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Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Jamaica. Aired 21:00-22:00p ET.
Aired April 22, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, PARTS UNKNOWN HOST: Nearly a year on the road, all those miles, all those airports, infinite variety of awful plumbing, it was time for something low impact. So, off to Jamaica.
This is the first time I've ever driven a car on the wrong side of the road, I mean knowingly. How hard could it be? Oh I get to pass on the right, too. Thankfully, we have a roll bar.
But this time a different angle, you probably know of Jamaica as a vacation paradise, but it's worth mentioning this is a divided country and it is has been in one form or another since the days of slavery. There's a small minority who control most everything and then there's the poorer, generally darker skin majority less connected, left out.
Jamaican cuisine, a lot of it, still reflects this conflicted story. Breadfruit, salt fish, this was slave food. Cheap, long-lasting, filling introduced basically as feed.
Day one, first order of business, get my, you know, some jerk chicken. Can you blame me? No. I think not. Oh that was good. Yeah, yeah, I know this routine, believe me. It's brown. It's murky and it burns, mommy. It burns.
And there are still all these years later, two Jamaicas. There's the Jamaica that most Jamaicans live in, cook in, struggle to survive in, the real Jamaica.
[21:05:00] Then there's the Jamaica which you're probably more familiar with.
But tourists have been coming to Jamaica for a long time, when this part of the island, particularly, Port Antonio, threatened to become an international jet set destination.
Local legend has it that Errol Flynn was shipwrecked here on his yacht in 1947 and promptly fell in love with the place. Before Flynn, it has been an empire of bananas. A huge industry that later become United Fruit. Bananas went out, tourist came in. The banana business eventually went elsewhere and when tourism shifted to the other side of the island with the construction of an airport at Montego Bay, well, that was pretty much it. The northeast coast was largely forgotten. It has the feel still of a forgotten paradise. There are those who believe that the area can come back and it must come back, that the future is in hotels and resorts and restaurants for wealthy visitors as it once was.
Take this place, for instance. The Trident Hotel, expensive, luxurious, best of all, I'm the only guest. Oh, did I mention it comes with a castle? What kind of person would own a building like that? Who? Why?
Then this man arrived and kind of answered that question. All of this belongs to Michael Lee-Chin, local boy turned billionaire, one of the richest men in the world and my host. He's invited me for dinner.
MICHAEL LEE-CHIN, OWNER OF TRIDENT HOTEL: We'll try some rum before we do some crabbing, right?
BOURDAIN: You're right. Yeah, that's sounds like a plan.
But first we need crabs for that dinner I'm told, caught in a traditional style. A drink is in order.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheers, man.
BOURDAIN: All right, cheers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's start crabbing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crabbing.
BOURDAIN: A lot of crab holes.
This time of year, Port Antonio was literally crawling with crabs. I am told it will be really easy. Just scoop up the little bastards and then it's back to the pool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony, you haven't seen any, right?
BOURDAIN: No, I'm looking, I'll launch at them. It's hot. I think is that rum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to take in the bush, you know.
BOURDAIN: It's sweltering, freaking hot, and dark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You finding something?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome, man.
BOURDAIN: But it doesn't seem to bother the hotel chefs who willing risk dismemberment for the sake of procuring a tasty dinner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them alive. We have questions to ask them. Where are your friends? BOURDAIN: Yeah.
One crab down, 49 left to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're down by 20, we've got to get some more tonight. So...
BOURDAIN: I'm, frankly, anxious to get this over with so when the opportunity rises to stick my paw down into a hole where there's probably a pissed-off crab, looking to clamp down my pinky with his pincers, I could careless.
Nothing. Nope, nobody home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ants. Damn it. I think I step on an ant nest.
BOURDAIN: Are those fire ants? Wonderful. Please attack my nutsack. Anything to get this over with quicker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's running...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you all right, man.
BOURDAIN: Good. And I don't want to kill the little guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it right there. Right on the left, right on the left, woah. Expert.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice one.
BOURDAIN: Next.
