Watch out for those waves...

This past Sunday Alo and I went to Sepa Island, part of the Thousand Islands of Indonesia.  We took a cab from our apartment to the marina which takes about 20 minutes and then hopped on a boat which takes about an hour and a half to get there. It was a windy day, and I was just getting over some Indonesian sickness... so to say the least - it was quite the ride.  We rode in the very front of the boat so by the time we arrived we looked like we had already snuck in a quick dip with our clothes and all! 

The Thousand Islands were beautiful.  They are made up of 105 islands stretching 45 kilometers north into the Java Sea.  Development is allowed on 37 of the islands, some are uninhabited, and some are owned by wealthy Jakartans (need to make friends with one of them to get on their island!).

We hung out on the beach all day with a couple of Alo's friends who came along with us.  We didn't see too many fish right off the beach but it was still great to swim and relax in the water.  The area is so small it only takes about 20 minutes to walk around the entire island.  Alo and John saw the Komodo dragons that live on the island but unfortunately they scurried away when I was near and I only heard one rustling in the bushes.  Komodo dragons are the largest living species of lizards and can grow to be as long as 9.8 feet - yikes!  Other than the sun, sand, blue water, and Komodos, there isn't too much on the island.  There is a resort with cute little huts but unless you are looking for the bare minimum in accommodations, you may just want to do a day trip like we did.  There is one restaurant which we ate at for lunch and they served basic Indonesian food such as Mie Goreng (very similar to Lo Mein) and rice of course. Everyone here LOVES rice.  Rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. ha!

Our boat departed around 3pm and the winds were picking up and things didn't look so pleasant for the ride back.  We took a different route home meaning a longer trip.  To help give you a mental picture of our trip home... if you have ever watched that show on Discovery called Deadliest Catch and seen how enormous the waves are and how it almost looks like they are going to take over the boat...that's what it felt like. I love the water and rarely get scared but I was slightly nervous. Even at one point the crew made Alo and some of the other guys in our group sit on the left side of the boat to help even things out. They were soaked! It made for a good laugh though! And I surely won't forget my first visit to the Thousand Islands!

As you can see in the picture below, Alo and Steve are drenched - luckily I scored a middle seat :) There was a nice lady from Jakarta sitting beside me with her little 3 year old girl on her lap (she is trying to shield her from the water with a towel and life jacket). I think the little girl was the least scared!

I told Alo he really has to stop running around in his speedo :)