Bule at the beach: the Official Pacitan Trip Recap

Selamat Pagi/Siang/Sore/Malam to my many devoted readers! I’m home from the beach and want to document my travels while the trip is still (somewhat) fresh in my mind. #Throwback to when I had a travel blog while in Berlin and would overshare every detail of every weekend trip around the continent. Those novice blogger days are over, (especially because I forgot to renew my Wordpress subscription last year, so literally every blog post is lost somewhere, unable to get retrieved unless I pay $50.00. A blogging travesty) but I want to share some fun moments from my time at the beach.

Who: Me and a couple of fellow East Java volunteers

What: a trip to the beach, as mentioned

When: Sunday until Thursday of last week

Where: Pacitan, East Java. Known for surfing and having an abnormal number of Australian tourists (this has been the main thing pointed out to me when I mention Pacitan to Indonesians). We were specifically at Ngiriboyo beach, by the village of Watukarung.

Why: Why not??

I was up sups early on Sunday morning to drive to my pick up location. We decided on hiring a driver down to Pacitan because getting there last time by bus (back in December) was a wee bit of a nightmare. We wanted to make the most of our time there, and Pacitan is far. It took us a little over seven hours to get there, including stops at volunteer’s and random host family relatives’ houses. Starting in Mojokerto, we scooped up volunteers one by one at the pick up spots, first in Nganjuk, then Ponorogo, then Pacitan, and we were on our way. One thing I truly love as a PCV, which I didn’t notice until writing this, is how much fun it is meeting other PCV’s host families. Our hf’s are truly so proud of their new kids and love meeting their friends. Too cute.

Since the Idul Fitri holiday hadn’t ended yet, the main beach where our Airbnb was located was still a little bit crowded on Sunday. We didn’t have to worry about crowds after that, though because the beaches cleared out the next day. We settled into the villa, which was right on the beach, walked around the beach, caught the sunset and had an amazing dinner at a warung, meters from where we were staying. Our breakfasts and dinners were included in the price of the house, so we were grateful to have some homemade Indonesian food that was delicious, and very, very, very spicy.

Day 2 was cool, fun and exciting! We had fried rice and coffee brought to us on the patio, then went for a boat ride down the river, which was incredibly scenic. Apparently it’s called the “green canyon”, which makes a lot of sense after sailing through it. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, or some other popular action movie that takes place in a lush jungle. It was very lush, if I could describe it in one word. After the boat ride, we walked to the neighboring beach in Watukarung, which was about 30 or so minutes from our house. When I say walk I should say traversed through the mouth of the river, up a cliff, through bushes, and across farmland, but it was very scenic and I felt adventurous and cool. We found a nice spot at the end of the beach, specifically so we could be away from other people, had some fresh pineapple, relaxed and chilled out. I cannot even go into how big the waves were there. HUGE! After lunch on the beach, we found a spot to relax at a beautiful resort and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon. We caught the sunset on our walk back too.

Day 3! Same deal as the day before, almost. More fried rice and coffee, no boat ride this time, a walk back to Watukarung, finding another beach which was essentially our own private one for the morning, grabbing lunch and hanging out at the resort some more. The waves were way too rough to get in and go boogie boarding or even swimming, so we enjoyed watching the waves from the comfort of the resort bean bag chairs. It was also a prime people-watching spot. One more walk back to the airbnb, another sunset to watch on the hill, and more good food cooked for us at the warung. Another amazing day.

On Wednesday a few people headed home, while others stayed an extra night at the aforementioned resort. This place was fancy-shmancy. The owners were also super cool and friendly, and I’m already dying to get back there. We chilled by the pool, grabbed lunch, chilled out some more, caught the sunset one more time, then had the best pizza I have ever had in all of Indonesia. I cannot stress this enough. Pizza in Indonesia is not good, it’s really not. Sometimes they use ketchup for sauce, like it’s that bad. I don’t know what these people did or how they did it, but we will be back in Watukarung if not for the beach, then for Sito’s pizza. I even had a dream about it the other night.

Other than that pizza, some things I really don’t want to forget from this trip are: meeting other volunteer’s host parents, the stars at night, the taste of an ice cold Bintang, the sunsets, watching boogie boarders from the beach, the importance of wearing good shoes when hiking, how good pineapple tastes with salt, how grateful I am for new Peace Corps friends, and how lucky I felt to call Indonesia home. Also the pizza.

The next day it was time to go home. It was an amazing four nights in paradise and I hope I get back down there soon. I’m grateful for the time spent with friends and for the needed time away from site. Now it’s back to school for a week, even though I won’t be teaching, then summer break starts. The two week countdown to Bali starts today! Have a great Sunday and happy father’s day to all the dads reading this (I think there’s approximately two). Sampai jumpa.