And then...

Alone on a beach on the other side of the world. How did I get here? I remember the flights.  The uppity flight crew woman wearing an ironically festive santa-maid outfit. I remember 27 hours of flying broken up by 7 hours of waiting to fly. Negotiating bus tickets with someone despite the lack of common language. More waiting when the bus breaks down three quarters of the way there.  Valiant effort by the driver,  restarted the engine 37 times as we rolled along,  the engine dying every 200 meters,  until it finally stopped altogether.  A queue for the transport to take me the final 2km into the festival.  2 hours of standing and shuffling. Arrive at the festival to be greeted,  not by friends,  but by an hour long ticket line. Woman tried to overcharge me.  I didnt need the language to make my point this time. Then an hour long entry line,  which I cut in front of. Finally in the door and greeted... by a 3km walk to the camping grounds.  3/4 of the way there I stop and sit down.... I've reached the beach,  and the breeze is a darling counter to the 29 degree humidity I've been swimming through since I arrived.  12 (unanswered) phone calls later,  I give up and pitch my tent in an arbitrary place next to other tents.  Hey, they speak a little English. At this point,  I need a drink. Remember the days when you would pay for something with money?  Not at this festival. It's all about the vouchers, and the understaffed 3 window cashier is offering me another 3 hours of standing in a line. Well,  that or starve or dehydrate. Shouldn't happen when you need water in this weather. So,  I have my 3 hour water and a beer,  I decide that I've been abandoned,  so I'm going to go to bed.  Only one problem.  I get back to the camp area and the tent,  and those that had been around me are completely gone.  I.  Shit. You. Not. The stuff of nightmares.  Much screaming and sweating later, in find it 300 meters away,  apparently moved by staff because we were in a no camping zone. Which wasn't marked out.  Anyway.  That brings me out hear.  Abandoned by my friends, even the little green crabs
scurry from me.  Alone on a beach with 10 thousand other people, and I'm more stressed now than I was when I left. All I want to do is cry and sleep.  Think I'll
do both.

Today I saw
* bamboo cave covering the entire road out of the airport.
* four people trying to fix one aircon.
* an aircon company called Catarina
* living situations that would make you feel ashamed to want more than shelter and food.
*Green.  Everywhere.
Rows of run down shambles brick huts with satellite dishes on them.
*Cows and horses,  hard to tell sometimes if they're dead or asleep.
*Fellowship of ring heading up a foreboding mountain. But it was cows.
A cow reaching upwards for flower just out of reach. .