Because I had such a busy year last year I decided I needed a vacation to start of this year (uhm ok maybe not such a busy year ). So me and Denny (The_end) decided to go to the Bahama's for two weeks, getting away from the cold dutch weather.

After 3 flights we finally arrived in Nassau and after taking a cab-ride which we were unsure if we were going to the hotel or getting robbed (we thought the hotel was about 10 minutes from the airport but it turned out to be about 30-40 mins) we arrived at the RIU Palace hotel on Paradise Island. For the first week we would stay in this all-inclusive hotel.

Overall this hotel was great, because not having to think about prices while drinking yourself into oblivion is always nice and just getting whatever food you want anytime helps.The downside was that there was no internet in the rooms itself, however my adapter and Denny's laptop both failed us on day 1 of the trip so it didn't really matter that much. It was very annoying that mobile phones don't work in the bahama's (well only some from the US did but none from europe) but on the other side it was nice that nobody would disturb you.

View from our room:



We started off most days with a healthy breakfast:


Then during the day we would chill on the beach, enjoying the free cocktails/food that was available from staying at an all-inclusive hotel.


In our room we also had our own alcohol'bar':


Instead of just laying on the beach for two weeks we decided that we should also do some stuff while being in a place we both had never been before, we started off by exploring the main island of nassau and went to a 'pirate museum'



The next day we planned to go into mini-submarines for some underwaterexploring, it turned out to be okish but just diving is alot better but more on that later, the mini-subs were fun but they weren't as mobile as we hoped so you couldn't really manouver that much while underwater. We did see some nice underwater-life and held crabs/seastars and chased fish. In the end the sea became to much for the asian in the group and had to hang over the side of the boat for a while.






Because we really wanted to go scuba-diving but Denny didn't have his PADI-certificate yet he decided to get it here and the next 3 days he was busy getting certified and I was on my own during the days, so I decided to explore Paradise Island (the island the hotel was on) for a bit and walked down the beaches until I got blocked by rocks/houses. Probably came on some places I wasn't suppose to like this private beach for personal mansions:


On the small Island Iw alked by they were building their own mansion:


The private golfcourse, there was a danger sign for flying golfballs:


Some friends of Denny where also in the Bahama's because of the PCA and Max was playing in it, so we met up with them and went to Senor Frogs for some food and drinking:



They were already staying in the Atlantis hotel so we already got to see what was going to be in store for us the next week when we would also move there. The Atlantis hotel is absolutely insanely big and there will be plenty of pics of that when you get further in this post. The view at night is really nice as well.

While Denny was still doing his certification it was nice to have some time to myself and I got to think about the plans I had for the rest of this year and decided that even if I don't find someone to join me I will start the Continental divide trail at the end of March/beginning of April by myself because even though I enjoy being around people alot it is sometimes good to spend time by yourself. I still hope people will join though but decided that even if they don't I will conquer the Rocky Mountains.

I spend the days just walking down the beach, reading some books ('A walk across USA' and 'Lamb' which was recommended to me by Matt and was an absolutely hilarious book!) and chilling at the beach/pool. Then in the evenings we would go to either the Buffet or one of the 3 'specialty' restuarants in our hotel. Since Denny had to get up at 7 in the morning each day it usually didn't get really late although I'm sure that one day he was still drunk when waking up to start diving.

After a week of basically just relaxing we moved to the Atlantis hotel, no more free food/drinks became clear when we got two beers for $12 a pop

Here are a bunch of pics from Atlantis to give you an idea on how big this place was:





At night it was also very nice:


It is hard to show on the pictures how big it is but it would take about 20-30 mins to go from one side all the way to the other side.

We also met up with Max, Tim and Rowin in Atlantis again, here in the 'marina village' part of atlantis:



The first day we basically spend exploring atlantis and the waterpark which had an amazing Lazy river over 1 Mile long, with rapids and a big wave and more in it. (yes the lazy river wasn't all that lazy at some points).



