Pres turned 43 today on a very random island in the Strait of Malacca … probably not something he ever expected.  And the fact that we’re at a resort makes it all more unlikely still, because as we’ve discovered (and could have anticipated, if we’d given it much thought), we’re not really resort people.  We like to discover things when we’re traveling, and there’s a limited amount to be discovered when your options are constrained by the geography of resortland.

Still, we managed to enjoy ourselves.  There’s not much to blog about here, because our day was unusually lazy.  It consisted largely of time by and in the pool, a massage (Prescott), reading, watching it rain, watching it be sunny, shell collecting (Tina), napping, and air hockey.

We had lunch at the golf club (and odd choice, but it looked to have the best food options).  I’m not usually a golf fan, but there are moments when I very definitely see the appeal.

There’s a lot to like here, such as the pool:

And the beach is great for shells:

I’m also a huge, huge fan of the waterslide (don’t ask how many times I went on it today):

They also have the best after-the-rain slippery-hallway warning cones I’ve ever seen:

And they have lots to do, and stars at night, and a romantic restaurant by the beach that serves amazing Indonesian fish.

I think our concerns with being at a resort have to do with everything feeling packaged.  You can’t do much in the way of stumbling on something and saying, “look what I found.”  This particular resort also suffers a bit from deferred maintenance — so just when I was saying, “it’s so nice to be away from the construction noise of our apartment building,” we hear the whir of weed-whackers and the roar of a jackhammer (which lasted all day long).  I also continue to be alternately irked and amused by the Waterworld-like set that surrounds much of the lagoon on which most of the resort is located (it’s hard to get it all in one photo — just picture more giant, toppled concrete bars continuing on to the right and then a long, unforgiving concrete wall beyond that encircling the rest of the lagoon).

Overall, though, it’s nice to get away for a birthday weekend!