i left you last time after 1 day in anyer. after leaving the internet cafe and grabbing lunch (which cost $1.30 for ALL four of us), we climbed a lighthouse. once we finally made it to the top, it was fantastic. who ever knew there were old lighthouses in indonesia?from there, we made our way back to our tents, which had become veritable ovens in the midday heat. we quickly jumped in the ocean where i got my first bath of the trip - i even washed my hair! while in the delightfully cool water, we met a guy named blong. now, mind you, i don't normally make a habit of meeting men in large bodies of water. but we made an exception for him. he was pulling in an inflatable banana boat (a large thing that gets pulled behind a speedboat for tourists to ride on), and we jumped on. our weight caused him to stop hauling and start chatting. he was a senior in high school, same as my 3 traveling companions; however, he was in tech school, learning to be a mechanic 4 days a week and working 3 days a week to help support his family. we all talked until his boss told him someone wanted to actually ride the thing we were sitting on, and he had to go.
later that night, blong and a creepy friend of his (who we met the night before when he came to our tent in the middle of the night) happened to be at the same fried rice stand we were at for dinner. after eating, we all walked back to the beach together. on the way, creepy friend asked if we liked mangos. we all said yes, so blong and creepy guy promptly jumped a fence, scurried up a tree, and started shaking down mangos. stolen mangos. oops. we got about 8 or 9 of them, and carried them back to our tents, where our new friends were kind enough to build us a campfire. while sitting around the campfire eating stolen mangoes and peanuts, a few other friends kind of trickled in and we all just talked and ate together. until feri came. none of us are really sure what transpired here, but the instant feri (the nice guy from last time) and his friends walked up, blong and his friends stood up and made themselves so scarce that we couldn't even find them when we looked for them later. we were surmising about the awkwardness of what had just happened when i realized that our new friends understood more english than they let on. so we began speaking very quickly and in "code". i said that perhaps there was bad blood, so in keeping with the code, we should call the 2 groups "the capulets and the..... romulans?" (i never was a shakespeare fan). the names stuck. we never did figure out what was going on, but we enjoyed our time hanging out with feri. his friends (twins, in fact!) were not so savory, being mildly vulgar and enjoying being around white girls a little too much.... but in a very non-typical indonesian manner, feri was quick to defend us and kept his friends at bay.
as soon as feri and his group of friends left, at about midnight, blong and about 4 other guys materialized out of the darkness and came to join us once again. throughout the next 30 minutes, more and more beach guys came to sit around our campfire until there were about 16 of us altogether. the guys, mostly fishers and squidders, were a bit rough around the edges, but were super excited at the chance to teach us all some sunda words and to learn some english ones. so we sat and talked and chilled some more. until a squid boat came in. all the guys ran over to help pull the boat up on shore, and for their efforts, they were rewarded with 2 squid (this is apparently the unwritten code of the beach). so they ran back over to our fire and one guy began devouring one of the squid raw. he offered me a tentacle, but i declined politely, preferring to NOT have food poisoning for the remainder of the trip. another guy held one over the fire with his hand for about 30 seconds, then pulled out a knife from somewhere and began slicing it up to share with us. it was raw and cold in the middle, but a really fun experience. half baked squid that was alive 2 minutes ago at 1 am on some beach in the middle of nowhere. we stayed up talking a bit longer and got to share with these guys about who we are and what we believe. (they were amazed that the guys were sleeping in one tent and the girls in another...) they all agreed that they really respected us and our faith. (they were all muslim, and one, we think (aforementioned "creepy guy"), was a dukun - a witch doctor) right about then, a spirit decided to show up in the form of a terrifying looking woman sneaking up behind our tents. i saw her first, and all the men ran over to chase her away. and then we went to bed. interesting end to an interesting day.
the next morning, we sadly packed up to leave the beach. feri came to help us and to say goodbye. again the gentleman, he took the bags from the girls and carried them on his motorbike out to the road for us (the beach is about a 300 meter walk through a muddy alley from the road). nasreen and i just looked at each other and were like, "good thing we trust this guy. because there he goes with all our possessions for the next week... wallets... cell phones... clothes..." he was waiting for us at the road when we got there and hailed an angkota to take us to town. it was sad to leave him standing there on the side of the road waving. but more adventures were calling us...
later that night, blong and a creepy friend of his (who we met the night before when he came to our tent in the middle of the night) happened to be at the same fried rice stand we were at for dinner. after eating, we all walked back to the beach together. on the way, creepy friend asked if we liked mangos. we all said yes, so blong and creepy guy promptly jumped a fence, scurried up a tree, and started shaking down mangos. stolen mangos. oops. we got about 8 or 9 of them, and carried them back to our tents, where our new friends were kind enough to build us a campfire. while sitting around the campfire eating stolen mangoes and peanuts, a few other friends kind of trickled in and we all just talked and ate together. until feri came. none of us are really sure what transpired here, but the instant feri (the nice guy from last time) and his friends walked up, blong and his friends stood up and made themselves so scarce that we couldn't even find them when we looked for them later. we were surmising about the awkwardness of what had just happened when i realized that our new friends understood more english than they let on. so we began speaking very quickly and in "code". i said that perhaps there was bad blood, so in keeping with the code, we should call the 2 groups "the capulets and the..... romulans?" (i never was a shakespeare fan). the names stuck. we never did figure out what was going on, but we enjoyed our time hanging out with feri. his friends (twins, in fact!) were not so savory, being mildly vulgar and enjoying being around white girls a little too much.... but in a very non-typical indonesian manner, feri was quick to defend us and kept his friends at bay.
as soon as feri and his group of friends left, at about midnight, blong and about 4 other guys materialized out of the darkness and came to join us once again. throughout the next 30 minutes, more and more beach guys came to sit around our campfire until there were about 16 of us altogether. the guys, mostly fishers and squidders, were a bit rough around the edges, but were super excited at the chance to teach us all some sunda words and to learn some english ones. so we sat and talked and chilled some more. until a squid boat came in. all the guys ran over to help pull the boat up on shore, and for their efforts, they were rewarded with 2 squid (this is apparently the unwritten code of the beach). so they ran back over to our fire and one guy began devouring one of the squid raw. he offered me a tentacle, but i declined politely, preferring to NOT have food poisoning for the remainder of the trip. another guy held one over the fire with his hand for about 30 seconds, then pulled out a knife from somewhere and began slicing it up to share with us. it was raw and cold in the middle, but a really fun experience. half baked squid that was alive 2 minutes ago at 1 am on some beach in the middle of nowhere. we stayed up talking a bit longer and got to share with these guys about who we are and what we believe. (they were amazed that the guys were sleeping in one tent and the girls in another...) they all agreed that they really respected us and our faith. (they were all muslim, and one, we think (aforementioned "creepy guy"), was a dukun - a witch doctor) right about then, a spirit decided to show up in the form of a terrifying looking woman sneaking up behind our tents. i saw her first, and all the men ran over to chase her away. and then we went to bed. interesting end to an interesting day.
the next morning, we sadly packed up to leave the beach. feri came to help us and to say goodbye. again the gentleman, he took the bags from the girls and carried them on his motorbike out to the road for us (the beach is about a 300 meter walk through a muddy alley from the road). nasreen and i just looked at each other and were like, "good thing we trust this guy. because there he goes with all our possessions for the next week... wallets... cell phones... clothes..." he was waiting for us at the road when we got there and hailed an angkota to take us to town. it was sad to leave him standing there on the side of the road waving. but more adventures were calling us...
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