~Down the bay where the nights are gay~

~ and the sun shines daily on the mountain top, I took a trip on a sailing ship, and when I reached JAMAICA I made a stop…~


So here we are at Montego Bay, Jamaica (commonly known as MoBay). Mobay is the 2nd largest city in Jamaica, after the capital, Kingston Town.

We booked ourselves on a 4x4 Safari Land Tour run by a company known as Chukka, and were quickly whisked away by our guide, Owen.

With us on the tour were 2 other lovely couples (one from Alberta, Canada – Muriel & Frank, and the other from Malta – Keith & Rosemary), and a father-daughter duo from Ireland – Michelle & Michael.

This is a lovely bunch. Warm, jovial, humourous, engaging, and very very open and friendly.

Frank & Muriel have been married for 41 years!

Michelle (who is going on 16) and Michael are a laugh a minute… its extremely amusing to see how the father-daughter duo interact with each other, and its so sweet the way they are so close. Michelle is always keeping a look-out to ensure that her dad is alright, and it is obvious that she is the pride and joy of Michael’s life.

Keith & Rosemary are a loving couple, and its damn cool when we found out that Keith is a crane driver back home in Malta – as in he transports/drives the cranes from one point to another, sets it up so that the operators can use it for construction, and when they are done, he drives it away to another location again. According to Rosemary, it’s a fairly dangerous job due to its nature.

(Front L to R: Keith & Rosemary, Michelle & Michael)

(Back L to R: Muriel, the Wife, WWCS, Frank)

And Owen. What can I say… he is a cool dude, and even though it may be difficult to catch what he is saying some of the times due to his accent, he is a very good guide. He Is constantly coming up with nuggets of information about Jamaica, interspersed with numerous corny (and on some rare occasions, painful) jokes to liven up the trip.

(Here’s one of the corny jokes he came up with as we spotted a huge termite nest:- “Why won’t you find a single termite in this termite nest” – well… because all the termites living in the nest are married”. Get it? : ) )

So, again… we have been blessed with the fortune of meeting lovely people, and the land tour was made all the more enjoyable in no small part because of them.


Now… about our 4x 4 land tour of Jamaica:-

(a) we made a total of 4 stops;

(b) the first stop was on a hill overlooking the harbour of MoBay. It’s a lovely sight, particularly when you can spot our ship in the background. We were told that this hill top vantage point is the highest point in MoBay. Along the way… we also drove past the brewing factory of Jamaica’s No. 1 beer – Red Stripe Beer. Ming and I shared one of those at the end of the trip, and it was really nice. We can see how it achieved/earned its No. 1 status;

(Us on the Hilltop with MoBay as the backdrop)

(c) our 2nd stop was to a former “Slave Hospital”, that had since been converted into a church. The church also housed a private primary school with lots of adorable Jamaican children.

Owen told us that slavery was eradicated from Jamaica in 1838. Before that, the slave masters and the estate owners brought a lot of slave labour over from Africa & India.

Needless to say, the slaves were treated extremely badly, and those that tried to run away were punished by being flocked and hung on trees, as an example and warning to the rest.

In 1832, the slaves finally staged an uprising, and they burned down all the buildings save for 2 – The Slave Hospital, and a Baptist Church (which is over 300 years old).

(Former Slave Hospital)

(The 300-year old Baptist Church)



(d) the 3rd stop was a small waterfall along the longest river in MoBay. We had to make a very short hike through some vegetation to get to the fall, but it was all quite worth it when we arrived.

Apparently, if you immerse yourself in the falls, and got wet from head to toe, you will become younger by 5 years.

The Wife and I did not immerse ourselves. We were quite happy to be 31 and 27 respectively. : ) - (but the Wife may want to come back in 10 years’ time).

More importantly, we did not want to continue with the rest of the tour in wet underwear, and soaking wet t-shirts… grin.

Another thing I liked about the visit to the falls was the short hike, which reminded me of the good old days when I was scouting and tearing across such landscapes on a regular basis (in Ubin).

Its been eons (15 years) since I last did such a trek over such landscapes just for fun, and it felt good to be doing it again.

(enroute to the falls)

(The first signs of the falls)

(e) Our final stop was at a rest stop/souvenir station.

There is nothing special there (scenery wise), but what was great about it was that they sold some authentic Jamaican food there called Chicken Jerky, and also the Red Stripe beer, both of which we tried.

The dish was not really “Jerky” (at least not the beef-jerky type of food one would usually associate the word to mean). In fact, the chicken was tender and flavourful. It tasted of spice, and was very nice (albeit it had already turned cold). I would imagine that it would have tasted fantastic if it was served piping hot.

Red Stripe was also flavourful but light. And to top it off, it was served ice-cold, which was great given that we were out in the sun for most of 3 hours by then.


And so… that last stop concluded our trip to MoBay.

Its obvious that Jamaica is fairly poor, and there are lots of touting etc.

But what is great about the place is how optimistic its people are. No matter where you go, you will hear the phrase “No Problem Mann”.

Yes… the reason for this optimism and High of the Jamaican people could be the weed (which is extremely common place and easy to purchase) that they are on, but I would like to believe that it is their innate spirit as a people and free nation that is the real underlying reason.









- WWCS