Doshisha Days

We are now at Ocean Star, a resort on the eastern coast of Pulau Bunaken. It is about 45 minutes away from Manado by boat. We missed, or rather could not find, the ferry, and so we opted to take a private boat to the island. The boat was tiny, our captain shifted between steering the boat and using a bucket to empty the water that was slowly filling the hull, casually smoking his cheroot right above two tanks of gasoline that provided fuel to the engines.

For 35 Euros – too bad for us, but this place had the astute financial sense to change from dollars – we dive twice a day, in the morning and have the afternoon off to enjoy the island. The best part about this place so far is the food, the barbequed fish we feasted on last evening was some of the best we’ve had this entire trip.

20 March

Another day of morning dives and some of the best diving yet! We went down to almost 30 meters in a sea of red-toothed trigger fish. I saw 2 green turtles, some giant trevalley, 2 barracuda and scores of other fish. I was about 1 meter away from the green turtle when it decided to leave its resting place and descend to the surface to breath, effortlessly rising away from us.

After running out of air, both Dries and I noticed a school of dolphins not far away from the boat and so we grabbed our snorkels and swam after them in hot pursuit. A few meters below us, they glided by us, a dozen or more. Sadly, despite our fins and – in Dries’ case a streamlined hair style – we were unable to keep up and they headed out to sea.

The highlight of the day’s second dive was a pygmy sea-horse, about the size of my pinky toe. It was so well camouflaged by the sea plant that it was nigh impossible to see it. The rest of the dive was basically a drift dive, the current just carrying us along at a leisurely clip. Not too many big fish, we hope to see them tomorrow.

That evening, we checked out the main town in Bunaken, having a beer at a local bar before heading back to our resort for dinner.

22 March

Back in Bali, this being the final stint of our trip, and what a trip it has been. Our last day of diving in Bunaken was as good as the first 2. We were on another enormous coral wall, almost 30 meters below the surface. We saw another green turtle, hunting giant trevalley, and a huge Napoleon Wrasse just a few meters below the surface, which really revealed its full colors. The second dive was nice and long, almost an hour. My air consumption is steadily improving. Unfortunately, I am done with diving for a while, and will need to look into diving in Japan.

After eating lunch at the resort, we were given a lift back to Manado where we returned to Pizza Hut after eating there for lunch the day we left for the island. I ate a large veggie pizza by myself, proving to Dries that I could eat a ton and then not bemoan how I had in fact over-eaten afterwards. We then freshened up in the hotel and then headed out with some Indonesian girls from Manado that we had met at Bunaken – getting chauffeured around in one of the girls kitted out SUV. After trying unsuccessfully to find a place to sing karaoke – it was Good Friday after all – we ended up at a night warung by the sea where they had the typical Indonesian version of karaoke (at least when you are not in a brothel) a list of songs and a one-man-band. Not for amateurs. Dries did alright but the biggest hit of the night came from Carlito who brought down the house with a rendition of “Proud Mary” that would have made Ike slap himself for screwing things up with Tina. By midnight we were back at our hotel, exhausted and dreading waking up before 5 am to catch our plane. We bid farewell to our Indonesian and Austrian companions.

Our flights the next day went by without incident and we were back in Kuta by midday. We requested a few alterations for our suits which came our spectacularly and then made our way to Seminyak for a few drinks at Ku De Ta and another brilliant meal. We slept soundly, oblivious to the busy streets below us full of revelers on Saturday night.

24 March

We are now only a few hours from Japanese soil. I will write a coda after we touch down and I have some time to reflect on what it all “meant”, but the final hours in Indonesia were interesting and warrant mentioning on their own accord.

A lackluster breakfast was the only downside to our final day in Bali. We hired a driver to take us inland to Ubud, another major center of Balinese culture and tourism, filled with gardens and architecture, surrounded by mountains and terraced rice fields. We ambled among these temples and palaces, popping in shops and cafes to avoid the rain that inundated the island on our last day. Our final stop was the monkey forest where a bunch of grey-haired macaques ran around, harassing tourists, particularly those with bananas. According to instructions printed everywhere, we were supposed to either toss bananas to the monkeys from afar or else defer to the authority of the so-called monkey “experts” who wore green and were wandering around rendering their expert service. Unfortunately, the monkeys got to me before I could get assistance, and the rules went out the window, my bananas went faster than Beijing Olympic tickets. Out of bananas, my distant relatives became a lot less interested in me, instead climbing on and over those stilling carrying, clamoring as if they had never seen the yellow phalli in their entire life. While fierce and perhaps a bit chauvinist (one male monkey mounted a female, had his way with her and then stole her banana stash), they were much cuter than the monkeys I had seen in Japan and were much more comfortable interacting with humans as well.

We made our way back to Kuta in the rain, picked up our adjusted suits and then made our way to Seminyak for one last indulgence: a Balinese massage at the Mutiara hotel, which I would heartily recommend to anyone who wants to stay in luxury in Bali. Alex had stayed there before and partook in a massage before. It was hands down the best massage I have ever had, besting both Chinese and Thai with ease. First we changed out of our clothes into diaper-like paper briefs and robes. The masseuses then washed our feet and then we laid face down while they lathered our bodies with oil and massaged it in. At one point, they even pulled down our pantaloons and massaged our bare asses, and I suddenly realized how such a sensual massage could so easily cross the line into a less ethical profession. Fortunately, our ladies were chaste and pure professionals, and so this massage was the perfect relaxing ending our month long holiday.

We had little time to enjoy our time after the massage, the rain slowed everything down, we grabbed some vegetarian food at a café, gathered our gear back in Kuta and then grabbed a taxi to the airport. I just got a few hours of sleep and am trying to eat this mediocre breakfast, Garuda Indonesia is not going to win any air service awards like their Singaporean or Malaysian counterparts any time soon.

# posted by K_L_M @ 18:05