This is it - part 2: mellow-turtle-bubbles-bliss
By Lonneke — April 09, 2016 09:12 am
Blond little hairs on tanned skin, sand in ears and hairline, glowing eyes, bare-chested boys...I'd like to capture this dream we're living inside a big colorful bubble. Just like the ones we made on our farewell-party, which was also a day to cherish. Just like the ones we blew on the beach and in our garden, to add to this feeling of joy and to share it with the people of our wonderful Payung Guesthouse, our home for well over a month.
Coming to Malaysia without any expectations, it's been the most tranquil and easy-going surprise yet. Here in Cherating we experience a lot of firsts: real conversations about politics, marriage, religion, priorities in life, raising children, and so on, with Sham, one of the three lovely men here at Payung Guesthouse. Our boys play with the local children, something they were too shy to do for all these other months. We celebrated our first birthday since we left and thanks to Sham (for helping me find an awesome Lego Star Wars package and hiding it under his bed and buying a birthday cake with me) and Jas, the owner, who threw a barbecue, our middle son felt really special and treasured. We ended up whipping up a potatoe-salad and everyone was involved in the preparations, decorating the garden with balloons, lighting the barbecue and setting everything up. Many more people were invited and practically every child on the block came to celebrate with us.
Except for admiring the fireflies there's really nothing to do here, and not being able to rent a scooter, you'd think we'd feel stuck, or itchy, but somehow we don't. Only when the weather changes in the night (almost never), our breakfast place will all of a sudden be filled up with excited local surfers from neighbouring areas, 'cause then the breaks are good for making strong waves.
Lucky for us, starting april, the sea turtles come to the beach each night to lay their eggs, and witnessing this force of nature was a real privilege. Jamal, the manager, has contacts with the rangers that patrol the beach, so he got a call when a magnificent, big green sea turtle had come ashore and started digging a deep hole. When she started laying her eggs we could approach and we could count the 93 small, round, shiny eggs that she popped into the ditch. Afterwards, she filled up the hole with her hind-legs and was rather exhausted from her accomplishments. She was a young one, between 25 and 30 years old, the older ones lay around 150 eggs or even more. We waited patiently for her to start making her way back into the South China Sea, all bidding her farewell, complimenting her on a job well done.
When I take a walk on the beach, by the waterline, I realize this is what my life is like now: calmly strolling, with so much fresh, salty air to breath into my whole being, sometimes looking down at all the details of the sand and shells, just like the small pieces inside of me, and sometimes looking ahead, at the vast horizon filled with pretty trees and meandering coastline and glistening water, just like the space inside of me. The child accompanying me will run around me, skipping and stopping to pick something up and he is all the opportunities that life offers. Sometimes I go and frolic along with him, engaging in the joy, sometimes I'll trip over him and sometimes I'll just watch him and smile because he's having such a good time. All are good, seizing chances as well as taking a step back and simply enjoying the view. Imagine having to walk your life through a busy city, you wouldn't be able to look at the ground and reflect and you wouldn't be able to stare into the distance, seeing the bigger picture - you'd have to be alert at incoming traffic and people, spending all your time and energy manoeuvring through them.
Laying in the impossibly warm water, the oldest son and I spontaneously made up an ode to our guesthouse, to the tune of the song The Hanging Tree:
Payung, Payung, come into the sea
The water is warm, it's thirty nine degrees,
Great things will happen on the beach of Cherating
When after sundown lights come flying in
Payung, Payung, come into the sea
The water is warm, it's forty two degrees
Great things will happen on the beach of Cherating
When after sundown turtles come birthing
