Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Who would wear that?; Dana Walks Through Restaurant in Bikini; Crew of Madness joins Mud People Tribe

Who would wear that? I am sure that you have asked yourself that question from time to time when you receive the Victoria's Secret catalog and there is a breezy satin blouse cut down to the navel, or an impossibly low bikini.

Well, we now know the answer: French women on vacation. That is who would wear that. Possibly French women, on vacation or not.

It is really rather nice to observe, and because it is prevalent, it does not seem overly suggestive or self-conscious.

And it affects your fashion outlook. While she was here, Dana walked through a restaurant in nothing but a bikini. Yep, it's true. No wrap, no self consciousness, just walked right through.

I suppose this was not just the result of the fashions. Three times we walked down the beach following a 50 something year old "naturalist" wearing nothing but a satchel over his privates. Ridiculous. As I have said before the nudity is pervasive, and I decided to give Dana the shock treatment when she got here and take her right to Orient Bay.

When you sail into Orient Bay as Dana and I did, you have to land your dinghy on the extreme south end of the beach. This means that you have to pass through the naturalist beach to get to the semi-clothed beach. There is a sign prohibiting cameras on the beach. As If. I didn't really need to see this in the first place, much less remember it. None the less, it does affect your standards. When we went ashore, I predicted that the shear modesty wrap that Dana carried with her to conceal her bikini would not be needed for long, once she saw French women wearing the same shear wrap with no bathing suit underneath things would seem different. She thought not. SoI have to say that I enjoyed pointing out to her that she had just walked through a restaurant without the wrap, just the bikini. "Hmm, I guess I did..."

After Orient Beach, we went on to Tintamar, an uninhabited island off of the uninhibited coast. Tintamar is known for its fine beach, reef, and mud baths. That's right, just like in the salon, you can smear yourself with fine clay, let it dry on you, and wash it off in the sea. It is what society
people do. Plus, when we asked the owner of the restaurant on Orient Bay about the practice she said: "wey (OUI), you must do eeet, you rub mud on your self unteeel you look like a big sheeet, and then wash it away" I really do not think I misunderstood her. With an description like that, how could you pass it up?

Once on Tintamar, we followed a couple from St Barts along the shore, since we did not know what the clay looked like. They led us to a place beyond the end of the sandy beach, where the fossilized coral that formed the island met the sea abruptly. Climbing just a few meters above the surf on a ledge, we found layers of a very fine, dense hard clay for the taking. Well the
taking was not all that simple, we had to go back to the boat for a hammer and a bucket to make up some mud out of what was essentially yellow brick. We laughed a lot applying the mud (See photos). It really felt like we were victims of a hoax. It was not all that pleasant; kind of sandy. But after it dried, it did feel great coming off. It really felt silky smooth, and your
skin felt clean and smooth even right after getting out of salt water. Emily asked Dana later whether she had used it on her hair (she had not). "ees majeek" We are having a ball. More later. Off to live music now.