The Land Reached Down

Finally I managed to lift myself up and out of this vibe I’ve been pinned into: being down and sick.  Let’s get out of this place today.  I headed of to the beach front to negotiate the price of the boat, test snorkel and some flippers for five.  We’re leaving in twenty.  Good. 

Riding along the coast it was wonderful to finally have left the compound.  Each cove we passed had a new beach front development in front of it.  Not one had been finished.  The contours of the land reached down to the sea, like giant wolves paws, stretching out to the water forcing one to imagine what the last major lava flow had really been like. 

To Gili Trawangan:  Gili T, we came closer and closer and we could finally appreciate the tremendous surf that people had talked about.  We landed on a quite beach. Days into our veg diet I found a vegan place listed, "Pituq", that we figured, (certainly my older daughter and I figured,) we’d head over there.  No worries maintaining a 4G connection on this island.  Every small space seemed intent upon mimicking the facilities of a major resort, the small pool, the chill out couches the obligatory statuary each in it's own ten-meter-wide plot.  Swim suit stores, and scuba diving shops and people asking me if I needed a massage.  I’d seen pictures of shroom advertisements suggesting visits to heaven, but couldn’t locate any such promotion, prancing along the high street.  All for the best.  Certainly. 

My map and the book’s map suggested we hadn’t gotten very far after our first fifteen minutes of walking up the shoreline.  We’d promised the driver we’d be back in an hour.  That, now, wasn’t going to happen.  There were plenty of bicycles but they all expected you to return the bikes to the same place you rented them from.   None had Mobike functionality!  The horse driven carts were a consideration.  We had to duck one coming from behind us every few minutes.  My stepson asked and I told him it sounded like a grand idea to negotiate one for the ride back later.  For now, though let’s head up this street here, to the left.  One person and then a second recognized the name of our vegan endgame joint.  

Soon we were there amidst a dozen tables of backpacker’s who all looked fairly worn and decidedly checked-out.   The humus bean wraps took some time but they were good.  So were the tempeh sticks with dipping sauces.  I guess that's an Javanese-invention, Tempeh?  What is this taste?  Soursop?  This is awesome.  

On the way back my stepson got into one of those predictable stand offs with the horse buggy rider. “I couldn’t possibly think of leaving for less than 500-thousand rupiah.”  “Just walk" I offered.  The next buggy man said: "I'm charging whatever he's charging."  That's nice.  No matter.  I told them they needed the exercise now so they wouldn’t get a cramp later, during snorkelling.   "I don't want to hear a lot of whining later.  Walk it off now.  We've gotta hurry to meet the guy."

Wednesday, 01/03/17