22. My hours at Lim Hour

Over the next few days we settled in to Lim Hour bungalows, familiarising ourselves with our new home and the other guests residing there. Some of the more memorable folk were:

• Cam the ex-pat Aussie surfer bum, who was in his mid fifties and determined to drink himself to death. He basically sat in the front common area with a glass of wine glued to his hand slurring his wisdom at anyone that would listen. 
•  Another common area stalwart was Nico from Norway who never seemed to go anywhere. 
• German Thomas, who was (aside from being largely incomprehensible and crazy) apparently a roadie for faith no more and various other famous bands; 
• Adi bass from Israel, 
• Dave from Canada

Best of all were the staff headed up by Mr Lim and his son. Aside from the standard duty of manning the front desk or taking our food orders they would usually just sit with us chatting in the common area and were very lovely people.

I quickly formed a routine here.

1. Crawl out of bed around noon. 
2.  Shuffle into the common area to have an omelette for breakfast. 
3. After this I would usually sign into my spotify on the computer behind the front desk, put some music on for Cam and Nico. 
4. The afternoon would pass with me helping myself to a drinks; playing pool with whoever was about; taking swims (being careful not to have my toe sliced off by one of the billion crabs that lived on the seabed), or just reading. 

Otres beach, not bad looking. Plenty of crabs

1. In the evening I’d head over to Richies to drink beer and paddle.
2. At some late hour I'd head back to Lim Hour for a nightcap and a chat.
3. At some point it would be necessary to carry Cam to his bed because he was too drunk to move.
4. Pass out

Most of the staff would sleep in or around the common area in hammocks. I remember one evening I was sat outside the bungalow and it was late, drunkenly shooting the shit with Pat. But disaster! I needed cigarettes. Everyone was asleep though so I couldn't get them in the usual way. So I had to employ my finest drunken sneakyness and crept into the common area where Mr Lim's son was dozing, careful not to wake him. Behind the front desk I helped myself to a pack of cigarettes, and a couple of beers since I was there, and headed back victorious.

It may have been my imagination but I was sure I noticed his eyes ever so slightly open.