But seems like several sweltering hours later, it's mission accomplished and it's back to home base and time to get ready for dinner at the castle, followed by a party, I'm told.
LEE-CHIN: Do you recognize this, Tony?
BOURDAIN: I put this guy in a bag tonight.
I'm joined by billionaire Michael, his partner Jon Baker, music producer and hotelier, Jon's wife Nordia, Errol Flynn's grandson, Luke Flynn and his wife Sky.
[21:10:08] You grew up in this...
LEE-CHIN: Yes.
BOURDAIN: ... in this area. What was Port Antonio like in the '50s?
LEE-CHIN: Port Antonio was -- it was vibrant, banana, lots of wealthy tourists. So Port Antonio was a happening place.
BOURDAIN: You are a man with a diverse financial interest, banks, communications. As a veteran of 30 years in the hospitality business, why? Why would you do such a hard and probably unprofitable thing? I mean, usually unprofitable.
LEE-CHIN: You're being very kind.
BOURDAIN: It's a really (inaudible) ...
LEE-CHIN: Well, I thought you're smart, I thought you're brilliant but you behavior shows that you don't.
BOURDAIN: No, no. I know the answer. Are you a romantic?
LEE-CHIN: Great things can and will happen when you romanticize, you dream, you aspire, you see a vision and you settle to achieve that vision. Trident is here to catalyze people to come to Port Antonio and discover wow, wow, and wow again.
BOURDAIN: Where does it crossover where all of the things you love about this area, where all of the villas are spanking new and people are building 400-room hotels? Is there a threshold where things start to not be the things that you loved about the place in the first place and how do you guard against that?
LEE-CHIN: You know, Tony, Port Antonio is a long way from getting there. It has not progressed out of the '50s. It's had very little tourism in recent years.
BOURDAIN: Why isn't there lots of -- everybody loves reggae, everybody loves Bob Marley, everybody loves spicy, delicious Jamaican food. What is the problem?
LEE-CHIN: Because you don't get off a plane and go 100 yards to an all-inclusive. There is no rural lift here. You have to get here.
BOURDAIN: That simple, there's no....
JON BAKER, MUSIC PRODUCER AND HOTELIER: It's as simples as a lift and it is as simple as -- we're shrouded by the Blue Mountains and it's an effort to get here. So it filters out certain forms of travelers so we have to make it a little bit easier to get...
BOURDAIN: You get beat out by a lot of lame islands these days?
BAKER: Yeah.
LEE-CHIN: Yes, totally.
LUKE FLYNN, ERROL FLYNN'S GRANDSON: And even in Jamaica, lamer areas for me, I say if someone says I've been to Jamaica and they haven't been to Port Antonio, I'm like, oh really? You didn't get a real feeling of Jamaica.
LEE-CHIN: You can't go many places in the world and find natural beauty, people who are genuinely warm, where there's a strong culture of food, strong culture in terms of music. And at the same time, being able to be a part of a community and you can be a visitor without being a part of a tourist industry.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:18:01] BOURDAIN: Hello. During World War II, British Naval Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming came to Jamaica on a secret mission to investigate possible U-Boat activity. Like the legendary character he would later create, he was a spy. The mission came to nothing but Fleming fell immediately in love with the island and vowed to return, which he did, buying this place, GoldenEye. At the time considered, very Spartan, a cottage, a single room really, a few smaller rooms in the back but an incredible view. He spent much of the rest of his life here writing a book each year at this desk. You know those books.
Today, Fleming's cottage has been enlarged and made more luxurious as a hotel but the original house still stands along with some improvements. Bravo, aye? What did every young American boy want? Every red-blooded American male born in 1956, I could tell you, they wanted a grotto. It sounded pretty good to be at 12. As I got older, I started to think about this was like exactly who was in that grotto before me, it becomes more of a concern as you grow up. It's like did Ron Jeremy (ph) just leave the grotto? Am I the first one in the grotto? Did someone change the water in the grotto? These were concerns later in life, but this was it. I wanted a grotto, I still kind of do.
