Last day and Final Thoughts.

Thursday was my final day on Lombok, and I would fly to Jakarta the following day. I was still a little sore and tired from the trek, so I had no intentions of doing anything too grand. Instead, I enjoyed the downtime and spent most of the day playing in the waves, which were considerably powerful. I had considered a trip to nearby Gili Islands, but the water was too choppy to get transport. It rained most of the morning anyway, but cleared up in the afternoon. When I wasn't in the water, I spent my time on the strip having snacks and hanging out with the locals. There was a fine pub I ended up at where a certain local and I played pool for a good portion of the day.

This pool table was unlike any that I had played on before. It had the dimensions of a normal pool table and and the usual eight-ball rack. However, the balls were the size of snooker balls (for those who don't know snooker, the balls are slightly smaller and require more precision) and the pockets were rounded like a snooker tables. This means that any shot not hit dead solid perfect at the right speed would rattle out of the pocket. The table was very fast and it made for a very fun game. After a couple of hours of playing and chatting with my Indonesian friend I set back towards the resort.

There was a group of Australians staying in the bungalow next door and I talked to them on and off during the day. These gentlemen traveled together several times a year in search for good surf, and the father of one of them had been to Lombok every year for some time. That evening his son and his friends went down to the beach with me to kick around with some locals that lived on the beach. These guys kicked every evening, and enthusiastically let us play with them. We kicked until sunset and afterwards I hung out with the Aussies and continued to knock the ball around. I talked to one of them, named Doug, over a beer for a while and he told me all about his life in Sydney. Doug is a plumbing technician who works hard but plays harder. He told me that when he is not working he's surfing and hanging out with his friends. Given the opportunity to travel more than a few times a year, he gets together with friends and family and plans trips to other places to surf. What I found really interesting about Doug and his friends was their outlook on life. Doug told me how he doesn't take his life for granted at all and is grateful every day that he was lucky enough to be born where he was. Here was a guy who is really happy with his life and seems to enjoy every day. I've always thought the surfing sub-culture is cool, but this made me want to move to a beach and become part of it.

Doug left to join his friends for dinner and I opted to hang out on the beach. I sat in the sand for hours that evening, burying my sore feet, listening to the waves, and looking at the stars. At several points locals selling things approached me. I'd tell them that I wasn't interested in buying anything there but they were welcome to chat. Several times a person or two or at one time five sat down with me and talked about their island, country, politics, religion, or whatever. They all struck me as open-minded and easy going, and their was never an inflammatory topic that arose. I sat in the same spot for two hours and never got bored. After a while I cleaned up and went back to the strip where I watched an Arsenal game and drank a few pints.

The following morning I checked out and made my way to the airport. I had a seven hour layover in Jakarta that I wasn't exactly looking forward to, but had a good book to read and knew of a nice cheap spa where I could hang out and rest. I read George Orwell's "Down and Out in London and Paris" that day, which made me hungry with the main character working the hobo circuit in search for food. That was the third Orwell book I've read in the last year, and I'd highly recommend any of them (I also read Animal Farm and 1984). I finally boarded the plane at 9:30 pm and would arrive in freezing cold Seoul at 6:30am (There's a two-hour time difference.).

One thing I love about traveling alone is that it affords me time to reflect and think about the future. Indonesia was a very fitting end to an up and down 2007. On the mountain I thought about what direction I wanted to take when I got back and two things consistently popped into my head: soccer and writing. Going into 2008 I decided that these were the two things that give me the most satisfaction and two things that come naturally to me. I felt a renewal when I came back and have since set my energies to these two pursuits. Another key feeling I gathered on the trip was a re-newed faith in humanity. Through all my travels, I've found that people and cultures are generally good when you give them a chance. The people I encountered over this trip didn't discriminate against me because of my background and showed no hostility. I hope that in 2008 more of the world would act accordingly and try to appreciate our differences and live in harmony. Happy new year to everybody and peace towards mankind.