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Sunday, April 26, 2009


last entry on our trip!

we also spent part of a day on tortola, one of the british virgin islands. it's interesting that desite being british, the dollar is the national currency! it was ok, but we only had a few hours to ourselves b/c of the ferry times. there was an 8am ferry that we had no chance of catching, so we took an 11:45am ferry. (we aimed for the 10:45am ferry but it just wasn't running that day! grrr.) then once we got onto tortola it was another half hour downtown.

the downtown area is like a smaller version of downtown charlotte amalie in st. thomas, but w/ more flea market type things set up on the street. i had a cartier watch priced out at a jewelery store, and the 'discounted' rate was still $50 more than in st. thomas, so after that we stopped looking. we weren't really in the mood to shop anyway so we mostly walked around.

the areas along the water were beautiful. it would've been better if we'd had more time... like if we'd gotten on the 8am ferry haha. we could've gone up to the mountain top; after all, we enjoyed the mountain top in st. thomas.

unfortunately, the trip overall was inconvenient. we had to go through customs, but the way it was done was dumb. on the way back, the ferry stopped at st. john... a whole bunch of ppl got off w/ their luggage and we stayed onboard wondering why so many ppl were going to st. john w/ their luggage when there's no airport there...

it turned out that everyone had to get off and clear customs there. then we all piled back on the ferry and went to st. thomas from there. apparently st. thomas doesn't have customs for boats. that whole trip back took over an hour, so we were pretty irritated. still though, it was nice to visit and see what a british virgin island is like.






Tuesday, April 21, 2009


we spent a day exploring st. john. most of the island is uninhabited except for one side of it plus some scattered houses, so the beaches are all surrounded by trees. it's definitely very scenic. while driving around we stumbled upon a 'marketplace' that had very reasonably priced sushi; we wanted to try it but the timing didn't work out.

we spent most of our time there on trunk bay. it's s'posedly one of the most beautiful beaches, but to be honest i have a hard time differentiating between 'good' and 'best' beaches. the sand was definitely different though -- a lighter, finer sand. it felt amazing walking on it and sticking my toes in it, but the downside was that b/c it was windy, the sand blew everywhere.

gopooh loved st. john mostly b/c he saw a hawksbill sea turtle while snorkeling. he actually saw it twice, but the first time he couldn't snap any pictures b/c the underwater camera ran out of battery haha. so then he put in new batteries, and later went out snorkeling again. this time he went into really deep waters and actually followed it around, making sure to snap as many pictures as he could. he was pretty excited, and he and other snorkelers kept talking about which turtle they'd each seen. :)






Thursday, April 16, 2009


on our anniversary we went to coral world and played w/ some animals up close. i love all these animal encounters, so when we go on trips gopooh purposely scopes out what's available.

the sea lion swim was the equivalent of the dolphin swim we did in curaçao 2 years ago, w/ some differences. both took pictures and then sold them on a CD, but the package in st. thomas was way cheaper. for example, it was $29 for a CD with our pictures; i think the CD in curaçao was over $100. however the dolphin pictures were taken w/ a big professional camera compared to the little digital camera used for the sea lion pictures, and the difference is noticeable.

on the other hand, the sea lions can be played w/ out of the water too, and they can do a wider variety of tricks. plus, w/ their little ears and big bulgy eyes, they're sooo adorable, fishy breath aside!

gopooh has always had a fascination w/ turtles of all kinds; he thinks they're super cute. so of course when he saw that that there was a sea turtle encounter, he signed us up for that too.

apparently it's illegal to touch a sea turtle, b/c they're on the protected species list. i didn't know that. so i guess being able to pet and 'scrub' a couple there was pretty unique. they aren't as interactive as the sea lions, since they don't respond to commands and do tricks and all that. (can you imagine if they did? haha.) still, when we got into their pool they started swarming around us and were really attracted to our fingers dangling in front of them. luckily no animal bites this year though!






Monday, April 13, 2009


one thing really noticeable about st. thomas was that alcohol was just sooo prevalent. it was literally everywhere. every restaurant offered some, and it wasn't uncommon to walk by several people openly drinking beer on the street. also, there were a lot of people drinking while swimming... we didn't know if they were locals who were used to doing that, or visitors who wanted to bask in the 'novelty' of it, but i'm sure swimming mixed w/ alcohol is a really smart combo. yeah.

we drank more alcohol than we usually do... although that isn't saying much since we normally don't drink at all. there was this popular restaurant, green house, which had happy hour 4-7pm, during which time you get 2 identical drinks for the price of 1 and $3 off appetizers. we went there twice. haha.

there was one day though, where i'm surprised i didn't wake up w/ a headache the next morning. in the afternoon i had a mixed drink that had 5 shots of different colored rums, then shared another of those w/ gopooh. after that we went to the green house happy hour and each of us had another 2 island fruity drinks. that's more than i would normally drink in a month! luckily i think the flavored rums are slightly weaker than normal rums? who knows.

and of course, there was shopping. the 0% sales tax was totally tempting. i did end up getting a tanzanite and diamond ring, and 2 purses. i wasn't seriously shopping, but i'd been eyeing tanzanite for awhile, and after i tried on this ring, gopooh said it was a good deal compared to the ones we saw in the states so we should just get it. after some hemming and hawing, that's what we did. and then the purses were half off, and i was only going to get 1, but i couldn't decide between them so gopooh said we should get both. what a nice husband, right? :D






Wednesday, April 08, 2009


while in st. thomas we spent a lot of time in the water. we louged around on our hotel's beach, but we also drove around to others. magan's bay was known for its beauty, sapphire beach had snorkeling and occasional windsurfing, and coki beach was the 'happening' beach.

gopooh really likes snorkeling, but after his blistering burn in thailand last year, he was worried about a repeat burn. last year was different, i think, both b/c of the exceedingly hot weather and b/c of his lack of sunscreen re-application. but just in case, we got him a couple swim shirts that had SPF 50 built in. therefore his face is really dark and jaundiced-looking, and his back is tan, but the rest of him is significantly paler. no bad burns this year though.

i, on the other hand, didn't touch my snorkeling gear, and instead read on the beach or swam. on the second day my forehead turned much darker than the rest of my face, and i got burned on my chest, arms and thighs. from that point on i slathered sunscreen like nobody had ever seen (don't want skin cancer after all...) and a couple days later i also started wearing a visor to protect my forehead. so i'm a lot more even-colored than gopooh is, but my face is lighter than the rest of my body due to the visor.

i totally thought i'd be a pool girl, just like i was in thailand. maybe it was b/c i didn't fall in love w/ the hotel's pool the way i did w/ the infinity pools in phuket. or maybe it was b/c st. thomas is such a beachy place. but in any case, i enjoyed puttering around in the salt water this time around.