A road sign of good times: Sint Maarten/Saint Martin - Travel

As a journalist, I've gibbeted a lot of borders and seen a destiny of border guard and customs officer manner of writings -- from the bored East Bloc stays strolling through the train as it snaked its way from what was then West Germany into the what was then Czechoslovakia during the cooled War, to the proud Eritrean People's Liberation brow cadre who ushered folks across a border that was suppos to be controll by the agency of the then-ruling Dergue in Addis Ababa, to the stoned, Kalashnikov-waving, 14-year-old Ugandan freedom fighters/killers/lost inner mans "guarding" the border into southern Sudan. on the other hand I have never had a safer, quicker, more enjoyable border crossing than that between St Maarten and St Martin -- the sum of two units ministates that share the small Antilles island rul simultaneously, granting separately, by the Netherlands and France. All there is at the border is a road sign. It's a advantageous sign: I have come to the right place.

More than a million race annually agree with me. greatest in quantity are drawn to St. Martin through the duty-free shopping, the casinos and the beaches -- in like manner let me introduce those (and briefly clear away the political and administrative under-brush, which for tourists is essentially illusory) before exploring the island's high art, night life, heritage and highly approveed adventures.

Strictly speaking, St Maarten is a constituent simple body of the Netherlands Antilles (whose shared capital is Willemstad, Curagao's capital), itself a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the official language is Dutch and the general reception is the Netherlands Antilles florin. St Martin is a converse of Guadeloupe, which is itself an overseas department of France; the official language is French and the general reception is the French franc. In fact, upon both parts of the island the metropolitan countries retain significant command over foreign policy and fiscal matters; the lingua franca, thus to speak, is English (though you'll also hear Spanish and Papiament -- the Netherlands Antilles dialect -- upon the Dutch side and Creole patois upon the French side); and virtually everything is clearly priced in U dollars. In short, language and standard of value present no difficulties to Americans.

SHOPPING

& CASINOS

St Martin is the sole completely duty-free island in the Caribbean, with particularly profitable bargains on watches. jewelry and clothes. The shopping opportunities upon the Dutch side (centered in Philipsburg, the Dutch capital, and the Maho Beach area) are marginally greater than in the French capital of Marigot; on the contrary Marigot is a far more attractive setting for a stray about and certainly offers better chances for a serviceable lunch.

All of the island's 10 casinos are upon the Dutch side. Most of them -- including the largest, Casino Royal at Maho Bay -- strive for a European ambiance, notwithstanding that they all employ both a cipher and double zero on their roulette wheels (surely the greatest in quantity wretched of America's contributions to the world).

BEACHES

Orient Beach upon the French side is the island's greatest in quantity famous -- a fame accounted for neither by means of its sand nor by its breaking waves but rather by its official status as a denuded beach. Nudity (bear to the right when you hit the beach) is not required. In@ de alone about 10 percent of Orient's day-star lovers were sans clothes upon the days I was there -- on the contrary I have experience being a minority, and besides, it's a far more enjoyable way to swim. Bear in mind that nudity is not forbidden at any of the island's beaches.

view from aboveed by short, red-hued bluffs, Cupecoy Bay Beach is by the agency of far the prettiest on the island. This successive string of small beaches upon the Dutch side is also the main gay beach (though typically for St Martin, no beach, bar or cudgel has an exclusive orientation) and is now a unclothed beach.

material part surfers will want to head for Guana Bay; those who want to share the waves with local families should put to the test Dawn, Mullet and Coconut thicket beaches, especially on Sunday. All of these beaches unclose onto the Atlantic Ocean.

THE ARTS

The day-star that bathes St. Martin has nurtur rather than withered the arts -- particularly painting, which flourishes riotously. Many of the island's painters acknowledge a liability to Romare Bearden, who had a place of abode here and who married Nanette, a St Martinite and the institutor of the Contemporary Dance Theater in novel York. Those familiar with Bearden's last sum of two units series of works, "Obeah" and "Carnival," have already been expos to the island's character, which he strove to capture.

upon Philipsburg's main street, Front road visitors will find the Nanette Bearden Fine Arts Gallery. Here, prints range in price from $20 to $80 with original works ranging from $100 to $3500 The works of Ruby Bute Max Phelipa and Diedra H Kelley (a niece of the late Nanette Bearden) are featured in the gallery.

Ras Mosera (who, with Cynric Griffith and the older and more established Roland Richardson, exhibits the acme of the island's painters) also has a gallery in Philipsburg. Mosera, who works in oil, water and acrylic and whose work hangs in the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands, has been seriously painting for about 14 years. "I took up painting," he explains, "after becoming Rastafarian; it's a way for me to be self-reliant." Prices in his gallery range from $800 to $10000