Off the beaten track

So, yes, I'm back in Kingston, Jamaica again! Although it's been work, work and even more work since I got here, how many people can actually say they have the view that I have from my hotel balcony while they work?

Anyway, last weekend, I got a well deserved break from work when my friend invited me to balik kampung with her. Her kampung is a little village on Constituition Hill, about 30 minutes away from Kingston. Getting there itself was an adventure on it's own. The roads were ridiculously narrow, one side was the mountain wall and the other was a steep drop into the valley. Amazingly enough, somehow it can actually fit 2 vehicles and I'm not talking about Kancil sized cars here, more like Hiluxes and Landrovers. Don't ask me how, I just didn't want to look how close we were from falling off the cliff.

The highlights of my little village adventure was the traditional home cooked food and a domino match that I went to.

A traditional Jamaican breakfast is Ackee and Saltfish(nice - looks and tastes like scrambled eggs) and Roasted Breadfruit(nice- tastes like not-so-sweet potato) and Boiled Banana(plain yucky!). Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and it can only be plucked off the trees once it has opened up by itself. If you eat an unopened Ackee, you'd be poisoned.

Ackee fruit

Jamaican breakfast

Now, the domino match. Did I say match? Nope. I should correct myself. It should be called Domino Kampung Cup. Every Sunday, the whole village gathers at a little shed to support their favourite domino team. Each team has it's own jersey, cheerleaders (complete with the team flag and banners), and everyone brings trumpets, lots of sticks and pots and pans that they can bang together and generally just make as much noise as they can on top of all the shouting to support their team.

A domino match

And how can I not mention the weed .... wow, lots and lots of weed! The men were smoking weed as commonly as you might find someone in Malaysia smoking cigarettes. By the time they finished their game, I had been at the match for about 2 hours and I was having a serious headache from inhaling secondary weed smoke. I was so glad to leave the place and breathe in fresh air!

So that was my little village adventure. It was off the beaten track - not a very "touristy" thing to do, considering I'm in the Caribbeans. But I actually appreciated this experience more than I would appreciate going to the beach because this is also Jamaica - the people and their culture. And I'm glad that the people opened up to me, welcomed me and showed me a little of who they are.

~Anya~ (now completely recovered from my secondary weed-smoke hang over) :)