The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> Re: Farid Parhad

Re: Farid Parhad
Posted by beezelbub (Guest) - Thursday, July 14 2005, 16:35:13 (CEST)
from 24.205.227.160 - 24-205-227-160.ata-cres.charterpipeline.net Network - Windows 98 - Internet Explorer
Website:
Website title:

Maggie wrote:
>"..you mean tey ADDEc cobblestones? Have you been to Mismaloya...the beach just a bit north? There's a big fancy hotel there now but the small beach had a very old hotel made of bungalows once...if you've ever seen the Burton Taylor film of Tennesssee William's...Night of The Iguana"...it's set at that old hotel...when I first visited back in 85...I drove a Jeep down through Baja to La Paz and took the ferry to Puerto Vallarta...first time there...everything was Liz y Dick...Burton and taylor who together with John Huston made that sleepy town famous...anyway, I stayed the night at the Hotel Rio...on what was then the outskirts of town heading south...the next morning I drove out but stopped at Mismaloya for a beer...at the palapa bar there they have a TV set playing that film in a continuous loop...I'd seen it before but had my beer AND camarones as I watched...and there, in the scene where the bus drives through the town on the way to Mismaloya...Burton turns around to look back and you can see the sign and the Hotel...Hotel Rio...they haven't changed and probably never will. At that time the ruins of the hotel Burton and Ava Gardner played out their relationship was still there...now it's a huge eyesore...ah well."
>
>Yes, I know the place very well. I have it all on video. The whole legend of Mismaloya. It's nothing but a restaurant now. Ok food, but not great. The scenery is nice though. I have also seen the original house Burton bought for Lizzy, near the Guadaloupe church in down town Vallarta. I have also taken the tour of their house, where all Lizzy's stuff is still there, like a shrine. I like driving through to North beach and look at all the villas. I will look for the the Rio next time. I wanted to see an iguana, but there weren't any around. Very disappointing.

...I think they're around...but very far from all that tumult. We have them all over the place...run up the palms like squirrels...gorgeous critter.
>
>My sister and her husband are building a pent house now at the Shangrila. I stay at Porto Fino, their current condo, right next to the Marriott. It's called the Marina district, and it's gorgeous. I wanted to buy a house and live there permanently, but when I talked to the agents, they told me they are building new condos in Barra De Navidad, which is where I would rather be. That's what I was asking you about, not Vallarta.

...Oh. Whatever pleases you...for me the whole condo thing is so NOT a part of Mexico...besides, neighbors can be a rough slog. There are plenty of smaller houses for sale in Barra right now. I've wondered why Barra seemed to stop growing...there are several projects that have been on hold for years...I think there's a problem with drainage and their sewer system. Melaque smells much cleaner..and Barra has gotten run down and sort of dirty looking of late...but it still has great charm. It depends on how close to the center of things you want to be.

..Generally I'd suggest staying away from land developers...they talk a great game but you'll never get any follow-through on anything...unless you go for the super developers and then you'll pay royally for it...places like Careyes are gorgeous but the prices are too...it all depends on resources and what you REALLY want. ..I want to be as far away from people as possible. You might consider just getting the land and building...all sorts of ways to go.

The prices in Melaque have jumped as well...that's why it's best to do some digging..the easiest thing is to just sign on the dotted line...only later you'll find how much more tha cost you.

Five years back a beach lot in Melaque went for $60,000...today they're around $250,000. My ranch costs one tenth that and the palapa even less. Granted there are hassles in building your own...like I said, it's all a trade-off.

There are lots of places...tucked away around Barra where you can buy land from a farmer and get the locals to build you a house...that's what I did. In fact...a rancher with a lot of acreage and plenty of water showed me hills overlooking the beach he was selling dirt cheap...beautiful view...all the clean water you could want and he'd build the road. The entire area will be developed within the next few years..it's happening all over Mexico...foreigners are coming from all over and grabbing things up...but there are still great places they don't want now...which will be premium stuff later on.

If that's too isolated then you can settle closer to town. There's still the feeling of a Mexican fishing village to Barra, not Melaque. It's definitely worth looking into.


>
>when I'm in Vallarta, my sister and her husband always beg me to cook for their parties, and their friends go nuts over my food. They want me to open a place 'cause there's no Hummous, Tabouli, Falafel, kabobs, and hearts of palm salads, (my specialties.) But I don't know. Seems like it would be awfully expensive to import bulgar and tahini and all the other ingredients to Vallarta.

..not at all. These days trucks are constantly on the roads and they have everything there already...in San Miguel you can buy tahini and great pita bread...I ate at an excellent Lebanese restaurant in Guadalajara this time through...the owners came from Beirut only eight years ago...really good food but he said the Mexicans there were stuck on their basics...only sushi has taken everyone by storm...he mentioned opening one in Puerto Vallarta as well...a much more eclectic mix. Nothing...absolutely nothing beats the smell of kebobs! The entire Costa Allegre, where Barra is, needs new food desperately...that region is the beach of choice for the people from Guadalajara and gringos and Canadians fill it up in winter...I'd say look into it...never ASSUME!!!
>
>Have you been to Le Cliffe? It's an awsome place, but the food is not great. This place has six tears hanging over the cliff, and you feel suspended in the air.

