Page 24 - ATA JUNE 9,2015
P. 24
Aruba’s Social Column “Bati Bleki” by Rona Coster June
8th, 2015
Posted by Aruba Daily on June 8th, 2015
VILLA ROYALE HOSTS A PARTY. The hilltop
villa in the Kamay Hills, with the magnificent million dollar view over the island, hosted a party
this weekend to introduced itself to local party-goers. Mirla Passchier put the event together for
Rene Van Norel, in collaboration with Romar Trading and its star bartender Erick Bustamante,
and White Modern Cuisine, chef Urvin Croes and his crew of talented young cooks. As you can
imagine, this was a formula for success with a great guest list, delicious cocktails and designer
finger foods. The villa is astounding. If you have $10.000 lying around, you may invite me for a
five-day weekend, that’s the minimum rental period at $2,000 a day. The place boasts 8
bedrooms, and a giant dining room seating two-dozen people for dinner. Gina Heyliger required
steel nerves and some alcohol to raise a couple of show Arucars from the garage level to the villa
entrance with a fork lift, suspended over the glass partition and the outdoor lamp. How she gets
them down again, says Mirla, I don’t care, I will not stick around for that stressful exercise. More
info https://www.facebook.com/villaroyalearuba?ref=hl
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY. Music from the movie, please: tralalalala, la-la-la.
The drama unfolding on Palm Beach regarding the upcoming sale of the Grande Dame, reads
like an Italian Spaghetti Western script. The Good wants to save the little frontier town, keep
everyone employed and drive the menacing raiders out. The Bad wants to turn the town into an
oil field, get rich by digging wells, exploit the purchased land to the max, and to hell with the
locals. The Mayor is secretly hoping to get his hands on more money, but is embarrassed to
admit it, because he knows the Bad is unpopular with the town’s people, so he is posturing, being
upset with him. Then in order to appease the Good he also acts appalled, because after all, as the
Mayor of the town, keeping his job is his top priority. In the movies the Good always wins,
miraculously, but in reality, the Bad, deep-pocketed opportunist always rises to the top. Aruba is
blessed by a free market economy, and anyone has the right to sell anything, at his convenience,
to the highest bidder. And it is absolutely true that no one is overly concerned with what’s good
for island in overview. The all-inclusive beast might be hugely unpopular with taxi drivers and
restaurant owners, but it’s what mass-tourism wants, the ability to gorge on vacation, drink and
eat unbounded and unrestrained. While it’s a blow to Aruba’s upscale wannabe image, we have
known for a long time that the Riu giant lusted after the neighboring Radisson property. The
Westin came up first, now pac-man is getting ready to gobble-gobble one more. In general, the
Riu brand dominates beachfront landscapes in many Caribbean locations . They bring plenty of
new tourists on their own airline, and as long as they pay their taxes, Aruba will be fine with
23% all-inclusive tourist accommodations island wide, or from another perspective with 40% of
the EP hotels, offered as all-inclusive tourist accommodations.
INCOMING MAIL. I got great mail from a Bati Bleki reader, it goes the following: Last night
I struggled to get to sleep so I thought it was a good opportunity to catch up on some Bati Bleki
8th, 2015
Posted by Aruba Daily on June 8th, 2015
VILLA ROYALE HOSTS A PARTY. The hilltop
villa in the Kamay Hills, with the magnificent million dollar view over the island, hosted a party
this weekend to introduced itself to local party-goers. Mirla Passchier put the event together for
Rene Van Norel, in collaboration with Romar Trading and its star bartender Erick Bustamante,
and White Modern Cuisine, chef Urvin Croes and his crew of talented young cooks. As you can
imagine, this was a formula for success with a great guest list, delicious cocktails and designer
finger foods. The villa is astounding. If you have $10.000 lying around, you may invite me for a
five-day weekend, that’s the minimum rental period at $2,000 a day. The place boasts 8
bedrooms, and a giant dining room seating two-dozen people for dinner. Gina Heyliger required
steel nerves and some alcohol to raise a couple of show Arucars from the garage level to the villa
entrance with a fork lift, suspended over the glass partition and the outdoor lamp. How she gets
them down again, says Mirla, I don’t care, I will not stick around for that stressful exercise. More
info https://www.facebook.com/villaroyalearuba?ref=hl
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY. Music from the movie, please: tralalalala, la-la-la.
The drama unfolding on Palm Beach regarding the upcoming sale of the Grande Dame, reads
like an Italian Spaghetti Western script. The Good wants to save the little frontier town, keep
everyone employed and drive the menacing raiders out. The Bad wants to turn the town into an
oil field, get rich by digging wells, exploit the purchased land to the max, and to hell with the
locals. The Mayor is secretly hoping to get his hands on more money, but is embarrassed to
admit it, because he knows the Bad is unpopular with the town’s people, so he is posturing, being
upset with him. Then in order to appease the Good he also acts appalled, because after all, as the
Mayor of the town, keeping his job is his top priority. In the movies the Good always wins,
miraculously, but in reality, the Bad, deep-pocketed opportunist always rises to the top. Aruba is
blessed by a free market economy, and anyone has the right to sell anything, at his convenience,
to the highest bidder. And it is absolutely true that no one is overly concerned with what’s good
for island in overview. The all-inclusive beast might be hugely unpopular with taxi drivers and
restaurant owners, but it’s what mass-tourism wants, the ability to gorge on vacation, drink and
eat unbounded and unrestrained. While it’s a blow to Aruba’s upscale wannabe image, we have
known for a long time that the Riu giant lusted after the neighboring Radisson property. The
Westin came up first, now pac-man is getting ready to gobble-gobble one more. In general, the
Riu brand dominates beachfront landscapes in many Caribbean locations . They bring plenty of
new tourists on their own airline, and as long as they pay their taxes, Aruba will be fine with
23% all-inclusive tourist accommodations island wide, or from another perspective with 40% of
the EP hotels, offered as all-inclusive tourist accommodations.
INCOMING MAIL. I got great mail from a Bati Bleki reader, it goes the following: Last night
I struggled to get to sleep so I thought it was a good opportunity to catch up on some Bati Bleki
