Indonesia
The encounter I made thanks to losing my sunglasses
by Kota Ishihara
I was supposed to go surfing this morning, but my roommate started throwing up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t sleep. So I woke up at 9:00 a.m. I told Yogi I was sorry and decided to go to the Tarlott Temple today. It is a Hindu temple located a little higher up.
I decided to go there and have breakfast first. I went to a local Indonesian restaurant nearby and ordered chicken. It was very, very delicious. After eating that, I had my computer in one hand and felt very heavy.
I was going to meet a friend I met online at the temple today, so I thought I would work at a nearby cafe until then, but the computer still felt very heavy, so I decided to go back to the hostel and leave the computer there.
After that, I went to an Indonesian restaurant for breakfast.
Friend from Norway in the same room
When I came back to my room, my roommate was sitting on my bed, talking with her friend on the first floor of my bed. She said, “Sorry,” and I said, “No problem.
Then, as I was packing my bags, she said, “Sorry, but where are you from?” This really made me happy. I am an introvert, and I tend to be introverted around people who are more diplomatic, so I was really happy about this corageous first move haha.
After that, she on the first floor apologized to me for vomiting a lot last night, and I told her it was okay. Then I gave her some stomach medicine.
The girls live in Norway, and apparently they are new to Indonesia, so they are not used to it yet. So they only eat vegan food, but somehow something hit them and they got a stomach ache. I really felt sorry for her.
The conversation turned to sushi and Japan
One of the two Norwegians, Alexandra, seems to be half Cambodian and half French and speaks French and Cambodian. That was really interesting. They came to Bali to do “yoga,” which was really amazing.
I thought that 200 hours is quite a lot of time. Of course, there is a rule that says you need 10,000 hours to master something, but 200 hours is still a lot of time.
They were so calm, so different from the French people dancing outside. I could tell from the way they talked that they were in touch with themselves and had a good understanding of who they were.
We also talked about Norwegian food, and apparently sushi is very famous and Norwegians love sushi. I asked her about Norwegian food, but I couldn’t understand it at all just by imagining it in my head. At any rate, I thought it would be faster to go to Norway.
So we talked for probably half an hour. Alexandra had guessed that I am Japanese, and she was right, which I thought was great. I was very nervous the whole time, but it was nice to be able to relax and talk.
It was the first time in my life that I had talked to Norwegians, so I was very nervous. But I don’t think I needed to be that nervous because we are all human beings.
Alexandra is a pool lifesaver and works in a kindergarten. Andrea is a waitress. But I heard that the pay is very good and she is on her day off now. So they’re from Norway. Wow, I thought, that’s nice.
And when I told her that I had lost my glasses surfing and couldn’t see her face clearly, she came toward me and said, “You can see now, right?” haha. She also told me that she puts coconut oil in her hair. I also love coconut oil, so I felt the same way.
Besides, when you travel alone, you discover a new side of yourself again, “Oh, there’s this side of me,” and you discover yourself when you are involved with many different people. I also shared that it was fun. They could relate and were really happy. Andrea also said, “When you are on an adventure, every place feels like your home, and you start to call “home” to hostels and hotels.
So we spent a lot of time talking, and then Alexandra went away. And Andrea was still not feeling well, so she went to bed. Andrea asked me about my Instagram and we decided to exchange it together. I thought, “These girls are so brave”. But still, I was really happy. I was so happy to make friends with people from Norway, and to make friends with people like these girls, who are so calm and in touch with themselves.
To Tarlott Temple
After that, I started walking toward the Tarlott Temple. Apparently it is about 8 kilometers, so I thought I would use my bike if I got tired. First I walked up, then turned left. But I got tired after about 2.6 kilometers, so I called for a motorcycle and used it.
The Tarlotto Temple was amazingly big and the entrance fee was 600 yen. The first thing I saw when I entered there was a souvenir shop. There were so many souvenirs. I bought a bracelet as a gift for my family. Then, I went to the Tarlott Temple.
It was a shrine in the rocks across the sea, which is only accessible at low tide. Very interesting. Before I went there, I had an avocado juice and water at a nearby cafe with a nice view, and read a book for about 2 hours.
But the straight back of the chair made me feel really uncomfortable. I didn’t feel good. So after reading the book, I decided to pay the bill and buy some souvenirs.
I bought a notebook made of banana leaves. It cost 500 yen. I was torn. I thought it was not very useful and looked very weak. However, I thought it would be a great souvenir to remember my trip to Bali, so I decided to buy it.
Then I looked at the ocean and saw that many people were heading to the temple, so I decided to go there too.
When I went there, I found that I had to take off my shoes and there were many people waiting for me, so I decided not to go there and just watch.
My head hurts somehow. I’m probably a little under the weather today, probably from lack of sleep and fatigue. It can’t be helped.
So after that, I decided to have dinner. At a restaurant on the temple grounds.
Today, there was an event at the Tarut Temple, where Indonesian musical instruments were played and dancers were dancing. There were many people and it was very crowded.
I’m going home on my bike
The LTE was so bad that I couldn’t even book the bike without using the store’s wi-fi. I booked the bike and immediately ran to the pickup point. And I made it back to the hostel in one piece.
I went to my favorite Warung Java and had dinner for the night. I love this moment.
When I return to the hostel, I hope I can go to a vegan restaurant with the Norwegian girls next time. I would like to know more about Norway and their people. I was thinking about that.
After returning home, I took a shower and headed to the beach right away.
