I Have Seen Paradise And its Name is Derawan.

Yes, the title is a bit hyperbolic. But last weekend I visited one of the most idyllic beach locations I've ever been to in my life. And I've been to my fair share of beaches! Let me explain.

First, where was it? Good question. I pretty much had no idea where I was going, except that it was somewhere in northern Kalimantan (Borneo).  It turns it is a little group of islands, called the Derawan Islands. We stayed on the island of Derawan, which is about a 30-minute speedboat ride off the coast. Here is the wikipedia page about it if you are interested.

And here is a map:

 I love the spelling of "Islands's."

You can see on the map where we flew into, the town of Berau. Then we took a 2.5-hour drive (on a very twisty and bumpy road) to Tg. Batu (Tanjung Batu), which is where we caught the boat to Derawan.

Another Fellow named Iris and I were planning to meet up with Autumn, her husband Esteban, and Holly (other Fellows) on Thursday night. Because Iris and I live on Java, we had to travel most of the day to get there. In fact, it took more than 12 hours, all told. I left Surabaya at 9am, and set foot on Derawan at about 11pm, thanks to 1. a flight that got turned around. (The pilot decided an hour into the flight that we had to turn around and wait for the weather to clear. What?! Only in Indonesia.) And 2. after that, a speedboat that had trouble getting over coral at low tide, and therefore caused the length of our boat trip to extend from 30 minutes to over an hour. But Iris and I made it eventually! And as Autumn told us as soon as we arrived, it was worth it!

We stayed in this little hostel, called Mirroliz Pelangi (apparently it means rainbow?) that was built right next to the dock, on stilts above the water. If you sat out on the porch long enough, you were pretty much guaranteed to see a sea turtle swimming by below you. We didn't spend much time out on the porch though, since we were out doing stuff most of the weekend.

Standing in front of our room. A cute spot, despite the leaks in the ceiling whenever it rained (which happened every morning). 

Iris jumped out the door just as this photo was being taken. 

Autumn complements the faded tiger picture perfectly. 

DAY 1

The first day, I didn't take any pictures, because I was worried about ruining my (sort of) fancy camera. So unfortunately I don't have any pictures from our activities from that day. But this is what we did:

1. Had breakfast at the hostel (crappy paltry breakfast of tea and super greasy donuts, but thanks to Autumn for bringing instant oatmeal).
2. Changed into our suits and went snorkeling right next to the hostel, spotting a GIANT sea turtle (seriously, it must have weighed a few hundred pounds) that wasn't scared of us at all, and seemed rather interested in us. The hostel owner told us he sees the turtle a lot, and that you can touch it. So we all got a pretty awesome experience touching and swimming a few inches away from the sea turtle. We also saw a couple more sea turtles that were a little shyer towards humans but still let us get pretty close. 
3. Walked around the island (which only takes 40 minutes to do). Stopped to get lunch at a little restaurant, where it took about an hour to get food (service was slow everywhere there). 
4. Stopped at a stand to buy "kelapa mudah" (young coconut drink) and carried it with us to drink on one of the piers. 
5. Discovered that if we walked to the end of the pier, we could jump off and be in a pretty good snorkeling location. I chickened out for jumping off the pier the first time (too much thinking beforehand!), but managed to do it the second round. The water was really blue, and the fish were pretty good. Esteban and I caught a glimpse of a sea turtle in the deeper water, but it wouldn't let us get close. 
6. Climbed out of the water and lay in the sun for a while (it was cloudy and rainy most of the morning, but cleared up around 1pm), before heading to the shallower area of the water to just sit/look for more sea turtles. Saw a couple more, and also played with the local kids. (One of whom decided to just use our snorkel mask without asking! We got a little annoyed by that, but then realized it's just another example of cultural differences; in the U.S., everyone's a little more protective of their stuff.)
7. Bought the best roast corn in the world from some Ibus (women) who were roasting it on the beach. They put spicy margarine on it, and it was SO GOOD. Also had some cumi-cumi (squid) skewers too, but the squid just wasn't as good as the corn. 
8. After the corn, we came back to shower and drink a beer before going out for dinner. (Yes, it sounds like all we did was eat, but snorkeling made us pretty hungry!)

