The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.
WOW. Chalk Norway up a few spots on my to visit list.
The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.
WOW. Chalk Norway up a few spots on my to visit list.
Like everything else in Saint Thomas, a rental car is not cheap. We rented a fairly new Ford Fusion similar to this (I forgot to take a photo of our actual car prior to dropping it off this morning) from Budget Rent a Car. How much did it cost? $50 a day roughly. We finally returned the car this morning after 8 days of use (in which we used 3/4 a tank of gas). As you may know, my buddy and I moved here for a couple months about a week ago — and we are certainly glad to have this $50-a-day hole burning in our pocket gone from the drive way.
The jeep below is our new “island beast” for $450 per month. Not quite as luxurious, but certainly worth the trade off to save the extra $1000.
My friend and I spent three days at the Best Western Carib Beach Resort upon arriving on Saint Thomas a week ago. The cost of the Best Western Carib hotel was $179 per night (in late June) plus two fees that added up to another 18% of the room total for a room with two double beds. So, the bill was essentially $600 for our 3 day stay.
The hotel is directly next to the Cyril E. King Airport, which means you hear at least several gigantic jumbo jets take off and land daily (flight volume varies by day). I have to admit, a jet engine isn’t the most pleasant thing to wake up to, but the views of Lindberg Bay from our 2nd floor hotel room were amazing. Wifi worked quite well in our room, making working (both Dan and I work online) doable without driving to a WIFI hotspot in Charlotte Amalie. There were also about 20 television stations available, including CNN, ESPN, and two HBO’s.
The hotel restaurant/bar closes at 10 – at least in late June in down season – which was kind of disappointing since we were fresh off a 3 hour time zone change and not the least bit tired at 10 pm (7 pm Seattle time).
All in all, it was a decent place to stay. We chose it for convenience and the fact that it was one of the cheaper hotels we found via our online research. Nothing on this island is cheap, and hotels are no different.
I’ve now been in the US Virgin Islands on the island of Saint Thomas for a little less than a week after having moved down here for a month with my buddy Dan. Both of us were more than ready to get out of the Seattle rain in favor of a tropical climate — so we are now in Saint Thomas living the island life for the 2nd summer in a row, though certainly not quite as relaxing as Santorini last summer given I’m working full time this time around.
We spent the first three nights at the Best Western Carib Beach Resort overlooking Lindberg Bay (I’ll post a few photos in a separate post), and are now renting two rooms in a place on Donkey Hill. Our first task was to find a short term rental so that we could get out of our $179 per night hotel room. Surprisingly, finding a short term rental for the summer proved fairly easy, even with Dan and me being fairly lazy about the process. I did some initial research on vacation home rentals in various places across the web, but in the end, we ended up finding our place on good ol reliable Craigslist. We’re on the top floor of a duplex with a 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs – I’ll do a separate post with some photos of the home.
As for some initial impressions of the island now that we’re settled in a bit? For starters, Saint Thomas seemed extremely run down the first few days. I know it’s off season and just entering hurricane season, but shops were closed and the city seemed lifeless. I think part of that was due to where we were staying (right near the airport) and that there were no cruise ships in town the first two days. However, we drove through Charlotte Amalie again yesterday and there were three gigantic ships gracing the harbor, and tourists everywhere. As a result, the city was buzzing with activity and shops that were closed a day previously were lively with bodies. The cruise ships being in town also brought the unfortunate addition of traffic jams. Food is ridiculously expensive – a $14 philly cheese steak, $12 DiGornio pizza, $9 breakfast bagel, $80 at the grocery store in one day. Repeat, food is expensive. Remember, expensive food on Saint Thomas. We hit Morningstar Beach for an hour today (didn’t want to burn the 1st day) and the water was unbelievably warm – probably the warmest ocean water I’ve been in anywhere in the world. It’s certainly helpful having a local resident (our landlord) help guide us in the right direction in terms of activities, food, and people. Getting certified for diving is going to cost about $250.
After a few days under our belt, we’re feeling a lot better about the island’s prospects. All in all, I’m a fan and looking forward to an awesome 5 weeks.
Now, back to island life…
I’ve come to a conclusion — the world needs more “iHub’s“; a vast network of them all across the globe to be exact. I briefly mentioned this idea when my friend and I came across the iHub in Nairobi back in October. In Kenya, the iHub (where my friend Erik Hersman works) is likely among the fastest internet connections in the entire country of Kenya and seems to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.
Granted I’m a travel addict and a bit of a nomad right now – but I would certainly pay a monthly membership fee for access to a network of iHub-type network of facilities I could utilize wherever I may be in the world. Maybe several hundred dollars a month? Especially if there was a strong sense of community among the members, and that network enabled me to build relationships with more like minded individuals who love traveling and technology, that would add to the value for me.
The location that really needs one (in my biased view of course)? Santorini. Tourist destinations such as Santorini could attract a whole new industry of tech savvy nomads to their shores for summers. Such a facility would bring more revenue to the island as a result of more expats living there all summer and spending their money at local establishments, even if many of those utilizing it were not paying EU taxes (maybe part of the monthly fee would go to government taxes). I would think this type of initiative would be something that would be in the best interest of the local government to help fund. Oh yea, Greece is just about bankrupt…scratch that idea. Any rich Greeks want to fund such a facility privately?
I think it goes without saying a network of entrepreneurial hubs would bring together new ideas and innovation from a wide range of cultures around the world, and I’m guessing a few unbelievable web projects would sprout up as a result. Certainly nothing bad could come from a community of geeky digital nomads, right?
I recently came across a post I’d recommend everyone read – the 5 top regrets people have on their deathbed. All five points are spot on, but I wanted to touch briefly on the #4 regrets on the deathbed:
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
This is an important one. Like REALLY important. I hope no one will debate the notion that friendships are an important aspect of life. In fact, in my mind, life is all about friendships/relationships; without them, you’re stuck with just a bunch of “stuff” that really doesn’t matter.
Even though Facebook and Twitter make it easy for me to keep tabs on hundreds of people at once and skype enables me to call anyone in the world anytime at a reasonable rate, strong relationships still require in person interaction. Traveling makes that both harder for me in the fact that it takes me away from my core group of close friends in Seattle yet also easier due to the fact that it enables me to have in person time with a larger & more diverse network of people.
The challenge is keeping in touch with everyone that’s WORTH keeping in touch with (there are some people I’ve met that I would be happy never speaking to again). I’m blessed to have some truly amazing friends in my life. But there are only so many hours in a day and days in a year to spend time with everyone. It’s no surprise the lack of staying in touch with friends comes up high in a list of regrets on the deathbed because keeping in touch is hard work (and everyone always wants the easy road) — but, that said, I’m determined not to let this end up on my list.
Here are a few posts I found going through my Google Reader tonight that are well worth reading:
Enjoy!