12/28/00-01/04/01
Let me start by saying Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the people who post here and who talked to me privately or publicly about going. I know flight information is of little use to other people but because I had posted some concerns to the board that were related to whether or not I even went and some items I wanted to take, I am enclosing it. As many noted my best friend whose male was supposed to take this trip with me and cancelled a week after we paid it off. I went solo even though I was unsure about it and never ever regretted it.
Getting There Big thanks to both Ro and Beth for letting me leave my car and Ro for giving me a lift to and from the airport. Though I got no sleep the day before I left as we stayed up and talked about Hedo until it was time to head to the airport at 5:00 am, it was really nice to meet them and get into a Hedo frame of mind. I live an alternative lifestyle and a friend had made me a custom set of cuffs(I left the suspension chain at home as these were merely accessories for PJ night) and a custom 7 pound steel collar to go with my new black leather corset. I did not want to check my bags and have this stuff go missing so I wanted to carry it on. As I approached the x-ray machine at O`Hare I took a deep breath and crossed fingers. I bumped the side so they made me go back through and did not even blink at the steel, leather and latex in my bags. In fact, they were so tired that I am not even sure they looked at the monitor.
The flight into Charlotte went smoothly, I even caught 45 minutes sleep except we landed about 25 minutes late due to the plane getting de-iced twice in Chicago. Basically, I had enough time if I hurried to have a cigarette in the lounge before getting on the US Airways flight into MoBay. We landed in MoBay and it was a struggle getting 160+ pounds of luggage with me down the airplane steps up to customs and through the airport. Apparently I walked through immigration(the second place they stop you not sure which it is) without stopping as I was the first one from our flight through the terminal. Dropped off my bags at the Superclubs desk and went outside for a smoke. Didn't get 20 feet out the doors when apparently I became the next best thing since slice bread in Montego Bay. In the 7 minutes I was outside I was approached 3 times for smoke, a simple no and a smile seemed to work and a dozen times for sex (something about a very tall, chesty, too curvy, white girl). The bus ride from hell was actually real quiet, nearly fell asleep 3 times except for the shaking. We stopped once to take a break and get refreshment and were at the resort about 2 hours after clearing customs and immigration.
Finally at Hedo, December 28th Check in was a breeze. Sat down in sunken area, filled out the form, had a room key less than 15 minutes later. 2nd floor across from basketball court. Settled my stuff into the drawers figured out how I was going to tie the toga and headed down to the nude bar for a drink in the toga. Since I had never done the nude thing, I figured I would get cut a little slack. It was dark, I was in a toga with parts of me showing, it was about 6:30 pm and I did not plan to hang out and gawk. At this point I was exhausted and excited, and decided to douse the exhaustion in "green grass of home" until I forgot about it. For those of you not there, I took the insulted mug with lid to an extreme, bringing a 52 ounce insulated 7-11 big gulp mug. After dinner I started having them add shots to the green grass of home as I love rum and couldn't taste any. Toga night became a blur a bit. I do remember dancing around in some kind of bunny hop chain behind Dave, the man who hurt himself 15 minutes after getting to Hedo. (I hope you are healing up from the stitches nicely) and meeting the entertainment coordinator "Chubby" who could not talk me up on stage despite the large filled cup.
After 3 big gulps of it, and wandering past the Piano Bar and Disco, I wandered down to the hot tub and proceeded to start into it with my toga and camera hanging on me. After a nice fellow stopped me, (I am sorry I do remember talking to you but not your name) I learned what happens when you sit in hot water and are really drunk. I crawled home about 3:00 am, learned I am not as young as I thought I was, saw my bathroom for the first time and crawled up into bed.
