Sint Maarten

May 16–20, 2013

There are two countries situated on this small island. The first is Sint Maarten (which belongs to the Netherlands) and the second is Saint Martin (which belongs to France). Sint Maarten is famous for its insane airport, where planes approach for landing right over the heads of people standing on the beach (it’s three times cooler than Phuket).

The airport is the main point of interest on the Dutch part of the island.

The beach area is decorated with warnings about how standing under the blast of a jet engine isn’t the best idea. The warning is decorated with tourists’ stickers.

Nevertheless, standing directly behind a Boeing during takeoff really isn’t the best idea. The heat and the smell of kerosene are tolerable enough. But all the sand from the beach flies straight into your eyes.

The takeoff is loud, but safe and pretty.

The landing is also loud and pretty.

There isn’t a whole lot to do here.

Nothing exists here besides a few casinos, nightclubs, and beaches.

There’s a small colonial-era downtown area.

There are benches sponsored by the local wireless company, which wanted to have its logo on the bench backs.

There are telecom equipment casings (more or less like the ones in the Bahamas).

A trash can.

A fire hydrant.

Particularly important facilities are protected with particularly nasty fence spikes.

Concrete structures for electricity meters dot the entire island.

A drawbridge. It’s raised a couple of times a day, when yachts leave the bay and go out to sea.

A sheltered bus stop.

An unsheltered bus stop.

License plates.

A street sign.

The post boxes still haven’t been replaced since the time when the island was part of the Netherlands Antilles, which split up into several different nations a few years ago.

A payphone booth. Half of them don’t have any payphones inside.

Vehicle inspection slips.

The only interesting detail on the island is the “no parking” sign. If the left side is painted over with white, it means the sign doesn’t apply on the left side of the road.