Being in this hotel is really disturbing sometimes – especially at dinner. All these rich white people being served by poor black people… sometimes you feel that you’re in the wrong century. And it’s not just a visual thing. The other day a tourist dropped a glass, which shattered. OK, shit happens. But the way in which he didn’t even acknowledge the existence of the staff members who came to clean it up, didn’t seem to be sorry, didn’t even seem to think that anything had happened, was truly disturbing. And that isn’t the only example of such behaviour.
You know what else is odd? The French. They seem to be running their own colony-within-a-colony. We think of it as the French Quarter: a whole area of the hotel full of French people, French travel agency adverts, and activities in French for the French. The rest of the hotel is perfectly mixed, but not that area. Really, really odd.
The French are also incredibly loud. It’s tragic to see a stunningly beautiful beach, otherwise quiet and not overcrowded, be completely ruined by group of French people and their “animateur” yelling and pretending at sports. And, even worse, listening to dreadful “music” so loudly you can hear them at the other end of the beach. In fact, nearly every time there is noise somewhere, you can bet it’s the French.
Of course there are also nice French people. My cousin married one of them. But they’re not in this hotel.
