We are at Old Mans, in Batu Bolong, a beach bar. I am still working on some articles, enjoying the sunset with two beers. Two. Because when it’s the happy hour, at Old Mans, you can’t get just one. I must look a bit nerdy with my iPad, alone at this big round table and my two drinks that I hardly sip. 

   

I see the bike first, an old vintage beige engine, more-hype-you-cannot, before noticing the thinnest, coolest, most badass, Indonesian girl riding it. She checks the bouncer and walks slowly with the kind of self assurance that could make everybody think that she owns this place.

Rock’N’roll.

This girl has a je ne sais quoi that makes me instantly want to be her friend.
 

Tattoos, Ray Bans, and a cigaret on the lip, she walks to me and ask if she can sit here. I know there are plenty of free tables around and even if the round table can welcome at least a dozen, I don’t really understand why a woman like her would sit next to the dirty backpacker I was.

   

I feel like I’m 16 years old again, when the shy Margot I was, on the first day of high school, sat in the front row ready to be lonely for one year and suddenly was asked by the coolest girl in school if the place next to me was free.

Both times, I stopped and looked around to be sure that these girls were talking to me or if it was a mistake.

 

I continued working on my iPad for a bit, trying to focus on looking absolutely normal and chill, while a little voice in my head keep saying “TRY TO LOOK COOL MARGOT! DON’T LOOK RETARDED”

 
  

“Hey, your beers… They are going to be warm”.

She is talking to me again? TRY TO LOOK COOL MARGOT!

“Ahahah… Yeah I know… Hum…” 

Ok Margot. Somebody is speaking to you and you’re turning into a teenager again. Tsss!

And then… I don’t know what happened really, but we start speaking, and speaking and speaking until I realize I was not shy anymore, that the lady’s name was Sashi and that she was inviting me to stay for her performance that night.

 

I understood then that I was with a local star and that all her friends were coming every Thursday and were sitting at the round table to see her playing. No wonder why she started to speak to me. I was at their table!
   
    

It’s stupid sometimes, in front of some bright, charismatic and bold human being, you get all disoriented and loose all self confidence. 

Sashi makes you feel special and small at the same time.

It was the start of a new friendship. The kind of that will bring more friends around and make me really feel like Canggu was my home sweet home. At least for a bit…