Sengigi Beach and the Nice Locals

I arrived at the island at 2:00 Sunday afternoon. The guide that I had booked for the trek picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at the Dharmarie Resort on Sengigi Beach. This place was prettier than expected and I was very pleased with the room. Pictured on the left is the bungalow I stayed in that evening. The guide told me he would be at the hotel to pick me up at 6am sharp the next morning. I didn't feel like doing much given this and took it fairly easy the first night.



In front of my bungalow was a beautifully manacured garden area with palm trees and soft grass. This area led directly to the beach, which was nearly empty. Sengigi is a beautiful tourist area without too many tourists. It proved to be a nice mix and the local people were very friendly and accommodating. After spending some time lazing on the beach, I took to the strip to stroll and find a restaurant and possibly a beer. It was reminiscent of Cambodia the way the locals feed off tourism and try to sell anything. I found the people here to be a bit aggressive, but not nearly as overwhelming as the Cambodians. Many of them, like many Thai people I chatted with in Phuket, were happy just to talk when I told them I wasn't interested in buying anything. For instance, I had a watch salesman who asked if he could sit down and join me when I was in a cafe having yellow curry and a beer. I told him that I wasn't buying a watch and he said that he just likes speaking English and chatting with foreigners. Turns out he had no hidden agenda and he talked freely about his life on the island and family. I told him about Korea and he was very impressed saying that many Indonesians try to make it to Korea because the money is very good for them. However, it's difficult to raise the money to pay for the travel and visas. One thing I didn't get a sense of with this gentleman, as well as with every other person I talked to, was a sense of anti-Americanism. They seem to really embrace certain aspects of our culture and simply don't like our insane war-mongering president (my words, not theirs). I heard many times over the week how these nice people hate war and want to live in peace with all religions and cultures. I said amen to that. I talked to Muslims, Christians and Hindus alike all week and they all seemed genuinely pleased that an American took an interest in their culture. On a side note, I wish I would have taken a picture of the very nice watch-salesman.
The rest of the evening I hung out on the strip for a little while (didn't have my camera with me) and had a couple of beers and watched a soccer game at a pub. I returned a little after dark and had a midnight swim with some of the locals. The ocean was very powerful and I never strayed out very far. I really enjoyed the sensation of the undertow pulling me out and the waves crashing me back into the shore. My underpants didn't appreciate this so much as they became filled with sand--OUCH! After a swim I was tired and ready to go to bed. I had an appointment early the next morning with my destiny--the volcano--and wanted to be well-rested.