[Caution: The following post has exceeded the recommended length for those with short attention spans. Boredom may ensue. Read at your own risk. And for those who didn’t give a shite in the first place, dropped by to leave their link, feign interest, get my hopes up and leave, just…just go you, you meanies]
So.
Two days ago was a full moon eclipse.
It was awesome. It was epic. It was definitely better than a movie of a similar name.
Where were you when it happened?
Question aside (you can tell me later), when the full moon eclipse happened, I was here:
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| That's me |
Looking at this:
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| Take THAT Bella |
The sky, streaked in purple and blue like swathes of cloth. The sound of waves hitting the shore, roaring, whispering. The cool press of bamboo against my back. The moon as huge as a silver dollar hanging in the sky and of course, the sound of my brother cursing at me, practically near to tears.
"Why the fuck did you have to say that??? Whats wrong with you, why couldn't you have kept your mouth shut. Now you're making me feel bad, dammit!!"
"You know you wouldn't feel bad if there wasn't anything to feel bad about."
"Shut up, just SHUT UP"
"That's not fair, look-"
"I said SHUT UP, BITCH."
But once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Heh. I guess in order to fully understand what the flying fug is going on, I'd have to start from where I left off in the last post [Check it out here].
So in the end after scouting the entire island, we did find a place to coop up for the night. A very, very nice place in fact. The only problem with it was that we had to trek the ten meters up The Slope (Don't know what The Slope is? That's probably 'cause you didn't read that last post huh, bub?) in order to get there.
That, coupled along with the twisty turny, up-and-downy nature of Walking Street (Remember: the road goes ALL the way up and down the island), made for a lot of walking in the sun, especially to get to and from our hotel.
One reason why this is a bad thing is because as an Asian, I don't like the sun. I don't like walking in it, sitting under it or, heaven have mercy, taking off my bikini and lying under it. Unfortunately, because my plans of filling the bathtub with SPF infused lotion and taking a bath every five minutes didn't sit too well with my dad, I ended up with a horrible tan just one day before I'm leaving to Kuala Lumpur for the Blogger Awards.
Ah well, at least I'll have buns of steel. And nice teeth, there's always that.
The first time I saw Amanda, our hotel manager, she was sitting in front of a chalet, painting what looked like a wooden board with the name of the hotel on it and I was thinking "This can't be right, first off, she's white."
But it was right. And yes, she was white. Amanda and her partner, Christian, hail from Barcelona, Spain and decided one day (Five years ago to be precise) that they wanted to visit Thailand on a whim. That trip turned into another trip the next year. And the next. And the next. And soon, they became chummy with the owner of the hotel they were living in - Krom.
So Krom had a proposal for them. Why not open up another branch of his small hotel on another side of the island? He'd provide the land and they could help run it to garner revenue and lengthen their stay on the island.
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| Geek points to whoever can figure out the inspiration of the name |
Amanda and Christian were ecstatic, and so was Krom. But before I go on, I want to make one thing very very clear, these three peoople were the nicest, warmest, friendliest people I met on the island. Case in point:
After we checked their place out, my dad wanted to talk shop.
"So how much is the rate?"
"600 baht per night." She answered smiling. She's got this smile that could light up an entire room. It's bright, it's boundless, it's got none of the edges or limits you see in most people Oh I'm smiling all right, but not too much or else you'll think I'm easy. Don't want to spoil my photo. It makes my nose look big. I don't really like you. None of that crap. Oh no.
But I was a hesitant. Our family isn't on the rich end of the money making spectrum per se. Which is why you don't see me writing awemazing lifestyle posts about clubbing or meeting celebrities or how to dress fantastic or where I eat and shop and pee like the rest of Malaysia's famous bloggers. My parents just don't have the moolah. Plus I've got college to worry about next year.
"Can it go any lower?" My dad asked.
Amanda shook her head apologetically "I'm sorry, no. Only if somebody stays three nights."
"And if we stay two nights?"
"I'm sorry, really, it cannot go any lower."
My dad grinned, or at least I think he was grinning, and turned to us. "So what do you think? Two nights? Or three?"
"I don't know, pa, whatever's cheapest." I was thinking about the two teachers who's just resigned before we left (My mom owns a kindergarten).
Amanda looked at us then back at my dad and then shrugged, smiling. "Maybe...550?"
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| Our chalet!! |
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| That's it. I want a hammock in my room. |
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| To all girls: He's available!!! |
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| Small but cosy |
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| The toilet! It's...it's open air!!! *Falls in love* |
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| From left: Amanda, Krom, Christian, my dad |
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| Christian and Krom |
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| The very sweet, very hot Amanda |
Who knew, of course, that my dad would choose to take three nights instead of two.
That bothered me. It did. A lot.
In fact it bothered me so much that that night, as were looking up at the moon waiting for it to disappear, I had (just had) to screw things up by opening my fat mouth.