Thank you so much. This is totally better than the Playboy mansion. You know that the Playboy mansion totally smells like old man ear stink.
[21:20:05] The current owner of GoldenEye is another unusual man, Chris Blackwell, legendary music producer, turned hotelier.
Over the years, Blackwell has expanded the property into a resort. Its gates reaching right up to the fishing beach at neighboring Oracabessa. Blackwell has big plans of the area.
The next day, I leave GoldenEye's luxurious embrace, headed into town for something well, I just had to have, a long-time favorite.
BOURDAIN: What do we have here? Oxtail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah man. Curry goat.
BOUDAIN: Oh, sweet.
I don't care whether it's the Bronx or Kingston or wherever I can get it, oxtail, curried goat, callaloo, and of course rice and pigeon peas. Got to have that.
God, I love the food in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, man. The best.
BOURDAIN: It's such a mix.
African, a lot of people totally miss that, I mean curry goats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, man. It's...
BROUDAIN: It comes from the East Indies, what they used to call it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true.
BOURDAIN: Chef Precis (ph) cook shop has become something of a local institution, a thriving business in a town that's seen better days.
How long you've been up in here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been up in this little shop for 13 years.
BOURDAIN: 13 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, man.
BOURDAIN: The town changed in that time or stayed the same?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well right now, you know, we are in -- our economy's not been so good right now so.
BOURDAIN: Why not? It's one of the most areas in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, for real. We have a beautiful waterfront.
BOURDAIN: Beautiful weather.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, beautiful ladies.
BOURDAIN: Fantastic food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, what more could a guy ask for?
BOURDAIN: What do you think went wrong? I mean, why would people stop coming?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess the guys in the top seat mess it up, so they are trying to correct it now, you know.
BOURDAIN: It's expanding fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it is.
BOURDAIN: The town. And then they're going to be building all the way...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, all the way down there.
BOURDAIN: All the way around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, so...
BOURDAIN: So that's thousands of tourists?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, thousands probably. To be honest, I'm waiting for that moment. I don't want to... We really need that, you know, because this town was dying fast, real fast. So it's about, now, coming back and it's now booming the town. So, it's a good step in the right direction.
BOURDAIN: Thank you. Oh yeah, see now -- now I'm happy. That is just beautiful. Nice place to grow up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
BOURDAIN: What's the life being a kid?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My childhood days I used to spend it on a beach.
BOURDAIN: That's pretty good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: Who gets to do that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I guess only me and my friends.
BOURDAIN: But I mean do you ever take it for granted? Like you ever said -- do you ever get...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we do. We do.
BOURDAIN: You do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do. We do. See, and the thing about it when we really need it, that's the time we cant have it, you know? Because a lot of our waterfronts have been gone, you know, we have very little right now. You know, it's OK, we have Kingston Beach like 10 minutes walk from the house and so, at least we were one of the luckier ones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:27:18] BOURDAIN: It's inevitable of course, that next door to GoldenEye, there would be a James Bond beach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the Bond movies were conceptualized and written here.
BOURDAIN: When Blackwell heard I wanted to visit the local fisherman, he hooked me up with his good friend, Carl, to accompany me.
I'm here to hit Dr. Hoe's, a local rum bar where one can indulge in a typical hard working fisherman's breakfast, rum.
So we're drinking rum here? We're drinking beer? Are we drinking rum and beer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I know, it's hardcore.
BOURDAIN: But you're recommending just like some beer and some rum together.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Steel Bottom now, right? Then the one part of rum.
BOURDAIN: One, yup.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And four parts of beer. No water, no ice. Try that. The Steel Bottom, meaning it's none.
BOURDAIN: It's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. And you could take it in your dimension.
BOURDAIN: So who fishes here? Do you fish?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: What are you fishing for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, let me get it. It's multiple fishing.
BOURDAIN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will be your snapper, your pirate, your grunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
BOURDAIN: Right. So is business better these days or worse these days? OK, worse, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over fishing is a problem.
