To the editor:
Five years ago my friend and I decided to take a girls trip to Bahia Principe San Juan in the Dominican Republic. Although my mom was against the idea of two 22 years old girls taking a vacation alone, we still went ahead with our vacation.
Immediately upon our arrival at the airport, we were feeling uncomfortable by the way the Dominican men were treating us. Having noticed this, an older couple named Pat and Carrie took us under their wing and would tell any of the inappropriate men to leave their daughters alone.
Once we arrived at the resort ( it was almost midnight) we headed to our room to unpack then find something to eat. Nothing seemed weird while we were waiting for our key to our room but once we started walking towards our room we started to get an uncomfortable feeling yet again. Our room was, like all the other buildings, a two-storey building. Except our building was at the very far left side of the resort.
Instead of the entrances to our room facing out towards the well lit path, our entrance faced a forest, away from the lit entrance. Our balconies faced out onto the path. We were creeped out but we thought our building was deserted because it was so late. We decided to go out for food and everything seemed like it was turning around.
We headed back and didn't give a second thought to the security man behind our building. We locked up and went to bed for the night. We awoke just after four in the morning to somebody unlocking our door. Thankfully we had our chain on as well, but the person at the door was forcefully attempting to open the door.
Not knowing what to do we just sat on the bed together, scared out of our minds. We heard glass breaking but we didn't know what it was at the time. Whoever was at the door left after about five minutes. We got up and locked the door again. About 20 minutes later the same thing happened, somebody with a key forcefully trying to enter our room. This time Samantha saw the number for the front desk and went to our phone in the room only to find out the cord was cut.
Thankfully she had brought her cell phone but when somebody at the front desk answered and we explained the emergency, they said they could not help us as we had the wrong resort. This was a lie. We heard from outside the door, somebody on a radio speaking in Spanish.
We then realized that the person trying to get into our room was somebody from the hotel. After figuring this out, we snuck out onto the balcony and crouched down, continually checking for any sign of human life that would help us. Just after 5 a.m. we saw large groups of people from the building up the path from us leaving with suitcases.
At the point, nobody was trying to get into our room anymore. The sun was slowly rising and we decided to make a run for the lobby while there was people out and around.
We noticed the light outside our room had been smashed. Once we arrived at the lobby, we told the person at the front desk what happened and said we needed a new room at the front of the resort. They said they had nothing available for us. Luckily enough, Pat and Carrie went to the front desk and let them have it.
We eventually got a room beside Pat and Carrie and did not leave their sight for the entire vacation. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if we were stuck in that room for the week. Everybody should be aware that this resort is not safe.
Amy Gould,
Hamilton
