Ron, the proprietor of the expat-haven we had been staying at for the first 10 nights of my trip, kept telling us that we absolutely had to visit a town called Serwana, approximately an hour and a half east of Pelabuhan Ratu. He told us to ask for "Sir City Leader" (in Indonesian of course, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the word for "city leader" is) and said that we could undoubtedly stay with him. We were promised white sand beaches, crystal clear waters and kamikaze waves, which I was all about because it meant I would have some company on the beach.
So, we loaded up in a minibus not disimilar to this one
and made our way to Serwana. Now, we were told that it was quite primitive, but I would say that was being generous. "Sir City Leader" was the city leader probably because he was the patriarch of the only family around for miles. Ok, ok, that's an exaggeration, but it was quite small. Sir City Leader was by profession a guitar maker, so all of his sons and grandsons were excellent musicians and we spent a few nights drinking Indonesian whiskey and sweet red wine (tasted like skittles) while being forced to sing awkwardly along. Highlights include several rousing renditions of "My heart will go on" and a young-at-heart Australian teaching us all of the lyrics to "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon.
After a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes and sweet tea we would cross this bridge
and make our way through goat herds and coconut farms to the beach! Indeed the sand was white, the water was clear and, as an added bonus, there were sea shells everywhere!
This beach also happened to be my one of my favorites because the guys couldn't surf, and they are prone to get a little stir crazy which leads to things like extreme yoga
While on the beach we ran into the Australian's much much younger Indonesian wife (who, for me had the best line of the entire trip. while we were singing "my heart will go on" she screamed to her husband "Honey! All the people's faces, men and women, are sama sama" by which I can only imagine meant "the same") who invited us to grill with her and a few of her friends. They grabbed some fish out of the tide pools, fashioned some skewers out of palm fronds and built a fire with dried up coconuts.
We proceeded to eat the fish using a banana leaf as our plates and man, I have got to tell you, it was the bomb.
It may not shock any of you to say that any food-related memory is likely to rank high on my list of favorite memories. Hence this one coming first.
