I spend the last 5 days of 2006 in Juan Dolio, 25 kms long coast that holds numorous all-inclusive resorts, smaller hotels, summer houses etc. It is about an hour ride from Santo Domingo with a RD$50 (US$1.5) guagua. JD has a beautiful, archatypical Caribbean beach with all the palm trees and white sand. Yet, because of the dead coral under the sea, swimming is not as pleasant as in the other parts of the island. There are numorous cheap accomodation, food and entertainment options in JD, which make it an ideal place for extended weekends and backpackers. At the same time, it is much more peaceful than its neighbour and big brother Boca Chica.
At the Rough Guide, I read about a hotel, named “Fior di Loto”, which seemed very interesting with its India-themed rooms, free yoga classes, big gym and resonably priced rooms (US$10 a-nite). When I met with the owner of the hotel, an Italian woman, all the Indian theme, yoga classes, Indian music made sense, as she, under her Indian clothes, heavily involved with India, living half of the year over there working on her charity.
Mainly Italian and French tourist were staying in the hotel, as well as in Juan Dolio. Many of the businesses including hotels, restaurants, bars and supermarkets are owned by the expats. For instance, the only mini-market around where I was staying was onwed by a Japoness family, there were lots of Italian restaurants, an Austrian-owned bar and a Swedish-owned cafe.
I saw and met with many western tourists and expatriats in JD, some of whom I really disliked. Many of them have looked like as if they found their little paradise in the Dominican Republic, in JD, far far away from their cold-expensive western countries, enjoying slow, hot, hedonism-filled lifes, yet reminding other people how close can someone’s paradise be to another’s hell. Something looked wrong, smelled bad, and tasted disgusting, at least for me. Many of those people were male, over middle-age, “ugly” (with all its dimensions), white, lonely characters, bond to each other with one and only common denominator. Almost as if they were different to human-kind, another spicies. The substaintial part of their life in JD was composed of sleeping with different women for RD$500, about 15 US dollars. They were proud of this as their language was mainly around “fuck”.
First day, I met with an in/famous man from USA, around his 60s, with a long white hair and a big beard. He had a huge belly, and a huge comfort in the place. He, “bi-bi or vi-vi” as people called, was living in the hotel, being an old “stamp collector”, now he was enjoying his life in JD as serving to the western male community as a friendly pimp. After exchanging regards, and asking what am i doing in the DR, the first thing he told me was, “now I am fucking my life here, dominican women are beautiful, aren’t they?” I met with another person from the States at the hotel, much younger, ginger head man. Before I heard his story, just by my observations I thought, “oohh, he looks really wierd”. Then I learnt that he was a soldier in Iraq and kicked out of the military after “getting crazy”. I heard about a French tourist, who only came to JD for prostitution, so far he has been with 30 women in 2 weeks. I saw men not even saying hello to the woman whom they slept a night ago. Another Canadian man, a drug dealer doing business through Haiti, told me, whom I don’t even know his name, “I will go to get my German girlfriend, we will have some breakfast and later probably go to my place and fuck. She is, (showing with two fingers) that much taller than me..”
Overall, at the end of my experience, I thought I really do not want to live in a world where there are perverts like the ones I met. The quality of life, the beauty of living, the meaning of human relationship are extremely devalued by such people. And I do not have any sort of religious or moralistic dogmas, yet my intellect and ethics draws the line.
Just for a footnote, I also meet with very nice people, like Michel, who took me to the clinic on the new year eve when I got poisened, where I spend my new year and birthday. Of course, I enjoyed the beautiful beach, relaxed with a Yoga class and was amazed by the sun-set over the Caribbean sea.
At the Rough Guide, I read about a hotel, named “Fior di Loto”, which seemed very interesting with its India-themed rooms, free yoga classes, big gym and resonably priced rooms (US$10 a-nite). When I met with the owner of the hotel, an Italian woman, all the Indian theme, yoga classes, Indian music made sense, as she, under her Indian clothes, heavily involved with India, living half of the year over there working on her charity.
Mainly Italian and French tourist were staying in the hotel, as well as in Juan Dolio. Many of the businesses including hotels, restaurants, bars and supermarkets are owned by the expats. For instance, the only mini-market around where I was staying was onwed by a Japoness family, there were lots of Italian restaurants, an Austrian-owned bar and a Swedish-owned cafe.
I saw and met with many western tourists and expatriats in JD, some of whom I really disliked. Many of them have looked like as if they found their little paradise in the Dominican Republic, in JD, far far away from their cold-expensive western countries, enjoying slow, hot, hedonism-filled lifes, yet reminding other people how close can someone’s paradise be to another’s hell. Something looked wrong, smelled bad, and tasted disgusting, at least for me. Many of those people were male, over middle-age, “ugly” (with all its dimensions), white, lonely characters, bond to each other with one and only common denominator. Almost as if they were different to human-kind, another spicies. The substaintial part of their life in JD was composed of sleeping with different women for RD$500, about 15 US dollars. They were proud of this as their language was mainly around “fuck”.
First day, I met with an in/famous man from USA, around his 60s, with a long white hair and a big beard. He had a huge belly, and a huge comfort in the place. He, “bi-bi or vi-vi” as people called, was living in the hotel, being an old “stamp collector”, now he was enjoying his life in JD as serving to the western male community as a friendly pimp. After exchanging regards, and asking what am i doing in the DR, the first thing he told me was, “now I am fucking my life here, dominican women are beautiful, aren’t they?” I met with another person from the States at the hotel, much younger, ginger head man. Before I heard his story, just by my observations I thought, “oohh, he looks really wierd”. Then I learnt that he was a soldier in Iraq and kicked out of the military after “getting crazy”. I heard about a French tourist, who only came to JD for prostitution, so far he has been with 30 women in 2 weeks. I saw men not even saying hello to the woman whom they slept a night ago. Another Canadian man, a drug dealer doing business through Haiti, told me, whom I don’t even know his name, “I will go to get my German girlfriend, we will have some breakfast and later probably go to my place and fuck. She is, (showing with two fingers) that much taller than me..”
Overall, at the end of my experience, I thought I really do not want to live in a world where there are perverts like the ones I met. The quality of life, the beauty of living, the meaning of human relationship are extremely devalued by such people. And I do not have any sort of religious or moralistic dogmas, yet my intellect and ethics draws the line.
Just for a footnote, I also meet with very nice people, like Michel, who took me to the clinic on the new year eve when I got poisened, where I spend my new year and birthday. Of course, I enjoyed the beautiful beach, relaxed with a Yoga class and was amazed by the sun-set over the Caribbean sea.
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