For the next day we had Sharkdiving planned which turned out to be amazing:


We did two dives where in the first dive we just explored the reef and a shipwreck while being surrounded by sharks, in the second dive they fed the sharks while we sat around at the oceanground watching and being bumped by sharks who wanted to get food. So sometimes a shark would also hit you while passing by you or come straight at you and then missing you by like 10 cm. there were about 40 (carribean reef) sharks swimming around us and you had to keep your hands close or they might think it was fish and bite them off. There is also video material of this but will have to see on how I'll get that online.

It was really amazing and I'm not sure if I will ever do a more interesting dive then this.



If you ever have the chance to do this you really should because it is simply amazing, there were also a couple of shark-movies made at this spot.

In the evening we met up with Dustin (DD beast) and Robin (yes there are more of us) who Denny had met while getting his PADI ceritification. We ended up chilling at the atlantispark playing some rum-pong because we were to lazy to get beer. I must say that Rum-pong is an awfull game when you lose....


The next day we were suppose to go on an Island Explore but it got cancelled because of the weather, which seemed weird to us at the time because the weather at Paradise Island was great that day... however it turned out that the Island we were doing it on (Exuma) was about 65km away.

So we ended up doing not much beside relaxing. We went to Nobu in the evening which was pretty good but not great (but I'm biased because I don't eat fish, Denny thought it was pretty awesome).



In the evening we met up with Dustin and Robin again and they had rigged one of the cabana's during the day so we could relax in it at night... we smoked some weed through an apple which was lots of fun.



It was awesome but then security came and called for backup so we got out of there before they arrived and ended up chilling and drinking at the beach... I don't know what kindof trouble we would've gotten into if backup got there but I'm happy we didn't find out. It was a good night! Hopefully we can meet up with them in vegas again!

It ended with us getting room-service and denny gobling it up as a monkey sitting on the ground (not sure if I should post pictures of that....)



So the next day we did go on the island adventure, which was a rough morning because we had to get up very early again after a late night and it started of with a speed-boat trip that was absolutely terrible for about 90 mins... Last year in Thailand I had already experienced a very rough speedboat trip but this one was even worse...

(before we knew it was going to be bad, we were still smiling at this point )

The day turned out to be great though after getting to Exuma, we started off exploring the island a bit and then went snorkeling where I saw a giant barracuda, lobster and more... We then went to a sandbar which was so huge.. you could walk more then 1km out into the ocean and water would still be at your waist. (those pics are on the underwatercamera we've not gotten developed yet), and then we with exploring exuma by ourselfs and feeding sharks with chicken... (which was not that special after swimming with them anymore but still nice)






To end the trip we stopped at leguna-beach to feed them..



Pretty sweet day-trip and at night there was the PokerStars Party!
Johnny Drama (from Entourage) was also there because he played some charity-event:


Robin (the other one) also got some light-spheres which we had some fun with:


Liv also tried to steal my glowing alien baby


Also saw/met a bunch of pokerplayers, and even Mini-me was there but he was to fast on his scooter for me to take a picture... then I lost everyone when we tried to go to Aura, and I ended up just getting some drunken roomservice.

The next day we just ended up chilling a little at the waterpark although it was somewhat clowdy so I spend most of the day in the hot-tub there... looking at young girls
At night we went arcade-gaming where they had this amazing hunting game. For dinner we went into nassau-centre to Seafood Haven, where luckily they also had some non-seafood.

We ended the night at Senor Frogs which was fun again but I got a little bit sick at the end of the night, probably because of the amount of alcohol consumed in those weeks...




Another day of relaxation the next day where we just relaxed in the waterpark to get a nice color and had probably the best wings ever and a nice beer-bucket. At night we went to a grill-restaurant called MESA where I had the best appetiser ever (duck-pancakes)

The main course was also pretty good, and I liked this more then NOBU..


On our last day we decided to go swimming with dolphins which was even better then you'd expect it to be, Denny has the dvd of this so hopefully he'll find a way to upload it but for now here are some pics of it:



We ended the night at another grill restaurant which was even better then MESA so we were very satisfied!


All in all it was an amazing trip! Can't wait for what the rest of the year is going to bring!

Robin out.