Sunset from our hostel. 

Autumn, Holly, and me sitting on the patio area of the hostel. 

Local cat seen on our walk into town. 

That night, we went to dinner in town (a very, very, tiny town!), and watched Disney's Aladdin while we waited for our food. We were essentially in the owners' living room area, so the children of the owners were watching TV in the same room as us. 

DAY 2
On this day, I made sure to bring my camera!

We started out by taking a boat to another island, Kakaban, to swim in a lake with stingless jellyfish. It's supposedly the only place in the world with stingless jellyfish (that you can swim with) other than some place in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, the boat ride there was pretty long (maybe 45 minutes?), and we had to go in the rain, with no cover, so we all spent the whole trip bent over, cold, trying not to get stinging raindrops on our faces.

But once we got there, it was really pretty. There is nothing in Kakaban except a dock, and a place to pay the entry fee, since it's a national park.

We walked through the jungle to get to the jellyfish lake:

And unfortunately I have no pictures of the jellyfish, since my camera is not waterproof, and I didn't bring it down to the lake. But Iris got some good shots with a waterproof camera she borrowed from another tourist! So hopefully I will be able to post those later when she sends them to me. But suffice it to say, the jellyfish were pretty cool. There were two types of jellyfish. Most of them were a rust color, and varied in size from about 1 inch long to 7 or 8 inches. They were also pretty substantial; they didn't feel as light and airy as I expected them to. 

View of the pier where you enter the island. 

Holly, Esteban, and Autumn doing their model poses for the camera. 

Lots of hermit crabs! (Although you can't really see the crabs in this picture.)

Holly stands on the beach. 

After eating our lunch at Kakaban, we took the boat over to another island (whose name I don't remember, unfortunately) to visit a sea turtle conservation site. The tide was out pretty far, so our boat driver had to stop and we walked the rest of the way up to the island. 

The view on our walk up to the island. 

Couldn't resist the selfie. 

Holly, Iris, and Autumn

When we got to the conservation site, we saw they had a bucket filled with baby sea turtles, which other tourists and children seemed to be manhandling without any supervision. We got a little judgmental and wondered why people weren't being more careful with the babies; but then we couldn't resist getting so close to the baby sea turtles ourselves, and we kind of got over it. 

Esteban with the children. 

The sea turtles were 2 days old! 

They were irresistibly cute. 

 After looking at the turtles, we were able to find a guy who would climb a palm tree and get us a couple coconuts for a drink. We lay down in the shade under a big tree and read out-of-date trashy magazines and looked at the amazing view.

Autumn and Holly

Then we headed back to one final snorkeling spot, where we could swim in the semi-open water. I don't have any photos from that, since I was in the water (duh), but it was really good. I got to have the experience for the first time of being surrounded by a school of fish (bright blue and yellow), while not being able to see the bottom of the ocean. I also swam over to a shallower area where I saw a lot of bright fish swimming in coral. 

Finally, around 5pm, we took the boat back to Derawan. 

Esteban sitting in front on the boat (note the sand on his back from lying on the beach). 

Gorgeous water

Holly, Autumn, and me in the back row of the boat. 

We were craving ice cream when we got back, and found this ice cream truck guy! 

"Luxury" brand chocolate and vanilla ice cream bar. With a LOT of freezer burn. But hey, it's ice cream. 

And after the ice cream, we went back to the same spot from the previous day to get roasted corn (YES), and look for a few more sea turtles.

Iris and her corn. 

Autumn and Holly chowing down. 

After getting dinner that night at a random restaurant run by a sassy older Indonesian Ibu (we came back to her place for breakfast the next morning, we liked her so much), Iris and Holly went back to the room to go to bed, while Autumn and Esteban and I decided to go looking for sea turtle eggs. It was apparently egg laying season on the island, and we'd tried the night before, only to be told we had to wait an hour for the mother to lay the eggs before we could view the eggs ourselves. 

