“Hey, you’re British?! You must love Danny Boyle?!”

The Hangover Part 2 has now been added the list, along with Marley And Me, of Films That Were Rudely Interrupted In A Hostel. This time there was no Mowglina, but a rude French woman. I love French people, generally speaking of course, and had even spent an hour or so earlier that evening with some lovely French people. We just sat reading and enjoyed each others company. However, last night I was in the TV/Common Room, when I found The Hangover Part 2 about three down in a pile of copied DVDs. Amazing! I’d almost considered going to the cinema earlier to see it as I’d noticed it was on and am yet to see it…still am.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite master the DVD player, and no matter which combination of plugs and wires I tried, it wasn’t ready to work. “Oh well!” I thought to myself, “Reading it is”.

A little later an English couple came up, who I’d seen earlier watching Harry Potter.

“Ahh! You were watching Harry Potter, you must know the answer to my question!”

After a little fiddle they managed to fix it (the adapter wasn’t working – they had their own!) and we settled down to watch the film. About an hour in, a group of 6 or 7 people came to join us. Now, it’s quite a big room, but it’s not a conference hall. 6 or 7 extra bodies make it very crowded. But that’s ok if they’re happy to sit and watch with us.

“What are you watching? Oh it’s that film where four guys get way too drunk and can’t remember anything? Yeah, I didn’t like the first one so there’s not much hope for this. There’s only so much you can show about four guys getting drunk,” said a woman with long blond hair, “Oh no, we couldn’t talk in the kitchen ’cause of that man, now we come in here and we can’t talk ’cause there’s a film! Ha!”

“That’s good,” I thought, “She’s recognised we’re watching and enjoying this film and will soon shut up.”

That didn’t happen. Instead, with the film geared up as a conversation starter, she proceeded to ask a Spanish couple who had also entered with the entourage if they like Almodovar, a famous Spanish film director. Now, as an Almodovar fan myself, I can quite honestly say that it’s something I would never ask a Spaniard. It would be like saying, “Hey, you’re British?! You must love Danny Boyle?!”.

The conversation didn’t end there. On and on she went….”He’s so creative…I love the way he takes something so perverse and puts it in a different light.” Blah blah blah, enough of the pretense.

After about 20 minutes I gave up. I’d lost the plot line of the film, had no idea what was going on and couldn’t hear or see to understand even if I wanted to. So I went to bed and will attempt part 2 of Part 2 tonight.

Despite this, the general mood here is good. It’s a very nice hostel – and one of the cheapest in Malaysia so far at 17RM! I’m planning to base myself in Kuching until I leave for Singapore. Most things can be reached in a day trip from here – orang utans, Bako National Park, a longhouse…so we’ll see how it goes. Plus, that will give me some downtime and much needed staying in one place and not having to repack every three days!