Bali and Java

Well, I thought I'd better write down quickly what I thought about my trip before I forgot.

Warning: author is exhausted, therefore the following article may contain mistakes, inaccuracies, misprints, and a few boo-boos.

Well, we arrived safely in Bali on Monday. We spent the afternoon/evening as well as the next day with a friend who had moved away from Timor.

Tuesday Paulo needed to do some shoppping. I needed to as well, but I didn't buy much that day. I mainly used the time to scout out shops I wanted to return to. I didn't want to take the chance of buying something and then finding something better later on.

Wednesday: I went in for the kill, hunting down various gifts for family and friends at different shops. However, buy lunch time, I was worn out and ready to be done. (Shopping can be a very stressful and exhausting activity.) Bali has some very nice place to shops and the people are very kind and gracious. I also found that I like bargaining. On my way back to the hotel, I swung by the beach to get some pictures of the ocean, surfboards, people, etc. A woman was nearby was selling necklaces, bracelets, etc. I took a picture of her. Immediately she started talking to me about buying her things. I didn't feel good about just taking her picture but not buying anything, so I bought two bracelets from her, after we bargained the price down a little.
However, at the end of the day, I felt kind of bad. I have so much money compared to these people. Why should I bargain? Why not just give them the extra cash, even if it is a rip off? I don't know. Just some thoughts that were kicking around inside my head.

Thursday: Friends from church as well as some Portuguese friends of Paulo and Ruth's arrived. Our plan was to go to Java the following day to a village where they take care of sea turtles. A guide takes you at night to the beach where you can watch the sea turtles come in, lay, and bury their eggs.

Friday: We got in our rented vans and drove three or four hours to the ferry. From there, we hopped on the ferry to go to the island of Java. This part of the trip was probably about forty-five minutes. During those forty-five minutes, I discovered that asian karaoke singers have been gifted with voices that sound like cats being strangled. Needless to say, I was not sad to step off the boat.
Our next part of the journey took us traveling down the road by way of two very rugged, tough looking land rovers. They looked like something that you would use on an African safari.

After about four hours of so, we left the paved street behind and hit the dirt road. As we drove further and further, the road became bumpier and bumpier. The pot holes were as plentiful as pimples on a teenager's face. It was a good thing Paulo was a surgeon, as one of my fellow passengers put it, because at the end of the trip, we would need to have our internal organs put back in place.

We drove in the dark for quite some time. At one point, we came to a creek. Both drivers got out. They looked around. Apparently there used to be a bridge, but it had been washed away; "Kaput, kaput," as our driver explained. So, we just drove right through it...and the next one as well.

Well, to tell the truth, I honestly hadn't been expecting this. I don't think the people in my car were expecting this either. When we got to Bali, all I knew was that on Friday we were leaving for Java to go and see some turtles. That was it. So I found this part of the trip somewhat humorous. There was no bridge or raft as there was supposed to be, so we plowed through the water. "All we need is momentum," as another passenger put it. The holes in the road could be more accurately described as craters. I'm not sure how many decades it had been since the suspension had been changed in that vehicle. Anyway, it all seemed rather funny.

We finally arrived at about 7:30ish. We put our things in our rooms. The accommodations were very simple. There were two beds with sheets in my room (it was so hot and humid, you didn't need anything else). The bathroom had a flushable toilette and a small tiled container that was too large to be a sink and too small to be called a tub. This is what the Indonesians (and probably many other Asians) use to shower. You fill up the container with water and use the dipper to pour water over your head. Voila! You have your shower. I discovered I do not like asian bathrooms.

After we ate, we drove and walked to the beach. I must say, it took my breath away. It was gorgeous! The moon was so bright it created shadows as we walked. The sky was mostly clear with the stars shinning and just a smattering of clouds. The waves from the Indian ocean were enormous, white, and smothered in a silvery moonlight. As they crashed against the shore, they created a roaring and thunderous symphony that I almost never get tired of hearing. On either end of the beach were some hills covered in jungle greenery. However, this night, there was fog that smudged the lines, so you couldn't really tell where the beach and ocean stopped and land began. It all looked so beautiful. I fell in love with that beach.

As we walked, we arrived at the right time. The turtle was already there, burying her eggs. It was so special to see this animal doing something you only see on Animal Planet or nature documentaries. Pictures will come in a following post (hopefully). She laid one hundred and one eggs that night. After burying them, she went back to the sea. As she traveled, she left beautiful tracks that would soon be washed away by the tide.

As I watched her, I thought of an object lesson. These turtles always come back to lay their eggs on the very beach that they were born on. They swim all through out the ocean, but how do they know how to get back? How do they know where to go? It's one of nature's amazing mysteries. Here's the lesson: if God can show a turtle where she should go and what she is supposed to do in life, surely He can lead and guide me through the sea of life to where I'm supposed to be, to what I'm supposed to do. An ocean can be a rather daunting and intimidating, but if He can lead a turtle so faithfully, then I know He can and will lead me.

Sabbath: After breakfast and short worship service, we went back to the beach to release fifty baby turtles to the ocean.  It was so precious to watch them squirm and struggle to get to the sea. They all made me think of Squirt in Finding Nemo.The boys really had a fun time with them all.

Sunday: By the time we all got back to Bali, we were very tired. So we ate a late lunch and just hung out. That evening we went out to a delicious Italian restaurant called Il Cielo, which I'm told means, "The heaven" or something similar. We got to eat out on the balcony with the stars for a ceiling. I ordered a vegetarian calzone. What I got was a calzone on steroids. It looked about the size of an elephants toenail. But boy! Was it scumptious!

Monday: This brings us up to the present. I'm very tired, too tired to go through and edit this post. And I have a feeling that if I don't post it now, it's going to be a while before I do. So what you see is what you get. I hope you enjoyed reading about my spring break. All in all, I feel like I've made a hefty deposit in the bank of life experiences.