November 2, 2019
Bella's alarm woke her up. She opened her right eye and reached for her phone, turning off the alarm. "Five more minutes...."
Counting down from a hundred, she swung her legs out of bed when she reached one.
Still feeling groggy, she blinked a few times and sat down for a few seconds. Standing up, she reached for her wicker basket and her keycard. She went to the washroom on her floor to wash her face and brush her teeth. Applying an eyeliner and mascara, she also added her lip tint and used blotting paper.
Back in her room, Bella took her sling bag out of the wardrobe and checked its contents. Taking out her favorite perfume from her backpack, she sprayed it on both her wrists and on either side of her neck. She added one more spritz on her back for good measure. She unplugged her phone and returned the charging cable to its resting spot in her organizer with the power bank. Beside the organizer, Bella squeezed in her phone. Satisfied, she went downstairs to wait for her tour guide.
Arriving in the lobby, she approached the front desk. It was a female receptionist today. She looked up from her desk and smiled at Bella.
"Hi there!" Bella greeted. "I'm expecting my tour guide any time soon. Could you let me know when he or she arrives please? I'll be downstairs in the lounge."
She nodded, "Sure, will do!"
Bella made her way downstairs to the lounge and stretched out on the huge couch. It really was comfortable. She took out her phone and plugged her earphones in. She opened up Spotify and played Fake Love by BTS again. Once it ended, another song titled Mikrokosmos begun.
'Banjjog-ineun byeolbichdeul. Kkamppog-ineun bul kyeojin geonmul. Ulin bichnago issne. Gagjaui bang gogjaul byeol-eso'
Bella liked this song as well. She placed the song on repeat and closed her eyes.
By about the fourth repeat, the lady receptionist came down the stairs and tapped Bella lightly on her right hand. "Hi, sorry to wake you! Your tour guide's upstairs in the lobby."
Bella removed the left earphone from her ear. "No worries at all! Thank you."
They both made their way upstairs to the lobby where a tall Taiwanese man in a checkered button-down shirt and khaki pants was waiting. "Hello!" He greeted, reading from a clipboard. "Leila Ysabelle Torres?"
Bella nodded, "Yes sir!"
"Right. I'm your tour guide, Chen." He smiled. "Follow me please."
Bella followed him out of the hotel and into the street where a light brown van was parked. Chen opened the car door for Bella and closed it as soon as she found her seat. She chose the middle section. In the front row was a family of three with the father looking like he was of Chinese descent and the mother looked like she was South East Asian. Their daughter, who seemed to be around the age of ten to eleven, sat between them. There was no one in the back section.
Chen climbed into the driver's seat and started the van. "We have one more stop to make." He spoke.
Everyone nodded. One street down, Chen stopped the van. "Give me a few minutes to pick up our last two guests please." He then left and came back a few minutes later with two middle eastern men. They took the section in the back, behind Bella. Back in the driver's seat, Chen started to speak again while facing backward towards the group. "This is our tour group for today. We are headed for the waterfall and for the Sky Lantern experience. The journey will take us about forty-five minutes to one hour depending on how heavy the traffic is. Please let me know If you need anything during our tour and I hope you have a good time."
