Welcome any moment as friend…

Status: 15 hrs of sleep. Back home for couple weeks of holidays. Two coffees aboard. Waiting for 8am, CET, to have coffee together with Doamna Mama. Meanwhile, adapting to all new sounds of cats and dogs outside, writing in semi-darkness just under a cloudy full moon. Few emotions here and there. #fullheart hence …#heartchakra’s photo here…. I might even share with you my recent dream …let’s see.

Full disclaimer: I would have prompts or subjects all week spinning around and making me saying to myself - oh, that would be a nice one for sharing it on this platform. Or, jotting few notes - for my Sunday letter…. As it happened now many times, the moment I am in front of you, most of them evaporate and I am tempted to share a completely different story. So, I embrace fully this moment of rawness and go ahead with the story of “now”.

The story of “now” is about travel ….mostly because I was on planes for the last day …and prompted this great memory I have carried along for many years. The story of “now” is the story of “many yesterday’s ago” … really…. Quite many things changed ever since, and yet some things are always the same. The way I embrace every moment. The more I embrace it as a friend, the more it rewards me.

Once upon a time, only few years freshly living in Asia, I was still riding the wave of “where shall we go and which country to discover” before any longer weekends or public holidays. It was an intense travel era for all of us, many offers abound, and quite easy really just to hop on a plane and visit a neighbour country in South East Asia. I could also say, I might not benefited as much of all opportunities at that time and I still have many places to discover. Aren’t we all?

Here it came a May Golden Week opportunity, a long weekend, no plans or anything. Sitting with one of my colleagues and friends in the office on a Wednesday or so trying to solve customer’s issues, late deliveries or product problems ….. we said to ourselves - everyone we know left for holidays, shall we also do something?

Suddenly taken over by a jolt of fresh new energy and despite being very late in checking tickets and hotels, I have called the only travel agent in town that I knew they will respond fast and indeed the served me well for so many years now . We got a package offer - fixed plain tickets and hotel included, we only had to chose a hotel. Easy peasy. We settled for Cebu, a reasonable priced hotel by the sea, some sort of rustic flavour as we wanted to avoid the big chains…. All went smooth, payment went though, got our tickets and all.

Oh my, how I love spontaneity ! So much excitement followed. Some things are still the same for me. I knew nothing about Cebu, I did not research anything else, I had no clue what sort of activities would be engaging us further, just keep an open mind and heart and get on the plane. And get enough sunscreen protection ,a hat and a bikini. Must haves and better be prepared in that sense.

I might not remember all details, but I think we have transferred via Manila airport, almost lost my camera and somehow I had to insist for the security staff to find it…. And they miraculosul did…”mixed un in some other trays”. I have been asked to prove is my camera and had to show that I have photos with myself on it! Luckily there were two or three fresh ones taken since we started out journey. Hmmmm. A funny bitter taste but well, I got my camera back and I have moved on.

We have arrived the “rustic” place with modern “huts” quite late, after a long drive by car among very very poor villages.

This is the contrast we all witness from apart. We want to visit the nicest locations, have best services and we chose a “sold dream” of luxury that has nothing to do with the country itself. We are hunting places for relaxation and pampering, offered by very very nice and lovely locals who live in quite poor neighbourhoods. And we also expect them to serve us to some “entitled” standards that we have no clue how we got them in the first place. That would be however another discussion.

So, here we are welcomed at the reception and taken to our hut. From as much as we could see, the grass was really dry, not much vegetation, not so sure where the sea was at all, the first room they have shown us. was a bit weird - cannot remember that detail and we have asked them kindly to change. The only other hut available was a “ honeymoon suite” - we were upgraded at no cost and we said yes- simply because we had no much option and we were pretty much exhausted.

