It wasn't that Albert disliked Nigel. He just didn't understand him.
Albert was in a remote Amazonian outpost, but was constantly surrounded by people. Regulars, he knew. Others, he didn't. It was the Jungle Navigation Company's most populous outpost, but that didn't stop late deliveries.
If it wasn't for Chef Tandaji…
Nigel, on the other hand, didn't get why Albert found his job so difficult. There was nothing difficult about reading other peoples' words and picking out a record. It was the cushiest job in the whole jungle.
How would anyone complain about that?
What Nigel didn't realise about Albert was that Albert wrote all his own notes. Or just read the ones that were filtered in to him about his fellow skippers. And he made his own off the cuff jokes. Albert also ran his own radio station - the DBC - and his own show - AWOL Airwaves. That was on top of his duties as a Jungle Cruise skipper. Which Nigel was not.
It was tiring, but rewarding work. There was nothing like going home or to the Skipper Canteen after a long day's work. Being with his kid sister. His skipper wife. Their adventurous daughter.
What Albert didn't realise about Nigel was that Nigel… he just didn't have those things. He didn't have friends. Family. The satisfaction of knowing that even if nobody's listening, you're proud of what you've done. The true Adventureland spirit.
No. Nigel was surrounded by people, but not in the same way Albert was.
Nigel had a home in India, a car. But he was surrounded by strangers. Except that one time he met Indiana Jones because of all the hubbub at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.
While Albert was surrounded by people he knew and loved. His family and his friends - from Alberta Falls and Trader Sam to Skip Dockmonkey and Chef Tandaji.
It was ironic.
Albert was The Voice of the Jungle, but he was never lonely.
Nigel was The Voice of Civilisation, but he was incredibly lonely.
And it took for the two of them to be standing face to face with each other for the other to realise it.
Not just how fundamentally different they were from each other - Nigel being an upper class Englishman living in India, and Albert being a scruffy Indian-American.
But to see things from the other's point of view.
That appearances, could indeed, be deceiving.
The backstory behind the Skipper Canteen is that it's at the Jungle Cruise Amazon outpost, which is the main outpost for the Jungle Cruise skippers, as well as the meeting place for the Society of Explorers and Adventurers.
That's where Albert Awol is based.
While it may seem lonely, it's actually lively!
Nigel Greenwater, meanwhile, is in India. And the most exciting thing to happen there is Indiana Jones excavating at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Sure, he's living in a city, commutes by car, and doesn't have to use a machete to hack down foliage, but at what cost?