Paramaribo, Suriname

Paramaribo, Wed March 4

            I remember the dinner now from last night.  Man, I was really tired and it’s funny how tired you get when you are doing nothing but sitting all day or traveling all day.  I think the body gives up on trying to get anything productive done like a good walk or such and just goes into “rest me until it gets more interesting” mode.

            Anyway, we went around the corner from our hotel to Fa Tai, a Chinese restaurant.  Our tour leader chose it because we could walk, there would be plenty of food, and he had eaten there before so knew it was good.  Usually Chinese food comes rather quickly as well, even for 17 people.  So we got there and got menus and the food was ordered.  Several group members seemed to be novices at eating at a Chinese restaurant because they ordered two or three dishes for themselves, not realizing they would have enough food for 3 days if they took it home with them (which unfortunately we couldn’t do).  My hubby and I order a soup and one dish and rice and that’s always too much even for us.  By the time all the orders were out, we had about 7 different chicken dishes, some pork dishes, wontons, soups, white rice, brown rice, fried rice, and some seafood dishes as well.  Everyone did share their food and we were so stuffed and so disappointed there wouldn’t be anyway to take it home!  Since we were close to the hotel, we were able to eat and then people started leaving as they finished and heading to their rooms for a deserved night of sleep.

            Today should be a lot better.  No traveling.  We will be doing a tour around the capital city of Paramaribo which takes some practice in trying to remember how to pronounce it and how to spell it.  So we are informed by our local guide that we can just say Parbo and everyone knows we mean the capital.  It is also the name of the locally made beer but in context, don’t think anyone will get confused.

            There is a lot of construction going on in the city.  Mainly a lot of rebuilding and refurbishing of old buildings.   And still many buildings that need a lot of work.  Right next to our hotel is an old Moravian church that is totally scaffolded.   Around the corner is a block of old houses that need a lot of TLC but no one has gotten there yet to give them any.  Still, the city is so much nicer than Georgetown.  It is so much cleaner.  Trash in the streets is more the exception than the rule.  Houses might be a bit rundown but it’s due to the climate and age rather than neglect, so it seems.

            Anyway, we have a nice breakfast and head to the van for our bus tour around the capital.   We do get a few more stops to get out and see things here.  One of our first stops is to the Central Market which is pretty much like a market anywhere with a lot of fruits and vegetables for sale in the front section with meat, fish, live chickens and such in the back section.   My hubby and I have no Surinamese dollars so our guide leads us to a money changer before we go into the market.  We have been told that the U.S. dollar should be good in all three of the countries on the tour.  It seems to hold true but we like to exchange some money just in case the one item you find that is extraordinary is in the local currency only and they won’t take your foreign dollars.    After getting a bit of local moola, we go into the market and look around the fruit stalls.  They have mangosteens!   That’s pretty much a south Asian fruit so can’t imagine why they have them here unless they are growing them.  Don’t know the answer to that but since mangosteens tend to leave a stain if you get the juice on your clothes, I didn’t get any.  Of course, later I was very sorry not to have any.  The market had a few things I didn’t recognize but not much.  The chicken sellers did not want their photos taken.  I take photos of just about everything unless it’s totally disgusting/gross/or cruel.  I like animal photos so wanted a few chickens in my shots but through the years, I have found that many people dealing with selling live animals for slaughter for food consumption are very squeamish about having their photos taken because “crusaders” have jumped their cases about their practices.  So I honor their choice and don’t take their photos but they did have some very interesting looking chickens in their cages.

            We walk through the Palm Garden which is behind the Presidential Palace.  There are many tall stately palm trees there, which our guide called King Palms.  There were very, very tall.   In the middle of the park was a statue of a small child with his hands crossed in front of him.  The plaque underneath it was loosely translated as “always remember to keep an eye on your children” or meaning to that effect.  The statue was placed there by a member of the community whose boy was playing hide and seek in the park with his friends.  Unfortunately, a discarded refrigerator was in the park as well and the young boy, not knowing any better, climbed into the refrigerator to hide.  It locked behind him and he suffocated and died.  So a beloved child perished because it was thought he was safe playing games in a safe park with his friends.  His father erected the statue and plaque to remind people to always watch after their children and know where they are.  Good advice.  Nowadays, the park is clean and well looked after with no discarded appliances anywhere.