You might imagine that we were so favoured and the stars aligned in order for us to start a romantic adventure. Well no. My friend and I had no romantic interest in each other. Both defined by the adjectives she/her. Status friends and colleagues only. The honeymoon suite suddenly woke us up and the entire “rustic hut” concept was obvious NOT were we had expected. The benefit of the room was that it had a huge bed and we split it with some pillows.Just for everyone to feel comfortable in turning around while sleeping. The light in the room was snow white bright neon. Quite typical in Asia… Totally romantic. The bathroom and the bath was split only by a thin glass - not sure if transparent or not - I just remember it created some discomfort and we had to look another direction if one of us went to the bathroom….. Again, one of the modern features incorporated in the interior design of the hotels here. Last and not least at all, we had also a nice friend lizard, medium size - not a baby lizard, moving around on the walls or ceiling. My friend was scared to death of them and you could imagine the agitation that followed after we put eyes on “the intruder”! I should admit I was not so friendly myself to lizards either in my early days is just because I have friends who got more scared than me, I now welcome them very calmly, I even find them cute. The only way to avoid him moving too much was to keep the bright white light on and try to catch up with some sleep. Welcome to the holidays……..

I could also say the following…. All that happened until then it was mostly like suddenly someone was giving me an equation to solve. My brain got alerted and I have already started to think of alternative, options and finally “was this place the right place for the holiday?” .

Nice bright sunshine followed the snow white neon. We mumbled and fumbled to go to the breakfast place and also to discover the beach and a bit the facilities.

Surprise surprise -the beach( advertised in the promotion online) was just… only… merely…oh is so near …. 20 minutes away, by boat! Is a neighbour beach. The hotel did not have one. What?…. Oh ok. Deep breath there. But our swimming pool is very nice…we took a look and left sharply. No, thanks. Really no. It was a matter of cleanliness no other issues.

Let’s eat something, Luna!”( I have always loved this remark from the movie “A big fat greek wedding” - the mother always telling her daughter this …..Food always makes you overcome any problems. So, we found ourselves in front of a nice buffet, on a super hot day, and trying to process all that we have seen until I have seen more lizards around the tables, and flies…… I did not even tell my friend about the lizards. I just stopped eating. And she did too. She could enter the warrior mode quite fast and was creating already discourses on how to complain to the reception, to the agent to xyz about long string of unpleasant findings….

The only thing I could do and was so inspired to do..was to pick up the phone, call our travel agent back in HK and tell him simply we need to move to another location. I did not want to complain, we needed a radical do-over. He also told me very calmly that he has only 2 hours left to work and he will try but cannot promise.

Our real adventure just started. The adrenalin kicked in. And I suddenly also found myself reacting to things very differently than my friend. She worried a lot, she could only imaging the worst if we had to spend 5 days there, all sorts of words coming out and “I do not understand”, “How come” and “ Why” s … I had no idea how to respond but I only could count the data of the equation. 1. We could not fly back earlier as fix ticket. 2. We were in a country we knew no-one. 3. No other choice really but to wait for the agent. 4. We cannot stay here- excluded. We must move. I hundred percent knew that one. Not the how. Just what needed to happen.

So, I just sat there with a coffee I guess and waited….

My agent, blessed be, came back super friendly and very apologetical, with few options…but actually only with one workable . He could find a room (thanks god double beds )in Cebu Shangri-la, not very far from us, minimal price difference - no damage here, but with one caveat. They only had 2 nights available as it was very busy travel week and they were fully booked. As my agent will also be in holiday, we had to manage after these 2 nights by ourselves. Not even very sure what that mean -I do remember saying” Ok, we will take it. Let’s just move out of here first and I will talk to Shangri-la staff later myself to sort it out. What could I do really? ….. Still having to navigate through a lot of “but how, and why, how is possible” questions from my dearest friend … we packed super pronto as we did not have time tu unpack anything , and we found ourselves on a car taking us to Shangri-la.

