TRAVELWITHZOE

On my second day in Jamaica, I wanted to go and explore a random area so I took a bus to Downtown Kingston with a girl and a boy from the hostel I’m staying at in the centre of Kingston. People had said it’s a kind of hectic/dangerous place and some people had recommended that I shouldn’t go there.

We took a bus from Half Way Tree bus terminal which is a huge transport hub walking distance from where I’m staying. The JUTC buses go from there which are the official big buses here (as opposed to route taxis – taxis which work a bit like buses… and coaster buses – minibuses which work a bit like buses).

I find the JUTC buses to possible be the easiest option of public transport in Jamaica because in the terminal there’s actually a sign saying which stand you need to wait at for which destination, and there’s an information desk if you need any more help, so it’s quite easy to find the right bus. Having said this, all the types of public transport are quite easy in Jamaica because there’s always somebody who will help.

You pay when you get on and the fare for my bus was 100jmd (equivalent to 1 US dollar). I think this is similar for most routes. They stop a lot of times along the way and you just press the red button when you want to get off.

To go to Coronation Market, just find a bus with the destination ‘downtown’.

If you get one that goes the fast way, it’s only about 15 minutes away, but if you get one that goes a long route (like we did accidentally), it takes more like 35 minutes. You’ll be able to tell when you reach downtown because there are loads of street vendors selling clothes and food (Coronation Market).

If you have a local sim card with data, you can just follow on Google Maps to make sure you get off at the right place. Google Maps also actually tells you which buses you can take if you select the ‘public transport’ option when looking for a route from A to B.

As soon as we got off, I saw my favourite type of man – a jelly coconut man! I wasn’t sure how much jelly nuts should cost here, but he charged me 100jmd which seemed reasonable.

I later found out that 100jmd is the standard price, so that was good.

We walked down the street that seemed to have the most things for sale, and loads of people stared, shouted or spoke to us. Some were boys shouting things like “WHITEY!” to me and the other girl. Some were simply trying to sell us things (fair enough), and some wanted to know where we were from and what we were up to (also fair enough).

Also, the moment we would take out a phone or camera, local guys would start posing and shout “snap me!”. Sometimes this resulted in a friendly conversation happening after, or sometimes they turned out to be a bit annoying.

This guy seemed quite friendly and after trying to sell us cold water, wanted to take a selfie with me. It was quite funny.

I knew you aren’t really supposed to take out your phone in Coronation Market but sometimes I find it’s worth it because I enjoy documenting my travels.

From what I understood from these random conversations with people, the main market day is Saturday, and even during the week it’s quite packed, but we went on a Sunday which is the day when no one really goes, which may be why people noticed us so much, because the streets were quite empty. This also meant that the inside part of the market wasn’t open that day.

This lady who was selling fish told us we should stick to the main market street and not walk any further down (in the direction of Tivoli Gardens). She said there are often gunshots further down.

I found that the atmosphere felt fine, not particularly intense or anything, but it’s always a strange feeling to feel like everyone is looking at you so much!

As well as the stalls, there were mobile vendors like the snow-cone man:

We took the bus back from pretty much the same place we got off at, and we just asked a market vendor which numbers we could take and where exactly we should wait for it.

After writing this article, I went back to Coronation Market lots of times on different days, and it’s definitely more fun on weekdays and Saturdays in my opinion. The atmosphere is really lively with so many different people trying to sell different things. Obviously in such a busy place, you do have to be careful with your phone etc., and it’s also recommended to avoid wearing gold chains there. I find it’s a great place to shop for clothes and fruits/vegetables and to support local vendors and experience Jamaican culture.