Chapter 2

"Here we are, in Alola!" Justine said as she walked out the terminal, her main camera focused ahead of her. She turned it towards her and smiled for a moment before returning her attention ahead of her, the camera still focused on her. "Let's see how this trip goes. I've landed in Heahea City and it's almost past two here, local time. I guess all we'll see today is the hotel where I am staying."

She quickly walked out from the terminal and waved a smiling hello to the locals as she started off. "Like you all know, I usually take a walk to my hotel if it's close enough so I can check out the local culture firsthand. And this time is no different. Check it out!"

She slowed down her pace as she held up her camera, intent on focusing it on all the people around her. Most were wearing scant clothes—part of the male population was even topless. The women were also wearing rather light clothes, though not revealing. It made Justine feel a bit out of place with her thicker clothes.

Some kids were running around, seemingly playing a game of tag. A lot of pokémon were out and about. They didn't seem wild, but they didn't seem to belong to anyone either. Perhaps, the people accepted wild pokémon more freely, and tamed them in the process? She would have to ask around to know more.

She breathed in the fresh air deeply, letting a smile spread across her face. These were going to be some interesting months.

"Alola!"

She glanced around and noticed one of the locals approaching her with a smile and a wave. She waved back with a smile at the greeting. She had known about it but hearing it be said was weirdly strange to her. Possibly because she wasn't used to it.

"Alola!" She said back as she focused her camera on to the man.

"You seem new here. Tourist?"

"Yeah, just arrived."

"Welcome! Welcome to the summery paradise!"

"Thank you!"

She watched as the man passed by her and continued on his way, humming a tune to himself. Chuckling, she started walking as well, her camera focusing back on her. "Summery Paradise sounds like such a perfect name for this region. It's a wonder they don't already call it that."

She walked and walked, slowing down and speeding up as necessary to focus on hundreds of interesting sights that caught her attention: people feeding some wild pokémon, a bunch of different pokémon playing around the city in a group, some kids trying to catch what looked like a white Vulpix, and some skyscrapers in the background of it all. The heat of the atmosphere made itself known as she walked, quite living up to the name the man from before had called the region.

Summery Paradise indeed.

Once Justine was sure she wouldn't see any new sights, she stopped recording and let the camera hang by her neck. She stretched her arms afterwards, feeling a slight ache thanks to the weight of the camera. Or was it because she hadn't relaxed well enough? She didn't know; all she knew was that she would really have to take Bill's advice and get some rest while in Alola.

And get used to not uploading a video every other day throughout the trip. There was no need to stress herself out for no reason. She had well over 100k subscribers to her channel at this point. There was no way that number was dropping if she didn't upload a video every other day. She would have to find a way to deal with her restlessness. Perhaps, she could mention it in this first video itself that she would be uploading with a more lenient schedule? It would give her a chance to render her videos even better as she would have enough time.

Which reminds me… I will have to buy a new laptop soon. She thought to herself as she dodged another bunch of kids. She felt oddly annoyed. There are too many kids here! Is today a field trip day or something?

Almost immediately, she breathed out. The heat was getting to her. She would definitely have to rest. She quickly checked the maps on her phone to see how far off she was. "Another three kilometers," she muttered to herself. Just the thought tired her. Nevertheless, she had made her decision to walk there, and walking there she was.

She decided to slow down her pace and really take in the new sights around her, instead of letting her camera direct how she should enjoy the atmosphere. She often missed doing many things because her focus was always capturing it all on camera; often, it meant that the trip was never nearly as enjoyable as it could be.

I should really take my time to enjoy this trip. She thought as she glanced lazily in the direction of the road that went uphill to her hotel. With the extra time I will have, I should be able to fit in more 'fun' time.

She climbed up the small hill, the road taking her along the side of the hill. The peak wasn't too high but it had enough height that she could soon make out the ocean from where she was.

And what a gorgeous view!

She made her way to the side of the road, placed all her luggage down and then went up to the edge of the road, taking in the breathtakingly beautiful sight. From where she was, the road gave way to a sharp cliff that disappeared in the forest below. Further ahead, some buildings broke the green canopy, and marked where the other branch of the main road went, and further beyond was the beach that slowly merged with the sea. Looking over it all was the setting sun in a red sky between two islands, bathing the entire landscape in dusky light.

