I actually have a buffer/pre-written entry for today's Friday post, but since so many interesting things have happened today, and there was such a huge reaction to my Instagram photos, that I decided to chronicle the adventure a bit.
We ditched Grand Rapids bright and early this morning, relying on a friend of ours to drive our sleepy selves to the airport. We were both kind of crabby; we'd been up late packing and tidying the place. When Chris' brother went on his honeymoon, Chris sort've let himself into their home and tidied the place up so that when they arrived back home, it wasn't too huge of a mess. Neither of Chris' brothers is nearby to return the favor, but I wanted to have something similar anyway.
So on three hours of sleep and with a relatively tidy home, we boarded the plane before 7am and proceeded off to Chicago. I'd sort of written this step of the journey off as "going to be miserable, deal with it" but as it turns out, we had been sent to Midway airport, not O'Hare. Midway is still full of people, but much less insane. To my amusement, Midway also had a number of Pokestops for the game Pokemon GO, so once we'd gotten food and settled down for our two hour layover, I went for a walk on the moving sidewalks.
I kind of love moving sidewalks. You can be delightfully lazy, standing still on them and still make a walking pace, or you can walk on them and make a jogging or even running pace, with a breeze blowing in your face. As a decidedly lacking speedster in normal life, I enjoy having a 6+ MPH pace using only brisk walking. I snagged a couple rarer Pokemon and a number of Pokestops before heading back to the terminal.
Boarding both the airplanes (one to Chicago, one to the Dominican Republic) was Southwest Airline standard. You confirm your ticket the day before, and are given a letter and a number based on when you checked in. When it comes time to board, you arrange yourselves by letter first (A, B, or C) and then by number (1-60). You are then boarded, A1 at the very first, going to A60, then B1 to B60, then C1 to C60. Once on the airplane, you choose where you want to sit. It's open seating, so if you were quick about confirming your ticket, you'll definitely have your choice about aisle, window, or middle seats. I snagged a window seat for both flights. I love seeing the world from high up. Things look so different. You can kind of see some of human ingenuity on a grander scale.
When we landed in the Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) airport, I was in for a surprise. Part of their airport is thatched. I imagine it's probably thatched really well, and it's definitely thatched on a very grand scale, but yeah. Actual, like, grass roofs. The whole place wasn't like that, but a good chunk of it was. Very different than US airports.
The airport was also kind of a bureaucratic annoyance, at least at the start. There were lines, long lines, everywhere. You needed queue (get in line) to pay for a tourist card ($10), which was basically just a little receipt that said you'd paid your $10. Then you had to hand that to someone and get in another line for customs. We were directly after an Eastern European couple with a young daughter, who seemed to take great pleasure in trying to run over our feet with her scooter... All this while it was at least 82F, highly humid, and I was wearing sweat pants for comfortable traveling in the US.
Once customs were cleared, we headed for the baggage claim. My ears were promptly assaulted by a live mariachi band (for lack of a more culturally appropriate description). I normally don't mind the style of music, but this was earsplittingly loud. I was not polite and didn't drop in some money. We made our way to the baggage claim, where a local of some kind (airport staff?) promptly noted our lost and confused looks. We retrieved our luggage, which he snagged from us. He then proceeded to lead us to the taxi service, which would take us to the resort. I'm... afraid he wasn't very polite about the lines, and as he had our luggage in tow, I didn't feel very good about trying to be polite and use the lines properly.
Once he'd found us our ride (politely holding a sign with our names on it), we tipped him and started on the 45 minute ride to the resort. The driver spoke only a smidgen of English, and of course we spoke basically no Spanish, so he mostly just pointed out landmarks on the way, while we amused ourselves by noting some basic differences in the landscape and traffic management.
The pedestrian crossing signs are animated. As the "you may walk" period comes closer to ending, the little walking person icon speeds up their strolling to a brisk trot. Also, the traffic lights come with timers. Actual, numerical timers. I noted a green light timer that started at 16 seconds or longer. Not all intersections were so equipped, but the ones that were definitely caught my attention.
There was a little fanfare on our arrival, but not much. A lot of people had arrived at about the same time, so our luggage was lumped in with theirs and we weren't allowed to take it to our rooms ourselves. We were each given a glass of champagne. Then while we were getting our room keys, the concierge-type person attempted to upsell us to a fancier package for an additional $900 or so, while explaining the regular things to us. Since I have yet to meet anyone working here that speaks fluent English, I found the whole thing rather confusing. But fortunately they also have little paper guides, so we were able to navigate a bit and find our room.
