If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals
Je
Thank you very much for your trip report and notes. It alerted me to several things that I would maybe not have thought of as quickly by myself. Particularly the two items below. What astounded me was the amount of trash. The DR was badly served by the introduction of plastic. No one seems to think twice about tossing their trash along the side of the road, where it accumulates in large piles in the gutters or against fences and walls. In some places there is a lot of trash both in the street and overflowing the trash barrels, but in 'tourist areas' and in the hotel it seems to be relatively clean. The trash is even collected sometimes - I have not seen them doing this, but the trash barrel was full on Friday, and empty on Saturday so someone must have done. What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of concrete blocks with rebar sticking out or what appeared to be crumbling buildings, deteriorated streets and sidewalks which I found depressing. I’d also heard, but didn’t believe, how many motoconchos (100cc motorcycles) there were. Saw a few mid-60’s Honda 50s still looking good and running well. But on the two lane road to La Romana, the cloud of smoke from these bikes was astounding. I particularly noticed what I thought of as unsafe riding conditions. Mini-vans with the doors removed and a man hanging out the door weave in and out of traffic. I am told that the man hanging out the door is the person who gets the passengers and collects the fares. In addition to the little motoconchos, many of which are ridden double, and on the wrong side of the road or zipping between traffic lanes, there were a lot of stake body trucks with men standing or sitting in the back and hanging out the windows. There were also various larger size buses or vans including even one triple articulated bus that I saw in Santo Domingo. We asked about taking the buses which we did without a problem in the Bahamas and were told not to. Residence Albatros itself was clean, well kept and nicely landscaped. Our unit, a two-bedroom with fold down couch in the livingroom/ kitchen. was quite comfortable for 4. The master bedroom had two twin beds, closet with safe, a balcony and separate A/C unit. The second bedroom was just big enough for a double bed and small dresser with a ceiling fan. Kitchen had a two burner propane stove top, no oven. Microwave was available at the front desk. We were in Hotel Acuarium, which is on the airport side of Santo Domingo (from 20 minutes to a hour depending on traffic), a block off the main waterfront street (no beach) on a road which is unpaved with MANY potholes. The hotel is named for the National Aquarium and I estimate it is a mile from it. This is an RCI condo built originally by Italians and has Italian upper management who appear to live on the premises. 90% of the hotel is RCI, although non-RCI people can also stay here. The other 10% are apartments owned by Italians. The rates posted on the bulletin board were $70 for one person, $90 for two and $120 for four for a one bedroom apartment (US$). The RCI rates were $60/night for the same type of apartment (any number of people). They also had two bedroom apartments which were more expensive. We were here as Space Available for military or retired military (or "charity" as Gloria, the RCI person, put it), and we paid a bit less than $38/night. Our apartment was on the second floor overlooking the veranda over the pool patio on one side and the courtyard/hot tub area on the other side. The bedroom and the living room had windows looking out on both sides, and the courtyard/hot tub side had a small balcony. It was clean and nicely landscaped with coconut palms, huge travelers palms, bamboo, huge coleus vines with leaves as big as a swim fin and other tropical plants. We accessed the second floor (there was also a third floor) by four short flights of steps - one of which winds up a staircase on each of two corners of the pool courtyard. The doors had an unusual knob - you didn't open the door by turning the knob, it didn't turn. You depressed a thumb latch on the rim of the knob. The locking mechanism was a bar on the middle of the knob which could be turned to lock from inside, but from outside had to be locked with a key. The windows had wooden hinged jalousie shutters inside the room in addition to floor length curtains. The floors of the patios and corridors were uneven flagstone, and the entrance to the room had 3 narrow tile steps up (too short for my foot by 1/3rd). On each side of the entrance was a double door (wood doors) closet, one of which had a safe in it (which we didn't use). The side opposite the door had the bathroom and a narrow kitchen. The living room was on the kitchen side and the bedroom was on the bathroom side. The floors throughout were of some artificial marble material-tiles of about 20" on a side where the pattern repeated. The maid swept or mopped the floor each day, made the bed and supplied fresh towels. The bedroom had a queen bed (no blankets), a dresser with mirror, two night tables with table lamps and two wicker chairs with cushions. One night table also had the phone. The AC unit was high up in the wall and controlled with a remote. The living room had a TV which got cable including some American channels (some with Spanish subtitles) and some local or Spanish channels. There were two couches which I think could be beds, a coffee table and an eating table with four wooden chairs. All the furniture and the doors and window frames were nicely made of wood. Bob