under a full moon

It’s a different lifestyle. I live and work on an island, and commute to the rest of my job by speedboat. If I have to go into town, I go by boat: slow boat (1hr) or sometimes by speedboat (30 min.). If a group of us want to go out, we go to the airport hotel or to another resort by boat (45 min.). Alcohol is only sold at the airport hotel bar, or in the resorts. You can’t go into the city and relax with a drink. The airport is on its own island a few minutes from Male, the capital island.

I went to the airport hotel last week for the first time. I went with a four friends and we had dinner in the café, and then went for drinks in the bar. The bar had a funny feel. It was like a theme bar left over from decades gone by, with a heavy smell of air-conditioning and old smoke. It’s the watering hole for the ex-pats…mostly because it’s the only place you can drink off of your own island. There’s a slight air of desperation mixed with the smell of ashtrays and the dark woods so reminiscent of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Of course when you are finished going out, unless you have taken a room there for the night, you are faced with the long speedboat ride back to your island. For me this was sufficient motivation not to drink too much!

After going out, the five of us were waiting by the docks, half asleep waiting for our boat. No parking lot, no subways or taxis…we sat on the edge of a high cement planter, well, I was lying down with my head on my friend’s lap who’s eyes were half closed, one of the girls still had energy and was walking around, another was curled up trying to sleep under the arm of the other guy in the group who looked happy and also trying to sleep with his head resting on top of hers. For a moment I stepped outside myself and looked at us all sitting there outside the terminal and it reminded me of the streets of Barcelona lined with half asleep young people at 7am after they leave the clubs.

I slept with my head on my friend’s leg, shoes off, feet up over the side of the boat all the way back. The guy next to my legs went to sleep curled up against them as we all returned home under the stars and full moon with the sounds of the waves like so many dreams dancing through our heads.