I honestly cannot remember what time I had gotten to bed last night. The last thing I remember was Aaron uttering a soft "good night" as he turned my lights out and left my room. I only had 3 bottles of beer. He had 2. The conversations were just never ending. I don't know what time it was when one of our staff stepped out of their balcony and saw us and reminded us that Aaron had a schedule. If we weren't reminded, we might have actually stayed up all night.
I woke up a bit early for someone who said she's going to sleep in and just order room service all day. It was 8 in the morning. I'm pretty sure everyone had left for the shoot already. I didn't have any sort of hungover. For some reason, I wanted to go for a run and sweat out all the beer that I had. While the motivation was still there, I immediately changed into my work out clothes. One of the friendly hotel staff told us a few days ago that there was a 30 minute trail that lead up to a cliff by the edge of the island where we can have a beautiful view of the other lagoons. He said there was also a little cafe up there where tourists usually like to go to for some coffee and breakfast.
Pancakes with coffee after a run sounds dearly tempting to me.
I started on a light jog as I was trying to find my way to the trail after asking some natives for directions. The island was clearly very different during the day. Everything was just quiet., unlike the loud ravenous parties during the night. The business owners were sweeping their front lawns preparing to open up again. There were only a few tourists outside. Most are just people trying to find somewhere to eat to cure their hungovers and some are probably trying to find their way back to their hotels after an entire night of partying. Despite the number of tourists around, everything was exceptionally clean. There was not a single trash on the road. It did help that there were reminders everywhere to avoid littering.
After 5 minutes of looking around, I have finally made it to the start of the trail. It was a dirt road between thousands of trees. The view of the ocean was not in sight anymore. Everything were just plants and trees and birds singing. It was like getting inside a forest. Some of the trees have boards in them to explain what kinds of trees they were. There were also some signages along the way to remind everyone to not leave their trash anywhere, not to damage any natural resources and to beware of creatures like snakes.
Now that I think about it, this is the first time in years that I have been in a place where I get to do whatever I want even just for a day. Usually, when I go out of the country, it was for business or modelling work and everyday was just packed with meetings and presentations, shoots and meet and greets. Today, I get to explore on my own, in a place far away from home and no one recognizes me.
That was one of the reasons why I loved it here so much. Every since we arrived, not much people paid attention to us. There were some natives who would recognize Aaron through his movies but apparently, they are not really into models so nobody knew who I was. The only people who actually recognized me were foreigners themselves. I feel like I was normal here and it felt nice.
I stopped to take a breather and to bask in the little sunshine that was seeping through the leaves above me. These little moments are reasons why we should actually appreciate life a little bit more.
My meditation was interrupted by some loud barking. There was a golden retriever by my feet with a little stick by his side. I crouched down and gave him a pet. I picked up his stick and threw it. He immediately run to retrieve it and came back to me.
"Good boy." I uttered, scratching under his chin
"I am so sorry about that" a lady was running towards us. "I threw it a little far and then he just ran away."
I smiled "No worries."
"I saw you from a far looking like you were meditating. You know there is also a little offroad trail to your left when you make that turn. There are no signs but you will clealy see the trail marks. It leads to a nice clearing with the ocean view where you can meditate." She was pointing on the turn up ahead.
