Part #9 Dutungan w MaxBackers & the J(-M)ak farewell

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Part 9 – Dutungan with MaxBackers and the J(-M)ak farewell.

So i met the Makassar Backpackers, a group of young people who love backpacking around Indonesia, all from Makassar or villages surrounding, and few with English fluency. But this sounded like it was going to be fun! I hired a snorkel and went with Afdal out to the meeting point at 6am Saturday. We all met and there was one other foreigner a swiss/australian in his 50s. I tried my best to translate what the plan was, and with a little help from Afdal and some other i gathered we were going to dutungan island, it was about 3 hours drive from here, then a 30 minute boat, and we were "high chaking" the whole way..... huh? After lots of laughs they discovered that hitch hiking is pronounced differently from how they thought. So we split into groups (30 of us in total), and hit the highway. My group spent about 20 minutes and finally got a lift in a 4x4 3/4 of the way, and then we jumped in the back of a ute for the last part. This had my hitch-hiking partners in hysterics! They couldn't believe how many people driving past would try to pull along side us to snap photos, yell bule or mister, and wave. They titled me selebriti, the indonesian word for celebrity... not hard to see how they got that one. So my group arrived a lot earlier than others and we waited for 2 hours before everyone else finally made it. We took the short boat ride to the beautiful Dutungan Island. Clear water, tiny island, basic facilities, and lots of holidaying indonesians. Once settled in we started the get to know you games. The first was to go round in a circle and say your name and then a word (in indonesian) that describes you using the first letter of your name, example: Andrew, Ambitious (but indonesian version). So this was going to be tough, they let me slide with Donald the Daring, though trying to explain the word daring was VERY difficult. The highlight was definitely a very quiet shy kid sitting contemplating for a moment while everyone awaited his response........ Haitham....................HORNY! Haha it's good to know some words cross language barriers. So we spent the weeked much like this, with games, swimming and snorkelling, sunsets and walks around the island. It was nice, though it was clear that my indonesian needed a lot more work, though i had learnt a lot in a very small amount of time.

After 3 days more of the office, it was public holiday weekend, and I had been hoping for an excuse to come back and hang out with Jess before her posting was done. Additionally, some of her friends had been sneaking behind her back to try and organise an epic farewell party, and my participation was requested. So i arrived in Jak on Thursday evening had a chill night, and then got to work on Friday. Jess had made a big list of things to help her out with since she was running out of time and needed extra hands. So i cunningly combined her list with the secret party list, and went around Jak with Ashley, including a stop for Padang food in the backpacker street, and a stop at the duty free place. Went quickly from there to Ambassador where Ash and i had a moment of inspiration, and put in a special order for Jess' party. Then ended up at the Embassy Happy Hour, where after much enjoyment with a lot of the J-Town crew, we ended up at a house party with completely new identities.... Introducing: Russel as Ruff ruff, Ashley as Slay-Dog, Geoff as G-Funk, Clare as H-Town, And somehow i ended up with Squish.... After more merriment we all went home, but not before Ruff ruff's watch had been broken (and then to ensure it was truly broken it was thrown from the 30th floor apartment) and a gigantic McDonalds meal had been had.
The next day was Social House brekkie (only place i've found with proper coffee and full english) and then a quick run to Ambo mall to pick up party necessities, such as matching outfits for the guys including white ties and colourful sparkly caps, and some other fun bits. Then it was off to 3house where Jess would be meeting us. A huge group had been compiled of all of Jess' friends over her 3 years here, and it was a truly lovely party. After 3house the surprises really began. We had booked a Bus to take us from venue to venue for the evening and stocked it with some drinks to keep people busy. When Jess went off to the bathroom, we all raced downstairs and lined up in front of the bus entrance on either side of the "red carpet" that G-Funk had found in Ambo that day. We cheered her on as she danced her way through the crowd, and we all got on board. From there is was chocolate martinis, the giving of badges with embarrassing photos of Jess (the ones that Slay-Dog and I decided on in Ambo), Tree House for food that never came, Eastern Promises for some music and beers, attempting to move a parked car in the way of our bus...failing and instead lifting the corner of a warung stall over the bus, then x2 for some great great GREAT dancing. It was enjoyed thoroughly by all, and was talked about for weeks following. The next morning we all headed to brunch to laugh and recover with company.

Fun times!

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