BOURDAIN: Oracabessa is a fishing village, for now at least. All throughout the Caribbean, fish stocks are in decline and making a living from the sea is getting harder and harder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So right here, it actually become a fishing sanctuary where we're trying to now revive the fish stock around the island.
BOURDAIN: So if this becomes a protected sanctuary, what are you going to do for a living?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, so they have to go farther out to sea for deep sea fishing.
BOURDAIN: That means more gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More gas, more economic (inaudible) less fish. So it's a stream, right?
BOURDAIN: Is there a future for the traditional fishing industry in Jamaica or do you think like every place else in the Caribbean, is it going to end up an entirely tourist economy? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to belong to the tourists. This place because (I think things) I live just up the road, lovely spot which, is on the coast, just like Chris Blackwell. And they're going to tell me that I cannot fish in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what is happening now...
BOURDAIN: And here's what I'm kind of getting at, rich people want to live what they see as a simple life. In their minds, they want to live the life of a Jamaican fisherman. So they want to live the life of somebody who doesn't have a lot of money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
BOURDAIN: But the people who actually do that now are given up their living and essentially entering the tourist sector. There's a certain amount of weird irony at work here. Who gets to live in paradise?
[21:30:06] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody because guess what...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got a point. And I'm like clearing the point (inaudible), right? There's a lot of things going on here, right? I write a piece of paper couple of months ago that's going on down here, right? Nature's here. There are no beach in a few months (inaudible).
BOURDAIN: This architect's model sits in one of GoldenEye's offices, showing what Oracabessa's coastline will look like if all goes according to plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to have an ID to come inside here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care about truth man, people kill for truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm telling the truth.
BOURDAIN: I'm no expert at local politics but whatever is going on here has clearly stirred up some strong emotions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See that street there, that street is school kids that have to go to school. They also want to own that lane. And they are still (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait up. Wait up. Wait up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait a minute, I'm talking here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait up. Wait up. Wait up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait a minute, Chris.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to stop talk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to stop...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to talk really...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, all right. Big man, stop talking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come here. Come here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go back, go back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, just sit down, you know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To order program to work, assuming you just kick back and be cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, I'll sit down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't expose yourself.
BOURDAIN: Which is better, to be your own man, uphold family tradition in a dangerous ever shrinking, ever more difficult business, trying to catch fish in the sea or carry a golf bag for a wealthy tourist. I couldn't tell you. I was in the service industry cooking people's food for most of my working life, so it's not like I have anything against it. But I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a joyous day. Let us find the spirit in man and travel to the unknown.
You think because we are here in the present that it just started. This has come in (inaudible) we don't have the unknown of the nothingness. And we are going to go on into the information into the celestial.
We are what is called astral travelers. Travel from dimension to dimension. If one man dies, all man did. If one man lives, all man live. Tolerance (ph).
One dog, one fall, one go, one puss (ph), one moon, one sun. It has to be multipurpose, you know, to sustain energy and life. So you have black, blue, green, pink, yellow, river, sea, mountain, birds, dogs, puss (ph), man. Everything it comes in none such. Everything is relative. The chair, the money, everything is connected to the universe. So if any one person does not realize how vulnerable we are within the changes of time, and we will not disappear, my brethren, is I and I.
(COMMERICAL BREAK)
[21:37:26] BOURDAIN: Who gets to live in Paradise? It's Jamaica. Let's accept as a basic premise that this is about as close to paradise as it gets, right? This place I'm staying was built by a guy who lived here two months out of the year. That place down there is probably the same, two months a year. Sad to say, I think it's unlikely that 50 years from now, anyone but the extraordinarily fortunate, the extraordinarily connected and the extraordinarily rich will be able to even look at a vista like this. That is my personal theory.
Look, here I am, fully aware of the irony of the situation. It's like the whole preservation thing. Who preserve for who? Save the reef for who? Save the beach for whom? Not you, probably.
Later that evening, Blackwell invited me to his private bar, just down the cliff from Flemming's old villa.
There are very few pieces of land anywhere on earth like this, especially with this kind of legendary status.