I took a shower as soon as I got home. I sweated a lot today, so I took a shower right away and headed to the beach right away.
Walking in the ocean and doing some self reflection.
Walking in the ocean, I think about myself. Facing myself. I think such time is very important. I listened to the music of The beach boys and Lana del lay while I walked along the beach. It was a wonderful and enjoyable time for me. The ocean is the time that makes me feel the nature!
Encounters I’ve had thanks to the loss of my glasses
Something really strange happened. I still can’t believe it. The encounter I was able to make thanks to dropping my glasses while surfing. It was truly unbelievable.
Back to the meeting with Alexandra and Andrea. We were staying in the same hostel room and we started talking a little. I still didn’t have a clear picture of Andrea’s face at that time, because I had dropped my glasses and my eyesight is very bad. So I didn’t remember Andrea’s face clearly. All I could tell was that she was Norwegian, liked coconut oil, and had blonde hair.
After I finished surfing, I came home to the hostel and the room was dark, so I thought maybe everyone was already sleeping, but apparently that was not the case. I thought so and was outside playing with my phone when Alexandra and another blonde-haired girl came back to the hostel. So I was 150% sure she is Andrea.
I was hoping the girls would write me a message since I had just met them. One funny thing was that the girls were speaking English. I wondered why they weren’t speaking Norwegian. Alexsandra was showing her a picture that Alexandra had drawn and they were talking.
I thought to myself, if they go to bed, I won’t have time, and I don’t know when they will leave. So I thought, “Now is my only chance.” So, I gathered my courage and asked them if they would write a message in my memory notebook.
They were very surprised and praised my idea. While Alexandra was writing me a letter, I was talking to a blonde girl. She really like the idea of leaving messages from different people in the notebook! We talked about my work and many other things.
After Alexandra finished writing the letter, she handed it to me. I was really happy and enjoyed looking at her letter. She wrote so colorfully and I thought it was very creative.
Then I asked the blonde girl (I really thought it was Andrea) to do the same as a matter of course. Then, of course, I asked her to write in Norwegian, since she is Norwegian. Then, to my surprise, she said she is French and couldn’t write in Norwegian. What does that mean? I was a little confused.
Besides, I knew Andrea had a bad stomach, so I asked her if her stomach was feeling better.
She said she had been in bed for two days and couldn’t do anything, but she was feeling much better now! “Oh, what do you mean? What? What do you mean?” I thought in my mind.
Putting that aside, she wrote to me in French. I tried to speak a little French and she told me I am very good! That made me very happy. So she wrote me a message, too. She wrote a lot of messages, and I was really happy. Really. Besides, the way she talks and speaks is so sociable and pleasant that I wondered if she is an ENFP.
We talked for about 10 minutes. I told her about my trip to Paris and how her family lives near Bordeaux, so I said, “Chocolatine, perhaps?” I asked her if she had ever call pain au chocolat as chocolatine. She seemed very surprised and said, “Yes, you know that? You know that?” She was really surprised. She said that people in the Bordeaux region call it chocolatine and 80% of the rest of the world calls it pain au chocolat. But I told her that chocolatine is prettier, and she said thanks for supporting me lol!
So it was really interesting that the French seem to be fighting a lot between the two. Then we also talked about Paris. She asked me, “Which do you like better, Paris or Toulouse?” I said I prefer Toulouse for the people and Paris for the food and romanticism. She also said that the people in Bordeaux are very friendly, but Paris is very cold. But there are many exhibitions, many events, and many museums, so she said it is very nice.
She said that she likes this hostel because the beds are very spacious and she loves it. She said something like that. But for sure, I think the beds in this hostel are huge, super big.
So she asked me to exchange Instagram at the end, and I was like, “what?” I thought.
I asked her this morning, why?
Then I finally found out that she was not Andrea, but the girl who left the hostel two days ago. I was soooo embarrassed. I never thought that would happen.
I took it for granted that she is Andrea, and we talked about vegan food, and when she tried to leave with her backpack, I said, why are you leaving now?
It was super funny🤣
So I was really sorry. Now I feel really embarrassed lol.
But I think the title will be “the encounter I made thanks to losing my sunglasses”. If I had known she was not Andrea, I might not have talked to her. I’m shy and have a hard time talking to strangers. But this time, God encouraged me to just talk to her normally. In exchange for the sunglasses, I felt that God had taught me a great lesson: it’s easy to make friends.
So thank you so much. It was a great day. So after she left the room, I checked with Alexandra. “She’s not Andrea?” I said.
So, apparently Andrea is sleeping there now.
I thought something was wrong. Becasue she is in a different room, yet there is a lot of stuff on her bed on the first floor. I wondered if there were still people in this room.
I thought, “Is this room still occupied?”
So, according to Alexandra, Andrea was sleeping and she was not Andrea, but Lena, the French girl. This is a really interesting story. Once again I thought the world is a big place.
Then we talked for about 30 minutes and I learned a lot about yoga. I heard that yoga is very good for mental and physical health, because it charges you with a lot of energy.
Yoga is also a very good workout because it helps you get rid of your mind. She told me these things. She also told me that she was interested in astrology, and that I am Aries and she is a Pisces. So I asked her if Pisces and Alexandra’s personalities actually matched. She also taught me Hindi astrology.
Apparently it has water, earth, fire, etc., and I am like water. She told me such things.
Time is really late, so we went to bed. Once again, there are sad and unexpected things. That’s life, I guess. I really think it was wonderful to have met these friends. Thank you so much.