Lazy Day on Lombok

P- I heard you coughing during the night, did you sleep ok?


G- No, not much. I was asleep, but then had to go to the bathroom. My head was fine in the a/c, but once I went outside into the humidity to use the bathroom, my head clogged, I started sweating, and I went into a coughing fit. Who thought putting the bathrooms outside would be a good idea? This humidity is killing my head.

P- I don't know, muffin. I'm sorry you don't feel well.

G- A cold and the woman scourge..............just shoot me now. Whah!!!

P- Keep up that whining and I just might have to shoot you.

G- WHAH!!!!!!!!! And now I'm down to only 1 ant encrusted cough drop. This a/c really cranks, but this bed sucks. Since it dips in the middle, I had to cling to the side all night to keep from being crushed in the middle by you.

P- Yes, this is the worst bed we've had.

Because this hotel is far from everything and we have no transportation, all meals were eaten at the hotel restaurant. We had breakfast in the open restaurant. The hot tea was soothing to my throat, but the heat and humidity was not helping my cold. Over breakfast, as we debated what we would do, the black clouds rolled in. We jumped into the pool to cool off and soon after it started to rain. We retreated to our patio where we talked to Julie and read. Once the rain stopped, we watched one of the hotel workers, machete in his waistband, climb the palm trees around the pool to prune them.

P- Holy crap! Do you see that guy? Really, he climbed that tree faster than a monkey.

G- And he is not even using a wrap, like Gusti did, he's just using his feet. That's unbelievable!

Around 5pm we went to the restaurant to watch TV (it had HBO) and play cards.

G- Look at that gecko on the TV! It was there last night too. It must live in the TV cabinet.

P- Perfect place to live because of all the bugs that fly around the TV screen.

G- Ha! And it adds some humor to watching TV as the gecko chases his bugs and runs across the screen.

P- Look at the frogs hopping across the floor in that corner.

G- I almost never see frogs at home. Not toads. Just those green tree frogs we had on Newman. I used to see a lot of them when I was a kid.

P- Me too. Crazy, they use pesticides to kill the mosquitoes, but instead it has killed the frogs, lightening bugs and lizards that eat the mosquitoes, but we still have mosquitoes. Guess that plan didn't work out so well.

After a while, Nenga (one of the hotel staff) asked to play cards with us. We were playing Rummy and he caught on very quickly, telling us that there is a similar Indonesian game. We played for about 2 hours and he told us about his life. Nenga was 27, and had an older brother who was married with children. He had worked at the hotel 6 years and was going to try to get a job at one of the new resorts, currently under construction, in order to make more money. He advised that he earned 800,000 rupiah per month (approximately $80.00) and lived in a boarding house near the hotel, for which he paid rent of 50,000 rph per month. We asked if he had a girlfriend, but he said he didn't because he did not make much money and dating was expensive. This, a universal truth. He told us that he was from a village about 1 hour away, into the interior of Lombok, and his father was a farmer. Then he complained he sent 400,000 rph, half of his monthly income, home to his parents to help support them. His heart tells him that this is the right thing to do, but his head tells him that he must have some money to date and find a wife. He recently had an argument with his mother, telling her that he's has to stop sending money home because he wants to marry and have a family, but she put the guilt trip on him (another universal truth) and “made his heart weak” and he agreed to keep sending the money. However, he confided that he must stop sending the money soon so that he can move forward with his own life. We talked about what it was like to live in America and about the fact that all people, no matter where they live, have the same concerns about life.

The hotel owner arrived and put an end to our game and talks. We ate dinner and went to take our showers.

G- I'm glad for the screens to keep the mosquitoes out, but don't freak out because I just saw a centipede or something run past the soap dish.

P- Are you sure that's what it was?

G- Well, it was moving too fast for me to count it's legs, so I don't know if it was a centipede or millipede, but it definitely had a lot of feet.

P- I meant, smart ass, are you sure it was not a roach?

G- I did see something that looked like it could have been a roach run past the shower head, but I'm trying not to think about it. Let's just finish the shower and get into the a/c.

P- No, I saw that one, and it was a beetle. What the hell? (Just then the water shut off.)

G- Well this is just great! I'm covered in soap.

P- Do you think it will come back on? (Just then, the water came back on; cold at first, but then it heated up.)

G- It must be on a timer. Rinse quickly before it goes off again.

P- And dry quickly before we start to sweat again.

The second night passed the same as the first. I clung to the side of the bed and every time I had to use the bathroom to address the 'woman scourge', my head clogged up and I began to sweat.