Ninhvana

Walking into the hostel at 5am, the building was more like a villa and the views of the sea made quite an impact. You could walk straight through the building out into the garden which had views of the mountains on the horizon out to sea. The sun was coming up through the clouds making for a colourful sky. I went and took pictures of the sea, the sky and the palm trees. It was beautiful, excitement for the next few days momentarily made me forget how tired and dazed I was.

We were lucky enough to check in at 5.30 and go straight to bed. We slept for a few hours and then went down to breakfast. The restaurant was set alongside the pool and there were a few local children playing in the pool. We were told later on that some locals would use the facilities and often played football/drank at the hostel. We went for a swim and got chatting to some English guys in the pool. The group was made up of 3 guys from Brighton who had known eachother growing up and 2 guys from London. The group had formed in Muine and they were a good laugh. I loved to see groups that formed travelling. It often made for a good dynamic. We ended up drinking with them and playing boozey Jenga. We found it amusing the way that they guessed we were sisters. We also found out it was one of the boy’s 21st birthday that day and he had been drinking since the morning. They were all up for a big night but the hostel plan was a movie night. We got everyone to vote for the incredibles movie so that we could turn it into a drinking game.

Later on I got involved in the beach volley ball tournament. I was lucky enough to be in a team with two Americans who played volleyball at home. We won our first game easily. The second game was against the boys and they were determined to win. They were very confident and cheered everytime they got a point. It was a close match with both teams only edging ahead a few points at various points. The boys made it to match point first and we were 4 points behind. We managed to come back fighting and get the score to 21-21. In order to win you needed to be 2 points ahead. I was serving and we managed to continue scoring. It was extremely satisfying to win against the boys. Especially as the boys had been trying pretty hard throwing themselves around the pitch. We then got involved in making up 21 challenges for Fabio (the birthday boy) to complete during the night.

That evening we had dinner with the boys and got ready for the evening. We set up the outside sofas around the wall that had the movie projected onto. We all bought a few drinks to prepare for drinking everytime a super power was used in the movie. The drinking game worked out well. Afterwards the challenges quickly got underway.

Later on we all went for a dip in the pool. It was a unique atmosphere to be in a swimming pool in the dark while music was playing at the bar. I love moments like that travelling.

The next day no one had any energy. We spent the morning in the hammocks and the afternoon in the spa getting a massage and our nails done. We also spent some time chatting to the guys and chilling on the outdoor sofas. It was funny how quickly you got to know people when in such a secluded location. It was like our own bubble. The following morning it was sad to say goodbye to Seb who had been travelling with us on and off for a while but also the group of boys who had made our time at Ninhvana such a laugh.