Meet the Bahamians

"I like my coffee like how I like my woman - black, hot and sweet!" 

Meet KB, the proud owner of Chat N Chill @ Stocking Island. We had the privilege of meeting him on our last day in Exuma before we left for Nassau for the rest of our trip in Bahamas.

KB, which stands for Kenneth Bowe (B-O-W-E, KB reminded me), is a 62-year old Bahamian, born n bred in Exuma. He's quite a charmer, the minute we sat down, he put us at ease by asking where we're from. When I said I'm from Malaysia, he looked at me and say, "You're Malaysian Chinese". Wow, how did he know, I asked. Smiling, he said he was in Singapore in the 1970s and Lee Kuan Yew was his hero, and he discovered the ethnic diversity of Singapore and Malaysia.

They say, never judge a book by its cover, and boy, that rings so true with KB ;) In his t-shirt and South Africa cap, he looked like any bar owner but in actual fact, KB's an accomplished economist who completed his degree at the Chicago University School of Economics. By age of 31, he quit his job at the bank and became an entrepreneur, and has never looked back. "I'm 62, and I've no regrets!", he says.

As we had our drinks (boys had rum & tonic while I had rum punch), we continued our chat with KB. He spoke in pride of his twin sons, one an orthopedic and another a banker, both work in Nassau, the capital of Bahamas. He talked about his travel, and how much he liked South Africa and Cape Town - "I want to start something in South Africa; maybe to teach," he says.

We asked about conch salad, a Bahamian dish that we've been recommended to try, and KB pointed us to his other stall (literally) next to the beach. "AJ will dish you the nice salad fresh from the seawater!"

Later we found out that the conch was fetched from the sea upon order and mixed with tomatoes, capsicum, onions and hot pepper, and tossed in lime and orange juice. The fresh salad is refreshing on a sunny warm day like we had today. And Stocking island is the perfect place to have it, as the beach is gorgeous and the view of the many boats docking at the area makes it even better!

We returned to Chat N Chill after exploring the beach further, and KB was there, ready to suggest us another drink. This time round, I had the Bahamian Mama while blue eyes had the house drink that is the same colour as his eyes. Jarmo was finishing his pina colada and ordered the Bahamian Mama also. We were getting hungry so we ordered the house specialty - grilled ribs with rice and peas for blue eyes, groupa with fries for me and Jarmo chicken with rice and peas (rice & peas are Bahamian staple food). They tasted damn good! And conversation at the table was fun - KB was telling us how he once hooked up with a flight attendant while seated at the first class section ;)

Soon it was time to go. We bid our goodbyes, and thanked KB for his hospitality. As we walked towards our water taxi, we laughed about KB's coffee and women. He's definitely a colourful character!

Elvis - water taxi rider

Elvis was our water taxi rider to Stocking island and on our way back to Georgetown, he told us to look out for dolphins. We were hopeful and we're lucky cos' within minutes, we saw some jumping out from the water not too far from us. Elvis kindly drove the water taxi close to the dolphins so we can have a closer look and take pictures. There were about 3 dolphins (blue eyes counted 4 but that could be after his 4 drinks) and they were dancing in the water, as if performing for us! How beautiful and a nice closure to our experience in the Exumas :)