February six
It´s 10:53 pm and I´m sitting in my hostel dorm bed. I´m listening to Redemption song by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Today would´ve been Bob Marleys 81st birthday, and I went to celebrate it. The other day, I saw this flyer, and even though I had no idea how to get there (I don´t drive a scooter on the island because I´m the worst driver the world has ever seen) I knew I had to go.
This is exactly the way I would love to spend a Thursday night, I just love everything about it. Throwing a birthday party for a celebrity (it feels weird to call Bob Marley a celebrity) you don´t know in real life sounds exactly like the unhinged thing I would do – last year, I made a birthday cake for my love Patti Smith, and every year on October 27, my boyfriend and I celebrate the birthday of his favorite singer by making good food and watching lots of interviews and live concerts of him.
Actually, I just noticed now that I´m way too tired to write. I´ll talk to you tomorrow, but for now, I´ll brush my teeth and go to bed. Never ever force yourself to write (my number one rule !).
✶ I didn´t sleep that well, a guy was coughing so much I kept waking up from it despite sleeping with earplugs. However, I also love being in hostel dorms, especially when being in a place a little longer and knowing all the people you live with, it´s kinda comforting to share a sleeping room – I can´t really describe it, but somehow, it gives me a feeling of belonging.
— ☾ —
Okay, it´s a day later, February seven, it´s 7:51 pm, I just got back from watching the sunset at the beach, now I´m in the common room in my hostel again. It´s boiling hot here, the fan isn´t working so I´m sweating a ton. I can hear the water from the shower next door and the whirring of the fridge. I just had a deeply fried pancake with chocolate on top, I was craving it all day, and it was exactly as good as I imagined it. My energy level is very low right now, probably because it was so fried and my stomach hurts a little, but it was worth it.
Anyways, back to yesterday.
I chose to hitchhike to said bar, it was very easy because there is only one road on the island so getting there wasn´t a problem at all.
The bar was decorated so cute with the balloons and the Happy Birthday Love sign, are you kidding me? How sweet is that? I think I need to level up my game of celebrating Patti on her birthday this year.
I got there around 5:30 which was fairly early, but perfect to enjoy the view for a while. I had a mango shake (a bar selling mango shakes is a good bar!) and later another mango shake. Bob Marleys music was playing (obviously!) and they also had a buffet with free food for everyone.
The vibes were good, however I thought more people would be dancing, mostly everyone was just talking to each other, and I enjoyed simply existing. Later there was live music by someone covering Bob Marley songs which was special – nothing compares to live music and it´s been a while (like two weeks) for me without it.
I would love to just dance when I feel like it, but in that moment, it felt intimidating to get up being the only one dancing. Looking back, I wish I didn´t give a fuck. Maybe other people would´ve started dancing too, maybe they were just waiting for someone to start, and I could´ve been that person. But I wasn´t, and it also doesn´t matter, it´s not that deep. One day I´ll be that person, unafraid to do whatever I wanna do in the moment. Sometimes, I´m good with that, sometimes I´m not.
Tomorrow is my last full day on the island. I don´t travel with a plan so I kept extending to stay here longer, but I feel like it´s time to move on, so I´ll go back to Bangkok, and figure it out from there. Tomorrow night there is a music quiz in one of the bars close by, since I´m very good when it comes to music quizzes, I´m very excited about this. I´ll give you an update tomorrow night on how it went.
Until then, take care of yourself, have a glass of water and I´ll talk to you soon.
