Funny travel story: The island without the sea

Bali is one of the most attractive islands in the world, especially if the airline tickets are down 40 percent in the middle of the tourist season. Bali is an exotic, adventurous and romantic place with a special energy that radiates from the people, fruits, and the ocean. Such is Bali that it is a perfect place to go for your wedding or honeymoon. We went to Bali with the kids.

We discovered the most beautiful beach in Nusa Dui and rented a place in front of a luxurious resort where you get a lounger that looks like a comfortable double bed.

This luxurious bed in the shade of the palm tree was free, but guests who enjoy such comforts are expected to spend money on the drinks instead. So four of us drank together from one young coconut. We asked them kindly to bring us 4 straws.

Nusa Dui beach

Along with Aura and Pia’s sipping, we could hear the murmur of the ocean. In the shade of the coconut palm, we put on our swimsuits to throw ourselves into the big ocean hug as soon as possible, and for the first time in Bali.

That longing to blend with the ocean was suddenly interrupted by Pia’s unbearable need for a toilet. I took the kids to the luxury toilet in the resort. We did what we had to do and quickly came back on the beach.

There was a great surprise for us there. As if we were not there for hundreds of years, as if we had been to the toilet for centuries as if we had gone to another world. We were only gone for five or six minutes to the toilet. Actually, it was the same beach, the same comfortable deck chair, the same coconut with four-straws, the same coconut palm and the same husband. Everything was there, but the ocean was gone. And without the ocean, the beach is no longer a beach. And Bali without the ocean is no longer an island. Everything changed after coming back from the toilet. One would have thought something supernatural and inexplicable happened.

“Where’s the sea, Mom?” my three-year-old daughter Pia asked. For a few moments, I thoughtfully looked into the ocean that had gone away. “Pia, honey, while we were in the toilet, there was an ‘oscillation’. That is, how to say, the sea level withdrew.” “Where should I swim when all the sea is gone?” she started to cry. Aura, a year older than her sister, had more of an understanding of this natural phenomena. “The sand was drinking the sea. The sand was thirsty and he drank the sea,” as she offered a mythical explanation to the inconsolable Pia.

We have heard that the waves in Bali are sometimes two meters tall, but had no clue that the ocean could disappear. With ocean nostalgia in our hearts, we walked to the place where once, until we went to the toilet, the ocean was. Now there were only rocks and grass through which some creatures like snakes or worms were crawling. “Cheer up, people!” said a waiter dressed in white and sounding like an angel. “It is an extremely big ebb tide which is normal in Bali.” He also promised that tomorrow the ocean will come back.

While waiting for a miracle to come, we found comfort in the pool. Each beach club has a pool that has proven to be much more reliable because if the ocean is able to go away, at least the water in the pool is always there. In spite of all the explanations, Pia found this ocean-disappearing case not closed.

She continued to wonder, “Why did the sea go away and when will it come back?” “Pia, tomorrow it will come back. You’ll see, I promise!” I dared to promise something bigger than myself.

Now I can proudly say that I kept my promise. The ocean returned more powerful than yesterday, and this time we decided to be wiser and catch the tide while it lasted. We enjoyed the embrace of the vibrating ocean. We did not even go to the toilet.

If you didn’t get enough of laughing, you might try to read other funny stories.