
That’s what Linda yelled out to me yesterday when she jumped off the boat and into the water before I did yesterday for my first dive.
I think that I’ve found heaven. The words “idyllic” and “paradise” just don’t even seem to do this place justice!
If you’re going to spend a week diving, this is definitely the way to do it. The place I’m staying – Two Fish Divers – is kind of a little kingdom in and of itself. The people who own it are really sweet, they have an adorable 5-month old daughter named Rebecca, and the staff here are great and laid back. Everything is at a pretty high standard which is nice…..clean, hot water, great food, excellent vibe.
And I haven’t even started talking about the diving yet! I knew from the moment I arrived that I was in good hands. Lucy, the dive instructor here, sat both Linda (another woman who arrived the same day I did) and I down and gave us the lay of the land. Right away I felt like I was being taken care of and that’s a great way to kick things off. They really pay everyone special, personalized attention and the place has a familial feel. Nothing is rushed and that’s nice, too.
I realize now the danger I put myself in by not brushing up on my diving skills before I did my first dive in Sabang. Lesson learned: if you don’t know what you’re doing, ask questions rather than stay quiet and risk looking stupid. It’s always better to look stupid.
I told Lucy and John, who is studying to become a divemaster, the experience that I had in Sabang and they were sympathetic and understanding. Linda hadn’t ever dived before, so the first night she watched a video as the beginning of her training. It really covered the basics. I watched the video (very cheesy: Divers Are Underachievers!) with her and everything came back, and I felt mentally prepared to go. Before I went to bed that night I read up with a diving book they had lying around here and by the time I went to bed I felt ready for the next day.
On my first dive, it was just me and my dive guide, Chris. We took it slow and it was a fabulous dive. The cool thing about the ocean here is that a reef surrounds the entire island, about 200 yards out in some places. It appears to be more of a big lake than an ocean, which is great. The waves are small, the same that you would find on a lake. When you look down, the water is clear and the visibility goes on and on. Once the reef stops, there are deep walls of coral that form the drop-offs into the rest of the ocean. It’s really cool to dive right along these walls because you have the wall to one side of you, and the ocean to another.
The best moment of my dive yesterday was as Chris and I were coming around one of the corners of the reef wall and sitting there in the wall, just minding his own business, was a HUGE sea turtle. I’ve seen sea turtles before but this guy puts them all to shame. He was gargantuan. He checked us out for a while, we checked him out, and then he slowly swam up to the surface.
I did two dives yesterday and both were different and great. Then I came back, had some lunch and a quick nap (surprisingly didn’t sleep the night before, maybe a little bit of anxiety) and then it was Gugus time. I am finishing up the epic report on the Gugus and am hoping to have it in to Martin this week. Rather than rush and hand it in, Martin and I both agreed that it was best that I keep working on it – better to make it great than done.
Diving here has been such a great transition. It’s nice to be someplace with some structure and other people around, a comfortable step down from working at the IRC in Banda and being surrounded by people to traveling on your own, which is completely different. In a way I enjoy traveling on my own, but sometimes you just wish that someone (i.e. Rusel!) were there to watch your bags while you go to the bathroom! Among other things J
Last night at dinner, a bunch of the other divers were talking about going into town to one of the dive guide’s birthday parties. I was tired, but decided to go just to check it out. I had seen the village from the boat and in the center was a huge, gothic church. It looked interesting.
We walked into the town, which took about 20 minutes. It was really dark outside and the stars above were gorgeous. The road was more of a pedestrian footpath, as there aren’t any cars on the island.
I got the feeling of being on Fire Island, which also doesn’t allow cars in some places. The houses were close to the road and everything was quaint. We stopped off at a little shop on the side of the road and bought some “palm wine” for Sam, the birthday guy. Apparently “palm wine” is a local specialty but I never did find out exactly what is in it.
