Where am I and how did I get here?
Well, first of all Obama is here too, so yay Indonesia! I do, however, hope that he had an easier time getting to his hotel than we did.
We were told there was going to be a driver awaiting us at the airport. We came out and we couldn't find "Heather" on a sign anywhere. It was also dark so as we squinted at tiny signs we quickly determined that in fact nothing said "Heather" on it. Ya know, just to make sure.
Many men swarmed us trying to get our bags and get us into a taxi. Not scary at all. Did I mention it was dark out? Yeah, slightly uncomfortable and stressful. In order to recoup, we went back inside the airport to find a "legit" taxi who could take us to a hotel instead of killing us. Jaber was called and even though he quickly proclaimed he didn't speak any English he knew where to take us. Fast forward 20 minutes and we are dropped off in the middle of Kuta downtown and him telling us he has no clue where to go. Awesome. Did I say it was dark and now getting quite late? Oh, right.
Out of nowhere comes Rudy wearing a t-shirt that said "rockstar attitude". He is a local with his own restaurant appropriately titled "Rudy's", knows where our hotel is, speaks English and offers us a beer. Did we look that frazzled?! We ate delicious nasi goreng, a traditional Indonesian fried rice dish with green beans, carrots, cabbage and an egg on top and washed it down with a large Bintang pilsner. We met Rudy's brother Harris who ran the restaurant next door and all of the sudden everything was going to be ok. Once fed, Rudy Marley (yes, he used to have dreadlocks) took us to our hotel where no one was waiting for us and there was/is no functional Wi-Fi to tell our people we arrived. Oh, Indonesia, you better shape up because this is not cutting it.
After one hell of an evening we passed out and hoped for a better day.
Waking up to the sunrise over the mountain with an infinity pool at our feet made our morning a bit better. But not quite. The manager came over and explained everything in one word: Ramadan.
No drivers to pick us up because... Ramadan
NO Wi-Fi getting fixed because... Ramadan
Random fire crackers going off at all hours... Ramadan
You have to eat dinner before 6 or after 6:30 because... you guessed it.
When we asked if we could get coffee at 7:12 am the manager told us they don't open till 7. But it's 7:12. He shows us his watch which displays 7:12 and declares: "No, it's 6:58 local time"
After carefully reaching the local time of 7 am and getting our breakfast over a ridiculous view all the stresses washed away. A nice 2 hour conversation followed and we were back to normal.
We hiked 2 miles over the mountain to get to the gorgeous Mawun beach where we spent $5 to rent lounge chairs, have drinks and a delicious lunch while admiring some of the most crystal blue waters one can find. Microsoft wallpaper style.
Our hotel sits on a hill over a village of 60 people. Nearby village is population 30 (ie smaller than my 1st period class) and the large metropolis is hovering at 200. It's another world.
Thinking of our arrival, one of my travel rules is to always get into a new place during daylight. I'm not sure why I loosened up on that rule (maybe because it is two of us traveling?) but I won't do that again. Yeek.
I have no clue what tomorrow will bring but today was a beautiful day with a wonderful friend in the middle of absolutely nowhere Lombok, Indonesia.
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