I was thrilled. I was thrilled.I was relieved. Trying to set aside all the things from the previous location where I could not find myself at all. And trying to fully welcome a new adventure and unknown. No idea how we will manage our stay here but we had a good roof above our heads and I just felt ok. Once we settled I have managed to talk to the reception manager, explain our situation and equation at hand we hope to solve together and we agreed we will check on each other each day to let me know what she could do for us. The resort was not only fully booked, was double booked as well and they had to solve more than 10 cases. We just came as an added bonus. I left it in her good hands.

2 days to fully enjoy at least here. That is all I knew. I did embrace every minute of it, not because the resort was very nice but also because really, maybe 2 days later we might need to go back to another rustic location. Who knew, right? I have also managed to convince my friend to raise her moral,ask less” what if questions” and “ this can only happen to me” attitude as we came to really enjoy.

Knowing that time is limited, we have embraced the amazing food ! - oh yes and a big gallup of white wine with the gorgeous first lunch, explored all leaflets of the resort, the massage, the snorkeling in the ocean ( I am not good at it, but all was worth it), some para sailing. And in between all these, plenty of hours by the pool -turning into lobsters as we did not realise how strong the sun at all. I remember to this day after so many years the taste of living very moment fully. Fully pampering our tired body and soul, forgetting about worries or customers, just living in this bubble of luxury, lush greens, very very very friendly staff members, wonderful services and amazing sunrises. I am a sunrise person. My friend will sleep in late in the mornings and we complemented each other well as I value my time alone in the morning.

I do have somewhere amazing photos on an amazing Canon that luckily was not lost…. And hundreds of sunrise takes. We had this little balcony towards east that allow me to embrace the sun super early in the mornings. Happy as I could get, I would go down to breakfast on my own with a nice book. Social media and phones were useful, but there was no obsession to scroll much online as now. Full blissful moments of tranquility, beautiful flowers, parks, birds and…just few people opening the restaurant like me…sharp at 6.30am. I am famous in this regard, I am telling you.

My friends, I bet you have sweet moments like these to share too. When one opens her/his heart to the unknown and fully accepts it as a dear dear friend, I think only good things keep coming. One of the cutest moments for me at during that early mornings was that I got befriended by a little girl maybe 4 years old, coming also very early to the breakfast with her Japanese parents. Somehow she smiled at me, I said hello she asked few questions and we set up feeding birds together early morning. She would only speak few English words, but her parents will maybe translate from time to time. They asked me if is ok as she wanted to sit at my table. So, we had a ritual now and lovely moments. Discovering nature, flowers and making funny sounds as maybe the language was not helping a lot. We smiled and laughed a lot .We took photos and jut be there for each other. So much sweetness……. Thank you. I did forget her name. But I do remember her eyes and smile. And also her parents as they were both open and also watching over us really.

I hope I made you forget by now that the clock was ticking and we had an alarm set for only two days of bliss. Total unknown and unexpected to follow after that.

My friend was the alarm. “Did you hear from the reception manager” , “What do we do now?” Do we pack? “ “Do you think they will take us to another resort?’….so many of it. I really did not know and when you do not know - for me is also easy to remain calm in a weird way. I only knew we cannot fly back..so a shelter will show up, It did.

I got a sweet SMS from the reception “ good news, we have extended your stay one more night in the same room” Also” I will keep you posted during the day for your last night but we struggle now- no other rooms available for the last night” . Ok. Thanks God! This was a good god-sent news for me.

This resulted that I became one with the swimming pool. I enjoyed the water and the sun to an extreme. Both me and my friend we got sunburns to a terrifying level and woke up to a new reality. We were on fire. We have managed to finish all the creams we had, we bought more and still not enough. Red as a boiled lobster and totally in pain. We struggle enough even to put some decent clothes on us for dinner as the skin was crying heavily. What happiness can do sometimes. Easy to forget about simple things like your own body.

