A TRIBUTE ... for many

                      www.indonesia-tourism.com/west-java/pangandaran.html



                      I have recently been informed that most of the people I had met in the beautiful town of Pangandaran are dead!!

          One lady I did meet survived!

          She is a foreign lady that has a jungle style backpackers hotel just outside of town.  Though I say she survived,  she had multiple bones broken in her body.  Probably,  her pet fruit bat that hung outside her office died too!!

          Not much survived that day along the southern coast of Java in the deluge that happened unsuspectingly to all along the coast.  And to all the people that were consumed in other parts of the Indian Ocean,  so many kilometers away!!

          Tsunamis certainly are destructive!!

        
          My friend and I had been backpacking through Indonesia.  We started in Singapore and made our way through the amazing island of Sumatra down to the more cosmopolitan island of Java.

          Then one day we arrived at Pangandaran.  This small town on the coast with coconut tree lined beaches,  the small sanctuary of land that juts out to sea that was home to many cheeky monkeys,  the friendly smiling locals,  the delicious restaurants that lay near the beach, the very friendly Indonesian man that made name bands by hand .... the list is endless.  It was here at Pangandaran that we decided to take a rest from travelling for a while and relax in this relaxed town.

          We splurged and rented a cottage type bungalow just meters from the beach.  I certainly remember the bathroom because it was half open air and in the tropical atmosphere it was ... well,  a great place to take a shower!!  :))

          We met many people while staying in Pangandaran.  We met lots of locals.  We met Indonesians that were day trippers from Yogyakarta.  We met fellow travellers.  Never,  from all the people we met in the tranquil town of Pangandaran was there one complaint.  It was possible to hear a complaint about other parts of Indonesia,  but Pangandaran was everybody's getaway.  It was a place to unwind,  a place to get to know someone with whom there was no attachment,  a place of isolation,  or peace .... to feel you had got away.


                                    SUDDENLY,


                                    OUTRAGEOUSLY,


                                    CATASTROPHICALLY,

      
      .... with defenses down, .... but with no need to have any ....


                        .... the might of Mother Nature swept her hand across this peaceful and beautiful and friendly part of our world ....


                                             .... and closed so many eyes!!