HAAS

I felt the familiar sensation of being pushed forward by an invisible hand when the airplane braked hard. I had just landed at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. It was dark at 9:51 p.m.

My Booking.com reservation turned out to be a homestay. The house was in a fairly quiet part of Kingston. There was a comical mix-up at immigration when the officer asked me for the name of my hotel.

“15 min from the airport in Kingston Jamaica.”
“Yes, but the name of the hotel?”
“I think it’s called ‘15 min from the airport in Kingston Jamaica.’”
The officer, looking a bit weary, asked me to call the hotel to confirm. I did.
“15 min from the airport in Kingston Jamaica.”

That was, indeed, the official name of my hotel.

Shane, my taxi driver who picked me up from the airport, was also the partner of Tamara, the host. The next day Shane drove me around Kingston. Tamara founded the company Sehai All Natural, a food manufacturer of natural seasonings and juices in Kingston. She couldn’t afford to produce a new batch of seasoning because food prices at the market were too high at the moment.

I only stayed two nights in Kingston, thinking I would return to the city when it was time to catch my flight back. But I ended up traveling directly from Portland via Morant Bay to the airport. So my experience of Kingston was rather brief.

The porch of my homestay *‘15 min from the airport in Kingston Jamaica’.*

Tamara and her products. She made me breakfast twice and by the taste of her cooking I’m convinced her seasoning will taste wonderful. I hope she can grow her business.

The first morning, I had to find an ATM. “Just don’t walk with your phone in your hand,” my host warned me. How dangerous is this place? I wondered. I knew about neighborhoods that shouldn’t be visited unaccompanied, like Tivoli Gardens and Seaview Gardens. Later, I learned that some areas can be even more dangerous for Jamaicans themselves. When I asked a young man if I could just walk into any neighborhood in Kingston, he said, “You might get away with it, but I can’t visit those neighborhoods.”

Not a coffee but a coffee cup filled with sweet bean porridge.

Ninja Man, aka Don Gorgon, performing in the early 1990s. This is the dancehall music I fell in love with. Ninja was the baddest DJ of the time. The man jumping on stage seems planned as part of the show. "No don't ever do that security, leave him alone, put him back!! Poor people put me Yah, so if poor people wan skank with me skank and galang.”

Beverly Hills

One Kingston neighbourhood I knew from the lyrics of Ninja Man is Beverly Hills from the song Ambition (album Kill Them And Done, 1991). I was curious to check Beverly Hills out for myself. It is one of the richest neighbourhoods of Kingston, situated high on a hill. Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness owns a house in Beverly Hills.

Kingston at the waterfront. In the distance lies the spit of land on which Norman Manley International Airport is built. The water in between was once part of pre-1692 Port Royal, once called the “wickedest city on earth.” The city sank into the sea due to liquefaction during the earthquake. One third of Port Royal survived, only to be destroyed by fire ten years later. Kingston was founded by the survivors of the 1692 earthquake that submerged Port Royal.

Port Royal was the home port of many English and Dutch privateers who were commissioned to attack Spanish vessels. The most notably name was Henry Morgan who was operating from Port Royal. It was during the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) that the Commonwealth of England launched the Western Design against Spain's colonies. The idea was that Jamaica would never be secure until Spain acknowledged England's possession of Jamaica in a treaty. The wealth of the privateers and buccaneers was spent in Port Royal.

***Port Royal earthquake 1692 by Jan Luyken and Pieter van der Aa***

Jamaicans don’t seem to have the habit of sitting down in restaurants. This small vegetarian place had only a couple of chairs inside, which remained empty. Food is often served in a plastic lunch box, and most people just take it to their cars and eat on the go.

**Veggie Campus on Skibo Ave, Kingston.**

Kingston’s modern city plan reflects its original 18th century utilitarian origin. Professor Colin Clarke studied Kingston’s urban development and social change. Both streets and plots were designed to meet commercial requirements. The main thoroughfares, wider than the rest at 66ft, formed free-flowing transport routes between the port and plantations in the hinterland. Further reading: Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692-1962 (University of California Press, 1975).

Junction King street and Harbour street in 2023. It is easy to imagine how the processed sugar was transported from the sugar mills to the port.

The junction marked in red on a Kingston map of circa 1740.

Marked in red are the places I ended up visiting in Jamaica. After the second night in Kingston, I took a minibus to Portland. I hadn’t realized my next hotel was in a different parish, so when the minibus turned right instead of left at the coast, I had to get off. Since I was sitting in the back and the bus was packed like a can of sardines, there was no way to reach the door. I had to climb out of the window of the bus, Indiana Jones–style.

Next post: Boscobel and James Bond beach.