Beautilful Caye Caulker with bad feelings

we've just spent some days on caye caulker and were amazed by the beauty and relaxed groove of this island!
but we ended up rather running away from it...
1st day a guy walking past dropped his marihuana underneath our table just when the police came driving along the beach. after two hours of talking to the police officer on duty we managed not having to spend a night in jail and having our passports sealed!
2nd day our clothes got stolen from the balcony in front of our room
3rd day we wanted to book a sailing trip. payed the requested amount and found out shortly after that our boat had shrunked from 45ft to 30ft, the group had increased from 8 to 15 people! after seeing the boat, we decided not to go (for safety reasons), but didn't get any of our money back!

so, enjoy it there, but watch out & better don't book any trips with little kitchen tours!

let me guess english isn't your first language.
Next time
1. Hide your pot better. Seems stange that the police just driving up the beach happened to see your stash under your table.
2. Never leave clothes where someone can get em, or wear stuff so ugley no one would want them.
3.Never pay for any trip without seeing the equipment first, its not a cruise line, pay with a CC so you have a way to get your money back.
4. Don't trash your competition, by writing phony reviews.

Bad reviews by first time posters typically get this sort of reception....but I think this one's probably genuine (anyone whose real purpose was slagging the competition wouldn't have bothered with all the rest), and by an English-speaker. Scams involving real or fake cops and planted drugs are common everywhere, and if you haven't ever turned your back on clothes drying on a line you're a far more methodical traveler than I. In fact, I just had a pair of shoes stolen from their perch atop my motorcycle while I napped in the shade not ten feet away; it happens, no doubt.

The common statement that "you can get your money back" using a credit card isn't necessarily true, either. Credit card issuers are not bound by US or European rules when charges occur in foreign countries. Sometimes they'll honor contested charges, sometimes not. Plus, at least in the places I tend to travel, credit cards are seldom accepted. I don't know how things are in Caye Caulker these days (probably changed a bit since I was last there in the early 90's), but I remember paying for day cruises only in currency. I remember boats which seemed to have shrunk and menus with missing meals, too.

Just a few thoughts, for those who sound a bit over-eager to pile on the newbie.

Mark

(from somewhere in South America, heading slowly northward)

name of place where clothes stolen from balcony?
name of establishment where marijuana dropped under table?
more about little kitchen tours? i saw nothing of LK but a restaurant, 2 yr ago.
the boats sound like raggamuffins. where was the sailing trip to? hwo much money did you lose?

Is the Thailand or Cambodia branch?

#2
I thought I was being nice...Everyone is so serious.!
I my town they would have taken the bike and left your shoes.
My point was to be more heads up and not do careless things..
When you rent a room do you just pay or do you look first?
I have paid for many outings with whatever the local currency is, be it a boat trip,quads ,jeep, or airplane. and yes I do look before paying.
Not even going to touch the CC issue, I know for a fact they do refund.

The points you missed are
They didn't name the restaurant where the drug dropped happened.
They didn't name the hotel/hostel they were staying at.
But they did name the tour company. Seem strange?

#4 do you want it to be?

No problem with what you said....but I think the post was probably genuine, if naive, and by a native English speaker. Maybe not.

You may know anything under the sun for a fact, but I've had a bank refuse to allow me to contest a charge because it was made in India. The rules do not necessarily apply in other countries. I've also successfully contested fraudulent charges a couple of times. It varies by issuing bank, the whims of the customer service departments, and probably according to other factors. Hope your luck continues to serve you well.

Mark

Ouch!...thats a run of crap for any vacation!

This post has been removed because it may not have met our community guidelines.

Ever notice how these types of posters never contribute anything else, Can't be the reception here, most all of us have been flamed or slagged one time or another, yet we continue to post.
Thats why I think they are faking it and if they aren't then
I agree with #8.

Edited by: peej

i think i read the guy went on that tour with little or (lill) kitchen tours.

we've just come back from cc and had exactly the same experience, signed up with ragamuffin tours, in fact pretty much based our holiday around it, when we arrived in cc we were told there were not enough people so the trip was cancelled....didn't tell us when we reserved our places that there is a minimum amount of people and that they were under it but hey ho!

on the way back we stopped in at another tour operator on the beach and were told that mr roy runs exactly the same tour but for less people, perfect we thought.

she rang him up and he appeared 10 mins later.

we asked him all the usual stuff, how long is the boat, is there a toilet, is there somewhere to get out the shade, 30ft, yes and yes were the answers.

great, we paid the $300 each! and agreed to meet on the sunday to give him time to go shopping.

sunday arrived, we met him on the west of the island and were presented with a 24ft fishing skiff, the thing was literally falling apart!
not much we could do as he's apparently bought the food etc... so we sucked it up and agreed to go.

basically he's probably spent €50 MAX on food, 1 bottle of rum, no beer, some water, few bottles of fizzy stuff.

my mate and me could bear it, i do a bit of sailing and my mate is used to roughing it but our girlfriend certainly weren't.

