In the nearly ten years I have owned a cell phone, I have
never lost, damaged or broken one. Now, unfortunately, that great streak has
been broken. It happened while my friends and I were at the beach for a short
weekend get-away from Jakarta. Here’s the story.
Even though we only had a regular weekend, no holiday and no
extra days off school, my friends and I decided to head to the beach on Friday
night until Sunday night. We all definitely were in a state of near-meltdown
due to school, well, at least I was. We heard about a place called Peluban
Ratu, which can be anywhere from a 3 to 6-hour car ride south from Jakarta,
depending on traffic. Another teacher and her husband had gone to this beach
about a month ago for the Chinese New Year long weekend, so they recommended us
a place to stay. We left our apartment on Friday night around 17 00 hours (I am
currently teaching time to my 4th grade students using the 24-hour
clock and I really don’t like having to write a.m./p.m.) and made it to the
hotel around 22 00 hours. We were stuck in a pretty rotten Friday night Jakarta
‘macet’ (that’s Indonesian for traffic jam), but we made it with the driver who
we had hired. The owner of the hotel at the beach offered to send one of his
workers to pick us up and take us back on Sunday, which was convenient, because
it saved us from having to find a driver on our own.
The best part of the hotel is that it is directly on the
beach, so we heard and saw the waves crashing outside our window all night.
After we ate dinner at the hotel’s restaurant (the ‘western’ food was okay, but
nothing impressive, and I didn’t feel like spending $15 USD on the “good”
steak…we asked for the local menu the rest of the weekend), we went to our hotel
rooms and fell asleep to the sounds of the ocean. It was glorious!
Saturday morning, we ventured down the beach to find a place
to lay on the sand in the sun. We walked as far as we could, then stopped to
take pictures on some rocks and take in the view and ocean. We put our bags
near the edge of the sand, where we thought they were safe. After about 5
minutes, one, yes it only took one, huge wave came all the way up to our bags
and swept everything away. I was close enough to grab my bag as it floated by
me and got caught in some rocks. I then realized I had my phone in my
wallet…oops. I thought maybe that would have protected it in some way, until I
opened my wallet to find my phone sitting in a pool of water in the pocket. I
quickly realized that I was very glad I hadn’t had my camera, ipod or kindle in
the bag! Everyone else gathered their things that had also been caught in the
rocks. Luckily, everyone had their cameras in their hands, and the only
casualty, besides my phone was one of Danna’s flip-flops. As it turns out,
there is the legend of the Sea Goddess in this area and she does not like when
people wear green. Danna and I had previously read about this, but we didn’t
even make the connection that it was in this particular area, so no one realized
it was a bad omen that Danna was wearing a green tank top J
So, that was the exciting way to start the day. We gave up finding a place on
the beach so we could take our wet everything back to the hotel to dry, and the
beach was kind of littered with garbage. It didn’t even compare to the amazing
beaches in Bali, but it was sand, sun and relaxation for a couple of days
anyway.
We ventured out and about to find dinner later, after laying
out next to the salt water pool at our hotel. We didn’t find any promising
restaurants, but we climbed some stairs on the side of a hill and ended up
finding a rock meditation chair on the edge of the rock cliff and some great
views. We ended up walking along the beach back to our hotel to eat at the
restaurant again. The owner, a Canadian who had also lived in Texas, who now
lives in Indonesia (he said he came here for a week and it turned into 20
years) talked to us for a little while to tell us there would be karaoke
later. We skipped the singing, but
we ended up playing euchre, which I hadn’t played in way too long. As we headed
back to our room for the night, we noticed a bonfire on the beach, and two guys
at the next table asked if we wanted to join them at the bonfire. Nicole and I
were going to check it out anyway, so we wandered over there (it was just
outside the gate to the beach from our hotel). It turns out these guys and a
big group of their friends had ridden their bikes (motorcycles) from Jakarta
for the weekend. They talked to us for awhile, quite a few spoke English, and
explained they were cooking some fish, squid and baby shark, so that is why
they built the fire. We talked with them for probably an hour, but I left
before the food was prepared, so I still haven’t eaten any baby shark…darn.
On Sunday, Nicole and I walked down the beach and just sat
in the sand for an hour. We were smart enough to take nothing with us this
time, but there was no “bastard wave” that got us wet (that’s what Danna called
the wave on Saturday). One guy
asked if he could have his picture with us, but we were only wearing our
swimsuits and felt awkward, so we declined. Soon after that, another man
loitered next to us for a few minutes and then finally started talking to us.
We acted like we didn’t understand his English or Indonesian, and then I
started talking to Nicole in Spanish, which she didn’t understand. It caused a
short game of charades with the man, but then we ignored him and he went away. Now
that I wrote that it makes us sound really mean, but we just wanted to sit and
relax by the ocean without being interrupted and asked questions. We planned to have the driver take us
back to Jakarta by 13 00 hours, so we ate lunch at the hotel before leaving.
The ride back seemed longer, and more terrifying than the ride on Friday night,
mostly because I was awake the entire time and it was daylight. We were driving
through some scary mountain-roads, and we were at the mercy of the typical
Indonesian driving of passing cars around corners and basic “crazy” driving (at
least that’s what it seems to us, because we don’t understand the rules of the
road, if there even are any). Anyways, we made it back safe and sound in about
five hours.
I am so glad we got out of Jakarta for the weekend. It was well worth the long car ride, despite
my phone drowning.
