We were woken in the night by an almighty thunderstorm. The heavens lit up and the thunder really roared. There is something about being in an open bamboo hut facing out to sea with an elemental force raging around you. Just as we were thinking how strange it was to have a dry thunderstorm, the rain added it's fury. We leapt out of our 4 poster, net enshrouded bed to lower the blinds and clip them in place. I was glad I'd visited the bathroom first as the open roof would definitely have made this interesting. As it was the toilet paper was distinctly damp the next morning!
We were both awake again by 5. I think I woke Jono up tripping on the step leading outside. We stood together on the deck and watched the lightening sky for a while before deciding it was still too early to be up properly and heading back to bed.
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| view from our hut early morning |
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| sky lightening, lovely day ahead |
Around 7 we got a few more blog pages drafted out ( well I did, Jono got distracted easily again but got SOME words on the screen) then Jono wanted to head out for an early swim and snorkel. There was a blue starfish just to the side of our deck and he found a stingray sitting underneath the dock. He was so engrossed in what was going on under the water that he lost track of time so I abandoned him for breakfast. He couldn't have been much longer in the water ( he claims he was out at 8:02) because he appeared at breakfast quite quickly. Just like yesterday's meals, breakfast was a buffet: toast, crepes, chocolate filled small pancakes, fried rice with some sort of veg, pineapple, melon, juice,eggs, salad, cereals and something fried. It was all delicious.
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| breakfast buffet |
We sat on the deck with Ian and Cathy to eat and chatted about the storm. Theo and Owen had already eaten and were soon off and in the water snorkelling.
We decided to try stand up paddleboarding first today. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. This was not helped by being told by my lovely husband that the front of the board was the back and therefore trying to paddle with the fins in front of me. I just kept going in circles! He did notice the problem (eventually) and also that the handle of my paddle wasn't facing the right way and we got that corrected too and I set off again. Jono seemed to be gliding about with few problems but I was still going any which way than the straight line I wanted. I did find kneeling rather than standing helped and after half an hour I also discovered that the easiest way to go from A to B with the paddleboard quickly and efficiently was to put the paddle on the board, get in the water with the strap still attached and swim! This was very effective!
I abandoned the paddleboard (on land) and snorkelled instead. Jono carried on practicing his skills for another half an hour or so and then joined me. The water today was even clearer than yesterday and we were seeing new fish again. There was a massive angel fish, clown fish playing in the corals, we could easily see the small whitish prawnlike fish hiding in their burrows all decorated with shells and stones. Piranha like black and white fish guarded the dock area and came very close to our faces.
We tore ourselves away to grab our stuff from our room and checkout. This just really meant paying the bar tab from yesterday, giving a tip and leaving our bags in the central area before we went straight back in the water to snorkel around the island one last time.
Jono's camera ran out of battery just before we spotted the giant angel fish again. This time it didn't immediately dart away from us but we couldn't take a photo!
Lunch was at 13:00 so we left the water to shower and change as the boat would take us back straight after.
Ian, Cathy, Theo and Owen came back from their snorkel trip and we sat down to lunch together. As always fabulous food, I loved the noodle dish in particular. The conversation ranged widely, we have really enjoyed meeting this lovely American family.
The boat driver suggested we sat upstairs for the ride back. This was a great suggestion. We had views all around and "natural" airconditioning from the wind.
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| On the boat looking back at the dock |
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| Dtiver in front of us |
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| It got a bit windy |
As we continued to stop at different islands and pick up people and packages we realised quite how good a position this was. It must have been crammed downstairs. One of the islands had police officers pose for pictures in front of the boat for some reason, another was a private island for a rich, Jakarta man with 2 enormous helicopter pads and immaculate gardens. Needless to say we weren't picking up the owner but some of the staff!
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| Rich Man's Island with statues |
As we got closer to Jakarta the rubbish in the ocean increased. From about 30 minutes away I could always see at least one piece of trash floating in the ocean, 12 minutes further in it was like a breadcrumb trail of sweet wrappers, cups, takeaway containers, plastic bags, cutlery etc. The harbour was full of rubbish floating in the water and washed up on the side.
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| Docking at Jakarta |
We walked down through the piers to just past the lounge where we had waited the previous day, we needed to find a taxi. One of the men we recognised from the lounge and wearing a Sealander Marine t shirt was standing next to a queue of Eagle taxis, he gestured us over. I was unsure: I wanted a Bluebird taxi but there was none in sight. We knew that online we'd been told the fare should be about 145000 and the staff at the hotel had suggested 150000 so Jono asked the price and they agreed 150000. Taxis are supposed to all be metered so it shouldn't have mattered but once we were in, the meter was not switched on.
This was the most terrifying ride of my life. Our driver decided that the queue for the motorway (which has to be paid for) was too long and he knew a better way. O M G. We were taken through a theme park area and then through what I can only describe as slums. Horns were used frequently particularly by our driver, road markings were ignored with 3 lanes of traffic sometimes jostling for position in a single lane all the while motorcycles zipped around, pedestrians stepped into the road or stood in the middle selling water. I thought we were going to be crushed several times. Several areas, where more exclusive hotels or apartment blocks, were had gates and patrols. To go through these money changed hands. Once our driver came to screeching halt to avoid hitting a police car pulling across a junction, the policeman stared at the taxi hard and our driver nervously fiddled with his meter. We had motorcycles piled high with goods, one was carrying 8 calor gas bottles, others had families piled on them. Our driver seemed to believe the dotted line was invisible, he sometimes drove on the wrong side of it.
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| Queue of cars trying to join our queue of cars. Horns being used a lot |
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| Motorcycle taxi, just checking for their next fare, spare helmet for passenger in front |
We were relieved to reach the hotel after 2 hours of wide opened eyes, where we held hands and stayed very quiet - we definitely didn't want to distract him. Jono handed over the 150000 agreed on figure and the guy started to argue he needed more. He wasn't consistent on the amount first he said he needed another 50000 then that we had agreed 250000. We refused to give more and got out of the taxi.
We had a lovely, quiet meal in the hotel restaurant with some more of the delicious ice cold lime juice served with hot honey, sorted out the free transport to the airport ( giving ourselves loads of time in case the traffic was as bad - the last 100m to the hotel had taken 20 minutes to travel!!!!!) and went to sleep. No thunderstorms tonight!
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