...Yup, stopped there in the 80s too...strange feeling...hanging on the cliff face while you dine.

But my favorite place is La Palapa. Excellent fine dining, great music, always the same band. They set-up the tables with white tables cloths in the sand right on the beach. You can sit barefooted in the sand, and you can eat and watch the sunset. At dusk they light the lanterns on the beach and you feel like you are truly in paradise. That's my kind of place.

..haven't been to that one but the whole dining in the sand thing...which I've done at native restaurants all over the place is indeed a delight...you eat, drink and walk into the water...you should see the caimans at la Manzanilla...I never imagined they were so BIG!
>
>
>"..vvery little growth. The little sandbar is still cute...and the huge luxury hotel sits across the laggon entrance...they still have water taxis to take you around...seafood restaurants along the sand...I met a pal down there whose family owns their own island in the lagoon...great playground. Melaque, the twin city just a couple of kilometers up the coast isn't near as charming. But they're all too crowded for me."
>
>That's what I was asking you about. What are the prices like in Barra De Navidad.

...rent can be around $400 for a small place...but you can find deals all over..it takes digging around...if you breeze into town and onto the lap of a real estate agent, you'll pay maximum. A small house can cost as little as $150,00..and there is ALWAYS room for bargaining..as you know. Point is...the place WILL grow and develop...as much as you might think the prices are high now..or were cheap years ago..they'll only go up. But once you have a roof over your head..taxes are nill and the rest of your expenses are minimal. And you don't need to heat your house ever...and a fan is really all you need in the hot times...and there's always that delicious trade wind. DAMN...I feel like I'm in Turlock here too!!!
>
>>"maybe we can all meet for drinks on a beach somewhere. The place is a federal tortoise preserve so NO heavy development...so far I'm the only one...with miles and miles of pristine beach as far as you can see...ask Jeff."
>
>I'm ready whenever you guys are. By the way, who is Jeff?

...a delightful Chaldean fellow on this forum who's gotten a big head since he started his own business and REFUSES TO ANSWER EMAILS!!! But I knew him when he was a pup...Jackie befriended him over the internet...in fact I'm just about to post an old email she sent him..one of several, the one he felt he had to ask me about because of the things she alleged in it about me...his doing so...and keeping an open mind about our controversy led her to sue him for two million as well...
>
>
>"...I'm not there now...I'm close to San Luis Obispo finishing up an Assyrian sculpture, not Christian,"
>
>Nice DIG!
>
>"that I've been working on for over a year...brought it with me from Mexico...it's something they can't cast down there...way too delicate and detailed...so I have to be here till I can hand it over to the foundry for casting...then I'm OUTTA HERE."
>
>Where near San Luis Obispo? That's my old stompin' grounds.

...in Atascadero, just up the coast a bit....just up the coast
>
>"Oh my GOD!!! You're in TURLOCK!!!! Greater love hath no Assyrian than to spend a summer in THAT place."
>
>I left L.A. in 96 and moved to San Francisco. I lived on a house boat in Oyster Bay Marina, South City. After a year of waiting on a list, I still couldn't find a place. Zero housing available. I was forced to look elsewhere and went looking in Half Moon Bay. Then my agent told me about a house on the San Lorenzo River in Felton, (Santa Cruz Mountains). I fell in love with this 100 year old house hanging over the river, surrounded by the Redwoods. My house was all windows, and I couldn't move from the sofa because everywhere you looked out you saw a painting. But the long, cold winters got to me. I'm an L.A. girl, so my parents and brothers talked me into moving to Turlock instead of going back to L.A. My brother came to help me drive back to Turlock, and as we approached the city limits, I said, "brother, how can you stand the smell?" and he looked at me like I was a nut and said, "what smell?".

...central valley perfume. I've been in those Santa Cruz mountains...lived in a cabin overlooking Los Gatos...
>
>Now the cows are gone and Turlock is over-built, with more coming from the Bay area. It's a good thing I bought my house 5 years ago, 'cause the new homes they are constructing here start at $460,000. that's Turlock, hot and expensive, even though they grow the food right here. Food was cheaper in L.A.
>
>"Bingo?"
>
>I couldn't play bingo if my life depended on it. I go to San Francisco or Berkeley for the weekends. I have some good friends there. I love the theater, and my son got the bug. He is an actor, stydied acting all his life. He graduated from the High School for the Arts in L.A. I took him to Geary theater a few weeks to see Edward Alby's "The Goat Or Who's Sylvia". Have you seen it yet? It's hysterical. Great cast.

...nah. As odd as this may sound, I gave up being in the audience years ago. Weird, I know...but there you have it. My oldest is doing independent films along with ten million others...up in Seattle. Good going...getting a kid into the arts. We need a LOT more of that. These politicians are causing our young people to run, screaming in the night, out of Assyria.
>>
>>



---------------------


The full topic:



Content-length: 12555
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/msword, application/vnd.ms-po...
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-language: en-us
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf3/rkvsf_core.php?Re_Farid_Parhad-7agt.2BVv.QUOTE
User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98)



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9