Second Day, December 29th Woke up around noon and went back and forth about the nude thing. I didn't come to Hedo to be afraid of the nude beach but low and behold it was not an easy thing to do solo. I took a good look in the mirror, told myself 3 times I would do this and walked out the door. I had on a sheer see-through sarong. I didn't get down the first little hill before one of the coordinators walking past me goes "morning, Sexy", which placed a smile on my face and added a little strut to my stride. I kept thinking, 'maybe I really can do this'. Wandered down, and ordered some food from the grill, and peered around, shaking just a little underneath the sarong. Met a guy named Charlie who was just there for the day and night, he was staying down the beach. Real nice guy, asked me to sit down and eat lunch with him. Ut Oh! Picnic tables, no easy way to sit down in a short sarong without exposing myself so I didn't worry about it. Got to meet HedoHenry, said hello and figured we would catch up later in the week and we did. After we finished lunch I found a beach chair and untied the sarong laid down and slowly let it blow off of me and after 15 minutes of no one laughing, gawking or pointing, I was fine. I took it much easier today on the drink using the big mug for ice water and drank small glasses of drink. Went up to the pool later and just watched others as I semi slept laying back against the wall until someone said do you want to go over to the hot tub for happy hour. Spent an hour or two there and had my first jerk chicken before plodding back to the room about 7:00pm for a nap. Missed dinner altogether and headed down to the hot tub around 11pm where I learned the wonderful cool-hot routine. Stay in the hot tub until you are so toasty you think you are melting, then spring over (more like crawl over) to the cool tub, stay there until your teeth just start to chatter, then slip through the waterfall a few times, then repeat until you are thoroughly relaxed. Round about 3 am upon looking up at the stars I decided I could get no more relaxed than I presently was. Met a guy from Minnesota named A and introduced the routine to him after he decided that the world could get no better than the hot tub. Messed around with him some until the security guy came over and told us to take it somewhere else as we were collecting an audience. Slipped back to my room and finished what had been started and then asked him his name and said welcome to hedonism and sent him on his way.
Day Three, December 30th Well seeing as how I got to bed around 6am, I took an hour and a half nap and headed to breakfast right as it opened and then nearly beat HedoHenry down to the beach. Learned today that the morning sun can get really hot and also found my favorite daytime activity at Hedo, floating on the raft in the pool. Realized sometime that morning I had no idea what day of the week it was or what the date was. This is a very good feeling. Go Classy delivers fresh fruit, champagne and carnations to my room, what a wonderful surprise. Later on tonight meet P&E and they are celebrating P's birthday. Real sweet lady and gentleman, talk for a few hours, smoke a little. Realize I should be heading to bed when it is me and 9 guys from the prude beach sitting in the tub.
Day Four, New Years Eve Lounged around the pool naked on the raft with a drink on my chest until mid afternoon then home for a nap. Apparently I got a roommate today, she is from Kingston and just in for the night. Nice girl, only freaked me out slightly as I got out of the shower to her sitting on the window bench in the semi dark. Wandered the beach about 5:20 pm and met J and F. F seems real nice and kind of cute. Was teasing me about wearing a sarong on the nude beach. Dressed for New Years and headed to dinner around 6:45. Sat with Hedo Henry and Carmen, had a lot of fun watching the various outfits and enjoyed a phenomenal dinner. Unfortunately by 9:30 was feeling ill like I had a fever, went back to room for a cold shower and found out I was covered with hives and having a bit of difficulty breathing. (I am highly allergic to shrimp) After 6 phone calls and pleading with the desk staff the nurse was finally found and called me back and gave me some benadryl. Took a double dose and was fast asleep as 2001 rang in.
Day 5, January 1, 2001 Spent most of the day much the same, floating with a margarita. Ran into F again around noon, spent most of the afternoon and evening with him. Ate at PastaFari (good food, decent wine). Occupied the piano bar until Karoake seemed to be losing it's flow and headed to the disco to dance for a while at topless night. Headed down to the hot tub for a bit and couldn't convince F to try out the cool tub so we headed back to spend some time together before he had to pack. Got to sleep around 5 am.