There are a few pictures of the place on my Instagram, but suffice it to say the place is pretty big, comes with a jacuzzi-style bathtub, and was neatly decorated by two folded bathtowel swans, necks gracefully arched around a single rose, and adorned with rose petals. We took pictures.
Chris and I both being tired, we promptly flopped on the sofa for an hour or two before our stomachs demanded we find dinner. There are something like twelve restaurants of various types included in our stay (ie: order whatever you want, it's covered), so we poked around a bit and opted for the pan-Asian food. We then discovered how the restaurants avoid wasting lots of food. In the US, big portions are the order of the day. Appetizers can serve as entrees, entrees are so big you could get three meals out of them, etc. Here, if you order an appetizer, it's quite literally a single kebab, or a small wonton with a small spring roll and some dipping sauce. You can order as many as you like, but the portion sizes are small.
Granted, the room has no fridge, so this was actually more of a relief than a letdown. The entrees themselves are also small, but at least at this restaurant, the waiter will bring you more portions and offer you extra food if you clean your plate. And I was taught to clean my plate, which is how I ended up eating 2.5 entrees... Going to try not to make that mistake again...
On the bright side, the food was pretty good. I'm not adhering to my vegetarianism here, either. The Dominican Republic has its own meat industry, and it's a lot smaller time than the United States'. I don't feel I need to fight US factory farming by abstaining from meat here in the Dominican Republic. We strolled a bit after dinner, out to the ocean, and I snagged a couple more Pokemon in Pokemon GO. The resort has free (and open) wifi, and a number of Pokestops. Since Pokemon GO is a comfortable thing and a lot of this resort isn't, I don't feel too terrible about playing. Gotta have fun how you have fun, in addition to trying new ways to have fun, right?
When we got back to the room, I proceeded to have a bath in the tub. It's been a really long time, so it was enjoyable to flop in a tub more than large enough to stretch out in. I set the temperature a little too high, though, so I needed a shower to de-oil myself after the bath and traveling. That done, I have flopped in bed, and while the birds around here seem quite content to be noisy after dark, I hope to sleep well regardless.
We ditched Grand Rapids bright and early this morning, relying on a friend of ours to drive our sleepy selves to the airport. We were both kind of crabby; we'd been up late packing and tidying the place. When Chris' brother went on his honeymoon, Chris sort've let himself into their home and tidied the place up so that when they arrived back home, it wasn't too huge of a mess. Neither of Chris' brothers is nearby to return the favor, but I wanted to have something similar anyway.
So on three hours of sleep and with a relatively tidy home, we boarded the plane before 7am and proceeded off to Chicago. I'd sort of written this step of the journey off as "going to be miserable, deal with it" but as it turns out, we had been sent to Midway airport, not O'Hare. Midway is still full of people, but much less insane. To my amusement, Midway also had a number of Pokestops for the game Pokemon GO, so once we'd gotten food and settled down for our two hour layover, I went for a walk on the moving sidewalks.
I kind of love moving sidewalks. You can be delightfully lazy, standing still on them and still make a walking pace, or you can walk on them and make a jogging or even running pace, with a breeze blowing in your face. As a decidedly lacking speedster in normal life, I enjoy having a 6+ MPH pace using only brisk walking. I snagged a couple rarer Pokemon and a number of Pokestops before heading back to the terminal.
Boarding both the airplanes (one to Chicago, one to the Dominican Republic) was Southwest Airline standard. You confirm your ticket the day before, and are given a letter and a number based on when you checked in. When it comes time to board, you arrange yourselves by letter first (A, B, or C) and then by number (1-60). You are then boarded, A1 at the very first, going to A60, then B1 to B60, then C1 to C60. Once on the airplane, you choose where you want to sit. It's open seating, so if you were quick about confirming your ticket, you'll definitely have your choice about aisle, window, or middle seats. I snagged a window seat for both flights. I love seeing the world from high up. Things look so different. You can kind of see some of human ingenuity on a grander scale.
When we landed in the Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) airport, I was in for a surprise. Part of their airport is thatched. I imagine it's probably thatched really well, and it's definitely thatched on a very grand scale, but yeah. Actual, like, grass roofs. The whole place wasn't like that, but a good chunk of it was. Very different than US airports.