            Back in the bus and we drive past Independence Square and hop out to take a few photos.  The following day there will be a Hindu celebration, the one where they throw colored powder on each other.  There will be fireworks and sparklers and speeches and picnics and we will miss it all.  Drat.  I’ve always wanted to take part in that celebration and throw powder around at people.  But we will be in the jungle when this takes place.  As such, the square is in the process of being prepared for this celebration so booths are being erected, stands, some scaffolding and such are there to prevent us taking wonderful photos but we manage to get a few.  From the square, we can get the front of the Presidential Palace on one side.  On the end closest to the waterfront are flagpoles flying a variety of flags.   The end opposite the flagpoles is the former city hall.  It has a white tower that was added to it when designed because the mayor’s wife said you can’t have a city hall without a tower.  So a lovely red building with white columns and a white clock tower.   The final side of the square is an old colonial building that I think was the treasury building at one time.  And the National Assembly building.   We don’t have a lot of time for photos but as there was a lot of stuff in the way of truly nice photos, we had enough time.

            Next we go to the old Fort Zeelandia, circa 1667.   It’s in pretty good shape for being that old and it is now a museum with a nice restaurant behind it on the river.  I thought we had a tour through here but our guide just took us into the courtyard and then encouraged us to look around on our own.  My husband and I walked into the first room to the left and found an old apothecary and doctor’s office and what appeared to be old surgery operating tables.   There were signs that said no photos but while we were in there, about 6 different people came in, some from our group and some locals, and all were taking photos so I did too and we continued to take photos thoughout the fort visit.

            It is set up now as a nice museum.  Besides the room with the surgery and apothecary, there were some good displays on the colonial times and some good Amerindian displays.  In one section, there was a lady with a guest book and some excellent examples of crafts from the Indians.  We enjoyed this little museum very much and this lady was very proud of her heritage and culture and it showed in how well she presented it and shared it.   What I found the most interesting was probably the wooden sewing machine.  As there weren’t a lot of signs in English, I am only assuming from the looks of it that it was actually functional but how strange to see something I use a lot that was carved from wood.

            Afterwards, it is nice to stroll to the back of the fort and see the river and the bridge in the distance.   There is also a small gift shop – what a surprise – but we didn’t find much there of interest except some wood carvings and some baskets but we have plenty of both.    The fort does hold the restaurant, Baka Foto (back of the fort) and we stopped to order for a later meal.   It looked yummy.

            We are back to the hotel for the afternoon and for lunch and then we have the rest of the day free to explore the city or shop or whatever.  This is about the only time we have to be free in a town/city where there is shopping.  I had so wanted to shop in Guyana for diamonds but never got the chance.  Supposedly they have good gold and diamonds here as well and the main street is lined with jewelery shops.  We make a plan with three other ladies to hit the jewelery stores together after lunch.  Hubby and I are going to hit the KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken  OR as our guide in Trinidad later told us, “Kitchen For Cholesterol”.   We would probably never do a KFC at home but it’s really fun to do it in other countries sometimes.   The ladies we are going shopping with go to the café in the hotel.  

            Lunch done, we meet up and head to the main street for shopping.   One of the ladies is looking for something small for her grandkids so we hit a variety shop first and find – FABRIC!  TA DA!  I am a fabric-holic as I make/sew machine quilts.  So I’m always looking for good fabric to use.  And this time it was my husband’s fault as he saw it first and pointed it out to me.  It wasn’t fabric that is made in Suriname but it was on sale for about $2.00 a meter.  Cannot pass up that price as I would be paying around 15 pounds a meter, or more, in the U.K.  So I bought about 10 meters.  OMG.  So wonderful. 

            Our friends, Lorine and Ruth were still looking at stuff so the shopping together came to a quick end and we all headed out to jewellery stores on our own.    You see most men and women walking around with very nice gold chains and earrings.  Of course, they are getting them somewhere totally different than the tourist areas because I saw many examples of earrings I liked on different women but didn’t find anything like it in any of the shops.  We hit every shop on the street!  Ran into our friends in several shops and found out that most of the places wouldn’t accept Mastercard as a payment.  They use Maestro.  We have been places where they seem to be one in the same but not here. 

