Spendthrift Shoestring

Visiting Plymouth

In Montserrat I visited hotels and restaurants and various attractions—the standard travel guide updating shtick. Montserrat is a fascinating place, all the more so because it's been rebuilt and resettled since its volcano first started erupting madly in 1995. The island lost about 60 percent of its population in the aftermath, and though the number of people on the island is growing today, it's a place altered significantly by what one Montserratian I spoke to called "the volcanic crisis."

Naturally, I wanted to see the volcano close up. While visiting the Montserrat Tourist Board's office this past Monday I casually mentioned that I'd love to visit Plymouth, the abandoned former capital of the territory, and was told that I was out of luck. Currently, there are no scheduled tours. So I visited probably the best vantage point on the safe side of the island: Jack Boy Hill, where the tourist board maintains an observation area.

Amazing, isn't it?

Then, around mid-day, the tourist board's Cherise Aymer intercepted me while I was ordering a sandwich for lunch. She told me that Jad Davenport, a photojournalist doing a story on Montserrat, had managed via his formidable powers of persuasion to convince the Montserrat Volcano Observatory to allow him to visit Plymouth. A serious Mensch, Jad suggested to Cherise that I accompany him into the restricted "Exclusion Zone." I was grateful. I'd just met Jad that morning, at our hotel.

A few hours later, Tappy Syers of the MVO drove us into Plymouth. The experience was otherwordly. There are scores of abandoned houses and buildings, in various states of collapse. There are massive, well-fed cattle wandering around in packs. There are countless examples of life interrupted: newspapers covered in ash; hair care products in a bathroom; a label gun in a destroyed supermarket. It's difficult to grasp the intensity, the gravity, and the scale of the evacuation of Plymouth. Montserratians had their lives interrupted and reoriented radically, yet almost everyone survived the volcano's worst, and many continue to live on their beautifully green island.

Throughout our visit Tappy—Scientific Assistant at the MVO—answered dozens of our questions about Montserrat's volcano. Thanks again to him for allowing me to tag along.

Here are some images of Plymouth.

A bakery.

Montserrat's former Government House, which appears on the EC$20 bill.

Hotel.

The police station.

Montserratian customer service.

The view over Plymouth near sunset. Note the bull in the lower right corner.

9000 Hours in Saigon

My friend T.J. DiChristopher is about to take off for a serious adventure in Vietnam, and he's set up a blog, 9000 Hours in Saigon, to chronicle his time overseas. Though he's still stateside—as of yesterday he's in Scottsdale, if his Facebook profile status can be trusted—he's already writing freakishly smart stuff, like this post.

I can't wait to see what T.J. will come up with over the next 9000 hours.

Back from the Caribbean

I got back late last night from my Rough Guides research trip to the Caribbean. I'm now sorting through mountains of notes and brochures with some tight deadlines ahead of me.

I've come back with so many impressions and observations, but I thought I'd come up with a very top five list of exciting places and amazing things I encountered over my weeks in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

1. Best hideaway that doesn't involve a turbulent sea crossing. Presqu'île de la Caravelle, Martinique. This quiet peninsula is comprised of little seaside hamlets, agricultural land, and protected parkland. It's got beautiful littoral forests, good beaches, and few of the big chain hotels and package tourists found across the southern Caribbean-side coast of Martinique. In an ideal world I'd probably stay at the Hôtel la Caravelle in Tartane (€71/night for a small studio) and eat at the hotel's restaurant, the highly-regarded La Table de Mamy Nounou.

Check out one of the peninsula's glorious beaches in the late afternoon:

2. Best condiment ever. Guadeloupe's M'amour banana preserves by Guy Lesueur. Morning baguettes were never as delicious before my discovery of M'amour's banane confiture, and they'll never be more delicious hence. That said, M'amour's caramel-banana hybrid I chanced upon on my final morning on Guadeloupe was so tasty that my bread became a mere utensil.

3. Best Caribbean airport. Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport. Le Raizet Airport is perfectly constructed for Guadeloupe's tropical environment. It filters light into the airport's interior and appears to float in sharply angled modern precision. The airport puts its counterparts across the region—with very few exceptions—to shame. There was possibly no better reminder that Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France than this airport. Here it is at 7 a.m.

4. Best stretch of beach. A tough one, but the beaches north of Saint-Louis on Guadeloupe's offshore island Marie-Galante are picture-perfect and sparsely populated outside of weekends. My favorites were the beaches of Moustique and Anse Canot. Take a look:

5. Best restaurant visited. An even tougher call, but I'd have to go with Le Poisson d'Or in Anse-Mitan, Martinique (at 12 rue des Bouganvilliers). Open for lunch and dinner every day but Monday, Le Poisson d'Or serves exquisite creole cuisine, which include lovely accras (fritters) and a fish in coconut milk that made my eyes glaze over. Second-place would go to the restaurant at Auberge Les Petites Saints (open for dinner every night but Monday) on Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe, which served me a delicious soup of local fish and a superb Basque tasting plate.

Bon Voyage to Me

I'm off in the morning on my Caribbean adventure, back on February 27. I'll be very focused on my job and posts will be infrequent between now and then, though I'll try to pop out some blasts of enthusiasm and amusement along the way.

Any suggestions and ideas for Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, and Antigua? Scribble 'em my way, kids.

Steamed Pork Belly Bun at Momofuku Ssäm!

