Paradise for the Rich
Nassau reminded me of Kuta, Bali – touristy, crowded, too many shops, too expensive. There are many branded stores here such as Cartier, Rolex, Gucci and Fendi. There are close to 250,000 people living in Nassau, excluding the throng of tourists that come to the city every day. I mentioned to Jarmo today that I see too many old, rich tourists (ie. grey hair, wrinkles, rolex, diamond rings, etc). Nothing wrong with that of course. It’s just a tell-tale of what kind of destination Nassau is.
In contrast to the quaint Georgetown in Exuma, Nassau is very busy and rightly so, since it is the capital of Bahamas. Its harbour has several ships that stop by everyday. One shop sales assistant told us that it could be as many as 7 ships, bringing many tourists on board to come and shop in Nassau. Unlike Exuma, where most of the beaches are public, Nassau only has a few public beaches.
Every Bahamian we met suggested us to visit Atlantis in Paradise island. Even my Malaysian friend, SK told me to check it out. And so we did and boy, were we disappointed. The Atlantis is just one big resort targeted at tourists, making them spend lots of money while in the vicinity – there are lots of shops and cafes, as well as an outdoor theme park and beach area (both required entrance fees). The so-called mega aquarium they spoke about was so boring – personally I don’t enjoy watching animals ‘locked’ in some sort of ‘cage’ and honestly, seeing sharks swimming in an inhibited lake is just not the same as watching them in the ocean. Blue eyes says this is probably the only opportunity we have to seeing the animals since we don’t dive – probably this is a good motivation for us to try to learn diving. It’s not a cheap tour as we paid $39 per person for the aquarium entrance – both indoor and outdoor.
We stayed in a relatively cheap hotel ($84 per person for 3 nights!) in downtown Nassau, close to Bay St, which is the shopping area for tourists. Lots of souvenir shops, jewelry and watch shops, as well as restaurants and cafes. The pier is close by and the ferry terminal is within walking distance. We took the taxi to the Atlantis because it was raining and it cost $16 inclusive of $1 toll. On the way back, we decided to take the ferry, which cost $4 per person. On the ferry, there was a navigator who started to give us an overview of Nassau and Bahamas. He was witty and his stories were entertaining. The pity is, his talk wasn’t free as he asked for tips at the end of his session (wish he could have told us in the beginning so we can say No!). That makes our ferry ticket on average $5 per person, which is almost the same as taking the cab but not the same, since we have to walk back to the hotel from the terminal.
Today, we decided to do our laundry and asked at the reception the nearest laundromat. She pointed us to one a few blocks down the road and showed us the location on the map. She suggested we take the bus but we felt it was close enough for walking and so we did. Unaware to us, the laundromat is located in the local ghetto. There we were, with our camera and backpack, walking down the street. One car stopped us mid-way and told us to be careful of the drug addicts in the area. Upon reaching the laundromat, we asked if we could use the wifi and the lady at the counter told us to be careful of our laptops as thieves might snatch and run away with them. When blue eyes asked if there’s a tailor nearby to fix jeans, she laughed and said, “You want to fix your jeans in the ghetto?” For that short moment, I was getting worried. Goodness, where the hell are we? Thankfully, we survived the laundry and we took the bus back to downtown.
Nassau doesn’t appeal to me very much, but I probably don’t fall into the city’s target market. Glad we’re leaving tomorrow!
- Aquarium @ Atlantis, Paradise island
