5 TRAUELSFood April222OO7 Sunday Times

CARIBBEAN CRIGKET

l(eeping it sweetThey party hardin Barbados, butthat doesn't hurtthe cricl<et, writesJohn Young

t is possible to find accommoda-tion for less than R250 a nightin Barbados. You just wouldn't

* wmt to stay there once you'vefoud it. The Intemet led me to AngleHouse about 2km from the centre ofBridgetown.

With the high-walled enclave of theBubados Sailing ald Cruising Club di-rectly over the road, and the BarbadosMusem a block away, I congraiulatedrnyself on filding such a cheap bed insuch a posh area. Until my charm-freehostess took me through a warreil ofdingy corridorsfilled with elderly, t}tin-legged men fuessed like extras fromlhe set of Bueno Vista Social Club, andacross a concrete courtyild to a ricketybungalow.

Tte prison-issue mattress (off-creamand blue stripes with lumpy buttons)filled the room. There was a sink but to !get to it, the bed had to tre moved. I !eould only spot one sheet so I made a itimid enquAy. "You wmt two sheets?" !was Mrs Hinds'aggrieved response. I !knew I would be looking for alterna-tives in the morning.

If this is what I could get for R250,

ivhat would it cost me to get a decenl.bed for the rest of my two-week stay?To get my mind off such depressingihoughts I took the adyice ofan Englishjounalist I'd met in Trinidad md head-ed to the nearby Boatyard for half adoz€n drinks.

The place was jmping with hau thecollege population of the Americanmid-west celebrating the stmt of their"Spring Break". I was starting towonder about my luck. When thelhrieking female students started lick-ing m off the swafthy torso of thebarman I decided that that ugly bedwas the lesser of two evils.

In the clear light of a briUimtCaribbean morning my luck turned -once I had fled Angle House. I wan-dered towards the beach hoping to Iinda public telephone at the Grand Bar-

bados Resort Hotel. Instead, I lound achaming self-catering place calledJust Home with its om garden andwide verandah, right there on the samelittle road called Aquatic Gap. With itsceiling of tree branches and soft seasand seepingup the road's edges ithada real holiday feel about it: it remindedme of the Busbman's River.

I had to pay a little more than R250for my room but Veronica was kindnessitself, the room was clean and the bedwas normal. I celebrated my chmge offortune with coffee on the promenadeof the Grand Barbados.

When I explained to the waitresseswhy the exchange rate made it impos-sitle for me to book in to their hotel,[hey took piiy and upgraded my six-Barbados-dollar cup of coffee to a pot of

Shrie kingfematrestudentslicking rumoff tlreswartliyt*rsa of theharman

WALK IN: Just Home in Aquatic Gap where the author found a Barbados rarity - accommodation that was both cheap and good

the same. I unwittingiy caused quite astir tly refusing sugar in my coffee.Some of ihe sympathy for me camefrom the locals' conviction that theWest Indies cricket tem was going togive massive "licks" to the SouthAfrican team I was following.

No nation on earth is as conlidentabout cricket as the Bajms. Althoughthere are only about 265 000 of them atany one time, they have good reason fortheir confldence.

When Barbados celebrated its inde-pendence in 1967, the team they select-ed to challenge a world team includedeight players who had played for theWest lndies. Sir Frank Worrell, SirGary Sobers, and Malcolm Ma$hallare just a few of the gimts of the gameto come from this coral island 33km

long and 22km wide.The dedicated fans who pack the

Kensington Oval will tell you (even ifyou don't ask) that the reason the Westlndies team are no longer a foree inworld cricket is because the regionalselectors are not picking enough Bar-bados cricketers.

Although some of the posh resortsfrequented by Britain's richest celebriiies try to make it difficult for common-ers to get to the beach, there are nopdvate beaches on Bilbados, so I wasable to join the locals in what theycalled their daily "sea bath" - and toenjoy the sight of mothers improvingtheir sons' cricket-catching skills byskimming tennis balls at them off thesurface of the calm Caribbean Sea.

When I rose early enough to have a

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Sunday Times April222007

WET BEHIND THE EARS: Cricket fever prevails as South Afr.ican journaiists have an impromptu game on the beach

TRAUELT

CLEAN CUTS: An ardent West Indies fan atKensington Oval

Bridgetown bank but at least ihe place wasair conditioned and the staff were helpful.They have a good public school system andthe cheap and e[ficienl bus service is some-thing to behold. lbr R6 you can get rightaround the island. The buses are moderrand clem too, s.ith a large sign at the dooroutlawing swearing.

I had lead that Barbados is sometimescalled "-LittleEngland" so I was prepared forthe high Anglicanism of Si Nlichacl's Cathe-dral (consecrated U89) and the ilowcrs inthe straw hats ofthe ladies in town, but whatI had not anticipated was traffic like centralLondon's! A statue of Horatio Nelson stoodtriumphmtly inTralalgar Square for nealy200 years but he's been moved and local

heroes now take pride of place in NationalHeroes' Square, the plaza that links down-town Bridgetown with the waterfront.

There are still many reminders of thecolonial past, however: Cheapside, Queen'sPark, Wellington Street and Nelson Street.It was at the intersection ofthe last two thatI was exposed to a bit of social interaction Idelinitely could never have predicted.