said he found a wood shop on the premises where they were sanding, planing and making what appeared to be kitchen cabinets. Both the bedroom and the living room had ceiling light/fan fixtures and both had some missing or burnt out bulbs. There were both two prong plugs for 220 and three prong for 110 electricity. There were some electrical outages, but I think the hotel has its own generator system because the outages were never for more than a few minutes. I had a power strip which I plugged my computer into. The bathroom was open to the outdoors through cement blocks with holes in them at the top of the shower. There was a toilet with a seat (more about that later, but a good gift for someone who lives in DR apparently would be a toilet seat) which flushed, there were several rolls of TP, there was a mirror and several wooden shelves. Bars of hand soap were also supplied and Bob thought it was a bit aggressive - he got some in his eyes and it made his eyes smart. The shower was in an alcove and the head could be removed and held in the hand. There was enough hot and cold water for a good shower. We got two towels and a bathmat. No hand towels or washcloths. If you wanted a beach towel you made a $10 deposit and if you lost the towel, you paid $20 more. This towel was slate blue and much bigger and thicker than the bath towels. The kitchen had an under the counter refrigerator, a four burner gas stove top (with no directions or matches) but no oven, a counter top microwave, a stainless sink and drain board in a molded plastic countertop, and various dishes and pots and pans. No dish towels, or dish soap to clean the dishes with. There was a night guard in the front lobby and a notice which said "No Armas de Fuego" on one door, and on the other door it said that it was an automatic door in 4 languages. It wasn't--unless you count that someone would open the door for you if it was locked, as it was at night. There was also a guard with a rifle sitting at the back entrance behind the building on the other side of the hot tub courtyard. On the ground floor in addition to the pool in the middle with loungers and tables and two apartments, there was also a TV area with couches, a bar, and a restaurant between the pool and the other courtyard. There were maps on the walls of Hispanola and the main cities on the island.. The front desk area had four clocks - European time, DR time, Asian time and US time. There was also a small seating area, a small aquarium with goldfish, and the computer station (with a Spanish keyboard - very difficult to type on - not only were there many symbols where I expected to find other things but I couldn't find the delete key, and the @ had to be accessed by an alt key code (alt 6, 4) which the girl at the front desk wrote down for me. We could get the 'meal plan' for $22/person a night, which we did although Bob thought at first that we would go out some nights to eat. He changed his mind though because there were no places to walk to even if it had been comfortable or safe to do so and by the time we got a taxi to and from, there would have been no savings. Unfortunately they charged us in pesos instead of charging it in US$ which gave them extra money on the exchange rate each time. Bob says the national coin of the realm is the $20 bill (US). Prices that are in pesos are $RD. Prices in US are $U. The lime green house next to the hotel in addition to a high wall with barbed wire and a tower which looked like a guard tower on top, no windows at all on the hotel side, had a large metal gate/door which I only saw opened once, and when it was opened, there was a 'doorman' in camo with a machine gun. The meal plan was for breakfast and dinner. The food was good but it was an Italian restaurant, run by Italians, so the food was Italian. . Drinking water was supplied in 20 liter jugs, replaced minutes after setting it outside the door and informing the desk. Service was usually prompt and quite courteous. Our unit clearly was marked in several languages that it had non-potable water, although they said it was OK for cooking and washing. People at the front desk spoke very little English and the ancillary personnel spoke none although they appeared willing to try to understand what we wanted. . We did not have water supplied. We could buy half liter and 1.5 liter containers of water from the bar to put in the refrigerator and the 'grand agua' bottles cost 60.6 pesos plus a 9 peso "Itbis" and a 6 peso "10% Legal". The manager told me that the service charge added to each bill it is mandatory that they give to the staff, but that we need not tip the hotel staff anything. Early morning aerobics, volleyball game, Spanish lessons, and dance class were daily events. Each evening, they had some sort of entertainment. Pool was nice, with a jaccuzzi (without heat) to the side and a bar. The small store on premises held more than we expected... We could walk to several small stores or take a cab to a big grocery store - none on the premises. The only entertainment that I know of in the hotel was something that sounded like band and singers on the first night we were there which went on past midnight but it may not have actually been in the hotel because.... ...we could clearly hear the music from the bar in the next block, and also on Friday night we could hear the preacher in the church behind the bodega on the next street as if he was right in the room with us. Bob said the noise was bringing down the ceiling of the church. The preacher did stop about 11 pm. The other significant noise was from roosters calling to each