In Continuum.

South By South East: The Night

The swimming pool was probably where the trip really kicked off for the lot of us. After the dreadful episodes with the local price tags, we headed for the swimming pool - which was free by the way. Taking off our clothes, we jumped into the swimming pool and learned the art of sliding down a water slide. I remember being mortally afraid of those slides ever since a child, especially after the incident at the theme park in Taiwan when I flew out of the slide and rammed my ribs into the side. It was an experience that was hard for me to shed from my mind, and standing at the top of the slide with the water gushing downwards, I closed my eyes and took the leap of faith. I ended up in the pool with everybody else, and the cold chilly water attacked my nerves from every angle possible. But it was great fun, as we soaked ourselves in the water under the dusking skies. It turned into a soft shade of orange, with planes taking off from the airports nearby, soaring away quietly into the clouds beyond.

Gabriela, Terri and Shenny were already at the resort a day before ourselves. They planned the trip a few weeks before we did, and were at the same hotel on the very same day. We met up after our trip to the pool for dinner together, and the lot of us felt terribly under-dressed standing next to them. I mean, there we were in jeans and t-shirts while they were in little black dresses and make-up, for no apparent reasons too. It is not like the night club in the hotel itself has a lot of people, and the occupants of the hotel were mostly Caucasians or Japanese families. We started to wonder who they were dressed up for, but I guess in a way it didn't matter too much. We were sitting at the same table that night at the restaurant downstairs, and it was probably some of the best food I have ever eaten.

It was an enjoyable dinner, with the rest of the island slowly being drenched in the encumbering darkness. It seems like Shen has been - once again - tricked by the locals. His baked rice of sorts was smaller than he asked for, while the rest of us had too much. I for one had no problem wolfing down my share of the food, though the price tag was mind bending. But like I said, we threw the worries behind and finally found our satisfaction and fun. I think I was high at the table after a glass of water too much, and the lot of us went down to the club afterwards.

That was the first taste of night life on Bintan for us, and to say that we were underwhelmed would be an understatement. The club - called Silk - was empty, with just a few patrons sitting around, tapping their feet to the music. The band was actually rather decent, at least they were playing tunes that weren't the kind of music you would find in a local club. I won't say the club was shabby, or in any way substandard though. But the number of people that visited the place just made the young night a little old somehow. The red lights under the counter gave everybody a red glow on their faces, but that wasn't enough to heat up the atmosphere at all. We were all sitting in the corner of the club, sipping our drinks quietly while slapping each other on the back of their hands as part of a game. I think Gabriela, Terri and Shenny had a lot of fun slapping people and being slapped, while the rest of us stared into nothingness for the rest of the night. We were like zombies in the club, and I felt bad for the bartenders who were watching us from behind the counter. The music wasn't exactly appealing, and there wasn't a lot of atmosphere to soak in anyway. So I proposed to head upstairs for cards, and everybody jumped at the chance like a box of hot cash by the side of a road.

Hotel rooms are a naturally scary place, just thinking about how many people have slept on the same bed as you. I guess it was the strangeness of being thrown into an unknown room and forced to sleep in it for a couple of days. There was an incident that happened on the first night that freaked me out, to be honest. The door to the balcony was left opened, and we were hanging out in the second room when someone asked for water. I remember that the we have a jug of water back in our room, so I volunteered to get it myself. Upon scanning my card in the slot, I opened the door to hear a shrilling laughter of a woman coming from the inside of the room. I stood, frozen on the spot for a moment and scanned the darkened room for a while. Apparently, because our room is so close to the ground floor, some woman must have been downstairs when she started laughing, and I had to be there when she did so. With the door to the balcony left opened, her laughter traveled through and freaked me out at the door. That was the first sign of what the night had to offer on the island of Bintan.

Standing out by the balcony, E-fei enjoyed his cigarettes while he dared me to climb from my balcony to his on the third floor. I did so, and did it twice at that and earned myself three bottles of mineral water. Anyway, it was quite a sight standing out there on the balcony, if you can ignore the wet shorts and underwear hanging on the edge. The skies were clear on the first night, with no clouds whatsoever blocking the view. In the distance, the sound of the waves sloshing on the shores could be heard from where we were, and all was peaceful in the compounds of the hotel. I had the sudden urge to take a walk down at the beach, but nobody was too keen on doing so - since it is the month of the Hungry Ghosts after all. The stars were up there, and like the skies in India, they were aplenty. I told the guys about seeing Orion up there. Not just the belt, but the whole damn Orion in the skies. It'd be great to see him that night, like the old friend that follows me to every country that I have been to so far. It'd be great, but the night was growing deep and our eyelids were forcing themselves down over our tired eyes.

After a small chat, the two others went to sleep while I laid in bed, wide awake. I felt uncomfortable in every position I was in, and there was a reluctance to change my position somehow. The silence of the hotel room was deafening, and it was hard for me to fall asleep with that kind of silence despite the fan whirring above our beds. Despite the exhaustion, my mind refused to drift off into the dreamland, constantly beckoning me away into my wakeful state. It must have been an hour or two when I finally fell into a dreamless sleep.