I am posting this on behalf of friends who are too shy to share directly with you their first Bonaire experience.


Arrival Experience
The flight was smooth with minor flaws. I asked for pepper to add to my tomato juice and I never received it. We landed late, 21 seconds to be precise, and our rolling to a stop took longer than it should had. As we walked across the tarmac, I noticed that the "L" in Flamingo was not perfectly aligned with the "F". At passport check, the stamp was not perfectly inked and it left an uneven print on our passports. We cleared customs and we exited the airport. The lady from the car rental agency held a sign with my last name, written in cursive script and it was very difficult to read (my last name is "Ford" and it looks so different in cursive versus typed script). We got our rental car and drove to the hotel. The roads were fine, although I noticed that they were about 2.78 inches narrower than the EU specification for such pavements.

The hotel
It's not quite a hotel but a timeshare condo building. The checkin went fine although the lady at the reception did not fully explained that the magnetic card reader at the main entrance has a reverse polarity than the one at our apartment's door. We need to turn the card upside down to enter our apartment. The apartment is well appointed with an ocean view. It's noisy though because you can hear this slushing sound every 2-3 seconds, as if a small wave rolls on a sandy beach. In the refrigerator we found the groceries we had prepaid for. However instead of 2%-fat yogurt they had supplied us with 2.5%. Also, the white anchovies we had ordered were cured in wine vinegar instead of white vinegar. We went to bed.

The first dive
In the morning we checked in at the dive store. To my horror I realized that they used paper forms and have no computers to track things. I had to fill out 3 different forms using pencils. We suited up at the dive shops dock. The dock is neither long nor wide. It barely has room for 200 people on it. Our first dive was ok. The water was too warm (84F) and there were tons of parrot fish around our feet distracting me from putting on my fins. There should be a net keeping the parrot fish away at the entry point.

Dining
We tried a few restaurants. Most of them require that you sit outside. Some are very close to the water as well, and noisy because you can hear the same slushing sound every 2-3 seconds, as if a small wave rolls on a sandy beach. I ordered a cheese plate at Freddie&Jerry's and half the cheese on it was moldy. The red wine that came along, was old. Dinner at R&A's was no better experience. There was too much ice in the wine bucket, making an annoying sound each time we pulled the bottle out to pour wine in our glasses. The shrimp were too big to be eaten in a single byte. There was too much parmesan cheese on the caesar salad and instead of salted anchovies they served white anchovies marinated in white vinegar -- argh!

Shopping
We stopped at that Brat N' Chowse shop to check our email and buy some post cards for our friends. We asked for a few stamps for the US and a few for Europe. They told us that they are all the same, could you believe it? And on top of that they told us that the mailbox is right outside the store. I think they empty the mailbox at night and recycle the postcards. Their internet connection is not that fast either. It took over 5 minutes to download the 219,831-pages annual report that my boss had emailed to me.

We had a pleasant trip in Bonaire, save for minor flaws detailed above. Thank you all for your help. We'll be back.

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Vietnam travel, Vietnam tours Vietnam hotels and resorts

You need to turn the card upside down to enter our apartment? but why is that kind of thing is? The apartment is well appointed with an ocean view and it's so noisy though because you can hear this slushing sound every 2-3 seconds, as if a small wave rolls on a sandy beach. I guess that is a perfect place for relaxing.




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