There Will Always be a Way

Nothing felt much better than setting a new goal,
And slowly fulfilling it in such short time.

After my trip to Harapan, I knew I’d go for more underwater exploration. And so I started to arrange something else, for another long weekend that my office calendar said it’d be on Monday June 1st. Oh yes! Another 3-days off. I could go somewhere further this time. So one thing lead to another, and I was this close to actually ride a train to Semarang where my cousin lives, then together with him and my two brothers, off we go to

Karimun Jawa.

But it wasn't as easy as how I stated it just now. Fvck thing was, my stupid lingerie calendar tricked me –yeah maybe because it contains half naked women that’s why I’m distracted but I’m telling the truth here, it’s the calendar’s fault. The day off was not on June 1st. It’s June 2nd, on Tuesday. I couldn’t do the trip—I couldn’t take any day off, remember?

All the plans crumbled before me.
But God exists and His way will always be there.

There’s this WhatsApp group I joined –just joined, but totally not being active at all– and one day, there’s this guy inside the group –in which through my observation, he’s also a passive member– out of the blue inviting everybody to join a shared-cost trip.

Bound for Pahawang, Lampung.

Shit, I said to myself.

Pahawang’s like, a new entry to my local-bucket list that I just added on April 23rd 2015 –yes, I remember that date because it was the day I added tons of local destinations to my bucket list. Oh, and guess what, his plan was just to go from Friday, to Sunday.

Shit, that’s what filled my pants after I read his plan.

Everything just fits me. The fact that I didn’t want to waste the excitement that already grew because of Karimun Jawa, the fact that I needed a ‘revenge’ of my canceled plan, the fact that this trip wouldn’t cost me any day off and the fact that Pahawang’s one of the places I was initially planning to visit, THERE’S NOTHING IN THIS WORLD CAN STOP ME FROM GOING WITH HIM.

So last Friday, right after work, I went straight to Slipi with my Reebok slingbag, met these new inspiring people and went to Merak by bus. Oh yea, we’re crossing the strait using Ferry. And it was like in the middle of the night, I left to Sumatra and slept on the car parking lot with dirty wheels near my head. But that’s not even close to the finish line. Arriving in Lampung, we still needed to ride for 3 hours to Ketapang Harbour where the boat to Pahawang was waiting for us.

It was a crazy 12 hours. I hadn’t slept well yet, and the thick sweater –who the hell used thick sweater to the beach!? – I wore to the office was still sticking to my body. But I didn’t care, really. Because I knew what was waiting for me across the sea, was something that’d take my breath away.

And it did.
Pahawang was… Shit.

I don’t think I need to describe how I felt. Honestly, I’m tired of speaking all flowery about each snorkeling trip I did—it felt like I always write the same thing over and over again, because all those water I dipped in were, INCREDIBLE! Well my point is, the picture I browsed from Google successfully made me to add Pahawang inside my bucket list. Now I’m partly sure that those pics of mine will do the same to you.

But one thing I’d want to say is, that I knew there would always be a way to get me down lower than just sea surface. The beauty of Pahawang underwater made me brave enough to do freediving. Yes, I’m taking this snorkeling interest of mine to a whole new level: below water level. Okay not here, I’m going to tell it further on the next post.

Now if you notice, somehow it’s my nature to promise my reader that I’d write further about certain thing on the next post but—see, even my promise to tell more about the boo-hoo participants of Harapan never showed up.

Ugh, this euphoria…

I don't even know what I'm exactly pointing out in this post.
About Pahawang? My complicated travel plans?
Half-naked women on my calendar?

Well whatever it is, now I know that
Literally nothing can stop me from trying to
Get to know my own country