3 days and 2 nights it took, we went to one island with nothing on it, not even a toilet (which he said there would be), next night we went to bali ha which was amazing and run by the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. without this and the fishing. i caught a baracuda and mackerel, which he used to feed us for the 3 days! the whole thing would have been a complete nightmare.

the guy didn't care one bit, proper con job!

left us in the backstreets of belize city as he wouldn't drop us to the marina of the hotel we were staying at, even though the princess hotel is actually on the way back to caye caulker for him.

oh, also he brought on an ice box so we could put our drinks in it etc... 2nd night we go to get our girlfriends some ice for their drink.....he'd gutted a baracuda and dumped it in there!

i can laugh about it now but it truly was hideous.

if you hear of the lill kitchen tours..........RUN A MILE!!!

Same wolf different sheep clothes

whats that supposed to mean?

are you saying that anyone that says anything negative about a business is automatically a competitor?

i think you'll find i was not happy with Ragamuffin either!

on hindsight we should have asked to look at the boat but that does not take away from the fact that we were lied to repeatedly.

dan

Uh, send me $300.00 per person and I'll explain it you you.
Really did the OP elaborate?

wow you really are a complete idiot, i posted because i thought people would want to know what has happened to save someone else from being ripped off.
i don't go on forums much but there are always the same jobsworths on there that comment on other peoples posts whether they have something constructive to say or not, typically a couple of sentences that have no relevance to the topic.
congratulations, you fit the role perfectly.

you've posed 612 times which either means you do offer constructive advice or are a very lonely person who has nothing better to do than abuse people on forums. posters can make their own minds up.

acually the relevance is this:
you go to a stange country and having been giving bad service to one sightseeing outfit you turn to another and give a total stranger $300.00 per person cash, times how many in your party, sight unseen? And I am , as you put it the "Idiot"?

Actually, neither of you is looking very good right now. I do more than my fair share of ranting on these forums, but I've begun to notice that it doesn't accomplish much--it merely pisses people off, who then rant right back in return. In the end, no one listens, which defeats the purpose in posting in the first place.

My own take is that two different people have posted bad reports about the same (I think) outfit. Neither sounds to me like the other, and neither sounds to me like a fake. On the other hand, nothing's certain in this world, and I've sure been wrong before. But if my first post on a forum met with that sort of welcoming committee, I'd not bother coming back either. Doesn't prove much.

Mark

(from Brasilia, a surrealist's dream city)

Peej, you're missing a few vital points here. Most important, even if you're right about any and all posters on this thread, you still sound like a petulant little child. Making someone else out as an idiot doesn't make you seem any less so yourself. That's one of the secrets of adulthood.

Notice that I'm susceptible, too. I think I'll step away for a while. Please fire at will.

Mark

they should have gone to Panama sailing with Tony Santos on the Andiamo (www.theandiamo.com). It's cheaper and nicer than ragga muffin.

#17
I caught it from this forum.
Haha!

Mark, i agree with some of your points, i took this forum as somewhere travellers can post relevant topics, we got the ragamuffin from the lonely planet guide which turned out to be helpfull if not a tad out of date, (2 of the restaurants in belize city that were recommended have actually been closed for a while).
However, you are totally correct in that this was my first post and being met with someone basicaly saying ha ha your an idiot and are also probably not who you say you are is frankly bemusing but i suppose thats the nature of the beast.
Peej you've posted a few times and so far not said a thing that may actually help someone looking for a boat tour from caye caulker. I dropped $300 on a bad tour, hey ho i'll live, i think it's worth posting though, so people can go to caye caulker informed.

Dan

Eddy, Xiuhcoatl and I did Raggamuffin on Jan of 2008 and 9. In 9, two boats were required. Must be a seasonal thing. good thing about them is you dont pay till youve seen the boat. You show up at their hut at 7ish for briefing and baggage stashing, and pay that morning. You can actually see the boat and provisions. Thank you d4nny and tinel for exposing these jerks, despite your low posting status. Incidentally, some of the biggest jerks on the forum have the highest postings number.