Get Into The Groove

Today was another one of those long, long travel days. Indonesia seems to be full of those. An incredibly beautiful country, but DAMN it's frickin' big! And what's with all these islands all over the place that take forever to cross and involve ferries and shit. It's called "Hello! Just build some bridges and giant super-fast freeways to connect it all! It's like so totally easy!" (Kidding, of course!) The best things in life take more than a little effort to get, and Indonesia definitely fits that rule all the way.

Janelle and I left Bali bright and early and took a two-hour bus ride up the coast to the port town of Padangbai. We had breakfast there and then got onto a big massive, dirty ferry to take us from Bali across the straits to Lombok. The trip took about four and a half hours and was actually quite scenic. We sat up on the roof-top 'patio' area where all the other foreigners seemed to congregate (god we're all sheep) and there we all baked in the sun all afternoon. All the locals smartly hid in the shade and stared at us in curious perplexment, wondering, I'm sure, as to why the hell we're so dumb as to just sit and sweat it out like pigs in the sun all afternoon. Oh, you silly foreigners, you!

From Lambar in Lombok we caught a bus to take us another two hours or so up Lombok's coast to the tiny 'town' of Bangsal. And once again we got on to another boat to take us the final leg of our journey. This time it was no giant-ass ferry, but long skinny motor boats filled entirely with tired, hungry, cranky, sun-burned foreigners all headed for the same place - the Gilis - and all ready and waiting for all that island bliss that was promised to us in those glossy travel brochures and ever-so-vivid descriptions in The Book. It was around 5 or 6pm, I believe, when our boat crashed onto the shores of Gili Trawangan and we all jumped out into the surf - our first introduction to those islands a wet and salty one. Just the way that one should arrive in tropical paradise, I think.

The Gilis are famous in the Backpackers' Circuit, but for all those of you who are Domestic Civilians back home, you may not be familiar with them. The Gilis are three tiny, perfect islands off the northwest coast of Lombok. They're really nothing but pure white sand barely sticking out of the sea, surrounded by the clearest waters that you could possibly fathom and fringed with some fish-filled coral reefs. Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three (Gili Meno and Gili Air are the other two) but even then it's only 2 km wide and 3 km long.

And oh what heavenly places they are. So quiet, so relaxed, and so very, very beautiful. They're the kind of islands that you wish you would get shipwrecked on. The weather is gorgeous, the sand clean and soft, the water so clear it's best described as 'transparent turquoise', and the magnificent mountains of Lombok loom menancingly in the distance. People come here for the excellent snorkelling and scuba diving, and the chance just to sit on a beach all day and listen to the island breezes.

It only takes about a day to get into The Island Groove, and Janelle and I soon succumbed to the island's sweet blissful seduction. Scot and Sarah had arrived there the day before us so the four of us met up and spent three perfect days just lazing it away. All three days consisted of a fairly familiar routine that consisted of breakfast, followed by a swim in the sea and some quality time with our beach towels. At some point we'd get hungry again, so then we'd go for a long, slow lunch, and then of course partake in some more beach time, perhaps interrupted by some snorkelling over the reef. And then when all of that became just too much tropical goodness to take in any longer, we'd go for a late afternoon coffee where we'd chat and just be radiating all the heat that we soaked up that day, and then back to our bungalows to shower up for the night. Then the Big Decision of where to eat dinner would have to be taken care of (Oh! The difficult choices one has to make!), followed by a long, slow dinner at one of the island's many beach-side restaurants where you just sit on a pile of massive cushions and listen to the waves lap and feel the soft winds blow through your hair. And then after the meal (often fresh seafood caught that day) we'd move on to either a movie at one of the many mini cinemas, or out for a drink somewhere. And then when we got all tuckered out we'd head home for bed, only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. Oh, the suffering of this life that we had to live. It was truly painful, but hey someone's gotta do it I guess, so it may as well be me. Don't worry guys, I'll take one for the team and volunteer to get stuck on this miserable island. It's all good! Heh heh! ;-)

Seriously though, it was sheer, glorious paradise through and through. I asked Scot one of those days, when we had just finished another gorgeous day at that gorgeous beach in those gorgeous waters, "Do you ever feel that your life is so amazing that it's like you don't even deserve it?" I mean this in all sincerity. It's days like these, in such spectacular locations like this, where I often wonder what I did that was so good to deserve all of this. I must have been a very, very good boy in a past life or something to be able to enjoy all these beautiful experiences being handed to me on a silver platter day after day. I'm a very, very lucky boy. And I want the universe to know how thankful I am for all of it, and that I don't ever take a second of it for granted.