The view was superb. And she wasn't even at the top yet!

She made a mental note to definitely record the view the next day. It would be a great way to start her trip. Nodding to herself, she picked up all her luggage and trudged on.

An hour later, she stood in front of her hotel—The Tide Song Hotel. This place was going to be her dwelling for the next few months. Its outside appearance was spectacular, and gave her hope that she had chosen the right place to stay at. Given that she was staying there for months, she would want a complete apartment-like place to hole up in, barring the kitchen which was common for the entire building.

But first!

She pulled out her camera and set it rolling. She didn't try to hide her exhaustion at this point. Simply giving a tired smile, she then pointed the camera at the building. "So, this is where I am staying. Tide Song Hotel. Not much to show around today. I am too tired to explore. So, I will show everything tomorrow."

She cut off the feed and sighed to herself in relief. She might try to hide it but it was starting to stress her out. The constant expectation and reminding herself that she needed to record whatever new sights she was seeing was something she had never gotten fully used to. Best she could do was suppress the feelings. Most of the times, it worked but sometimes, she just fell in a depressive, pessimistic mood when she couldn't think about anything else. Today was one of those days.

A good night's rest would help.

She swiftly checked in and was led to her room on the fifth floor of the hotel. The room lived up to her expectations after she had seen the front of the hotel. It was spacious with two beds in the center, a table across the beds and an attached bathroom. The beds themselves were wide enough to hold two Justines. The thought made her chuckle.

There was a small table between the beds and a telephone sat on it, presumably to call for room service. A balcony opened up westwards towards the setting sun. There was a dressing table and a cabinet near the balcony. There were three sockets on the wall by the main table and one open socket by the small table between the beds. How thoughtful of the electrician! One look and she was immediately satisfied with the room.

She thanked her guide and let him drop all her luggage inside the room. He nodded, did what she asked and wordlessly left with a small bow. She locked the door after him, and heaved a huge sigh of relief. She could finally rest for the day.

The first thing she did was put away the cameras in the cabinet. For her, they signified work, and she wouldn't be able to completely relax without them being out of sight. Next, she moved all her luggage next to the dressing table and opened her suitcase. Taking a towel and a change of clothes with her, she practically ran into the bathroom.

Inside, she turned on the shower with cold water and then walked in slowly. The cold water hit her, and made her shiver. She hadn't realized just how hot and dusty she felt. With the cold water running down along her body and through her hair, it let her loosen up nicely. Once she was done cleaning her body, she focused her attention on her hair. It felt weirdly matted.

Her shower must have lasted well over half an hour. But she felt so much better afterwards that she couldn't care less. Putting her wet clothes to dry on the balcony, she let herself fall onto one of the beds.

Ah so fluffy! She thought as she lazily turned over on her back, eyes closed. Nothing can be better than this!

The sun had long since set and from where she was, she could see the cities lit up beautifully among the darkness of the forest canopy. The moon shone on the ocean at the horizon, making it look ghastly yet enticing. There seemed to be specks of fire on the beach. Campers? Justine thought. Is camping allowed there?

All in all, her first day in Alola had shown her a lot of culture and a lot of exhaustion. She couldn't wait to explore it all.

She called room service and got her dinner delivered to her room. She preferred dinner to be light since that made it easy for her to go to sleep. She did not order any Alolan dish since she had no idea how heavy or light they could get. A nice, light dinner later, she put the tray with the empty dishes out in the corridor, and went to bed.

Justine woke up surprisingly early the next morning. The clock showed the time to be just past five, and the sunrise was supposed to be around six. She would get a chance to see the sunrise over the ocean. It wasn't like she had never seen that before. Her home was on an island so small she could see both ends from the roof of her home. But there was something about being able to see the same sight in some other region that seemed to give that sight a different flavour.

What would be the best spot to watch the sunrise in Alola? She would have to ask some locals.

For now, she simply lay in the bed, not wanting to get out of the comfortable zone. The morning was cooler than expected, and the room was just as cool; she could chalk it up to the fact that she had left the balcony door open the night before. Her bed was nice and comfortable, not too hot or cold. Just perfect.

But as luck would have it, she absolutely had to go to the bathroom now.

"So much for comfort," she mumbled as she forced herself out of the bed. "Goodbye sleep."

