Tuesday, March 12, 2013

…and then it made everything wet


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. 

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