Key West Travelogue - 1

Okay, so here's the deal. I've been intending to post about my Key West experience for quite sometime now. The delay happened because I hadnt uploaded the pics from my camera onto the PC. Once I'd uploaded the pics, there was another delay because I had to select a few good pictures from the pictoral plethora in my camera. And I had to have then properly renamed to describe the picture. This is based on the genius mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss' motto - pauca sed matura , which means Few, but ripe. So here goes.

I made the trip to Key West during the weekend of March 16-17-18. I had booked a rental car from Avis weeks in advance and also, I had made a dorm bed reservation at a youth hostel for 2 nights at USD 25 per night. The logic is, I just need a bed to sleep and a bathroom to take bath, other than that, I'll be just roaming around so no point in spending money in a swanky hotel room.

You might think that the name KEY WEST is strange its originated from the Spanish words Cayo Hueso. You might want to read up a little more about Key West here. Also, Key West is not the only key. There are a string of islands (called Keys) which lead up to Key West. They are the famous Florida Keys. You can read about it here

Key West was and to a certain extent still is a complete party town. It was a spring break paradise. Earlier, during the spring break months, this small island in the Gulf of Mexico was a haven for drunken guys and half nekkid women. Sleaze thrived by the dozen here. More recently (read - ever since the millennium), due to complaints of objectionable behaviour by the local public, the local police have started to regulate underage alcohol consumption and public nudity. Of course this isn't the only reason why I went to there. The island is very beautiful and the drive even more.

I left on Friday the 16th at around 6:00 pm. Although, the distance between Fort Lauderdale (the city where I used to stay while in Florida) and Key West was just about 180 miles or so, the drive usually takes about 4-5 hours. One reason for that is more than half of that distance (i.e. a distance of around 100 odd miles) is on a narrow stretch of US-1 with just one lane on either side and very few areas to pass the vehicle ahead. The other reason is that you are almost always bound to be stuck behind a truck towing a huge boat on this narrow road.

I arrived at my hostel at around 10:30 pm, parked my car outside and checked in. The dorm room which was allotted to me had about 3 bunk beds and there was a shower-cum-toilet shared between two such rooms. I asked the attendant about activities to be done in Key West and also about the party scene. Apparently, Key West thrives at night especially during the weekend. There are many bars pubs restaurants and night clubs. So I hit it out right away.

Duvall St. was the main street where all the pubs and clubs were located, I was told and it was just couple of blocks away from the hostel. So I decided to walk. Walking along Duvall st. in party clothes was one heck of an experience. I saw that almost everyone was in beach clothes - shorts and half sleeved shirts or T-shirts with flip-flops and the pubs and clubs did not impose any clothing restrictions. Each pub/club was overflowing with people and playing loud music trying to outdo the neighbouring pub/club. And then I saw this huge crowd outside this club called Rick's and decided to go in.

It was nearing midnight and I got a drink and was standing close to the bar and suddenly one announcer guy announced that they shall be beginning a "Wet T-Shirt Contest" soon. I was bamboozled. I'd only seen stuff like this in movies and here I am in Key West watching one happen right before my eyes, I was lascivious.

There were 15 skimpily dressed girls who stood in front of the audience and the announcer said each of them will be drenched in ice-cold waters (neck down) and they will have to dance in front of the audience and the top 3 audience favourites will win 500, 300 100 USD each. The announcer also made it clear that the girls can take their tops off if they wanted but shouldn't show their bottoms. The announcer also told the audience not to boo any contestant, because it required immense courage on the part of the girls to perform such an act.

Soon the contest began and the girls began to do their thing and the audience cheered. I shouted too. You might think that the contenders would have been student girls in their 20s. While the majority of them were, there was also a 35 year old mother of two and a 50-odd year old grand-mom. Wowww...I was spellbound. I was thinking boy...this country sure is absolutely crazy. After the first round of water drenching, 5 contestants were eliminated and 10 remained including the 50 year old. The 35 year old was through to the 2nd round but apparently forfeited. Most of the contenders took their top off in the second round including the 50 year old and the some who didn't do it got eliminated.

The final round had 5 contestants, the 5o year old being one of them. It got me thinking, what could be the motivation for these girls to do it? Is it money? Do they get aroused by exhibiting their body? Has somebody "dared" them to do such things? Anyways, this apart, I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it. Finally it turned out that a busty 24 year old student from NY won the 1st prize, the grandma came-in 3rd.

After the contest was over, I started to get a few drinks and danced around until the bar got closed at 03:00 am. I was quite sloshed and thanked myself for the decision of walking and not driving to the club. Had I driven, I would've definitely been caught for drunk-driving. Thankfully, my sense prevails in such circumstances and I always make it a point, not to be caught in the wrong side of the law. I reached the hostel at about 03:30 and just hit the sack.

I might not even have slept for 10 minutes when suddenly I realized somebody is shaking my leg. Startled, I woke up and it was a guy from the adjacent room. He told me what I'd been told by my room-mates, friends and my family. He said you snore too loud. I apologized to him and told him to hit me whenever I start to snore. I started to sleep again and in another 15 minutes or so, I felt something hit hard on my leg. I woke up again aghast and saw the same guy. I apologized once again and slept. This time I ensured I slept light which is equivalent of not sleeping at all.

I saw day break, I saw other people getting up from their beds and also saw what I was praying to happen. The guy who had hit me previous night was checking out. I was so relieved seeing that, I didnt realize when I'd fallen asleep. When I opened my eyes again, it was bright outside. I checked the time, it was about 11:00 am. At least I had gotten decent sleep, at least I still had the energy to roam around. I started to get ready and was eager to see how this party town looked like during the day.

(Continued here....)