Day 29: MoGulliver's Travels - Setting off to the Umpa Lumpas

28.07.2016

As expected, we sleep terribly or not at all - I'm writing in plural because I can empathize so much with my good friend who dies a thousand deaths at the danger of ingesting one of the countless cockroaches. In my laybag, I feel like I'm in a coma.

When we have to get up, we notice for the first time at the gate that the usual 20 cm that I surpass Asians in height is far exceeded by these islanders. So we rename our trip to MoGulliver's Travels, in reference to the children's story Gulliver's Travels, which tells of a traveling giant.

At the gate, I finally realize that maybe I should have adjusted my watch, as we are in a different time zone despite the short flight. Frustrated and exhausted, we land once again in a horizontal position, as we got up over an hour too early. Sometimes I hate myself for my forgetfulness.

The good mood suddenly changes shortly before boarding the plane, as Gudi sees the machine that is supposed to carry us into the air. It is something between an enlarged toy airplane and a truck with wings. It is also powered by propellers. If Gudi, plagued by fear of flying, had a turtle shell, she would definitely have taken refuge in it for safety. I also have a bit of an uneasy feeling, but I am very busy not showing it to Gudi.

While still on the plane, we meet an islander who later turns out to be almost vital, as we share a taxi with him and would have been overwhelmed by the tourist scams and peculiarities of the island.

After hours of driving and the involuntary end of my fasting - we have breakfast in a local restaurant - the vegetables with the rice taste like fire, but I dare not leave it. We finally arrive at Sorake Beach. The local, Jolly, turns out to be the caretaker of a Catholic orphanage and even invites us to visit him there and to go spearfishing with his group in the coming days. He also organizes a very cheap room for us right by the sea, run by an old lady from New Zealand with a dog. Despite the direct view of the surf spot and clean interior, we only pay €2.50 per person here.

After counting the sheep of the area for a few hours - yes, we fall asleep and are gone for hours - I try surfing once again. It quickly becomes evident, as I already knew, that I surf really miserably, and two years of boycott have certainly not made it any better. The only bright spot: unlike before, this fact does not bother me at all anymore and I enjoy paddling in the water and watching or interfering with the really good and professional surfers. Unfortunately, I don't have much to report on this first day.

After this session, I treat myself to my first Indonesian Bintang beer in seven years. A delight. Afterwards, we both go to bed early, as the whole day has exhausted us immensely.

Gudi's glorious laws:

Always pack your backpack with a system!

Recently, Gudi has been underlining her not so self-evident help with sermons during my frantic searches for various utensils. So she has been trying lately to teach me a system for packing the backpack. This culminates in my things constantly being packed somewhere where I can't find them. For general information: I do have chaos, but it is organized chaos. If I can't find something, it's only because I want to keep my adrenaline level high, not because I actually misplaced something.