She freshened up quickly and changed to another set of clothes. Then she packed some snacks, a couple of large water bottles and a first aid kit in her smaller backpack. Taking the smaller cameras with her, she locked the door to her room and set off.

First stop: the front desk.

The receptionist smiled at her as she walked up to the desk. "Good morning, how may I help you?"

"Could I talk with the manager here?"

"Sure. Is it a service issue, or-"

"Oh no, no, no. I just have some questions I wanted to ask him about this island. Figured a manager that regularly interacts with tourists would be able to answer those the best."

The receptionist seemed relieved that it wasn't about a complaint. She quickly dialed a number on her desk phone and after a minute, gestured Justine to follow her.

Justine followed her as she led them both to the office of the manager. The receptionist stopped just outside and let Justine go ahead. Justine thanked the young girl and opened the door.

"Come in, come in!"

And so, Justine 'came in'.

The manager was a portly, older man in Alolan attire—shorts and a casual floral-printed shirt. For someone who managed a major hotel like Tide Song, the outfit didn't feel appropriate, but somehow, Justine felt that the man couldn't care less about what others thought about it.

"How may I help you, madam?" The manager asked with an inviting smile as he gestured to the seat across him.

Justine accepted his gesture and sat on the chair in front of him. "I landed here yesterday," she said as she looked briefly around the room. "And I wanted to ask about touristy spots that are not normally visited by tourists."

"Hmmm, so sort of a hidden getaway?" He hummed in thought, glancing momentarily at Justine to see her nod.

"Sort of. I plan to explore every nook and cranny here if I can."

"Hmmm, there is no official list of all getaways as such," the manager replied. "But since you are exploring anyway, you can make a list if you want. If you get it posted somewhere popular, it would boost our tourism. How does that sound?"

"…I'll think about it." There was no way she would commit to something so audacious without considering it for some time. Mostly because, it would require her to spend her free time doing that. What if she didn't care enough to explore some area? Or what if some place was too dangerous to explore? There were some other things to consider as well, like the time taken to get there, the danger in the area, etc.

"Do you have any more questions?" The manager asked, wondering why she had quietened.

"Oh yes, I still do. What about a sunrise point? Then, next, I want to talk about Alolan delicacies. Oh, and if you don't mind, I would like to record this conversation…"

The next hour or so went by easily as Justine asked quite a bit about cultures, delicacies, festivals, trivia, and whatnot about Alola in general. The manager was okay with it all being recorded; he, in fact, seemed more enthusiastic after he found out she had a decent following. The information wasn't costing him money, and if her video went viral in any way, he would still profit from it as it would bring a lot of new tourists to the region. It seemed like a decent investment.

And Justine knew that. That was why she had revealed her intention of recording in the first place. She had already paid for her rooms for the next three months. There was no reason why the manager wouldn't accommodate her and her demands.

She missed the sunrise but that was fine. She had any number of days to watch it when she could. First things first: planning was important to her. Once she was done with her questions, she thanked the manager and went back to her room, intent on planning things out for at least the next week.

As she entered her room, she chuckled to herself. There had been no point in taking her cameras with her; she hadn't even left the building. Nonetheless, she did not unpack anything. She might not have planned anything for the day but that didn't mean something unplanned couldn't happen. She wanted to be ready to capture it all on film.

She sat down on the table and opened her laptop, once again noting the noise and reminding herself to buy a new one. It was going to be an expensive purchase, all things considered. Islands and island cities did not always have dedicated factories or assembly lines for electronics; most of the time, they were imported from mainland regions. As such, the import costs ended up increasing up prices a tad bit too much for Justine's liking.

It took her barely half an hour to have a skeleton of a plan ready for the week. She had broadly written where she would visit over the week, starting the next day. Of course, there was no guarantee that she would be able to follow every single item through but having it written down helped her made sure she wasn't wasting too much time anywhere.

Whether any time spent on a vacation can be called a waste or not was another thing altogether. It wasn't something she ever thought about. She didn't like to.

Now then, a free day today! She thought as she closed the laptop and stretched her arms. What should I explore today?

As her eyes lazily glanced over the room, it occurred to her that she was yet to cover the hotel. She could add it to her Day 1 video of Alola vlog series. It wouldn't take long, and she could start working on the videos right away. Then she could just rest while the final video rendered. It seemed like a great way to spend her first day there, and really rest like Bill had told her.

She set to work.