Dec 7th, 2007
Orient Bay
On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, feeling fully recovered from the previous day of travel. Opening the curtains revealed a stunningly bright and sunny day that helped drive us out of our grogginess.
We stopped in the reception and chatted with Kris briefly. She recommended Coconut Grove (Baie del L’Embouchure) but we had heard some good things about Orient Bay so we decided to stop there first.
After about a 15-minute drive, we arrived at the south end of Orient Bay, which is a bit dumpy, and began driving north until we reached the Coco Beach Bar and Restaurant. After parking outside, we started strolling south along the beach.
Orient Bay is one of the more well-known beaches in Saint Martin, and part of its reputation is derived from the optionality of clothing that is associated with the beach. I’m certainly no hater of the human body, but the sights we saw along Orient Bay made me contemplate poking my eyes out with a spoon and spending the remainder of my life in androgyny.
That being said, the beach itself was quite attractive:
In general though, I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed with Orient Bay. The beach is nothing spectacular compared to some of the others in Saint Martin, the restaurants are over-priced and over-commercialized, and there is the aforementioned issue with naked nastiness.
We had a quick and forgettable lunch at the Coco Beach Bar and Restaurant, where the service was sub-par, before heading off to greener pastures.
did the natives hang their nakedness down to the sand? I was there 2 years ago when i went to visit my fugitive friend. Did you go to the dutch side? Interesting to see how different the two sides developed.
Actually, we didn’t see any nudies although we did see a fair amount of sagginess upstairs, as well as several older men in thongs. It was too much for my virgin eyes to handle.
We did not actually go to the Dutch side. Why would we go to the Dutch side of an island when there is a French side?