Fearless

I'm writing this post sitting on my hammock outside my bungalow in Lombok while listening to some T-Swift. This is my third night watching the absolutely gorgeous sunset, but I wish I had someone to share it with besides the French guy I don't know watching it from the bungalow next door.

This side of Lombok is completely different from Mataram--the main road can be noisy when an ojek screams past, but for the most part the loudest noise is the crashing of the waves against the seawall just 20 yards away.

I went for an early walk on the beach this morning before being picked up for my "Gili Explore" tour, during which I was only bothered once, and the hawker got the hint fairly quickly, though he is still convinced my name is Sandra. Don't know where he got that from. The very nice young driver took me to Perema's main office, where I paid and had a really good instant coffee-I'm going to have to get myself some of that mix! I then boarded a boat with nine Indonesians, some sort of collection of brothers, sisters, and cousins, who made a few words of conversation with me and obliged me by taking a couple of pictures. I started to get anxious, though, as only one of them was wearing a bathing suit and no one else besides me clutched a snorkel.

After an hour-long boat ride to Gili Trawagan (sp?), they all disembarked and I was confused. The boat driver finally caught onto my confusion and explained that they just wanted a lift to the island; the rest of the snorkeling crew were going to join us from the island. A nice (and beautiful) young Dutch couple and two middle-aged Aussie men got on the boat with snorkels and fins and all was well again!

We snorkeled for thirty minutes off the coast of each island. The snorkeling at Gili Trawagan was tough--the current was strong and I was so afraid of being swept to sea that I couldn't focus on the fish! Luckily, at Gilis Meno and Air, the current was much weaker and I saw a ton of fish--zebra fish, little neon blue guys, beautiful rainbow-colored fish, long skinny fish that looked like pipes, and a couple of turtles! My brand new mask leaked terribly, and I switched over to one of their masks for the last dive, which didn't leak once--so much for buying my own gear!

The boat dropped us off on the Air mainland for lunch, where I had my usual mango juice (what am I going to do when I get back to the states and can't have fresh mango smoothies every day?!?) and some delicious seafood cap cay (pronounced chap chai). I walked up and down the coast for a little, and the boat dropped me off at a different bay on the northern part of Lombok The same driver from the morning appeared out of nowhere from the boat and dropped me off at my door.

All in all, a lovely day (made better by some preemptive Dramamine. However, I still struggle with solo traveler's anxiety: did I sign up for the right thing, with the language barrier? Is this boat safe? Will my room be broken into while I am gone? Will I be in any of my pictures? This opportunity is fantastic, but I've realized more and more it isn't just the experiences you have, but the people you have them with, that take trips like this one from great to fantastic. I've found it almost paralyzing sometimes to to try to plan activities and travel for myself when I have no idea how it will turn out. Hence, the Taylor-listening and post title. Cheesy, but I think "fearless" is really becoming my theme for the summer: not worrying about what may go wrong, but being grateful for everything that is going right. In that vein, here I go with some sappy shoutouts:

-To my family, I miss you, and can't wait for our OBX trip when I get back. To my extended family, I am so sorry I will miss you all at the cape.
-To my friends, I miss you all in New York, DC, and around the world.
To SSSLY: can we please please do a sssly spring break or winter break or summer break or something now once we are all back in the states?
-To my new work colleagues, thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn about your wonderful country, and for sending me to Lombok!
-To Kari: I admire you for being fearless as well and being fearless with me! Here's to Penang and Bangok!
-To Erin: thank you for making me forget to be lonely in Jakarta! Here's to a future trip when we are actually both around the same weekend!
-And finally, to Alex--thank you for listening to me babble on skype about anything and everything, and for your love and support for me while I'm on the other side of the world. I miss you more than anything.

Love and miss you all! Off to Kuta in the morning, perhaps for a surfing lesson as well? Pictures to come once I return to Jakarta!