A Day at the Beach

Dearest Rachel –

The phrase is a literal metaphor for an easy thing, not unlike “a piece of cake” or “a walk in the park.” And given that I’m still clawing my way back to health, it’s probably just what the doctor ordered, to utilize another common phrase – I’d have to check with Lars to verify how literally I can take that one.

The thing is, it’s not an entirely accurate of the day, or at least, how it began. After being up late last night – I didn’t finish editing videos until after eleven – and still being somewhat shaken by my encounter on the docks after scattering a few of your ashes, I was in no real hurry to get started on the day today, even if it was going to be a day at the beach.

Theoretically, I could’ve gone ashore hours before I was required to, and wandered around a bit before meeting up with my tour group – like I’d done in Kailua-Kona, for instance – but I just couldn’t get the motivation to do so. What does it say about me when I can’t be motivated to head out early for a beach trip? Sure, I have a reasonable excuse in the form of the last vestiges of this cold I’ve been fighting, but it still seems like peak inertia to be so unwilling to move as to be unpersuaded by a trip to a five-star resort.

Then again, I’m talking about heading out early, before I’m required to show up. There’s a difference between that and skipping out on the trip entirely. Although, I almost managed that as well, as I found myself chatting with Daniel and Kerstin at various times within that last hour before I was to meet up with the tour group.

I wonder if the isolation from home is actually starting to get to me…

***

I manage to get outside of the (surprisingly empty) terminal building – the QR scan is quick and efficient, although with almost no one else there to check, one would hope so – with about five minutes to spare.  There are, as in Lombok, a number of touts outside of the building, offering services as guides and drivers.  Once again, I’m glad for an excursion arranged through the cruise line; the reassurance that they would only deal with reputable organizations (that admittedly, might be more expensive) rather outweighs the potential for getting into a dicey situation.

On a map, it looks like such a short hop from the cruise terminal to the resort hotel; you’d think you could walk it, although I’d certainly rather not try in flip-flops (and I’m not wearing gym shoes and socks to a beach, that’s for sure). With that having been said, I’m more than happy to take the bus (if nothing else, it puts a literal wall between us and the touts); what surprises me is that it takes about half an hour to get to the hotel grounds. Even the trip over the causeway between the terminal and the peninsula takes a good ten minutes.  

All this is being done as our guide narrates occasionally about the various things were seeing, but once he points out that in Indonesia (or maybe it’s just Bali) there is no such thing as a speed limit, I’m rather astonished as to the time it takes to get from one point to another. You would think that everybody would be constantly going full pelt, especially on a causeway where there’s nowhere else to turn off.  Of course, there are always other considerations to take into account; higher speeds can be more dangerous, obviously, and they’re decidedly less fuel efficient as well.  Not to mention there’s probably only so fast that those ubiquitous little scooters can go.  He does add that this means that the country has a slightly different etiquette when it comes to the road; people use their horns, a lot more often, which, now that I think about it, I did hear a lot of in Lombok, especially from our own bus driver. Suddenly, a few things are falling into place.

From there, we’re escorted further onto the hotel grounds, for us to decide what we want to do for the day; shall we use the spa facilities, including the gym and the indoor pools, or would we rather head out onto the beach proper, and spread ourselves out there?

I don’t know that I personally have a preference – although if I wanted to use a spa and/or gym, I could do that on the ship just as easily there; the beach is a different matter altogether. Besides, I can almost guarantee that it’s what you would have wanted to do, and you’d probably want to hear about, so… here you go.

As it was meant to be a relaxing time, I stopped taking notes at this point; whatever reactions I had to everything is on video, and you can make your own judgements about that. There’s only so much I can absorb in seven hours, even though I really didn’t try to squeeze every last drop out of those hours.

In any event, honey, I hope you can still keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, as I think I’m still going to need it.