"I'll come back later." The bellman stood there in the doorway as if waiting for a response.
"Uh, alright then. See you!" He turned and left.
The Four Seasons Manele Bay and Lodge at Koele basically function as one resort. Our morning passed quickly in a whirlwind of island activity demonstrations between the two: Breakfast at 7:00, beach and spinner dolphins at 8:00, horseback riding with cowboy/singer songwriter Jesse Taylor at 9:00, lunch at Keole at 11:00, and shooting sporting clays by 13:30.
In the shower now, I busied myself scrubbing the red dust from my nooks and crannies with a wash cloth and L'Occitane shower gel that reminded me of an airplane-sized limoncello.
In 30 minutes, the itinerary dictated, we were to meet in the lobby, tour Manele, ride back up to Koele, tour that property, followed by some rustic-posh event rumored to include steak and lobster. Unfortunately, I was leaving before dinner in order to catch a red-eye flight home.
I had a plan: 5 minute walk to the room, 10 minute shower, 10 minute packing, 5 minutes back to the lobby. I left my shoes outside, and pulled off my clothes on my way past the tub to the glass-enclosed shower.
Just as I began shampooing, I heard the door open and shut and steps past the bathroom door to the main area of the room. The footsteps soon returned, stopping in the open doorway.
"Sir, I came to get your luggage. I see that you're not ready. I'll come back later."
Being seen in the nude proved not to be the surprising part of the encounter. My surprise came rather at the calm manner in which the bellman, hearing the shower, went forward with his assigned task of collecting my luggage. When the task proved impossible (clothing, sales collateral, and shoes strewn all over the bed and floor), he reported on the situation before leaving.
I felt oddly ennobled. Knowing I would be in a hurry, "my staff," had come to offer help.
"After all," I said to myself in a British accent. I reached for the conditioner. "These things do happen every now and again."
Favorite post so far. I mean really, when you have staff, it's bound to occur. BTW, Lanai happens to be one of my specialty islands. I wish I had my clay pigeon score recorded so we could compare :)
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