By Reuben Taylor Phillips

In June 2008, I went to the country of Jamaica for my holiday. I went there for two and a half weeks with my mom. I had to wake up at four in the morning to get to the airport on time. It was my first time flying from Birmingham airport and for me my holiday started when we checked in at the airport four hours before the flight.

So, I had to kill four hours. I thought that would be very hard UNTIL I saw the Dixons store with a ps3, Fifa 08 was the game and I met this boy already on the Playstation, his name was James and he was flying to Canada with his family. I played him at Fifa and of course I beat him. I also played mini golf on this machine and I won a fiver! Not bad for a 12 year old.

It was about 9:30am in the morning and time to board the plane; I got a window seat right at the front of the plane. I was very happy as I found the TV in the back of the seat in front of me. When we took off it was quite wet in Birmingham and only about 13 degrees, quite cold for England but then I remembered… it was ENGLAND!!

In the air I must have watched the same episode of top gear fifteen times, plus I watched a film called Drillbit Taylor, which made me laugh for about five hours of the flight. My mom just kept listening to music including Bob Marley, Take that and Stevie Wonder. The actual flight was 9 hours 45 minutes.

When we touched down I was still wearing a jumper because of the English weather, but then one of the cabin crew opened the door and you could feel the 39 degree YES 39 degree weather! We landed at Montego Bay airport at about 2:30pm local time. I was sweating buckets and that was just by the airport!

We stayed in an area called Trelawny (WHERE USAIN BOLT COMES FROM!) about 40 minutes from the airport, but right by the sea. On the way there I noticed a massive, rusty ship that later on I found was used in the slave trade 200 years ago.

We stayed at a four star hotel called the starfish Trelawny; we were complemented with a nice cold drink THANK GOD. I love to play pool so as soon as I saw four pool tables in the lobby I knew this would be action packed holiday for me.

One of the main reasons for my holiday to Jamaica was to see some of my family who I had never seen in my life before, some of them lived in an area called Racecourse and others lived in another place called Moehill. I stayed four days and four nights out of the hotel to spend time with my family.

I went on a few trips whilst in Jamaica; one of them was the world famous Dunns River Falls. It is a waterfall that you can climb, known also as the Niagara of the Caribbean. It’s undoubtedly the most popular tourist attraction in Jamaica. Located in Ocho Rios, Dunn’s River Falls is a dramatic 600-feet drop of cascading water it’s one of national treasures in the island. They attract thousands of visitors every year. The visitors carefully climb up limestone cascades, hand-in-hand like a human daisy chain. The professional guides are very knowledgeable and will ensure your comfort and safety at all times. It was a great experience climbing it, pretty tiring as well.

Back at the hotel every Sunday night the hotel ran a pool competition from 9pm to 1am. On the first Sunday I came second out of about 64 people who participated. In the final I played the under 18-pool champion of U.S.A. (IT’S THEIR SPORT HOW WAS I MEANT TO WIN?).  But on the second Sunday I won the tournament due to some great play if I do say so myself, Ronnie O’Sullivan couldn’t handle me on that night.

Another trip I went on was Y.S Falls in St Elizabeth with my mom and her friend Joy, who had moved to Jamaica a few years before. Y.S Falls was not as tall as Dunns River Falls but the tide was a whole lot quicker, l almost got swept away but I just held on.

The holiday for me was the best holiday I have ever had, it was the perfect hotel and the best possible trips, plus I played POOL, POOL, POOL!!