That last evening we decided we book fancy dinner at one of classier restaurants ,overlooking the ocean, candle lit, we have tried to dress up and settled for comfort and birkenstock I guess at the end. The sea, the sun has done us well and we were shining from inside. I do remember some he/him guest was trying to chat us at the bar over a drink, while waiting for our table, and to be honest - in this particular sense, my heart chakra was totally closed. It was nice to chat, he was also a kind and respectful chap, yet I knew I was not ready at that moment to open up again. We left the conversation at one glass and moved on with our dinner. #fullheart #heartchakraclosed #divorcee

Goosebumps.

The last day.

Now what?

Pack the luggages.

We shall see.

A solution will come up.

We went to the reception to discuss with the manager right after the breakfast. She as the kindest lady, all positive outcomes oriented .We have never heard during all our stay there a simple “ ultimatum no” .We kept hearing solutions, options, alternatives .She was doing her very best to help us.

This time the solutions were limited so she has listed the following:

1. The gym- they had some benches or some sofa, it was closed to public from 10pm till 6am - but they will lock it. We will be locked there. And it had full shower facilities etc.

• The spa - she can see what she can arrange. Again. We will be locked.

• I have suggested the sofas in front of the reception. We will just fall asleep there, fully dressed. Safe, not locked. Sort of being on a plane.

  “ Leave it with me” she said and we have checked out as have finished theoretically our stay there.

  No idea what else we have done during the last day, we have embraced more shadows than sun, we ate maybe more, and do remember I have tried to block out the multiple questions from my friend “ has she called back” has she confirmed anything” do we have a final solution” “ has she called back” no news” have you checked your phone ?” Should we call her? “……. I kind of imagined myself wearing a shield and sending all questions somewhere else.

  Let us eat something ,Luna!! Food is good for the soul too.

  So sorry I cannot add here any images from that trip. The water, the swimming pool, my radiant smile, my photos with the little Japanese girl while feeding birds, it was all pure magic …really developing moment by moment. What a pity I cannot share it this time.

  We got the call. The manager asked us to see her. She was talking to us in a corner of the reception, softer voice almost secretive.

  She said… you know we have the Spa Village ..with the rustic huts! Individual huts. Some of them were also “Honeymoon suites” ( the irony of all of it all again) and one of those got released today. Caveat. No luggages accepted. We will only get our essentials, toothbrush maybe, imagining you enter there as a spa guest for a treatment. You will enter at 9.30 pm. We will lock the entire village at 10pm. And you must leave quietly before 7am - a bit earlier if you can. We will only pay for our standard room - no added fees.

  I mean…what could we say. YES!

  Yes! Yes! . …Amazing. The rustic hut was not really rustic, was this enchanting room with a very lush decor, outdoor shower in a semi-forest and among plants, a nice bay window to serve teas, a massage bed and thousands of essential oils ( do not touch any of those please), and a gorgeous round, honeymoon bed! Well, we just laughed our hearts out. It was such a bliss. I would be eternally grateful to this amazing lady, the reception manager here, who did her utmost best to treat us so well and make sure a guest is a guest.

  I remember I did not sleep that well from the powerful essential oils lingering smells yet I had more time to count our blessings and the extraordinary adventure we did not plan. The extraordinary adventure of here and now and few choices only. Luxury bound choices though. This also has its place to never forget.

  Lastly, the weird moments where quick wit was equally important. We woke up early in the morning and try to leave the village as per instructions, just before 7am. Only to find ourselves in the front of a massive tall wooden gate, fully locked. Quick puzzle -ok, right, they mentioned the village is locked, and how exactly they would expect us to escape before the staff was coming? …..

  My friend took a sharp look around and a laughing out loud she said “ a hole in the metal fence!here on our right, to be damn, there is a hole in the metal fence,just right for a human body to escape” and we did. Elegantly. Lol. Running away from the luxurious spa village a bit like escaping a prison of some sort. Not to be caught in sight.

  A funny feeling…. .and more reasons to sip our coffee with such gratitude.

  My mum is awake now and time for me to sip our coffee here with a big bow of gratitude. Adventures are amazing. Home is where our hearts return.

  #fullheart #heartchakraopen

  Thank you friends…..enjoy your Sunday blisfully..