After a sleepless night thanks to a penetrating porch light, humidity imitating a swimming and a three hour time difference, I was wide awake from 4am.
After desperate tossing and turning and counting geckos on the wall, I decided on a walk along the beach. As I left the hostel I was immediately confronted with a smell, a strange mix of incence, humidity and fermenting fruit, impregnated in my mind from my first, and only other, trip to Bali, 23 years ago.
The beach was dark and deserted save for a group of intoxicated party-goers and a fisherman. A stroll along the road quickly took me to the source of the drunks - Club Double Six. A world away from my state of mind.
Eventually I got hungry and sighted a patio with tables and chairs and a sign that said "We serve breakfast, lunch, dinner". I looked around and realised, unfortunately, there was only a buffet. I sat down. Strange, no one was really acknowledging me. It took a while, but it slowly dawned on me that I'd walked in on a hotel's buffet breakfast, and no one had questioned me on it. How often does this happen? I sat and waited, wondering if they'd discover the imposter amongst their ranks.
I started with a cautious stroll past the piles of food and back to my table. No reaction. Next I got myself a coffee. Still no sign that there was going to be a sudden rush to frog march me off the premises. I shrugged inwardly - these fancy hotel patrons weren't going to miss an egg and a piece of toast or two - then I set off, ordering my eggs, and not even putting a dent in the unnecessarily large smorgasbord. As I ate my food I did have 'one of things is not like the other' running through my head. What really made my laugh was my exit, merrily ambling up the path to my pretend hotel room.
So, that was the beginning of my day. That night I was meant to pick Jess up from the airport at 8:45pm and had even ordered a taxi for 8pm just to make sure she wouldn't be left stranded. 8:10pm rolled around and I started to get restless. A taxi did pull up outside the hotel but two tall bonde guys started haulting their backpacks in the boot. Impatience got the better of me so I asked them if I could share a cab to the airport. And so it was that I finished the day with a free ride (because they refused to let me contribute) with some lovely guys from Norway.
After desperate tossing and turning and counting geckos on the wall, I decided on a walk along the beach. As I left the hostel I was immediately confronted with a smell, a strange mix of incence, humidity and fermenting fruit, impregnated in my mind from my first, and only other, trip to Bali, 23 years ago.
The beach was dark and deserted save for a group of intoxicated party-goers and a fisherman. A stroll along the road quickly took me to the source of the drunks - Club Double Six. A world away from my state of mind.
Eventually I got hungry and sighted a patio with tables and chairs and a sign that said "We serve breakfast, lunch, dinner". I looked around and realised, unfortunately, there was only a buffet. I sat down. Strange, no one was really acknowledging me. It took a while, but it slowly dawned on me that I'd walked in on a hotel's buffet breakfast, and no one had questioned me on it. How often does this happen? I sat and waited, wondering if they'd discover the imposter amongst their ranks.
I started with a cautious stroll past the piles of food and back to my table. No reaction. Next I got myself a coffee. Still no sign that there was going to be a sudden rush to frog march me off the premises. I shrugged inwardly - these fancy hotel patrons weren't going to miss an egg and a piece of toast or two - then I set off, ordering my eggs, and not even putting a dent in the unnecessarily large smorgasbord. As I ate my food I did have 'one of things is not like the other' running through my head. What really made my laugh was my exit, merrily ambling up the path to my pretend hotel room.
So, that was the beginning of my day. That night I was meant to pick Jess up from the airport at 8:45pm and had even ordered a taxi for 8pm just to make sure she wouldn't be left stranded. 8:10pm rolled around and I started to get restless. A taxi did pull up outside the hotel but two tall bonde guys started haulting their backpacks in the boot. Impatience got the better of me so I asked them if I could share a cab to the airport. And so it was that I finished the day with a free ride (because they refused to let me contribute) with some lovely guys from Norway.
