What's Your Best Tiki Experience?

I am on a quest for the perfect Tiki Bar. I want to know what goes into those places that become a vortex of happiness. The places you walk in to knowing no one with a plan to just have one drink and instead stay until closing time because you just can’t tear yourself away form the experience. I want to hear about the great places in this world to have a drink, hear a story and generally have a great and unexpected time. So send me you stories and comments. Here’s one of my best Tiki experiences…

It was Christmas Eve in Grand Cayman. I had just moved to Cayman to become a dive instructor. After nine years I had decided that the corporate life was not for me and as I always say, if you are going to burn out – go big. Run off to the Carribean and work at a job where you never have to wear shoes!

Anyway, back to the Tiki… It was Christmas Eve. Certainly not ideal to have just arrived in a new place knowing no one but you can’t complain too loud when that place has endless stretches of beach. So I walk from the apartment where I was crashing on the couch (with a bunch of 20 year old Australian beach boys) to the local beach bar, the Seaview to grab a bit to eat. I grabbed a seat at the horseshoe shaped bar. The bartender was friendly and made sure my beer was never empty. As I was finishing my dinner a couple of guys sat down next to me and we started talking…as you do when you are sitting under the stars on Christmas Eve on a Caribbean beach. (OK, truth be told as I always do, even on a random Tuesday night in October at a local dive bar).

The more talkative one was French Canadian and though I nodded and smiled and encouraged the stories (“Really? That’s hilarious! Tell me more!” giggle, giggle, hair flip) I must admit that I could only understand about every seventh word or so. Something about a brother and a snow storm…who knows???

The other one was a Scotsman who ended the night by playing “This Little Piggy went to Market” with my toes.

Around 11 pm the bartender passed out sheet music and one of the waiters pulled out a guitar and led all of us at the bar in Christmas carols. So on a night where I only expected to grab a bite to eat and go home, I end up with a bunch of new friends, closing down the bar singing Christmas carols. Does it get any better than that?

It was a good enough story that two years later in the wake of 9/11, that Scotsman was able to get a green card by telling a burly US embassy official in London that he had met his wife singing Christmas carols in a beach bar in Grand Cayman. No further questions. Visa approved.

That’s just one of my stories. I can’t wait to hear yours!