So we returned the second night, ready to wait an hour if we had to. Luckily, on that night, we were told that baby turtles were actually going to hatch, and we could see it happen! A different sea turtle conservation group had carefully counted 50 turtle eggs and put them in a safe place, and was going to check for the baby turtles that night. There was already a group of about 30 or 40 other tourists and locals there, waiting for the "unveiling." (I'm going to call it that.)

The three of us sat and looked at the beautiful, clear stars for about 20 minutes, waiting until someone notified us that it was time. When it was finally time, one of the guard guys lifted off a covering over the turtles. And we saw a pile of 50 little baby sea turtles--that had just hatched! They didn't move at all. They appeared to be sleeping. Then one of the guys lightly sprinkled some sand on them, and they woke up and started crawling like crazy. The guards picked up each of the turtles and counted them as they moved them into a bucket, making sure that all 50 had hatched successfully. Then they carried the bucket down to the shore (we were a significant distance from the water). 

Autumn and Esteban and I almost left at that point; we assumed they were going to keep the baby turtles until they got stronger. But no, because this was a different conservation group, we noticed that they were actually releasing the turtles just a few feet from the tide. People lined up on both sides of the path to the water, and cheered as the babies flapped their way into the water. Some of the turtles were super fast and immediately went swimming into the water, while others lagged behind or didn't seem to know which direction where to go. But it was pretty amazing, out of 50 babies, almost all of them were in the water within 5 minutes. It was an amazing experience watching the whole process. Esteban said he almost started to cry, because it affected him so much, an I felt kind of the same way. Everyone was cheering for the turtles! 

DAY 3

The next morning, we had to leave Derawan at 11:30am in order to be on time for our 4pm flight out of Derawan. We had just enough time to go back to the same restaurant that we'd been at for dinner (where we got eggs! Yes, a filling, hot breakfast!) and a quick snorkel right off the dock from our hostel again (where we saw another sea turtle! But not the friendly one, sadly; it swam away pretty fast), before we had to pack up our stuff on the boat and sail back in the rain again (but this time with a cover, thank goodness). 

Needless to say, I loved this trip, and had a wonderful time spending with the weekend with a group of such great people. As corny as it is, I will treasure the memory of those beautiful beaches, jellyfish, and sea turtles. 

Recent Goings-On

Perhaps unsurprisingly, things haven't really slowed down around these parts in the past few weeks. I've intentionally been trying to fill up my weekends and free days with stuff, be it for fun or work--just so that the final 1 1/2 months left in Indonesia don't drag too much.

Rather frustratingly, instead of just making the days fly by, I just kind of feel stressed. I am applying (a little) to jobs back home, so that I can try to have work when I get back to New York. I think this kind of duality (thinking about home while working a lot abroad) is not such a great combination. I wish I could just be thinking about one country. But that won't work right now. Not that I'm complaining. Oh wait, I am.

OK, I am done complaining for this post. Well, mostly. There might be some complaining later on, but it's really short.

Back to the task at hand: catching up on stuff. First of all, on April 15th, I had the two local ETAs, Ellen and Nina, come to speak to my cross-cultural understanding class about being minorities in the USA and Indonesia. I made the presentation an extra credit assignment, since they couldn't come to speak during normal class time. I was surprised to see that almost all the students from my 5 different classes showed up! We didn't have enough space in the room I'd prepared, so we had to fold up all the desks to the side of the room, and have students sit on the floor (something that Indonesian students are always more than happy to do, thankfully).

Ellen and Nina at the front of the room. 

ALL the students--over 100 packed in there. 

Post-presentation photo op. Thanks guys! 

On April 20, I took a car five hours out to Madiun, which is a small but cute town located southeast of Surabaya, to be a judge in an English karaoke singing/speech contest hosted by some ETAs there, Kelsey and Dana. Unfortunately, it was such a rushed visit, I didn't get a picture with the ETAs! I had a nice time, though. Those students could really sing! 

Me and the other judge (gah! Whose names escapes me.)

One of the first singers. She ended up winning second prize--great speech. She sang the song "Titanium." 

Madiun is known for its nasi pecel (spicy peanut sauce on sprouts and some kind of greens). Huh. I think I've visited three other cities in East Java that are ALSO known for nasi pecel. 

