It’s a rare and interesting experience to have a former ambassador as a captive audience over lunch. He casually leans into in-depth conversation about the progression of post-tsunami Aceh the way some of my friends lean into a description of which bar they want to go to this weekend.

Several of us are hoping to make a quick trip up to Aceh while we’re here, and since he’s going, we hoped to tag along in some out-of-the-way fashion. I didn’t mean to steal the conversation- but we got an hour-long response which answered more questions than I think any of us were angling to ask. It was great for me! Ha ha.

After lunch, I hopped on my fearsome 100cc, 35 horsepower steed… my Honda Supra ‘sepeda motor’ (motorized bicycle)- and dashed down to the beach in the blink of an hour.

Our time here in Yogya is drawing short,, and visiting the beach here is one of those things I didn’t want to let slip away from me. It sucks that I waited this long, and didn’t go to see Parangtritis beach before the tsunami 2 weeks ago. Here’s what it looks like now…