We went over to Sam’s house and the party was already hopping. Sam took all of our bottles of “palm wine” and put it into one big pitcher. He then took one glass and went from person to person filling up the glass and telling people to drink it. I tried it, and it was pretty gross. It’s some sort of “wine” mixed with coca cola. I didn’t drink much at all.
The party was funny. On the walls, there was a Jesus clock (a picture of Jesus with sheep on a clock) and two posters of Jesus. I guess that they’re also serious about their religion here – I’m sensing a trend here in Indonesia. A lot of the Indonesian guys tried to start up conversations with me, and I could tell I was something of a curiosity. It was weird to be hit on, which was exactly what was happening. One thing that I had kind of grown used to after two months of Banda Aceh was everyone being very reserved. Kind, but distant. Any gestures of “flirting” were extremes --someone reaching out to me to grab me when I was on my bike….or Indonesian men completely ignoring me because I was a “blang” -- and that was about it. Here, the men were clearly trying to hit on me and it made me uncomfortable. As much as I don’t understand the religion of Islam and the culture in Aceh, there are some things that I did get used to in a way and now I’m just kind of re-acclimating.
Anyway, I kept telling them about my wonderful husband back in New York and I just kept saying it! “My husband is very nice!” “My husband is a great man!” “My husband should be calling me any moment!” The crazy thing is, Rusel was supposed to call me so I kept watching the phone, but we got our times confused and he didn’t call until after I got home. It would’ve been nice if the phone would’ve rang during these conversations, “Oh, that’s him calling me now!” but my “husband” talk seemed to be doing the job just fine.
Anyway, harmless and funny in the end. It felt weird to be at a party, in public, and wearing a regular t-shirt and shorts where everyone was openly drinking. Everyone was getting really drunk and again, that was weird too for me. It was also a little bit different for me, mentally, to be around people who were someplace just to have a good time and that was it. After being in Banda Aceh and only being with people who work at NGO’s and are pretty committed and serious about what they are doing, it is strange to be around people with no set plan…just traveling around….having a good time. At the moment, it just feels a bit odd!
I got up for two dives this morning. After being alone with the dive guide for both of my dives yesterday, this German guy Lars was my diving partner today. When Kate, Ivana and Shirley and I went to lake Takengon over the long weekend this German guy there (who brought the beer and wine which was not shared!) said to us, “I like to do sport in the morning so I can drink beer in the afternoon.” It became our guarantee for a giggle on that trip and we said it over and over again in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. Now, every time I look at Lars I think of that saying. Another quote from that trip was, “One man’s German is another man’s Austrian” which doesn’t make sense at all but when said in a German accent also reduces me to non-stop laughs.
Anyway, “I like to do sport in the morning so I can drink beer in the afternoon” and I went on our first dive and it was probably one of my best dives ever. First off, we saw two black-tipped reef sharks. They were everything you want in a shark: not too big, non-people-eating, curious but not overly curious, and cool. They hung out for a bit in the distance below us and it was one of those great moments in time when everything else seems to stop.
On that same dive we saw a turtle as well and a host of other things. Close to the end of the dive, the dive guide pointed up and I looked and we could see a sea snake swimming on the surface. I got kind of freaked out. It was funny because just last week I was talking to Kate about which I would rather cross paths with: a shark or a snake. I said that while both scare me, I would rather see a snake because at least you can run away. So here I was, underneath the water with both sharks AND snakes and I realized that I was wrong – I would rather run into a shark. I almost peed in my wet suit as the snake that we were watching on the surface started to swim down towards us and right in front of Lars! Then he went on his merry way to the coral.
I’m not a religious person, but being under water for me is kind of like a quiet meditation where it’s just me, nature and the unmistakeable hand of something bigger at work. Nobody to talk to but myself and absolutely nothing to do but look around in wonder as I float weighlessly. Each dive, I have at least one moment where I am just taken aback by the beauty of the sea and my tiny place in it. Zen.
Anyway, all is well and now I’m back in my room for a quick nap, and then..... back to the Gugus.