            It quickly became apparent that most of the stores had the same jewellery.  I’m sure they are all sourced from the same place.  Vinnie found a pair she loved but no Mastercard accepted.  She bought a nice round gold ball pair of earrings.  She asked me later if I thought she paid too much.  I did think so but I couldn’t very well tell her as she would have been crushed and then either unhappy with me or unhappy with her earrings.  Not playing that game.  I finally got a pair of small laser cut earrings that dangle.  Like them a lot and didn’t pay too much.  But as I am working out the exchange rate and such and the weight of the earrings with the workmanship and all, I’m thinking that the prices in Dubai have actually been the best we have found in recent shopping excursions.   So doubly sure that the prices on the shops on the high street were tourist prices only.

            My husband had decided, at the last minute, to throw his tablet into his bag and bring it.  What he forgot then was to bring his charger.  Second time he’s done this.  BUT he was enjoying it so we went hunting for another charger.  Tried the stores on the high street and they all said to go to the Phone Doctor and directed us.  In spite of specific directions, it’s very hard to find a specific shop in a foreign country sometimes.  We wandered to the end of the street and around the corner and finally found some shops that seemed to have the kind of power cord he needed.   The first one we entered with the correct cord wouldn’t sell it to us without seeing the tablet.  While inconvenient to us, was still a nice gesture rather than to see us something that may indeed be the wrong cord.  So we headed back to the hotel to get the tablet and bring it back.

            Of course we got lost on the way back to the hotel because the streets weren’t straight.   But it only took us going in one shop to ask for directions and we weren’t too far out of the way.  Get the tablet and back to the shop, stopping at a couple on the way that looked to be the same type of shops but they didn’t have the cords so back to the original one and it wasn’t cheap!  Now we have three chargers for his tablet.

            A bit of leisure time now before dinner.  We took that time to re-organize our bags as we will be heading to the jungle tomorrow and leaving behind the suitcases again.  We are heading back to Baka Foto, the restaurant that is behind the Fort (Baka Foto translated means Back of the Fort).  The chef greets us and we are across from Alice and Chuck.  Alice has a ton of allergies and can only eat a very limited range of foods.  The chef spent a lot of time talking to her to see what he could make for her that wasn’t just bland and plain.  He seemed to enjoy the challenge.  As a group, we had all ordered individual appetizers, mains, and desserts.  The chef, as a treat, had prepared a special “pre-appetizer” course for everyone that included 3 small samples of his work in the appetizer section.  Yum.  We are in for a very good dinner in the first small 3 treats are an example.

            Then, happily, they had chosen to prepare each item that someone had ordered and prepare enough of them so that everyone would have a chance to taste everything!  He did the same for the main courses as well.  OMG.  It was all sooo tasty although there were a couple of dishes I chose not to try.  We were all pretty well stuffed full of good food when he came out to make sure we were happy with the meal.  He expressed a bit of dismay that nobody had chosen the sherbert/sorbet for dessert as it was his specialty.  We had all thought it wasn’t a choice, for some reason.  Those of us at the end of the table where the chef is talking to Chris, our tour leader, all assured him that we’d all love to try it and so we got two desserts as he added his specialty to whatever we had ordered.  Soooo full,  soooo tasty,  soooo good.  Should I ever find myself in Paramaribo again, this is where I am eating every night!

Oh, a couple of stops I missed.  We stopped at the Basilica which lays claim to the largest wooden church in the world.  What!?  You remember me mentioning that in Guyana in Georgetown?  Yes, they also claim to have the largest wooden church in the world.  Don’t know who is correct and they probably both are because they probably measure them by different standards.  It was a lovely church though with nice towers.  You had to be wearing long trousers to be allowed into the church but the guard was nice enough to let some of the men in shorts stand inside the doorway so they could see the church.

            And we stopped at the local synagogue which is right next door to a large mosque.  They are good neighbors too apparently.  We even parked in the mosque parking lot and then walked over to the synagogue where we had a tour.  We weren’t able to get into the mosque.  The synagogue has sand floors.  At one point, they didn’t and some candles were knocked over and burnt it to the ground so most synagogues in the area now all have sand floors so no worries if the candles are on the floor.  They had a nice bath house outside too for the women to clean themselves.  Basically it was a huge tub.  You walked up the stairs inside the building and then down the stairs into the tub.  You’d be standing in the tub with water about up to your neck.  Looking inviting.

            Back to the hotel and to bed.