Welcome to Menjangan!

After dealing with immigration, yet again, and the rigorous anchoring process, the only thing on our minds was jumping in the water and snorkeling in the beautiful bay.  Satyavan, Yasmina and I took off the first chance we got.  The water was warm and crystal clear.  The beach was littered with sanddollars and the bay was full of life.  There were tons of colorful fish, a free swimming eel, several nudibrachs, and a cave full of mudskippers grazing on rock algae.  It felt incredible to finally have the freedom to swim around in clean waters AND set foot on land.  We were finally going to stay in one place for a while.

We found out that an earthquake occurred in Denpasar the night before, so immediately I was concerned about Mason and Stefanie, who were hopefully out of harms way near Ubud.  As we scanned the web searching for news and contacting our friends still in Denpasar we learned that there was little damage; and of course, Mason and Stefanie were unreachable.

Our first evening, we were invited to a welcome dinner at the Menjangan Tower.  The entire crew was going to attend the event, enticed with traditional food and entertainment.  More bad news quickly arrived via sat phone…The Earthquake off the coast of Japan.  Scientists were predicting the tsunami waves would hit us 6 hours after the earthquake.  When living near the ocean, the safest place is on a boat in the open sea; boats are designed to take the fluctuating tides and even large waves.  Unfortunately for us, we had just dropped an anchor and we were surrounded by land inside of a bay!  Our captain had to make the final decision, either weigh anchor and head for open ocean, or ride it out and hope for the best.  The entire crew was on high alert, ready to man our emergency positions at an instant’s notice.  We had constant reconnaissance from oil rigs further north and updates from the web.  The decision was to hope the predictions would be right, that Bali was sheltered from the wave by land obstacles.  The captain stayed on board the ship and the crew went ashore to higher ground in the Menjangan tower to enjoy the welcoming party.  Fortunately, the only effects felt in Bali was the sudden rise and fall in tide.

On the drive from the jetty to the tower, we came across the famous Menjangan deer, they have long necks and swim to the island of Menjangan for food in the spring, and the dwarf deer species.  We arrived at the tallest tower on Bali which rose into the darkness of the forest canopy.  Awaiting us inside were the VIPs staying at the resort for the weekend, Michael (from Singapore), the heads of a mining company, and a group working on Menjangan Resort publicity.  The evening was full of delicious Balinese food and desert (black rice pudding and Bali coffee), traditional music found only in that region of Bali (played on instruments made of Bamboo), traditional Hindu dancing, and good conversation.  Both men and women were adorned in beautiful costumes performing to the beat of the bamboo instruments; Their eyes were always wide open and fingers outstretched, intending to create fear in the observers.

Although the dancers did not frighten us, they managed to take our minds off the frightening events occurring in the ocean and around the world.  I hope everyone is safe where ever they may be.  Im sure Hawaii and even California is experiencing much worse effects from the tsunami, we are fortunate here in Bali to be protected.