Day 6, January 2nd Wake up call at 7:45 so F can catch his Tim Air flight. Slip up to my room for a shower and to head to breakfast in hopes to see F before he leaves. Unfortunately that doesn't happen and as the saying goes, c'est la vie. Head down to the beach around 11 and slip back into the routine. Home for a nap before PJ night. Spend 2 hours lacing myself into the corset as I forgot to get a volunteer and the building is pretty quiet. Apparently is not too often jamaican men see women in real corsets as E, a Negril native, is at Hedo for the day and stumbles quite well on the basketball court as he sees me finishing getting laced in by one of the security men. He comes up for a towel and later on we spend some time dancing in the disco before calling it a night. PJ night was fun, everyone including most of the staff loved the corset and steel collar and cuffs, unfortunately the entertainment coordinator was not so fond of it as I did not get stopped for a prize, oh well I was unable to get the 7" heels on once the corset was laced.
Day 7, January 3rd (The day of fuzziness) It rains this morning early so I skip getting pictures of sunrise as it is too overcast. Luckily by late morning it is once again the slightly overcast sun we have enjoyed. F had left me his bag and pipe so I spent most of the day with it in my possession. A hit or two on the hour and the last day at Hedo seems a bit ethereal. Round about 2pm I decide I have been here a week, am leaving tomorrow, and have participated in no activities outside the daily routine and seek to join a game of ring toss which was won before I could throw a ring. So I settled in to observe the body painting and wound up getting painted myself by another girl. Later on she got painted and as it was a delicate area she leaned back against me so it could be painted and as it was, we passed the pipe for an hour straight. Feeling a bit fuzzy I figured a nap was in order to sleep it off. Got real red today. Except when I woke I was fuzzier than before and ate dinner in some kind of ethereal haze. E called wanted me to go to a Negril beach party somewhere down the coast but I was a bit too out of it to wander Negril at night. Packed most of my bags and called it an early evening.
Day 8, January 4th More sprinkles. Wandered down to the pool wanting a bit more float time before I had to catch the bus at 1pm but sprinkles and more only gave us about 15 minutes of sunshine. Floated anyway. Spent a few sprinkling moments in the hot tub. GNAT wasn't flying so lots of people taking the bus today. Had lunch up in the dining room(first time, Robert won my heart or at least my stomach) and caught the slightly quiet bus back to MoBay. The roads were not the best due to 4 day long showers in and around MoBay. We were running late as it was(It was almost 3pm) and one guy asks 12km out from MoBay to stop for jerk chicken. Luckily the driver did not stop but did stop for bathroom when we were 15 minutes out. MoBay was a bit of a zoo and USAirways seemed at a loss for what to do at first about my return. Flight back was cool except for the fact that there was an emergency landing ahead of us at Philly. After 40 minutes they offloaded us on a transport at a remote parking terminal and then dropped us near customs. At which point my connection was to have left 5 minutes prior. Breezed through immigration and then waited for bags praying connection was delayed. Picked up bags at 9:49(Flight was to leave at 9:30) ran through customs, guy did not hassle me but was opening a ton of bags. Grabbed the girl at US Airways counter and practically tossed the bags to her as I found out my flight was leaving at 10:02. Scrambled down runway as the gate was a long ways away and had three hits of a cigarette as I ran through some bar on the way to terminal C. Got onto the plane with 3 minutes to spare. Landed in Chicago and chose to drive through the night as bad weather was due in.
OVERALL Hedo II for me was heaven. I needed to relax and infinitely enjoy myself. Unlike many people, the big worry when I was there was letting down my hair too much. I set limits for myself so I didn't lose myself in the decadent culture of the wind, water, waves, air, and feel that is intrinsically Hedo. I can tell you that going to Hedo is a lot like magic. What you put in you get back ten-fold. It's a place where two women who only met 2 hours before can hug naked in a hot tub and it's not sexual. It's a place to let your hair down and dance naked under the moon, to meet some great people(even if I am horrible with names) and have an unforgettable trip. Did I notice that the food was not perfect or that there was a bit of paint peeling on my wall or that the shower temperature changed a wee bit. Sure. But it sure as hell did not affect my mood or my attitude. It's all what you make of it.
***Photos to come, developer messed up.***
mierin kajira@ameritech.net http://www.ameritech.net/users/kajira/mierin.htm
See you all for Wet Wild and Wicked July 2001