The airport was also kind of a bureaucratic annoyance, at least at the start. There were lines, long lines, everywhere. You needed queue (get in line) to pay for a tourist card ($10), which was basically just a little receipt that said you'd paid your $10. Then you had to hand that to someone and get in another line for customs. We were directly after an Eastern European couple with a young daughter, who seemed to take great pleasure in trying to run over our feet with her scooter... All this while it was at least 82F, highly humid, and I was wearing sweat pants for comfortable traveling in the US.
Once customs were cleared, we headed for the baggage claim. My ears were promptly assaulted by a live mariachi band (for lack of a more culturally appropriate description). I normally don't mind the style of music, but this was earsplittingly loud. I was not polite and didn't drop in some money. We made our way to the baggage claim, where a local of some kind (airport staff?) promptly noted our lost and confused looks. We retrieved our luggage, which he snagged from us. He then proceeded to lead us to the taxi service, which would take us to the resort. I'm... afraid he wasn't very polite about the lines, and as he had our luggage in tow, I didn't feel very good about trying to be polite and use the lines properly.
Once he'd found us our ride (politely holding a sign with our names on it), we tipped him and started on the 45 minute ride to the resort. The driver spoke only a smidgen of English, and of course we spoke basically no Spanish, so he mostly just pointed out landmarks on the way, while we amused ourselves by noting some basic differences in the landscape and traffic management.
The pedestrian crossing signs are animated. As the "you may walk" period comes closer to ending, the little walking person icon speeds up their strolling to a brisk trot. Also, the traffic lights come with timers. Actual, numerical timers. I noted a green light timer that started at 16 seconds or longer. Not all intersections were so equipped, but the ones that were definitely caught my attention.
There was a little fanfare on our arrival, but not much. A lot of people had arrived at about the same time, so our luggage was lumped in with theirs and we weren't allowed to take it to our rooms ourselves. We were each given a glass of champagne. Then while we were getting our room keys, the concierge-type person attempted to upsell us to a fancier package for an additional $900 or so, while explaining the regular things to us. Since I have yet to meet anyone working here that speaks fluent English, I found the whole thing rather confusing. But fortunately they also have little paper guides, so we were able to navigate a bit and find our room.
There are a few pictures of the place on my Instagram, but suffice it to say the place is pretty big, comes with a jacuzzi-style bathtub, and was neatly decorated by two folded bathtowel swans, necks gracefully arched around a single rose, and adorned with rose petals. We took pictures.
Chris and I both being tired, we promptly flopped on the sofa for an hour or two before our stomachs demanded we find dinner. There are something like twelve restaurants of various types included in our stay (ie: order whatever you want, it's covered), so we poked around a bit and opted for the pan-Asian food. We then discovered how the restaurants avoid wasting lots of food. In the US, big portions are the order of the day. Appetizers can serve as entrees, entrees are so big you could get three meals out of them, etc. Here, if you order an appetizer, it's quite literally a single kebab, or a small wonton with a small spring roll and some dipping sauce. You can order as many as you like, but the portion sizes are small.
Granted, the room has no fridge, so this was actually more of a relief than a letdown. The entrees themselves are also small, but at least at this restaurant, the waiter will bring you more portions and offer you extra food if you clean your plate. And I was taught to clean my plate, which is how I ended up eating 2.5 entrees... Going to try not to make that mistake again...
On the bright side, the food was pretty good. I'm not adhering to my vegetarianism here, either. The Dominican Republic has its own meat industry, and it's a lot smaller time than the United States'. I don't feel I need to fight US factory farming by abstaining from meat here in the Dominican Republic. We strolled a bit after dinner, out to the ocean, and I snagged a couple more Pokemon in Pokemon GO. The resort has free (and open) wifi, and a number of Pokestops. Since Pokemon GO is a comfortable thing and a lot of this resort isn't, I don't feel too terrible about playing. Gotta have fun how you have fun, in addition to trying new ways to have fun, right?
When we got back to the room, I proceeded to have a bath in the tub. It's been a really long time, so it was enjoyable to flop in a tub more than large enough to stretch out in. I set the temperature a little too high, though, so I needed a shower to de-oil myself after the bath and traveling. That done, I have flopped in bed, and while the birds around here seem quite content to be noisy after dark, I hope to sleep well regardless.
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