Adventures of Singapore Sue: Bali Hai-jinks!!

Hi All!

Sorry that it has been a dreadful amount of time since I last blogged, those of you who are still reading. Several things have transpired that made blogging difficult.

#1-I AM DONE WITH LAW SCHOOL! I had to write four exams in a week, which was….urgh. The less said about that, the better. I became nocturnal, pulling more all-nighters than I care to recall. But, it’s done. It’s all done. Provided I pass all my exams, which seems likely, my formal education is over. And that feels…good. I am proud of course, but mostly eternally grateful. Grateful for the opportunity, grateful for the people who made it easier, grateful that I survived.

Law school was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Not only academically, but emotionally too. I was pushed, and I didn’t like it very much. Many of the walls I had to take down were ones I’d built myself, but that didn’t make it any easier. I was overextended, I was pulled in too many directions, I was tested, taxed, pummeled, ridiculed, and beaten. But not defeated. I came through it, bloodied but intact, and for that I am grateful. Now that it’s over, I have some perspective and see what a great gift I’ve been given, what an opportunity. I tried to take advantage of it, I really tried. I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do, and my grades were not as good as they could have been, but God, I gave it my all. That feeling, of knowing you’ve well and truly given it all you had, is a good one. I’m exhausted but at peace.

Other than that, my parents were here and we hung out a lot (so no blogging), and my laptop has been 41 flavors of broken. Long story short, it’s fixed-for now. I think I need a new one but I am trying mightily not to buy one, since I won’t need one going forward and just have to tough it through the summer. Anyway, here I am. I am back. And ready to blog my face off because starting tomorrow, I am traveling straight up until I come home to USA!

Tioman. Wow, that was a long time ago. But, I will try to summon up the memories. Perhaps putting on the soundtrack of “South Pacific” will help. Why? Because TIOMAN ISLAND is where the movie SOUTH PACIFIC was filmed! Yes, the 1958 gem starring Mitzi Gaynor. As in, The Movie I Watched 600 Times Before Age Five. So, when my friend Paige offered a weekend jaunt out to Tioman, I said YES enthusiastically.

Paige, Verity and I took a bus from here to Meursing, a small, quaint port town in Malaysia, then a ferry to Tioman. When we were on the ferry, the pristine day was shattered by rain. Hard rain. Rain that made the waves and our moods choppy. Tioman, virtually unspoiled, has two things to do-swimming and surfing (and surfing is only on one coast). Neither were going to happen in this rain. Foolishly we believed that the rain would stop. However, a quick glance outside revealed that this was pouring-for-days weather. But what could we do? We were already several hours into the trip, and our return ferry was not for two days. So, when the ferry docked, we three intrepid travelers grimly shouldered our backpacks and made a break for it.

Five seconds into our dash to the dock, it was apparent we had made a huge mistake. This mistake was exacerbated as we trekked from hostel to hostel and learned that each was booked up (there is no internet on Tioman, so no reservations either. We decided to try our luck. It seemed our luck had run out). Within fifteen minutes, we were soaked. Like wet to the bone, everything in my backpack needs wrung out, I will never be dry again soaked. And we had nowhere to go. We soldiered on, determined to find a hostel somewhere along the coast where we could sleep (or at least dry out). As we neared the end of the beach, I bravely fought tears. Here we were, literally stranded in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain. I have never been anywhere in the world where I felt so desolately alone, with the exception of maybe the Panamanian rainforest. It was that bad.

A pickup truck pulled up, and a local girl rolled down her window. She told us to hop in the back and that she would take us to a hostel in Juara, on the other side of the island. Since we had seen every single hostel on this side, we jumped in. Zura turned out to be an angel, delivering us directly to a cheap, clean hostel. She promised to come pick us up on Sunday and take us back to the ferry. Dripping and weary, we arrived at the surf shack Juara.

It wasn’t much to look at, but I blamed that on the rain. It turned out, it wasn’t much to look at. What it was, however, was directly on the beach. It was a few cold-water (but it had running water, which was a plus) one room shacks on one of the most gorgeous coastlines I’ve ever seen. Even in the rain, it was just lovely. So unspoiled and pretty-just like a postcard. I know that my photos never do things justice, but these are REALLY bad, even for me. We stayed for two days: caroused, read, gossiped, swam (a little), drank, and enjoyed the area. We were cooped up inside the shack (jokingly called a ‘chalet’) for hours at a time, and we all really bonded as a result. It was just a good time.

One morning, Paige and I got up to see the sunrise. It had miraculously stopped raining, and for a few moments, the sky was pink. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to spoil the moment. There I was: 25, newly engaged, and sitting cross-legged and barefoot in the sand, gazing in wonderment at the rosy dawn. It was very, very special. One of those moments you go back to when things are just a bit too hectic and you can’t hear yourself think. This semester has had many of those moments, and for that, among many other things, I am grateful.