Eau du Kamode

Well after much transport, I have finally touched down in the Turks & Caicos Islands. I arrived last night a couple hours later then I was supposed to as the plane was delayed because of snow in Chicago – you just can’t escape the grip of old man winter no matter how far south you go… DAMN YOU SANTA – DAMN YOU AND YOU’RE LITTLE EVLVES TOO! Well maybe that was a bit harsh…

One of the unadulterated joys of travel is the unexpected experience. They can take so many forms, from spotting the familiar to experiencing the utterly unexpected. I got a bit of both of those yesterday.

The first thing happened before I even touched down – I was on the plane filling out customs forms and read something that made me burst into spontaneous laughter right then and there. On the form there was a list of the duty free allowances – pretty standard stuff for the most part. 2L of wine, 100 cigarettes and so on. But it was one line that I’m still a bit perplexed by. At the very end it said:

“20ml of perfume or 250ml of Toilet Water”

Now I’m not about to tell somebody what they should be using for their personal hygienic program – but something tells me that The Body Shop doesn’t have a huge stocklist of, ”Toilet Water.” Or at least I hope not. I would assume that they are referring to cologne – at least I hope so. Either way next time I’m bringing my allotted amount of TW so I can excrete into the pure, clean, natural H2O of New Zealand. Nothing makes me feel at home like the familiar splash of Queenstown water.

So that was bizarre – but then I got to the hotel and flicked on the TV. You gotta live the Caribbean where pirated satellite TV is always on offer. The first channel I flick to – the French Canadian Sports network. I watched a hockey game in French, sitting in the sweltering Caribbean – nothing says Christmas time quite as much as that!

The place that I’m staying in addition to Canadian TV also has bikes available to the guests. Perfect - made researching today much easier and a great way to see the island. I much prefer to walk or ride a bike, you really can’t get into the groove of a destination in a car or worse yet on a bus – but that’s just my thing, I’m a walker…

So I spent much of the day cruising around checking out hotels, eating at some nice spots and feverishly scribbling into my notebook. I’ve taken along a new toy with me this trip, a GPS. I gave it a good go today smacking waypoints into it, for the Points of Interests that will eventually become the map for the book. It’s a great way to make sure the points are accurate and so much easier compared to marking up a paper map as I go (the tried and true old school way)

Well I better go – time to grab some dinner (with the notebook in hand) and then get back in time to catch The Hour on CBC and… (insert toilet water joke here)

Cheers
~Scott