Tales of the unexpected from the Bintan resort

BINTAN ISLAND, Riau (JP): In a resort that induces sleep more at dawn than at night, most prefer to stay in bed past 10 a.m.

Still, early risers have nothing to worry about. The Waterfall Terrace greets those up by 7 a.m. with a sumptuous breakfast.

In the afternoon, first timers who preferred not to get splashed and flipped around by waves lapping the beach opted instead for scuba diving, windsurfing and canoeing.

Facing the beach, a stone wall. Facing that, a white trampoline.

Amid elephants, a juggler, trapeze artists and the blessed absence of a lion.

This was the open air circus team, which the management said was unique to Club Med resorts worldwide.

The school of circus teaches flying trapeze acts to first timers. In the evening, following the night show of Indonesian dances, was the circus show.

Three men and a woman swung on bars and flew past each other, doing single or double somersaults.

Melanie, an Australian female trapeze artist, is reportedly the only woman from Club Med villages worldwide to have dared to try and master the double somersault in midair.

She fell once.

She picked herself up and tried again.

To the utmost delight of the audience and her colleagues, she swung, double-somersaulted in midair, caught the swinging bar and swung back to safety. She basked in the appreciative response.

There were also comic turns cloaked in magic routines.

One had Aziz, dressed as a clown, playing the stick-and-fire act with two other colleagues, who were dressed in a motley array colors and cloth. One of them had false buck teeth. After having taken in liquid and holding it back, there was the punch line.

Or, rather, the punch sound.

An elephant broke wind. Loudly.

Much as the poor guy wanted to laugh, he had to stifle his guffaws. With those "flood gates" bulging from his closed mouth, it seemed highly complex, anyway.

At one point, a Japanese woman in the audience was called on to participate in an act.

After making tissues and a jug "disappear", Aziz held out his two fists and commanded her to guess in which of the fists were the tissue papers or the jug hidden. Frustrated with not being able to find anything in either, the woman decided to look someplace else.

She settled for Aziz's thankfully clothed rump.

Every time she checked there, she would conveniently hide her face behind a quivering fan and giggle shyly. Aziz rationalized with her.

"How can I hide a jug there ... you sex maniac you," he screamed.

There came a point when it all had to end. Some went for a last dip in the sea before the dreaded packing of bags.

Such is the business of fun; and people from the CEO down to the housekeeping lady reminded guests in their own ways that they built the resort, worked hard and shared the fun. (ylt)