We decided to wake up at 630am to watch the sunrise over the ocean, as we had a n unblocked eastern view of the sea. We missed the sunrise, as we learned it rises at 6am, but still managed a early morning ocean swim before breakfast. The water was about the same temperature as Florida in the late spring, very nice! We were in "monsoon" season, meaning India was in a true monsoon season and the rest of Asia jut got more rain than usual, but the sea was still a little foggy due to the small waves and there was lots of trash on the beach. Fazli later told us that during monsoon season, they don't bother to clean up the trash since there is so much, they wait until it's over. The trash comes from the ferry's and kelongs. Kelong's are floating houses (literally houses with stilts attached to buoys) that go a mile from the beach to fish for extended periods of time (months). Luckily, they were servicing the kelongs, so we got to see the houses tied up to trees down the beach.
Breakfast was a little confusing at first, but very delicious once we got the hang of it. We were given
pancakes, which were gooey tortilla-like pieces of cooked dough, cut up limes, fresh coconut shreds, sugar, and mini bananas. We figured you squeeze lime juice on your pancake, cover in coconut and sugar (Maria added the mini bananas) and roll into a cannoli and eat. Best food I"ve had since I've gotten to Asia! After breakfast, we decided to walk down the beach. When we told Fazli, as he always would come and ask what we were planning, since we were in only guests at the guesthouse, he invited himself as our guide and we took off to the south. We passed by some "resorts". These were the resorts used by the locals on their vacation days or days off. Indonesians work and go to school 6 days a week, with the only rest day being Sunday, so we saw nobody this day. Their resorts were small platforms big enough to fit 2 people with roofs by the beach, and this was it. There were about 100 of them at the water's edge, I guess they just lay in and nap, taking shade from the sun.
Fazli told us how friendly the locals are to tourists, and as we journey-ed throughout the weekend, we found this to be very true. Since Bintan is yet to blow up as a tourist destination, especially this part of the island, the locals very much like to see tourists come to visit their home. Hello is the same in Indonesian, so we all exchanged greetings whenever we ran into a local.
We were treated so well as the guesthouse. The staff always was there to ask us about ordering food, getting us drinks, suggesting things to do and taking us there. Fazli alone, the manager of the place, led almost every adventure we had. After lunch and a nice nap in a hammock, we went clamming. Fazli said we could snorkel (with only masks...no actual snorkels) during low tide and find clams and we could cook them for dinner! We went out for about 3 hours, looking for clams, seeing the reefs below. Fazli taught us how to stand on the coral without hurting it and which things NOT to touch or go near. We saw an eel, squid-like thing that looked like an octopus but wasn't (Fazli tried to catch it), many fish, clown fish playing in anemone (Fazli tried to catch them as well, but they wouldn't leave their post and you could practically touch them, they didn't swim away), huge black sea urchins, and all types and sizes of coral. It was beautiful!!!! We walked around looking for fireflies, but the moon was out so there weren't any. We then had a large feast of clams, delicious!
There was a French family who stayed for a night at the guesthouse; their kids worked in Singapore and were here in a vacation. When I told them I was from Florida, they said they knew a professor who lived in New Symerna who worked at some Aerospace school. Turns out, one of Townsend's thesis advisers is very good friends with this couple,what a small world!
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