CHRIS BLACKWELL, FOUNDER, ISLAND RECORDS: Legendary status, yes, it's Flemming's, Bond's birthplace.
BOURDAIN: Chris Blackwell is the founder of Island Records. He is credited with discovering Bob Marley and spreading the gospel of reggae into the mainstream all across the world.
To the extent that one person could sort of be responsible for the soundtrack of your life, you are responsible for much of the soundtrack of my life. You signed Roxy music and Bryan Eno, both. Yes?
BLACKWELL: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Did you have any idea signing Bob Marley the extent to which his image, alone, would blow up to, you know, Che Guevara level?
BLACKWELL: Bob somehow managed to catch people in every corner of the world, different cultures, different societies.
[21:40:04] No, I never could have imagined. I don't think anybody could have imagined it. It's so unbelievable.
BOURDAIN: Having sold Island Records for a sum rumored to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Blackwell spends his time, well, doing whatever he wants. You have a number of hotel properties, rum business. What's the master plan? Or you're just having fun?
BLACKWELL: Well, always is to have fun is part of the master plan. You only live around at one time, so I'm very excited about here, what I'm doing here. I'm trying to break a little resort time, that's something that's focused into the town, focused into the parish, focused into the country.
BOURDAIN: Lately, the project at hand is the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary set up to protect the local fish habitat and breeding grounds. A noble cause but one that has put Blackwell squarely at odds with some of his neighbors. It seems to me that most people who come to Jamaica pretty much stay within the compound of, you know, sandals or whatever, and don't really get out there much.
BLACKWELL: It's a business model and that business model works well for people. The market that I'm going for are the ones on the high level in terms of a high cost level.
BOURDAIN: Is it in inevitability that basically all of the Caribbean's that it's essentially going to end up as a service economy?
BLACKWELL: Yes, I think -- yes I think mainly so and then it's based on tourism, it's based on people's -- it's tough balance.
BOURDAIN: The engine that's going to preserve or save is often dependent on who's coming to look and what they're willing to pay to come and look. Can there be a balance do you think, I mean can a place this beautiful be unspoiled, forever?
BLACKWELL: I think there could be a couple hundred places like this in Jamaica. As long as there are people who can go and spend some money in communities, go to a little restaurant, go to a little bar, go to, you know, a shop, that's essential for Jamaica to really thrive.
BOURDAIN: If life were a Bond film, who would you be in a Bond film?
BLACKWELL: Well, there's only one hero in a Bond film that's ...
BOURDAIN: Oh, you be the hero?
BLACKWELL: I have to be, yeah. I have to figure out about this.
BOURDAIN: I don't know who'd rather be villain. I'd be like number 17.
BLACKWELL: You know is unhappy ending.
BOURDAIN: Yes.
BLACKWELL: And the end is quite short, yeah.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:47:08] BOURDAIN: What we're all looking for, isn't it? The perfect beach? Remote, uncluttered by douchery, cold local beer. The perfect end to a long and well, bumpy road. Winifred's Beach is that beach, mostly locals a few clued-in visitors, white sand, clear, warm water, and of course local food.
CYNTHIA: This is ackee, Jamaica favorite dish. Typical in Jamaica we use it as a breakfast.
BOURDAIN: Cynthia and Dennis run this place and come highly recommended. I'm told this is the spot for the classic "got to have it or you ain't really been to Jamaica," ackee and salt fish. Salt cod, redehydrated and cooked with ackee, a local fruit that happens to be toxic if you don't handle it right. Now they say best ackee and salt fish.
CYNTHIA: In Jamaica.
BOURDAIN: Anywhere. And yeah, also some banana.
CYNTHIA: Delicious?
BOURDAIN: That is delicious.
CYNTHIA: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: Cynthia's friends, Joy and Marjory also have little restaurants or food stalls on the beach and they tell me that here too, it's in danger of redevelopment, that all these might disappear into ever turning wheel of well ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Winnifred Beach is a public beach. It has been one of the best beach in Jamaica. The beach was left to give the poor people of Jamaica.
BOURDAIN: So the government takes it over supposedly to make it a public space. But they want to sell it to a -- what a hotel group?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they want to make like a resort.
