoked cod. Plus a pretty authentic meal at Mandeville’s International Chinese Restaurant which was hosting a Jamaican wedding!

 So I didn’t need ganja; just being in Jamaica was the “high”. Yah man. 

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For more information about Jamaica, including accommodations, tours, activities, all your travel needs and lots of insider tips, contact your local whl.travel connection: Andrew Sharpe and the team from Authentic Caribbean Holidays at www.jamaica-island-hotels.com.

The nomination phase for the 2009 round of the Geotourism Challenge opens on 29 January. Why not sing the praises of your favourite tourism-related organisation? You never know what karma will bring.

Posted under General, Jamaica, countries, local tips, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter