The Swimming Pool at Ceaser Park Hotel
My wife and I were on one of our usual weekend trips to the Coast, down to the Southern most part of Taiwan and to the holiday town of Kenting. As per usual we ended up having the "free" buffet breakfast and then we went straight to the swimming pool to spend the rest of the day catching up on some serious lazing about. My wife with her newspaper, CD Walkman and a book and I with my paper and pencil, either to sunbathe with blank pages remaining or to write something should there be something to write about.
Kenting is not really the ideal holiday destination for sun, sea and sand that Westerners dream of and save for years to get. It is a very small place and geared mainly towards those escaping the Big City for the weekend rather than the overseas market. Some foreigners can be seen wandering around but they are far and few between and often look a little lost, as there is not that much to do apart from sunbathing and swimming. One main road, one little beach, various hotels ranging from minus stars to five-star a few shops selling trinkets that can be had anywhere in the world - and that is about all the place has to offer.
For us escaping from The Big City of Kaohsiung for the weekend it is perfect. A 5 Star Hotel set in its own gardens and complete with many restaurants, places to get fit and a massive swimming pool in the center, nice weather good service and a place to relax and enjoy the day without pressure and noise from the outside world.
The Pool is Empty
8.30am and the pool is empty, not a soul in sight so no desperate rush to get the best lounger or shady spot today it seems. The sun is up and has been for an hour or so. It is not warm yet as the end of November is the start of the winter months. Not that it gets that cold in Southern Taiwan and today looked like it was going to be a good day. Definitely T-shirt and shorts weather later on and typically hotter than an average summer day in England.
8.30am and not a soul in sight, they probably now fighting over the remaining sausage at the buffet or stuffing large pieces of appropriated bread into their handbags, just next to the packets of blueberry jam and the banana they took before. All is quiet and so peaceful; warm enough to remove the T-shirt and stretch out on the lounger, warm enough to go for a swim in the glass-like swimming pool and warm enough to fall asleep and ignore the paper that remains wordless and neglected beside me.
Music plays quietly in the background, the Beatles and The Yellow Submarine taking me back a few years.
9.00am. The sound of a human disturbs my dreams. I open my eyes to see a lone sole of a lifeguard turning up for work an hour late. He is doing his rounds, skimming off the leaves of the night from the surface of the water, opening up the towel kiosk as the attendant has not turned up yet, and placing his chair near to the water. Other weekend holiday goers start to appear slowly, none yet brave enough to sit down and chill out as for them it is cold. For I, from Scotland, this is paradise, for them and at 25 degrees it is cold, freezing maybe closer to the mark. The wanderers drift around the pool covered from head to toe and some with a coat for extra comfort. They drift around not brave enough to break ranks and relax, not brave enough to shed some clothes and join us for the hot day ahead, content just to walk around aimlessly until such times as the sun rises further and the heat of the day sounds the bell.
10.00am and the morning is really starting to get off the ground, all hell is breaking loose. The children have appeared, stuffed to the brim with food from the "free" buffet and ready for a day of action at the pool. The fathers come along in attendance striding macho like to the pool in their body hugging swimming trunks and showing to the world that the winter weather has no effect on them. Despite the fact that the sun is working at nearly full blast and the day can now be regarded as hot, the wives remain wary of showing skin, partly due to it being winter and partly due to the fact that the Taiwanese do not like to get a suntan. White skin is in; brown skin is ugly.
The husbands jump into the water with their children and try to stifle the scream that wants out as the coldness of the water hits them. Brave it they must and gradually as they get used to it the children start to play and the fathers out do each other in showing their swimming skills and strength by throwing a child or two as far as they can across the pool.
Over the other side of the pool others come out of the woodwork. Couples on a romantic getaway snuggle onto the same lounger, all dressed up for dinner and nowhere to go. Other more adventurous couples remove their tops and show that they do own a swimsuit after all. Not many enter the water, most content to lie on their loungers or continue to wander aimlessly around the gardens and the pool. Others just sit there, not talking but seemingly happy to snuggle up close and let the world, pass them by
A Couple of girls have appeared
A couple of young and single looking woman parade around the swimming pool, showing their nice bodies and little bikinis that don't leave much to the imagination, to the world. And they are covered from head to toe in suntan oil so I don't think they will be swimming today. The married men stop their antics and body contests too goggle at these beauties until a warning signal from the wife ashore returns them to their duties in a hurry. The wives in turn glare angrily at the girls as they pass but these images seem to relish in the attention rather than take heed of the silent signals being pointed their way.
10.30am and the shallow children's corner is crowded to overflowing with screaming monsters and fathers who seem deflated, in their actions. The Beatles have departed to be replaced by Simon and Garfunkle and the lifeguard, with his back to the action is busy chatting up one of the sleek catwalk girls, totally absent from his job. Nobody at the deep end as all are concentrated around the children, all trying to teach their kids how to swim or shouting at them for not being able to. One 4yr old child has been equipped properly by his father and resplendent with his gear this child floats across the pool. His aids to swimming consist of a pair of goggles, a duck rubber head band secured under the chin, a life jacket of immense proportions and buttoned under his chin as to push is head backwards. An enormous life ring strapped over his shoulders and around his waste, full-length armbands and a pair of flippers on his feet. Nobody seemed to notice except I, but when one pushed the child in the water he would zoom across and not stop till he bumped into the other side.
10.45am and it is getting too noisy. The kids are yelling and screaming at each other and ignoring their once-macho and in-charge fathers who now seem lost and small in a big place. Wailing breaks above the general noise as yet another kid slips whilst running around the pool and yet another kid complains that the start button on the Jacuzzi wont work. Another kid wails as he falls off the bridge that spans part of the pool and another smacks another across the mouth with the floats that are issued at the towel kiosk to which the attendant has just arrived. No more self-service for the tourists? The music issuing from the speakers has now been upped a pace and the Rolling Stones blares forth in argument with the screeching from the Kiddies Pool.
A couple dressed up for business and resplendent with Jacket, Tie and Handbags are busy doing a photography session. She drapes herself as far as her constricting suit will allow over the banister of the little bridge that connects the Kiddies Pool to the Main Pool. He meanwhile takes a variety of photographs of his posing wife before the camera is swapped around and he poses, whilst trying to hide his paunch under his suit jacket for his photographer wife. They seem so out of place next to the flabby husbands showing off in the pool in their skintight swim suits.
Just The Gardner Left doing some weeding
11.00am All seems to be quiet. The couples on the loungers opposite have drifted off somewhere else. The girls on show have vanished leaving behind their towels and the music has stopped. A barman hangs around hopefully near his fridge but nobody seems interested in a drink. The fathers have all disappeared separately and to some unknown place. Maybe back to their separate rooms to remove the body hugging swimming trunks that have been impeding the blood from doing its rounds. Or maybe to a bar or into town I know not.
The mothers have been left with the brood and they, still dressed up from head to toe and seeking shelter under palm trees or bridges, watch their children silently and without emotion. They do not talk to each other and remain squatting in their respective shaded areas, dotted around the poolside like gnomes in a garden. The children meanwhile seemed to have quieted down with the absence of the fathers and are content to push the floating 4yr old across the pool and from side to side. The four-year old seems oblivious to his fate and quite content to be a floating football for the other kids. The Lifeguard having now finished talking to the business couple and taking photographs of them looks as if he has fallen asleep in his chair, his head having fallen sideways onto his conveniently placed hand
11.30am and the sun is up high and hot. My wife is getting restless and is considering a swim before escaping the supposed heat of the day. I on the other hand have just started to relish the prospects of the rest of the day, lying in the sun and furthermore having studied the events so far I am eager to continue to see how the day plays out. Eager to see if the fathers return or the mothers go for a swim and will the lifeguard wakeup and the beauties reappear? Will the music restart or will something else play and will anybody lay claim to the floating child with all the equipment who seems to be floating aimlessly around the pool?
I am just drifting off once again due to the lack of new material when I suddenly feel this body close to mine. Opening my eyes I see what looks like a seven-year old girl and she is busy climbing up onto my lounger and onto me. Within a few seconds she has suitably placed her head on my stomach, her arms are wrapped around my body and she is busy falling asleep. Well, I know that I have what could be construed as a little paunch but this beats all. The mother drifts over and smiling at me she attempts to peel her child away from my stomach, whilst the child digs her nails in to my waist and holds on for dear life. After a while the mother manages to prize her daughter away, leaving me with various scratches around my stomach and with a daughter who is now complaining volubly at having to leave the comfort that my stomach must have provided her.
Midday: It is so quiet and the pool is empty. Not a soul to be seen anywhere, I am the only customer in this massive complex. The towel kiosk is still open but no attendant to be seen and the lifeguard and his chair have both vanished to some shaded corner that I am not aware of. The bar is open but no waiter available and the music has restarted with a jolly Christmas Carol, one that in the long term could drive me crazy. Ah wait, there is movement in the pool and it looks like a rubber ring or life jacket! Hold on, it moves! Ah, somebody has forgotten the poor child: the one dressed-up to kill in rubber flotation devices and recently used as a shuttlecock. And here comes the distraught mother, she pulls her rubberized child out of the pool and proceeds to smack him hard on his behind. Poor child, although with all that cushioning I doubt he felt a thing. They disappear and by 1205 the pool is dead, empty and a ghost like.
The sun is up and the water has not a ripple or shadow to disturb the glass-like image. The day and time is perfect for sunbathing, for ordering a drink or two and calling for the menu. The time is ripe for jumping into the swimming pool, trying out the Jacuzzi and for playing water polo. And after that it would be perfect for lying in the shade for the rest of the day listening to music, drinking beer and sleeping. But something is wrong; I am the only person here!
A day by the pool is over for everybody except me. Well, even for me it is over as I know that nobody will return to the pool till the next day and thus I will have no more to write about, no people to provide me with material and no disturbance will come my way. Nobody will come back whilst the sun is shining high and nobody will relax beside the pool in the heat of the day. The Lifeguards job is over and the towel attendant only awaits the return of my towel before she herself will fall asleep and hide from prying eyes. The bar attendants job is finished and although everything remains open for the solitary foreigner nobody is there to attend to it.
So there I am with my shorter pencil and filled paper. A paper filled with a morning beside the swimming pool. The story would be longer should the day have continued but siting here on my lounger and looking at a deserted and empty resort I do not feel that there will be anything worth writing about until tomorrow. So I close here still surprised about the shortness of the day but content in my filled pages and my shorter pencil.
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