Grand Cayman meets Gustav

I'll have to say this is probably by far the worst vacation I've ever had in my life. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

Sat - the day of arrival
It was a hot sunny day and things seem to be going fine. We had a pretty good lunch overlooking the beach and after a bit of delay, we each received our keys to our hotel rooms and settled in our rooms. We then took a taxi to Georgetown and was planning to do some light shopping, only to realize that all shops close promptly at 5 in the afternoon everyday and do no open at all on Sunday. I was a bit upset but I figured it's only the first day, so I still have plenty of time to shop. After a day of long flight, we were all very tired so we had dinner and went to bed.

Sun - the beach day
Since no shops open on Sunday at Georgetown, we decided to spend the day at the beach. We were fully prepared with our protective sunscreen, beach towels, goggles and snorkeling gear and were ready to have some fun. Well, we did had "some" fun, maybe 20-30 minutes of it and it started to rain! It was only sprinkling at the beginning, but soon it was pouring. It was raining so hard that all the beach towels were soaking wet. I don't remember much about the rest of the day, it just suck.

Mon - Georgetown....nothing like the Georgetown in DC
In the morning, Addy & I went down to the beach and wanted to relax and get some tan but of course, it had to be cloudy. So, we gave up after spending about 30-45 minutes and decided to go change and begin the shopping day. We were all pretty excited about this because we read in many reviews raving about Georgetown shopping.

First of all, there were hardly anyone in the street, it doesn't feel like a tourist attraction place. Second, there weren't any stores there. I only remembered a couple clothing and jewelry stores, an ice cream parlor and a few restaurants. It was hot, boring and frustrating. It's by far the worst shopping experience I've ever had in all of my vacations. I found more things to buy while I was staying at a secluded ski resort up in the snowy mountains than this place.

Since everyone had such a great time shopping. We all decided to head back to the hotel and lay at the beach. We actually had a great time the rest of the late afternoon to evening. We had so much fun swimming and snorkeling at the beach and by nightfall, we moved to the jacuzzi and pool area to relax.  We took so many pictures while we were snorkeling, and the fishes were so beautiful and colorful.

Tue - off to the Turtle Farm
We left early in the morning because we wanted to skip the crowd, but again, there were hardly anyone there. It felt like we had a private tour at the Turtle Farm. I guess the highlight of the Turtle Farm was that we could actually pick up the turtles and pet them and play with them. The snorkeling area was like a swamp, the walking trails look like someone's backyard who had forgotten to mow the lawn. The bird garden and the pool/waterfall were both mediocre. I guess it's exciting that I could see the fishes on the other side thru the glass from underneath the pool. Hmmm, but I could actually swim with the fishy in Hawaii, Key West and Mexico!

After the Turtle Farm, we visited "Hell" at Grand Cayman...I have nothing to say about this. Really, unless you have absolutely nothing else to do in Cayman, please don't waste your time!

Tue late afternoon - Lobster dinner
We went to a pretty nice restaurant and had a great dinner. Ming Ming and Sze ordered all-you-can-eat lobsters and the rest of us just ordered normal dinner set. But I really want to try the lobster, so I kept stealing the lobster from Ming Ming's plates. And I was so afraid that the waiter would see me, so I was carefully spying on the waiter, left and right, right and left and waited for that perfect moment and off I switched my fork with Ming Ming's and the lobster go into my mouth. It was delicious! :)

Tue evening - Decision 2008
We all settled back into our hotel rooms and planned to do some night swimming at the pool, only to find out that the nightmare had started already.  The hotel management had left a memo at each guest room notifying that all hotel guests should arrange for the earliest flight and evacuate out of Grand Cayman as soon as possible due to the Gustav hurricane.

!?$()*&%^_)#*$%_()#$%($%&@#%$!????!#*(&$%

Above was my reaction.

It was pretty painful but after we gathered as a group and discuss all the pros and cons, we all decided to leave the island and book the next morning flight.

We did stick to our original plan and did some night swimming at the pool. But I think that's when Ming Ming caught his fever and eventually turned into bronchitis.

Wed - vacation cut short
Really, there's nothing more to write about this vacation. We packed, left early in the morning, got scam by the taxi driver, waited in line for hours in a no air-conditioning airport, boarded and landed planes a couple of times and eventually got back to Washington, D.C. airport.

That wraped up my 2008 summer!  Well, at least China had a great Summer Olympics.