A loud sound wakes me up.
I grab my phone from the nightstand and check the time: 1:30 AM. The thought that I’ve only slept for three hours runs through my head.
Back when I worked in corporate, I used to wake up four to five times a week around this time. My heart would start beating faster, and my mind would race, dwelling on what happened the previous day or things I had to do at work tomorrow. The days following those nights were usually not pleasant—neither for my team nor for myself.
My hotel room is on the first floor, facing a road that sees a lot of traffic during the day—at least for this town. The sounds I hear remind me of a Formula One race when a car passes really close. These are modified motorcycles speeding by.
I recall my friend in Kuching telling me that lots of youngsters do this. They’re bored and don’t have many places to go, and at night, there is almost no traffic on the streets. I assume it’s the same here in Sibu.
I reach for a coconut butter cookie I placed on the cabinet next to me. The whole packet, which contains 60 cookies (pre-packed in sets of four), costs less than 10 ringgit. The prices for processed food here are very cheap, especially compared to fresh produce in the supermarkets. I bought them for the festival tomorrow; in case I need an extra sugar boost, these cookies will come in handy. I eat them one by one and put in my AirPods to muffle the sound of the motorcycles.
I try to find the remote to switch on the TV, but there’s no connection. Only a wavy screensaver appears on the screen. I press several buttons, but without any luck. I grab my iPad and try to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi, only to realize there isn’t any. I pick up my phone again and turn on the hotspot. Once my phone appears in the connections on my iPad, it auto-connects.
I jump out of bed to go to the washroom. The floor of the room has high-quality laminate, which I like. There are tons of hotels with carpet, which can give you a literal history of events in that particular room. Once I’m done, I jump back into bed and start streaming some YouTube channels.
The motorcycles are still passing by, but soon I start to feel drowsy. With a stomach full of cookies and crumbs sticking to my teeth, I fall asleep.