When you've gotten yourself into The Groove for more than a few days, you start to slip into this mindspace where you can see yourself staying there for like three more months, and not really getting bored of that routine. At least not me. I've discovered a lot of things about myself on this trip, but one creature feature about yours truly that I've had reconfirmed a hundred times is that at heart I'm a child of the sea. I truly am a beach boy. No, I'm not about to break into 'Kokomo'... What I mean is that I feel like the ocean is such an important part of my being that I can't ever imagine living somewhere (long term) that wasn't right next to it. There's just something about the beach and the sea that I feel I need to be connected to all the time. I don't know if it's the sound of the crashing surf, the smell of the seasalt in the air, the touch of the soft sand or breezes blowing in off the waters, or just the sight of the sheer immensity and power of the ocean that feeds my soul and gives me such comfort and peace.

I grew up on Lake Superior which is pretty much a freshwater ocean, and although I never actually spent a lot of time on those waters, having that constant presence of all that H20 really does help shape who a person becomes. And then, of course, living in Vancouver, the sea was a part of my daily life. Besides being a beautiful backdrop for my day-to-day goings, the beach was where I went to have fun with friends, to relax in the sun, to be alone when I was sad, to gather thoughts, to write in my journal, to stare out at and just imagine...all kinds of things. I have so many memories connected to living next to that great Pacific Ocean. And then when I moved to Seoul, Korea I felt so detached, so...sadly separated...like I had lost a part of me.

And now, after all these adventures here on this great islands, I know how much being next to an ocean means to me. Besides being a source of endless recreational opportunities, the sea is my connection to the rest of the planet (just think of all the great cities and countries that those waters touch,) and to the rest of the planet. Mother Gaia. The giver of life, the energy that binds us all.

Okay now I'm getting all new-agey and eco-spiritual and shit so I better stop there. But I really did have a blast in the Gilis. I got to see a lot of beautiful fish swimming in those underwater reef cities, spent a lot of time just soaking up the rays and feeling that lovely lethargy that comes from spending too much time in the hot sun, and had some great nights out with my sister and Scot and Sarah. We even had a rip-roarin' night out at the Irish Pub in town one night, where we had plenty of drinks and laughter all together, along with some new friends that we met on the island - Diana from Ireland, Hagen from Germany, Jenny from Jakarta... Great memories.

On our fourth and sadly final day we had to do the whole big journey again in reverse to get back to Bali. It was another long day, but it didn't seem to take as long, and having good company helps to pass the hours, for sure. Janelle and I checked back into that same fab hotel again where Laura & Wiebrand were waiting for us, and the six of us checked back into our Bali Island Groove for a couple days again.

The next day we had another long day at Kuta Beach, and for our last night all together went out and had a really awesome, crazy night out on the town. We started off at this huge, cavernous club that filled up later, and after a wholatta beer (well, Tom Collins for me, actually) we all got brave enough to hit the dance floor and shake our booties. Scot & Sarah had to get up early the next morning for their flight to Singapore so they ducked out sometime after midnight. The party didn't stop there, though. We moved locations to the club next door, which btw is housed inside a GIANT pirate ship, where more drinks and dancing ensued. Janelle and Laura went all 'Girls Gone Wild' and danced up a storm all naughtily in the cages attracting a literal line-up of guys waiting to dance with them inside the cage, or as one guy did, climb all up and over the cage like a monkey gone mad. Oh, what crazy times!!! It was a total blast, and sometime after 3am we were too tired to drink or dance anymore so we went back to the hotel and hit the hay.

On our last day in Bali the four of us attempted - but failed - to go banana-boating in boring, senior-citizen-riddled Senur Beach, but made up for that loss by driving out to the Tanah Lot sea temple to watch the sunset. Truly beautiful. We had one last dinner together and it really was sad to say goodbye to them the next morning. Janelle and I have had such fun with them and are really going to miss those guys. So strange to think that last night all six of us were together drinking it up in a nightclub in Bali, and in a week's time we'll all be in different corners of the globe. Scot & Sarah will be in Sydney, Laura & Wiebrand in Cape Town, and Janelle & I in Kuala Lumpur. That's so weird. Just goes to show how ridiculously easy it is to travel vast distances in such a short amount of time nowadays. And how important it is to enjoy The Now, The Moment, cause blink and in a second it'll have disappeared and life has moved on to something new just like that. Hmm.

So now I say goodbye to Bali. And thank you as well. Thank you for your beautiful scenery (beach-wise and eye-candy-wise,) the wonderful people you've introduced me to, and for making me feel rather reflective and philisophical these days. You've certainly cast your spell on this Canadian boy. :-)