A Familiar Face

A familiar face-

Upon leaving Melbourne in February, I made the correct assumption that I would go a while before seeing a familiar face. Finally in Bali that 7 month streak came to and end. Tara and I worked together in Las Vegas. She relocated from NY and worked there 1 year for the opening of Tao’s sister property Lavo. 18 months ago while traveling through Indonesia she took a surfing lesson in Bali, fell in like with the German surf instructor, like became love, dating became an engagement and she now calls Bali home full time. Not only is Tara someone from my home town, she is also of the rare breed that lived and breathed the same background in the nightclub industry. It made me think of, and draw a blank, on anybody else who fit this profile of Vegas night owl turned wanderer. A very rare breed. We shared viewpoints on what this is like. That you can’t really explain to people what this means. She told me she stopped talking about it early on because from a normal travelers perspective “you come across sounding like a pathological lier”. I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t really go into details with people I met and its really for this reason exactly.

I was once in a conversation with a few people at our guesthouse pool bar in Siem Reap. There was one guy that wasn’t REALLY part of the conversation, but as an unwritten traveler rule if somebody attempts to involve themselves you open the door for them. This was one of those typical passive aggressive American haters. And where was he from? Estonia… Estonia?! Where the fuck is Estonia at anyway? (I looked it up, it’s between Finland and Latvia) isn’t that where Dracula comes from? No that’s Transylvania. I’ve heard of Estonia anyway at least . Not 100% sure I knew it was it’s own country, or that it ever made its way out if the medieval age, but hey nice to meet you too, hater. (Thoughts not words). Anyway the topic of what it’s like to live in Vegas comes up (as it eventually tends to). “Do you live on the strip”? “Are you a professional poker player”? “Is your life like The Hangover”?…. Because Dracula has been to Vegas once for a bachelor party some years back and visited Ghost Bar he answers these questions on my behalf- “Vegas isn’t really like that, it’s all show, glamorized gibberish, it’s just a normal city with a bunch of slot machines”… A little montage of crazy nights and my personal greatest hits flashes through my mind to the sound track of Viva Las Vegas, which makes The Hangover look like a Brendan Fraser movie. What I want to say is “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but let me start anyway”. Instead I take the high road- “your right, all smoke and mirrors, my life in Vegas was… normal”. Tara gets this the way few people do and it’s refreshing to be in the company of someone that does for a change.

The other side of our conversation went the way of what people in the states get comically wrong. Her friends from NY would visit and discuss the newest collection of Jimmy Choo shoes. She told them she has two shoes now- everyday flip flops and dress flip flops. We talked about the size factor, specifically food portions and automobiles. I wondered if that time will ever come again where I care what I drive. And there are 3 things Americans are WAY off on that the rest if the world got right- Currency that’s all the same size and color (fun fact- we are the alone on this), NOT using the metric system and living to work as opposed to working to live. The last in that list is the least comic the most pertinent. I gave her a related quote from the inspirational (and recommended) documentary Finding Joe- “Don’t bargain away your LIFE for a piece of security, or you will never find your bliss”.

Bob