"I thought we were supposed to be saving money." I mumbled, looking up at the dark sky, half wishing my dad and brother would hear me, half hoping they hadn't.
"What?" My dad sat up.
Whoops.
"I mean...aren't we supposed to be scrimping for this trip? The teachers just quit and I've got college next month and I'm going to KL in three days..." I trailed off.
"You know it's too late already right?"
"Right."
"What's your problem?" My brother who was sitting in another chair away from snapped at me irritably.
"I don't want to stay another night." I grumbled. Because I was in a bad mood. Because it had been eating up inside of me all day, I don't know. I have a pretty big guilt complex, it comes with the Asian upbringing.
"You should have told me earlier." My dad sighed.
"Why the hell didn't you tell him? Now we're all going to have to feel bad." My brother blamed me and to be honest, it seemed pretty unfair.
"Fine, I'll stop saying it, okay?"
"It's too late. Shit lah, ah chen, you just ruined our vacation."
Aaaaaaand...you know the rest. I stormed off after that feeling miserable. But at least I'd finally decoded the reason why I wasn't having the time of my life on that island: It was a bubble. A fake, plastic paradise bubble that only doesn't pop as long as you have money. The thing was, we don't have that kind of money. Not for 15 ringgit a smoothie. I'm not ashamed of it.
In a way, it gives me the kind of motivation I need to start this new chapter of my life, turning 17 and all. I realize, heck, I'm not half bad. I'm a national public speaker. I'm pretty damn talented. I don't look half bad either. I used to be a voice talent for a television series. I'm writing a pretty darn tootin good book. I've got a decent blog. I've got really really amazing friends on the web. I'm going to the Asia Pacific blog awards! I'll work hard! I'm young! I can make it!
I was on my way back to the hotel room when I bumped into Krom.
"Hey!" He greeted me. Krom's got this incredible smile too. Maybe it comes with the island. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of lifestyle.
"Hey, Krom."
"Where are you going to?"
"Going to?" I asked, completely perplexed "Uh, my room. Gonna grab some shut eye."
"You not coming out later?"
"Probably not...why? What's going on?"
"I'm going to do fire dancing."
"Wait, as in real, live, fire dancing? Dancing? With fire? You can do that?"As it turned out, he could.
We made plans to meet up later at a beach front bar to watch his act and I went back feeling pretty pleased and less, well, guilty.
My brother was already in the room by then.
"Why did you freak lah." I ruffled his hair, he hates it but he really doesn't. On thing about my brother: he's a real softie, a softie that used to ask for hugs when he was 15. A softie that spends all night chatting with me about his love life and the problems that usually came with it. A softie that is so in tune with his sister we break into song at the exact same time, with the exact same song.
The only problem with this softie is that he's got an even bigger guilt complex than mine.
"I feel so bad now." He was still moping, after all that time. "Now no matter what I do, I'll be thinking...I'm wasting mami's money."
Welcome to my world.
"Then ask papa to change the return ticket." I said.
"I did" He moped "He thinks that I'm only doing it because of you."
"Then we'll go and tell him to change it now."
"You think we'll make it? It's really late."
I stopped. Brother there had a point. It was late. What if it was closed? What if we couldn't change our return ticket? We'd be stuck there for one extra day, miserable. What if I really did ruin our trip?
My brother must have sensed what was going on through my head (I mean, come on, we were mentally connected) because he said "At least we'll have to try." So we got up and went back to look for our dad.
At one point I stopped and said - just for the sake of saying it "Hey ah yin, what if we just, you know, enjoyed ourselves?" We stopped walking and actually considered it. What a thought. Just enjoying ourselves. Really, what a concept. For a second at least.
"No way." Again with the talking in sync. It just wasn't us. We couldn't do it.
So we spoke to our dad. And our dad went and changed the ticket. After he did, it finally sank in - that was our last night on the island. So what did I do? (Besides watch Krom's awesome fire act)
I had an oil massage.
I've never had an oil massage before, never liked the idea about someone touching me in..*giggles* places. But after seeing Sam's post about how great it feels and yadayadayadayada (Or you could read about it yourself here) I figured, why the heck not? Of course, it was only afterwards that I realized I had to strip down in order to have one. Whoops.
Pictures!! (Prepare to be grossed out by my outrageous lack of decency)
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| "By strip, you mean take off all my clothes? Here?" "Yes. here. Now." I am such a hick. |
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| Fantasizing about all the things she will do to my body |
Skip back massage
Skip
Skip
Skip
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| You're still here!! |
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| And it feels....so good |
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| Yes. I have armpit hair. No. I am not mortified with myself. Maybe just a little. But that just means I am all woman. |
Sorry for the long post, I'll be hopping on the midnight train to Kuala Lumpur tonight for the blogger awards tomorrow so no guarantees when's the next time I'll be posting. Wish me luck! Anyone who'll be in KL at the time call me up! We can yum cha.
Okay. now tell me about your full moon eclipse experience (If you had any).
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