Trip to Anyer

I have started to notice a trend while in living in Jakarta. When it comes to the weekend, you try your hardest to get out and away from your life in this city. While it all may seem new and exciting to me, for those who have lived here long enough know you need to escape on the weekends. Even though the mentality here is laid back and easy going, the hustle of city life can wear away at the soul. It takes a weekend of exploring Java to refresh my sense of Indonesia and keep my spirits high throughout the week.

We took a trip out to Anyer this last weekend. This is a coastal town out in West Java. Not knowing what to expect as usual, it has become my mentality to just let go of all expectations and reservations and simply live life in the present. I have found this to be a pretty rewarding mind frame in adapting to life in such a different country. Life here is radically different than expected, yet there are universal truths that seem to keep the whole world ticking. My trip to Anyer opened up my eyes to this perspective.

Evan, Josue, Annie, Z (pronounced Zet) and I left at the crack of dawn on Saturday. You have to learn to adjust to avoiding traffic here in Jakarta. If it's even close to traffic time here, forget about whatever it is you have to do. We arrived in Anyer a little past noon and there is only one word to describe this place:remote. There is no way that me or Evan could have found this place without having Indonesian friends. My travels in Jakarta are not for the tourist type. We are going elbow deep here my friends...why hold back now?

When I originally thought about a trip to Anyer, I was thinking I would spend my days chilling on a beach with a beer in hand watching the waves roll in and out. I could not be more blown away by this place. Turquoise water that is crystal clear, coral reef surrounding the ocean front, and of course the palm trees! What I didn't expect was the banana boat ride. Lets take all the dudes (minus Annie cause she's just a wee bit pregnant- 8 months) and strap them on the back of a huge banana raft behind a speed boat, and then drag them around the ocean tides. Better yet, lets pay the guys some extra cash to go faster and dump us off. Thing was like a jet-ski tube ride on crack. Lots of fun...

When we jumped off the banana boat is when this whole experience started to turn surreal. I was treated to a coconut. Now we have all had coconut in the States. It's a shaved sugary sweet artificial blend of white Styrofoam. This folks is the real thing. That's right...local with a machete hacking away at the husk...cracking it open...insert straw...enjoy. The water inside this thing is amazing. It is so refreshing and has the slightest hing of real coconut flavor. You then eat the meat of the nut with a spoon made from the husk that the local makes. It's magical. This is the beauty of Indonesia. There is something magical about something so simple. This will become a common theme among my blogs I believe...finding the beauty in simplicity.


We started walking towards the main beach at Anyer. Since Annie is about to pop we relaxed underneath some of those grass hut gazebos that you can only see in postcards of the South Pacific. The beauty on those postcards is no joke. This country is gorgeous if you can look at it in a new perspective. If you learn to embrace the unknown and case aside all fear this is a luxurious place. Learn to live outside your comfort zone and the world is your oyster; especially in this country.


I thought I was going to surf at the main beach. As we walk down closer and closer along the main beach, we start to notice the clouds start to darken. Rain here happens out of nowhere, and these rain storms are like monsoons. As we hit the main beach Josue and Annie decide to take off just looking at the freakish storm about to developEvan, Zet and I catch a group of kids start to stare at us (nothing new here folks.) We see that one of them is carrying a soccer ball. You know what the means: game on! What went from a surfing trip in my mind became one of the best experiences of my life. Imagine a pickup soccer game played on the beach with twenty local kids, in and out of the waves, in the middle of a insane monsoon. What a great time! Maybe it was playing soccer again, maybe it was the kids smiling as two adult white guys are schooled by an eight year old on the field, maybe it was the rainstorm flooding the sand, and maybe it was the lightning cracking the skies overhead, but something clicked inside me. Its that old familiar feeling I haven't felt in a long time: love.

Where else in the world can you say hello to complete strangers without them looking at you like you are going to kidnap their child? Where else can a smile at complete strangers break down the barriers of two radically different worlds? Where else will complete strangers embrace you as family? Bob Marley described it as "One Love." I am starting to understand his lyrics more and more. Funny how we learn by doing.

You are probably wondering why I decided to call my blog "A Bule's Eye." Well for two reasons. Bule in Indonesia is a term for white people who come to this country. It literally means "great white buffalo." You can kind of get the picture of an Indo's perspective for most expats. No real need for explanation here, but realize most expats live up to this nickname. It's sad but true. Expats here seem to push their way around, and not adapt to life here. I am trying my best not to be a typical Bule. Yet at the same time, no matter how hard I try to adopt an Indonesian lifestyle, I will always view this country through my own perspective. So therefore I will try to become that bule, maybe the same kind of buffalo Native Americans used to believe in. Maybe you got the bulls-eye reference too?