an older local couple of mainers strolls past looking at us with poker-faced curiosity. i wonder if she can smell john's mary jane and wonder if what she thinks of it if she can. she catches me watching her and i give her a big genuine smile. she has won me over with her new england poker face. she sees my smile is genuine and smiles back. i see her husband notice my smile peripherally but he doesn't turn his eyes or head to investigate further. not out of unfriendliness, more of a no-nonsense hurry to get to the motel office to get some kind of thing squared away.
I thought the room was so cheap just because it was terrible. But that night I also learned that the discount was also due to the fact that the room is twenty feet away from the island's only MEGA CLUB that plays insanely loud reggaeton music (played over a PA, inside a rectangular building entirely constructed of corrugated sheet metal - like it was MEANT to be heard) until 2am every night. (I'm laughing as I type this because I remember myself laying in bed that night reggaeton-dancing-myself to sleep to the bed-rattling beat.)
Busy day! Went back to the hotel for a nap.THIS, by the way, is the hilarious / terrifying entrance to my hotel: Hotel upstairs, MEATSHOP downstairs!.
Sure, you're welcome to stay here. As long as you can overcome your fear of the obvious horror-movie danger of us murdering you in your sleep and SELLING YOU AS FOOD in conveniently-located meatshop downstairs. Haven't you seen the movie, Hostel, you idiot?
...over to the hotel to meet up with Amanda! Amanda had been in Hong Kong and when she'd heard that we were going to be in the Philippines, we'd planned to meet up!
While we waited for the horse to arrive at the hotel (he was being transported down to Manhattan from upstate via trailer), Klaus (the manager of the hotel at the time) took us up to the roof so we could see the totally surreal view from the glass-edged roof deck. Breathtaking!
On Saturday morning we woke up to the sound of someone hitting the tiny gong at our weird mini-palace gates! I went out to investigate and it was the hotel staff setting up the 8am breakfast we'd ordered the night before out on the little island thingy in our pool!
After dinner, we ended up going just a few feet down the road and booking a bungalow at Saranam Eco Resort. The hotel's front desk is right off the road at the top of a mountain. In order to get down to the bungalows (which are at the BOTTOM of the mountain, you have to get in a little elevator car and a cable-winch slowly lowers the car down a railway laid on the hill.
After I was awoken by a noisy gecko in our room, I went outside to explore the beautiful grounds at the Amertha Bali Villas. It was pretty dark when we'd checked in the previous night and getting to see the resort by daylight was breathtaking. This is the view of our bungalow...