I've never written about New York in this here blog because, well, I live in Gotham. Life for me here is more about banal instrumentality than it is about exotic adventures. I recognize that I may be selling New York short by having adopted this mindset. This acknowledged, dinner last night was so insanely satisfying that I can't not write about it.

It was my sister's half-birthday yesterday and she got ten friends together at Momofuku Ssäm bar for dinner. It was whole bucketload of fun, and I discovered a new culinary treasure along the way.

The steamed pork belly bun at Momofuku is elementally thrilling. Pork belly, hoisin, and pickled cucumber: meaty fat, savory sugar, acid ripple. What else will ever be necessary going forward? All the hype is deserved. When this or that friend told me months ago that I needed to get over to Momofuku to nab myself a pork belly bun, they were right.

The Bo Ssäm that followed was delicious and banquet-like and majestic, of course. But that steamed bun is why I'll return.

Ryanair vs. SkyEurope Jan Face-Off

Since I wrote my December Ryanair/SkyEurope passenger and load factor comparison last month, there has been a great deal of print devoted to the ever more difficult conditions faced by European low-cost carriers.

Almost every day brings more grist for the mill. Three notable developments are Ryanair's dramatic drop in third-quarter profits, easyJet and Ryanair's plunging share prices, and Clickair's canceled plane orders and abandoned routes.

And then there's talk of the antidote to tough market conditions, namely mergers. There are rumors from Spain of a big low-cost consolidation, possibly binding Clickair and Vueling. From Germany, there is more concrete evidence of a far more massive merger in the works, which would consolidate Germanwings, TUIfly, and Lufthansa Regional's Eurowings.

It's against this turbulent backdrop that I look at Ryanair and SkyEurope's January performances. Ryanair took in 17 percent more passengers in January 2008 against January 2007: 3.68 million against last year's 3.14 million.  SkyEurope coaxed a rather more modest 227,000 passengers into its planes in January against last January's 184,000, resulting in an impressive passenger tally increase of 23.4 percent.

On the load factor front, things get a little scary for the airlines in question. Ryanair's load factor dropped 2 percent to 69 percent in January against last year's numbers, while SkyEurope's load factor plummeted 14.2 percent to 58.4%.

Last month, I speculated about Ryanair's practice of blocking rows of seats off from passenger use, wondering if this might actually be a way of increasing load factor numbers. I'm still wondering, especially after taking a look at the very slippery language used to define "load factor." This language ("the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available for passengers") certainly provides ample wiggle room for Ryanair to exclude those blocked rows from load factor calculations.

The airline is crafty like ice is cold.

Since I wrote my December Ryanair/SkyEurope passenger and load factor comparison last month, there has been a great deal of print devoted to the ever more difficult conditions faced by European low-cost carriers.

Almost every day brings more grist for the mill. Three notable developments are Ryanair's dramatic drop in third-quarter profits, easyJet and Ryanair's plunging share prices, and Clickair's canceled plane orders and abandoned routes.

And then there's talk of the antidote to tough market conditions, namely mergers. There are rumors from Spain of a big low-cost consolidation, possibly binding Clickair and Vueling. From Germany, there is more concrete evidence of a far more massive merger in the works, which would consolidate Germanwings, TUIfly, and Lufthansa Regional's Eurowings.

It's against this turbulent backdrop that I look at Ryanair and SkyEurope's January performances. Ryanair took in 17 percent more passengers in January 2008 against January 2007: 3.68 million against last year's 3.14 million.  SkyEurope coaxed a rather more modest 227,000 passengers into its planes in January against last January's 184,000, resulting in an impressive passenger tally increase of 23.4 percent.

On the load factor front, things get a little scary for the airlines in question. Ryanair's load factor dropped 2 percent to 69 percent in January against last year's numbers, while SkyEurope's load factor plummeted 14.2 percent to 58.4%.

Last month, I speculated about Ryanair's practice of blocking rows of seats off from passenger use, wondering if this might actually be a way of increasing load factor numbers. I'm still wondering, especially after taking a look at the very slippery language used to define "load factor." This language ("the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available for passengers") certainly provides ample wiggle room for Ryanair to exclude those blocked rows from load factor calculations.

The airline is crafty like ice is cold.

Not Waiting for Porter Anymore

It was announced last week that Canada's Porter Airlines will soon, at long and anticipated last, be flying to New York. As of March 31, the swankiest commercial carrier in North America will be flying between Newark and Toronto City Centre. The lowest fare I was able to find for the route: C$278.99 with taxes (US$277.37 as of this moment.)

Bargain hunters, note that fares jump a few weeks in.

My expansion hopes for Porter: several routes in and out of Winnipeg and an Ottawa-DC link.

Rough Guides Update

I've tried to keep things hush-hush regarding my upcoming gig, telling only a few friends about it. I've now received word from my editor on the project that it's a-ok to divulge, so here goes...

Rough Guides has asked me to update some chapters of their Caribbean guide. I'll be spending most of this month running around Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Montserrat checking rates and prices, sussing out listings and museums and beaches and restaurants.

I'm especially excited because I've used the Rough Guide to the Caribbean more than any other regional guide. It's my favorite Caribbean guidebook for a whole litany of reasons, and I'm looking forward to being a part of it. Plus, this update will allow me to visit some tiny islands (La Désirade! Terre-de-Bas!) I've wanted to visit for a long time.

New York friends should place their souvenir orders soon. Most of those who fail to place orders will be receiving little bottles of rum from Marie-Galante. And please email me tips and advice. All will be appreciated.