Empat Hari di Sorga (4 Days in Heaven)

"Just the smell of the summer can make me fall in love" --Modest Mouse

This weekend was the CLS midterm break--where we were given 4 days to do whatever we wanted! A group of friends and I decided to head to Lombok and enjoy a "santai di pantai" (relaxing by the beach). We had set out to have a budget trip and also wanted to see as many places as possible--so we were in for one heck of an adventure.

Before leaving Malang, the only thing we had planned was what "hotels" we were going to stay in. And I put "hotels" in quotation marks, because we mostly stayed in inexpensive homestays. The first night we stayed in a homestay in Mataram called "red chili"--which took a good amount of time to find, considering the driver had never heard of it and most of the people we asked on the street gave us contradicting directions. But, the homestay turned out to be very nice and comfy, especially for $5!

The next morning we traveled up the coast to catch a boat to the Gili T island. The drive was beautiful--we saw forests of palm trees, animals grazing in fields, tons of monkeys, and the beautiful coastline of Lombok! But, once we arrived at the place to catch the boat, we were caught by hustlers. And this is where I learned to never trust an Indonesian hustler when they say something is "far." About 5 times during the trip, Indonesian employees kept saying things were "jauh" (far) and that we need to ride a horse cart to get there--THIS IS A MYTH! "Jauh" to these people apparently meant 100 feet, because on our first day, we innocently bought into this scheme and paid $3 to ride a horse cart for 30 seconds. So, in Lombok "tidak pernah naik kuda!" (never ride a horse).

The weekend was full of wonderful memories, but because I'm running low on time to finish this blog post, here are just a few of them:

1. Sitting on the front deck of the speedboat and getting to know some fellow Indonesians during the boat-ride to Gili--we were actually able to use our Indonesian skills! And later one of the guys (who turned to be a pearl peddler on Gili) recognized us and gave us special discount :)

2. Having 4 whole days to eat Western food--if anything, this trip has taught me to appreciate food more

3. Snorkeling off the coast of the Gili Islands and seeing sooo much coral--the current was so strong I couldn't keep myself in a single place and had to get out of the water after just a few minutes because I was worn out and feeling physically threatened merely by the current's strength

4. Walking along the white-sand beaches of Gili and starring up at the brightest sea of stars I had ever laid eyes on! I was able to see constellations I'd only heard of, catch a glimpse of Venus, and seeing the massive collection of stars we call the Milky Way. It was magical

5. Spending time relaxing on the beaches of Kuta, Lombok, which proved to be a much more laid-back and "real" than Gili T. The beach we spent the most time at seemed to have un-worn sand--the sand wasn't the fine grains I was used to, but much larger, circular pebbles that made me sink into the earth every time I tried to stand.

6. Sitting in a little gazebo, eating dinner with my friends, and having deep conversations for hours and hours as we looked up at the Indonesian mountains

7. Being able to bargain in Indonesian and have same chats with local storeowners about my time in Malang and my language goals

8. Visiting a local market at Kuta, which was probably about 50% a fish market. The smell of fish was EVERYWHERE, but I able to find a corner of the market that sold more "tourist-y" materials, and bargained my way down to reasonable prices.

9. Meeting some street children who sold bracelets on the beach. They had all taken on an English name to use when conversing with foreigners, and their English was impeccable. Even though they at first seemed really cute, I soon discovered that they were extremely aggressive and needy when it came to selling the bracelets. After coaxing a little money out of us, some of them stripped and ran into the water to play. At one point, there were about 10 naked children trying to climb onto a single floating tire.