Having saved up for a couple of days, Isplashed out on a private sedan taxi to takeme to the Kensington Oval. My driver was abit gmmpy to start with but when a youngdelivery guy on a blcycle cut in front of histaxi as we turned out of Weuington Sireet,he bellowed, "You bloody black!"

When the cyclist came back at him withthe same phrase but with a stronger ad-jective, this white South African was pu-zled to say the least. A.s far as I could tell,they were both black. A nice puzzle for thesoeiologists.

At the cricket field I was made to feei verywelcome. l'irst, Wayne Daniel, aka TheBlack Diamond and one of the fastestbowlers ever, wanted me to send his bestgreetings to Vintcent van der Biji, his for-mer team-mate at Middelsex. AndrewMason immediately invited me to be a gueston his cricket talk show, the Mason and BestShow. Best turned out to be former WestIndian batsman Carlisle Best, who had aspell playing lbr Wcstern Provin{'e.

Best took me to his own cricket club, Em-pire. The bumpy and tiny ground, so smallthat boundaries count lbr three and four,not four and six, was surrounded by rustycoryugated-ton sheeting. Could this reallybe where cricketing legends like Sir FrankWorrell had perfected their game?

As the first black man to captain the re-gional team, Worrell occupies a specialplace in Wesi Indies history. Begional crick-et board oflicials claim to be keen on cel-ebrating the history of the game but thesight of Worrell's dilapidated house on theedge of the Empire ground told a differenistory. Cricket historian David Hilris toldme lhai various authorilies were arguingabout who was responsible for upkeep. InFebruary this year, the house was finallydemolished and the Barbados Ministry ofPublic Works has promised that a muscumwill be built in its place.

On my last night in Barbados I visitedanother tou'ist landmark in the AquaticCap, the famous Brown Sugar restaurant,dght next to my humble Just Itrome lodg-ings. Under a canopy of lush tropical plantsI enjoyed a spicy serving of brandied liversmd curry that lvas worth the R300 outlay.When the coffee came this time, i decided togo with the sweet Bajan llow and addcdsugar. Sonlewhere I had read thai theaverage citizen of Barbados consumes49kg ol the stuff pel year, the most in theworld. Keeping it sweet in the Caribbean.Why not?

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BASIGSHoW fO CET TtlEREi Barbados rs one ofthe easiest Caribbean destinations to getto Fly to Brdgetown, Barbados, fromR12 350 per person (including approximatearrline taxes and levies) dunng low season(fi/lay 4 to June 25) on British Atrways. Ahigh-season tare will cost R15 990(rncluding taxes) fronr June 26 toSeptember 6. Contact Fliqht Centre on

0860 400 777 or www.flightcentre.co.zaV[SA$r South Africans need a validpa(sport, bJr rro vrsa for:tays o{ up tosix months.

WHSRE I0 STAY: There rs a ranqe ofaccommodati0n with the smart resorts andgolf estates on the sheltered west coastamong the r-ost lu(Lr rous rn the worldA qood website is www.barbados.org.The website for luxury acconrmodationin the Aquatic Gap is

www.Erandbarbados.comContact Veronica or Carqline on (001246)42b-8857 to enq"[e JiroJL Jusl r]ome

a Other: It rs an offence to dress in

camouflage clothing T0pless bathing is

frowned upon and nudism is illeqal!

HwTpre-dawn dip I was astounded to comeacross staif of the Grand Barbados rakingthe sand. Talk about attention to detail. Alate evening swim had a very dlfferent out-come. I emerged from the water to discoyerthat I was quite alone, apart irom the youngman who wanted to sell me some weed. Ideclined.

Contrtry lo popular foreign opinion, dag-ga is not legal anywhere in the West Indies.Having said ihat, only a few hours after de-clining to iniale on the beach, at Oistin'sFish Market it was difficult not to inhalesome of the gor?ga that floated over the im-promptu disco that evolved in the space be-tween the stalls selling snapper md king.fish with a kind ofpap called coz-cou. At oneof the few sit-down outlets, our waiter toldus that his best flsh was a lreshly caughtdolphin. Seeing our startled looks he hastilyadded, "No worry, mohn, it's not tr'lipper!"What Bajans call dolphin is known else-where as dorado, a tangy game fish.

Oistin's is the only place to be on a Fridaynight and it is the site of the annual Eastertr'estival that stretches an already longweekend into a very long party. Gettinghome from the market party was a cheapbut hair-raising experience. Our mini-bustaxi driver was determined to overtake allthe time, at 140km/h, at night, on ihe single,lane coastal road.

But, as I had Ieilned with my lirst ex-posure to Barbados accomodation, thiswas not the nom. It was the local passen-gers who led the revolt. "Stop the bus, rightnow!" yelled the man on my right. bringinghis rightfist quite forcibly down on the backof the front seat. And we all de-camped, lo-cals and fbreigners, united in terror andanger,

That wild taxi ride aside. I cme to seeBarbados as a very orderly society thatfunctions very well. I had a sense that thetourist boom has actually benefited the cit-izens of the country, unlike in some of theother parts of the Caribbean.

I did havc a lrustradng three hours in a

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