Yeah...ponned school and went down to the beach with cheryl darling and her family. Damn, am I deprived or what? I have never been onto a beach, nor have I caught crabs or starfish under the sun, and neither have I soaked myself in the saltiness of the sea or slid down a wet slide. Damn.
It all happened after my RCIA on Sunday morning. Cheryl was so supportive as to stay with me till Sunday while her family left on Friday morning. She was my sponsor and it felt a little awkward as she blessed my ears hands shoulders eyes lips nose...eh wait, my nose wasn't blessed! No wonder it still runs...
Ok so on Sunday afternoon, Cheryl, Aunty Cora, I made our way down to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and about 2 hrs later we arrived on the calm lagoon of Bintan Island. Oh wait, one of the many calm lagoons! And the ferry ride was about 1hr long (though it certainly did not feel like it...)
And oh how deprived I felt when we splashed about in the pool and soaked ourselves in the sea which encrusted us with a layer of salt. Oh the flora and fauna in the sea which are just so delectable..uh did I use the wrong word? Nope, they certainly looked like what we find in our ching teng! And not to mention the fact that I have never run barefoot on sand before, and doing it was like...enlightenment to me. Oh the sense of freedom which one gets when one stares out at the horizon and looks at the interface between sea and sky. The sea blue transforming ever so slightly into the sky blue. And all the better to experience it with your (better) other half =p
After that we proceeded to drive the buggy. Damn, it was so fun driving with the wind in our hairs (or is it our hair?) and despite crashing into a clay (yeah, clay) light (yeah, one of those fixtures they have in the resort) and smashing it to smithereens, I enjoyed driving around on the (wide) road where keeping left is easy to do since the left is like 3 times the width of the buggy. But I had fun. Yeah, although I was pretty freaked out at the thought of someone coming after Cheryl's dad for causing the damage cos he rented the buggies. We removed all evidence possible, except the silly smashed lamp :(
For dinner we had ba zhang. Yep, white and black ba zhangs. And we played gin rummy. Sigh, another of my own depravity. The game is so amazingly addictive and it was sad that my darling was feeling ill at that time, and we /quitted and went up to chat for a while before turning in (in different beds of course, different rooms even. SIGH).
The next day we woke early. I mean like, really early, around 0600 SG time, which is around 0500 Bintan time. However, we did not manage to catch the sunrise as through a series of small and unfortunate inescapable delays, the sky magically turned light blue before we could whisper abracadabra. Damn, so we proceeded to the beach to pak-tor for a while, and figured that the crabs running around were too irresistible and tried to catch a few with our bare hands. We succeeded quite well, but went back to take a pail and scoop to succeed even more =p
Oh gosh, the feeling of the sea. I can still feel it in my bones, the salt water, the cool atmosphere, the burning sun, the fluffy clouds. It felt like nothing I've felt before! It was awesome to look at the vastness of the sea and wonder who on earth..uh heaven made it. And oh, the many crab holes (what the CRAB!) along the beach, and the tiny ones we found, with miniscule crabs (probably the young little playful ones who refuse to listen to mummy who said stay in the hole!) scuttling about. We had to be quick though, before the sun came out and it became too hot for the crabs to run around. Yep, we proceeded to scoop them one by one till I had seven in the cup of my hands. Then we added a big daddy, a larger soft-shelled crab, and transferred them into the pail. And added some sediment, and water, and we had our own beach-in-a-pail! How amazing!
As the sun rose, and my darling's nose turned a healthy rose pink, we floated about in the sea for a well more before proceeding to the pool. Oh yeah, the pool with a slide. With water rushing down and reducing the friction. With a huge yellow float (ours) to ride on and it goes super fast. With a daredevil young little Eric who proceeds down and up (yes, UP) the slide on all twos (I mean, fours). SPLASH. And YES we saw a rainbow, the best I've seen. Right, perhaps it was cos I was lying at a good angle (on the yellow float thing!) and could see the entire sky with white clouds and rainbow and palm trees and all. Beautiful. Awesome.
It seems like we have done a lot, does it? And the time now is...drum roll...1000! So many things in so little time...and then we proceeded to the banana boat where I got (1) splashed by sea spray, (2) thrown overboard, (3) excited and thrilled!
laser pico amazed by derek, loved my darling, felt inadequate and awed at the same time
rain cold loved my darling but couldn't do anything, good wind, sailing terminology, slight envy!
lunch at restaurant charge to hotel buffet good meal long cooking time
hammock sleep jacuzzi
beach cold hug darling 50 dollar in water (right...) snorkel to find other missing money (yah RIGHT...)
beach warmer water wind cold nice rocks outcrop beautiful girl next to me emo-ing slightly
cold rain shower hot bath pack up sad hug emo reluctant
keychain bus wave goodbye hug pills passport xavier coming out of country alone miss darling like crazy
biometric passport queue screw up thumbprint miss darling like crazy
miss darling like crazy
make plans to go back
type this and sleep
sad
depressed
confused
loved
cultured
excited