The "220v Tends to Fry Everything" Story

It was an ordinary day. We had just arrived at the Alamanda in St. Martin for our yearly visit to the island. We started staying at the Alamanda three years ago. Really nice place with a great staff who treat you like family. We are staying on the ground level in a room that has a view of the many types of flowers and shrubs associated with the Caribbean. Fantastic aromas greet us every time we walk onto the back porch. We get a complimentary breakfast in the morning and free chairs on Orient Beach at Kakoa Beach Bar. What more could you want. How about good old 110v electricity. The Alamanda is on the French side of St. Martin and therefore has 220v outlets. Don't dare plug anything into an outlet or you will fry what ever you put into the outlet. Before we went to St. Martin this year I went to Walmart and purchased a set of adapters for the 220v outlets. I guess the key word here is adapter. After we had supper the first evening, I decided I was going to plug in my power strip so I could start to charge the camera, phone and my razor. I got one of the adapters out and put it into the wall outlet in the bathroom. Next I plugged in the power cord into the adapter. Then I hit the "On" switch on the power cord. And then ....... total darkness. I blew everything in the apartment out, including my power cord. Really fired it. Now what. I headed to the front desk to ask what to do. Geraldine, the desk clerk for many years, said she would sent someone to help. In about 5 minutes someone arrived and searched with a flashlight to find where to reset the breaker for the room. No luck. And the next room was also out of power. Boy did I really do it! After 30 minutes of not knowing what to do, they gave us another room, just for the night. We had to take everything with us that we needed for the night and headed to the other side of the place. I was pooped and within a half hour was asleep. A short time later, Carol woke me and said we were moving back to our room. Pack the bag again and head back. Seems that the breaker was in the other room that was without power. There was a connecting door between the rooms and both were on the same power unit. Well, I found out the next morning that my adapters were just that. Something to allow me to adapt their outlet to my plug. What I really needed was a converter which would convert the 220v to 110v. The staff was so nice that they left me borrow a unit for our vacation. I'm sure they wanted no parts of me trying to plug something else into their 220v again. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos are of the Alamanda entrance and of our room.