Thursday, March 24, 2016

24 MARCH: Mertasari sunrise










23 MARCH: Bungkulan beauty on Mertasari beach greets the dawn







22 MARCH: Sunrise at Mertasari 886









21 MARCH: Monday Mornings at Mertasari are always quiet, after the deluge of Sunday beach-combers . This morning the pondok merana, my local coffee shop, is closed and i have ended up at Siska's Siomay stall with pak basir and the Banyuwangi tradesmen from the spa project rising illicitly on the sandbar . Its a fresh morning and there is a whiff of the surreal in the air. Schools of teri fish are splashing in the rising tide ; an unusual spanish couple arrives and orders a young coconut in perfect Indonesian. Pak Basir nibbles on fried yam. Siska screams "omaygod" a lot










18 MARCH: Heavenly golden dawn at Mertasari after a steamy night at Pura Maospahit, Singgi watching the famous black barong put a boat-load of patih into trance.

At the pondok merana the chorus of security chubs arrive, like heavily sedated, well-fed dawn raiders , and squat.
Four students chat merrily on the limestone bank, admiring the spa complex lumbung rising like giant shaggy mushrooms on the near shore.
Mega-spunk Kadek jogs past with four labradors, but refuses to be photographed