so it is impossible to sleep through the night here. I am lucky that i fall asleep easily and do not have insomnia. last night i was awakened 8 times between midnight and 9am.
roosters begin crowing hours before the sun rises and there is an army of them! In the daylight the dogs are sleepy loners shy of humans. By the dark of night they must form large roving packs that get into huge gang fights. These fights break out several times a night and sound totally vicious. Geckos loudly bark at random intervals. Once the sun is up the roosters get quieter and the raucous mynas take over.
Aside from the animal life there are periodic torrential downpours that wake you and make you think that every faucet and the shower must have suddenly turned on. Then at 6am the hotel turns on the fountain that happens to be right outside my window.
When i lived in the main hotel building for the first month. there were three kava bars right outside. so from 4pm until 2-4am you would hear muffled voices and lots of spitting and hawking.
then i moved to the studio and can no longer hear the kava drinkers and the roosters are further away but there is the wafer thin door between my studio apartment and the one next door. our units are designed to make a suite. I assume that the door is the problem because i never hear the neighbor on the other side. i can hear literally EVERYTHING that goes on in there. There must be some sort of bizarre acoustical trick happening because everything sounds like it is happening in my room with no sound distortion. you might expect to hear muffled conversations and TVs and the like in a hotel room. However, i can hear every word of every conversation. it reminds me of the movie "office Space" when apartment neighbors yell through the wall to get their neighbor to turn to a different TV channel except i would not have to yell! It was kind of fun practicing my French with the francophones from New Caledonia. Coughing sneezing and snoring regularly awaken me. I can even hear and see due to the large gap at the floor every flick of a light switch. I can hear cooking of course but one morning at 7am i awakened to the sound of someone eating cereal! I'm not kidding. i could hear the clink of the spoon in the bowl and the crunching of the cereal in the mouth. although i do not know any of the neighbors i have had i feel like some kind of voyeur since i know many things about them. it has made me a very silent neighbor.
my biggest issue with the repeated wakings is my mosquito bites. every wakeful period reminds me that i am very itchy and i compulsively scratch and scratch and scratch...
Finally, 9 am the housekeeping staff makes their first rounds. there are no do not disturb signs to place.
So no rest for the weary.
roosters begin crowing hours before the sun rises and there is an army of them! In the daylight the dogs are sleepy loners shy of humans. By the dark of night they must form large roving packs that get into huge gang fights. These fights break out several times a night and sound totally vicious. Geckos loudly bark at random intervals. Once the sun is up the roosters get quieter and the raucous mynas take over.
Aside from the animal life there are periodic torrential downpours that wake you and make you think that every faucet and the shower must have suddenly turned on. Then at 6am the hotel turns on the fountain that happens to be right outside my window.
When i lived in the main hotel building for the first month. there were three kava bars right outside. so from 4pm until 2-4am you would hear muffled voices and lots of spitting and hawking.
then i moved to the studio and can no longer hear the kava drinkers and the roosters are further away but there is the wafer thin door between my studio apartment and the one next door. our units are designed to make a suite. I assume that the door is the problem because i never hear the neighbor on the other side. i can hear literally EVERYTHING that goes on in there. There must be some sort of bizarre acoustical trick happening because everything sounds like it is happening in my room with no sound distortion. you might expect to hear muffled conversations and TVs and the like in a hotel room. However, i can hear every word of every conversation. it reminds me of the movie "office Space" when apartment neighbors yell through the wall to get their neighbor to turn to a different TV channel except i would not have to yell! It was kind of fun practicing my French with the francophones from New Caledonia. Coughing sneezing and snoring regularly awaken me. I can even hear and see due to the large gap at the floor every flick of a light switch. I can hear cooking of course but one morning at 7am i awakened to the sound of someone eating cereal! I'm not kidding. i could hear the clink of the spoon in the bowl and the crunching of the cereal in the mouth. although i do not know any of the neighbors i have had i feel like some kind of voyeur since i know many things about them. it has made me a very silent neighbor.
my biggest issue with the repeated wakings is my mosquito bites. every wakeful period reminds me that i am very itchy and i compulsively scratch and scratch and scratch...
Finally, 9 am the housekeeping staff makes their first rounds. there are no do not disturb signs to place.
So no rest for the weary.
2 comments:
hey michelle, britt finally forwarded me your blog info. i have been thinking of you. sounds like you are having "quite" the journey.
sorry i missed the beginning. wondering how long you are there for...are you glad you went? reading some of your blog reminds me of bali for me.
hope you are well. missing you here.
lots of love, linda
Hi Michelle,
Don't know whether you are still looking at your blogs but if you are some information would be great! I am considering going to Vanuatu with my partner and baby girl. I'm not worried about me or my partner but I am about my wee one who will be 1yr by the time we go (if we do). After having read your blog I think I know the answer to this but is it safe (medically) to bring our baby there?
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