Don’t worry, I’m not leaving the island yet! But I have to write about saying goodbye as this is what we do here every week.
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Our guests stay with us for one, two or sometimes three weeks. “Arrive as a Guest, Feel like a King, Leave as a Friend” is our slogan, and we really mean it. We are very close with our guests during their stay here, have all the meals together at one big table, sing and dance on various occasions, have a drink with them at the bar at night and usually get to know them quite well. With some, the connection remains a friendly, but distant one. But with many others, we develop a friendship and look forward to them coming back – which they  often do.

So saying goodbye is not always easy. Especially since our farewell ritual involves singing and dancing, giving it a very emotional touch. Our guests always leave on Fridays, and the first few Fridays I struggled with my emotions. As soon as I spotted a tear in one of our guests’ eyes, I started crying too. I didn’t want them to leave (and neither did they) and would have liked to get to know them better.

But the longer I stay here, the better I become at saying goodbye. I wouldn’t say I became less emotional, but I just got used to the ritual and the rhythm of resort life. It’s the way it goes – some guests come, and others leave. And where else would I have the chance of meeting so many interesting people? I can always decide for myself if I want to keep in touch with them or just wait for them to maybe come back one day.

But occasionally, someone grows on you more than others. That’s when saying goodbye hurts a little more. I think it also has to do with the fact that seeing them leave makes me think of my people back home. I’m not homesick as such, but I do miss my family and friends. Goodbyes remind me of that, as on normal days, I don’t have much time to think of home. My daily routine is quite busy, and the days just seem to fly here.

​We don’t have Billy Joel on the island, but music and guitars are just as much part of Pulau Pef as its natural wonders below and above the water. There’s not a day without music and singing here. Many of our employees are good guitar players and have a very nice voice. They are always making some kind of music – in front of their rooms after work or after dinner, on the transfer boat from Sorong to Pef and back, on staff trips or sometimes even on the dive boats. It seems like they were born with a guitar in their hands.

I was told guitars were among the first things they brought to the island when they started the construction of the resort. It was very important to them as almost every activity is accompanied by music or singing, be it during or after work.

Four times a week, our Pef band performs at our regular events, such as ‘Happy Sunset’ (cocktail and finger food at the bar) on Tuesdays, the goodbye party for departing guests on Thursdays and at our farewell and welcome ceremonies on Fridays and Saturdays. The band only features singers, guitar players and small drums, but when they are all together, it sounds beautiful.

I celebrated my birthday on Pulau Pef this week. What an experience! I knew it was probably going to be special as we often celebrate birthdays the 'Pef way'.
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It started with our usual staff meeting at 8am. I got a beautiful card signed by the entire management and senior staff with personal wishes, followed by a ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Selamat Ulang Tahun’ (Happy Birthday in Indonesian) performed by the entire team. When the meeting was over, each and everyone came to shake my hand or hug me to wish me a happy birthday, a ceremony we do for every birthday, even though many of our employees feel a little shy to touch, let alone hug a stranger. But nobody is forced to hug anyone, a handshake is fine too. Normally, the birthday girl/guy also gets a bucket of cold water poured on his/her head, which is supposed to bring good luck. But somehow, they spared me the wet part. I guess they thought I was lucky enough to still be alive at such an advanced age…

In the evening, we had our Tuesday event called ‘Happy Sunset’ – cocktail and finger food offered by the resort for everyone, all accompanied by the Pef band’s island tunes. This was the perfect party setting, Including the gorgeous sunset! Instead of the regular glass of fruit cocktail, I was offered an entire coconut full of alcohol – challenge accepted!

Later on, there was cake (chocolate, what else?!), candles and more Happy Birthday singing. And I received a crown, beautifully made of palm leaves by one of our resort assistants (she comes from Bali and is a true artist when it comes to decorations), as well as a palm leaf skirt. I felt like a queen! There was more hugging, singing, laughing and dancing. But there was more – I also got a very sweet gift: a bottle full of little letters with birthday message from the entire staff! I was overwhelmed by so much attention after only being here a little over 3 months.

​It has become a habit for some of our guests to leave old clothes, shoes or other belongings here that they don’t want to take home anymore. Especially guests who come for the second or third time know that we are very happy to accept anything that is still in good shape and can be worn or used again. Sometimes we even get dive equipment, such as fins, masks, snorkels or even wetsuits which of course are extremely valuable to our dive team.

You might ask yourself whether we’ve run out of clothes on our remote little island. Rest assured, we still have enough to wear and are far from running around naked through the jungle! But some of our local staff come from very poor families and don’t have much to wear apart from the uniform we provide them for work. One of our employees, for example, only has one private t-shirt – quite hard to imagine if you come from such a rich country as I do.

Papuans love to eat! At least three times a day. ‘Selamat Makan’ means ‘Enjoy Your Meal!’ and it was one of the first Indonesian sentences I learnt here. They also talk about food a lot and a greeting including “Makan sudah?” (“Have you eaten yet?”) is very common.

As important as a proper meal may be, the locals don’t spend much time at the table though. They help themselves generously from the buffet, sit down, gulp down their plate with a spoon and get up 10 minutes later. Never mind if the person they were talking to while eating hasn’t finished yet. You may suddenly find yourself all alone at the table, even though you were surrounded by 5 people when you started eating. This may seem rude to us, but it doesn’t seem to be like that here. They probably wonder why we spend so much time at the table when we could be chatting, playing the guitar or watching videos on our phones in front of our rooms instead!

A meal is not a meal if it doesn’t contain rice, fish and vegetables - for breakfast, lunch and dinner, often in very similar combinations. Papuans don’t seem to request as much variety as we do. Vegetables are usually cooked (I miss salads!) and often in a broth, but they are generally very nice. Sometimes, they come in a delicious spicy coconut sauce which I really love.

Talking about spicy – the local version of Sambal (a spicy chili paste) is freshly made every day and generously applied on every dish. There’s a separate buffet for the guests with a sort of fusion cuisine of Western and Indonesian dishes, including the fresh Sambal which I also use every day. Only when the resort was closed, and we all ate the same food as the locals, did I find out that there are two versions of Sambal – one from Hell (for the locals) and a weaker one for wimps like us Westerners… The first time I added it generously to my rice and fish only to find out very quickly that this was a different version than the one I was used to from the guest buffet! I was desperately trying not to show how much my throat was burning and to prevent my tears from running down to not make a complete fool of myself in front of the locals. Not an easy task, but I somehow managed! And decided to take it easy on the Sambal until the resort opened again and there was a milder version.

Did I mention that the food is delicious here? Well, it really is! To make things worse, there are homemade cookies available all the time (!) and there is a delicious desert every evening. I quickly decided, I was going to skip desert, unless there was something with chocolate (I’m a chocolate addict!). And leave the cookies to the guests (ok, once in a while, I do allow myself one of the yummy chocolate cookies…). As my job here doesn’t involve a lot of physical activity, I definitely have to be careful not to end up like a puffer fish very soon...