Day 69 of The Big Adventure.
I left my curtains open on purpose and so woke up naturally very early with the sun. I watched night turn to day over my infinity pool and still couldn’t quite believe it was real. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. 

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself and decided to unpack. This was such an unexpected luxury. Having lived out of my bag for the past 3 months it was so nice to be in one place for more than 2 days. I hung up all my dresses on hangers and even ironed a few of them! Just because I could!

Before I knew it, it was time to go and collect Sam from the pier so I quickly showered and changed and went up to reception to meet the girls. 

I met Coral and Be, the two managers who were going down in the car to greet him and asked if I could join them. I also met Sam’s brother (Guy)’s girlfriend: Ksenia, the loveliest Russian lady, who helps him run The Place. And she was coming to greet him at the pier too. 

We all went and sat and waited until we saw his boat pull in and we could all just make out his big lion’s mane of hair. He came bounding off the boat and everyone gave him a big hug. 

Sam had just come from Borneo, where he and his brother, Guy, were taking their mother on a special birthday trip to see the orangutans. Sam was going to borrow Guys motorbike to get around the island until Guy got back. 

So the girls took Sam’s backpack in the car and Sam and I rode the motorbike back to the villas. 

As we pulled into The Place, Sam was telling me how much everything had changed since he’d last been here and what it was like when they’d first started building here. 

He showed me the villa he was staying in and I was secretly quite happy to see that my villa was better. 

I went back to my villa to pop my bikini on and then went back and sat in Sam’s pool all afternoon. Many gin and tonics were had, along with a bottle of wine and before we knew it, it was time to go and collect Tod (the other brother, who I know from back home in London).

We went down to the pier with Ksenia and sat in a beach bar next to the pier and watched the sunset. 

When his boat pulled in we saw his disembark covered in bandages. 

We went back to the beach bar for a few drinks and he regaled us with war stories from Bali. He’d gotten into a fight with some locals when he saw one of them punch a horse. Only Tod. 

Then we went back home to shower and change before heading down to Fizz’s, a lovely beach side restaurant, for dinner. 

We had some delicious gin fizzes, a caprese salad(!) and some delicious grilled salmon. 

Then we walked along the beach to a bar called Fishbowl. When we walked in literally EVERYONE seemed to know Sam and Tod. They later informed me they’d been coming to this bar for the past 10 years and Tod had even worked here at one point. 

Many drinks were had – a few too many fireballs. Tod and Sam went off to play beer pong and Ksenia and I sat and had a chat. We realised we were quite tired so Sam took us both back to the villas on the back of his bike. 

I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.