BOURDAIN: There are a lot of islands in the Caribbean where you're not allowed to own a beach, meaning all beaches are public, even if it's a really exclusive hotel at least theoretically, anybody can go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: Here it's different. Here if you could by a house and the beach. You can -- if you're a hotel, you can make it a private beach, meaning they don't let the locals on or vendors or any.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: They can keep people out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: So how many public-accessed beaches are there in this area?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just one.
BOURDAIN: Just one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This one, this one no more.
BOURDAIN: And that's it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... we have other beaches around. You know, we have like Blue Lagoon which is a private beach (inaudible) private and San San is private, so this is the only public one, you know.
[21:49:59] BOURDAIN: Yeah, what happens if I mean, that would be sort of ridiculous if Jamaicans can't go to the beach in Jamaica?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
BOURDAIN: There are two sides to every story of course, and the government for its part, claims locals will still have access to their beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't trust them. So we do not believe what they say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What they want to do. They wanted (inaudible) and like five, six, seven years, they don't do anything on it until (inaudible).
BOURDAIN: Right.
What kind of monstrous human being or organization would displace...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: ... the people from their own beach?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From our freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they take this away from us...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... we would likely are in prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because when time is hot, we would have nowhere to come and swim.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we, the people, we are in court with the government because we do not want them to take away the one and only beach that we have in Jamaica, Portland.
BOURDAIN: What do you think your chances are? Do you think your chances are good?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: You're going to win?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I've been fighting over seven years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We trust in the Lord.
BOURDAIN: Seven years?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In seven years. And I said I'm going to fight until I reach the top. When I reach the top and I lose, I feel much better. But I'm not giving up.
BOURDAIN: Let's face it. There are only so many beaches in this world, even fewer unspoiled beaches. And even fewer beaches like this.
I mean, that's one of the things that's nice about this area, is it's not a big resort area like some of the other parts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: And the food is amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Delicious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice food here.
BOURDAIN: You can't get this at the hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is not like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is so fresh.
BOURDAIN: Right. Really, really, really taste, I mean I -- I'm going to have to come back here like tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whenever people come here and they have problem, they go to the sea and they look over there in the ocean, and when they are finished, they never have a problem again. Just go right in the water and down. We got (inaudible) here. And I hope that the world can see what is going on at Winnifred Beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that they come out and enjoy the beauty of the beach, the nature of the beach, the people and the love of the beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:56:18] BOURDAIN: Next day, and I know where I'm going. Because you never know, because it may not be here that much longer, not like this anyway. Sun, sand, rum and ting, and some more food. Oh, yeah.
Hi. Wow. What a spread. I'm not going hungry today, beautiful. Thank you. I'm so excited.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
BOURDAIN: That is actually quite delicious. You're not missing out on starches. I mean, you get yam, plantain, breadfruit, rice, peas, corn, carrots, dumpling, festival.
Like the man said, eat dessert first, life is uncertain.
That's good. I knew I was coming back here. And it was a smart move to come back here. This place is (inaudible).
Point being the way world turns, the inevitable grind of history seems to indicate that places like this and people like this, get plowed under, pushed aside, paved over.
Who owns paradise after all? Who in the end gets to own paradise, use paradise or even visit it? That's a question that's probably worth paying attention to, before there's none left at all.
How do you do this and be a good person? I don't think you can. Like if you wanted to do this regularly for the rest of your life, I would like to spend three months out of the year in a hammock looking out at the Caribbean in a secluded beach like this. You'll have to do bad things to do this, right?
James Bond doesn't get this. James Bond's a hustler. He gets this for a couple of days before he moves on to the next location. The guy who lives here is the Bond villain, not James Bond.
Ian Fleming was much closer to like Blofeld or Hugo Drax. You know, these guys have lots of leisure time sitting around in hammocks, figuring out how to take over the world. Lot of downtime in the world domination. Bond was a working class. It's what I've been missing.
All right, go like summon the robot piranhas. Where's my cocktail?