other - they crowed off and on from midnight on until sometime in the daytime. They did have various tours and a free bus to the beach at Boca Chica each day. The bus left every morning at 10:30 and picked people up at about 5 pm at the same place on the beach. This was too long a day for me - I'm not that much of a beach person. The bus driver and his family lived in the hotel and had a reserved table in the dining room. I'm not sure whether the Jacuzzi had heat or not. The hotel people apparently felt sorry for me going up and down the stairs, so they offered us a ground floor room on Saturday, but we were only going to be here two more nights, and it would be more trouble to switch than just for me to go up and down stairs. Food: the first night, we both ordered off the ala carte menu instead of waiting for the buffet which didn't begin until 8 pm - we were hungry because we missed lunch. The menu had categories for appetizers, first course (pasta), main course, fish course, side dishes and dessert. We were told on the meal plan we could order something from each section except that the fish course (lobster, shrimp, snapper etc) all had an extra charge over an above the meal plan. For appetizers we got Caprese Salad (190 pesos) which proved to be a large plate of tomatoes and molded cheese. For first course, Bob got Lasagna (240 pesos) and I got Linguine Acuarium Style (200 pesos) which proved to be large tube pasta with a nice sauce. Both very big helpings. For the main course, Bob got Fried chicken and I got Chicken criolla style - both 240 pesos. Bob got a side dish of mashed potatoes which he said were real potatoes and he also got a little tree of brocolli, and I got tomatoes - both 65 pesos. My tomatoes were cross sections around heap of lettuce with grated carrot in the middle. Desserts were 85 pesos, and Bob got chocolate cake which was more like a brownie only pie shaped, and I asked for Jam cake, but they didn't have any of that so they brought me pineapple ice cream (or maybe it was ice milk) which was excellent and refreshing. This was almost more food that we could eat even though we were hungry and added up to 840 pesos each which would be about $28. Plus of course, tax and service charge. None of the drinks were included in the meal. You have to buy them extra. We asked for tea and got a couple of 3/4 full cups of luke warm water and some tea bags for which we had to pay. We asked for more 'hot' water and to the astonishment of the waiter, we reused the tea bag. We bought a bottle of water and soon learned to buy a large bottle of water and bring part of it (in a smaller bottle) down to the table with us at dinner time to drink. At breakfast (which was also included in the meal plan) there was juice (3 kinds - pineapple, passion fruit and maybe orange or tropical punch), coffee (2 kinds), milk, cold cereal, again luke warm water for tea with tea bags, coffee cake, dinner type rolls, fresh fruit slices (usually pineapple, passion fruit and melon), bread to toast, ham and cheese slices, pats of butter, and various kinds of jam. You can also get ham, bacon and two eggs - either fried or scrambled, and the scrambled ones can have cheese in them. The first time I ordered eggs they asked me if I wanted two, and I said yes, meaning two eggs. They brought Bob eggs too - they were asking if I wanted two servings of two eggs each. The menu also says yogurt and chocolate but I never saw any, and French toast. grandma Rosalie http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/ |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals
On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote:
What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of concrete blocks with rebar sticking out My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a while before they can afford a second floor. Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom). |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals
Don Wiss wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote: What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of concrete blocks with rebar sticking out My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a while before they can afford a second floor. Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom). I've heard that about the Virgin Islands, but I'm not sure that this applies in this case. Because it isn't just people's houses, but public monuments, and sidewalks too. grandma Rosalie |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals
On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 20:25:36 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote: On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote: What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of concrete blocks with rebar sticking out My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a while before they can afford a second floor. Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom). Yes, you see a lot of this in Belize. A very patient people. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Trip Report Pt 2, The Norwegian coastline | tim \(moved to sweden\) | Europe | 18 | September 7th, 2005 10:56 PM |
Trip Report: Belgium, Netherlands, NW France | BB | Europe | 35 | July 20th, 2005 02:11 AM |
Venice family restaurants | footman | Europe | 12 | October 24th, 2004 05:43 PM |
Tobago and Barbados | [email protected] | Caribbean | 8 | December 29th, 2003 02:26 PM |
Laos - The Internet Travel Guide (FAQ) (part 1/2) | http://www.pmgeiser.ch, Peter M. Geiser | Asia | 0 | December 27th, 2003 09:13 AM |