On April 25, I spoke with Jen, the other Fellow, at Muhammidiyah University in Surabaya. The topic was "Creative English Teaching." I went with the old standby: Teaching English through Poetry. I'm pretty sure I've given that presentation five times now. And it gets better (or at least easier) every time!!

Me looking like a dictator. 

On the drive back from Muhammidiyah, I saw these cute balloon ball/toys for sale along the road. Took this picture over the driver (Pak Milal), so apologies for the reflection. 

I kind of wanted to buy one. 

The next day, April 26, I had to take a car two hours away, to a mountain town of Prigen, to give ANOTHER presentation (blah--this one was an hour and a half, too long!) for new English teachers about general teaching methodologies. At least, I was told it should be on that topic, only to find out later that it was supposed to be about TOEFL. No one told me. But that's another story. And that's also Indonesia for ya. 

Nice view from the hotel where I gave the presentation. 

View of the hotel. 

Me and some of the teachers at the presentation. (Notice "TOEFL" in the banner behind us.)

Then I booked it home after the presentation, getting back to Surabaya around 8pm, just in time to go out for drinks with the ETAs Morgan, Ellen, Alissa, and Nina, before they headed back to the States. (their contract is about a month shorter than the Fellows.)

Hangin' at Lava Lounge, the one decent bar in Surabaya. READ: No creepy expats. 

The next morning (yes, this was an intense weekend for me), I was picked up and taken to the English club meeting at a local school, Adibuana University. They were having a "games day," meaning thankfully I didn't have to plan anything; they just wanted me to participate in the games with them. 

This boy is from one of the local high school English clubs. He started doing the Harlem shake, and was HILARIOUS.  (The girls behind him joined in shortly after this photo was taken.)

With some of the students at the English club. 

I also managed to buy prescription glasses! My Indonesian friend Sakti helped translate for me. I ended up getting some slightly trendy frames from Levi's brand. Who knew Levi's made glasses? Ironic that I bought from the San Francisco-based brand all the way over in Indonesia. 

Selfie with greasy hair. 

Finally, on Sunday the 28th of April (yup, same weekend), I went to ANOTHER English club at a different college, as a favor for one of the students I've gotten to know through my work at the Consulate, Sulaiman. He's the president of the English club at his school, and just wanted me to come talk about something fun. So I talked about top tourist destinations in the U.S. (a presentation I already did once).

The English club gave me traditional Indonesian dessert after the presentation. Klepon and Gempo! Bean cakes and sticky rice balls with coconut shavings you sprinkle on top. 

After the presentation, Sulaiman basically forced me to get bakso at his favorite local stand. I say forced, because I told him I don't LIKE bakso, but he took me anyway. To a place that serves only bakso. 

My bakso (mystery meatballs and tofu chunks in a broth with a couple noodles and some green stuff.) Yeah, not my fave. 

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Cut to MAY!

The first weekend in May, I got to reunite with Fellows again in Mataram, thanks to Christen organizing a seminar for her students on how to study abroad in the United States. She got 200 students!

I talked first, about how Indonesian and American universities are culturally different. Deirdre talked about the scholarships that are available, and Jess talked about how to write a statement of purpose.

That's Jess up there. 

That night, we met up with some other Fellows (who had given a presentation earlier in the day for the teachers about teaching the four basic skills), and went out for fancy dinner (PUMPKIN TORTELLINI AGAIN!!!), followed by hitching a ride with some horses down to the beach. The horses were not my idea, but Ron really wanted us to take them, so we complied. 

Josh, Ron, and me in one "carriage." Our horse's name was Maradonna. 

Holly, Deirdre, and Christen in the other. I forgot their horse's name. 

We sat on the beach in Senggigi and goofed around. Some people drank beer; I drank Vitamin C soda.  The perfect dessert. 

Deirdre, Christen, me and Holly. 

The next afternoon, I left the wonderful island of Lombok (visited three times!! It was so great!), for the last time, most likely. And I got some awesome views from our tiny plane on the way back. 

Flying over Lombok.