Life's a Beach

There are few things that make me happier than being in, on, or near bodies of water, large or small. My favorite childhood memories are of spending time with my cousins at my grandma's cottage in northern Michigan. Some of my favorite high school memories are from days spent with friends at Union Pier on Lake Michigan. And there is nothing like an August day at Tower Hill. Seriously. Nothing.

Favorite memories in Indonesia is a competitive category. I have taken, and intend to take, trips to so many fun and beautiful places that it will be difficult to narrow it down. But Pulau Seribu will be on that list.

I've taken three trips to Pulau Seribu since I arrived in Indonesia, and I wish I'd taken even more. It's a chain of islands just off the coast of Jakarta--two to three hours on the slow boat or one to one and a half on the fast boat. The accommodations are simple, clean, and cheap; boats are easy to come by; the people are just lovely (and are starting to recognize us from previous trips); and the food is fresh. So fresh, in fact, that this trip, because our table at the restaurant was right next to the fish tanks, I got to watch as a man netted one from the tank containing the first fish we ordered, threw it on the floor to flop around for a minute while he netted one from the tank containing the second fish we ordered, and then returned to the kitchen with both. We then heard two hard strikes with some kind of mallet. At least they don't have to flop around until they suffocate. The fact that it was traumatic didn't stop me from eating them when they appeared, head and all, on my table a little while later. I don't know what that says about me.

The restaurant floats in the middle of the sea, attached to the bottom somehow. It takes about ten or fifteen minutes to get there from the island where we always stay. This time, we took a small boat that didn't have any lights. To be out in the middle of the sea in almost total darkness was amazing. It was cloudy, so the moon didn't light the way. But the islands and the restaurant have flood lights so I could make out the shapes my friends sitting next to me in the boat. As we were driving over, there was a moment of panic when I thought we were going to ram into another lightless boat. But the driver saw it somehow. Once I calmed down, I thought how nice it would be to spend the night on a boat, out in the middle of calm seas, surrounded by darkness and the absence of land-based sound.

I think I might have to investigate a boat trip.