The dark boat ride

We left Lake Toba at 7am to catch the bus to Singkil. Three bus rides and seven hours later we were on our last bus to Singkil. Our driver did not speak English, so we wrote the name of the guesthouse on a piece of paper and asked the Indonesian man sitting in front of us to hand it to the driver. The man read the paper and nodded, saying something to the driver in Indonesian. We assumed that the man told the driver the name of the guesthouse for us, but our assumptions were wrong. As we drove through the town of Singkil the man sitting in front of me kept turning around and raising his eyebrows and licking his lips. He then asked Ryan if it was alright if he could kiss me. Ryan said no, and put his arm around me to show the man that I was his girlfriend. The man  just smiled and kept staring at me. Then we arrived at the man's guesthouse and the driver motioned for us to get out of the car. The man smiled and was waving for us to follow him. It was at that moment we realized that the man told the driver to drop us off at his guesthouse. After a few minutes of us telling the man we were not following him to his guesthouse, he gave up and left. We showed the name of our guesthouse to the driver but he didnt recognize the name. Luckily we wrote down the phone number, and before we knew it we were dropped off at the correct guest house. At the Sapo Bellen guesthouse we were greeted by a friendly man. He sat us down and explained to us how we would get to Pulau Tailana. He told us that we would catch the local boat at 9am the next morning and we would be brought to Pulau Balai where we would be picked up and brought by speed boat to Pulau Tailana. With our unlucky encounters in Sumatra, we put our trust in this man hoping that everything would work out as planned. Luckily, there were many great reviews on TripAdvisor to put our worries at ease. The next morning we arrived at the boat dock at 8am, an hour before "departure". As expected we were on Indonesian time, which meant we didnt really depart until 1:30pm. We sat at the dock all morning watching men load the boat with crates full of food, motorbikes, and house hold appliances. When it was time for the people to board there was hardly any room.Ryan and I sat on the floor of the boat with twenty other Indonesians.The boat was crammed full with anything and everything, I felt like we were on Noah's ark. When the boat began to depart the water level was too low and we kept hitting the ground, causing everyone to lash forward with a jolt. We ended up sitting stationary in the water waiting for the sea level to rise. Four hours later we finally made it to the large island of Pulau Balai, a small fishing village in the Indian Ocean. When the boat arrived a man in a bright yellow shirt began to wave to us. With skepticism we told ourselves we were not leaving with anyone until they could confirm their name and answer some security questions so we knew we were safe. The man ended up being the correct guy, and we followed him to a nearby house. The house belonged to Mr, Marley the owner of Pulau Tailana. At the man's house Mr. Marely showed Ryan how to pick starfruit from the trees using a plastic bottle and stick contraption. Shortly after the man and his friend led us to a small wooden boat similar to a canoe with a motor on the back. We were told that the ride to Tailana would only take us one hour. The ride was beautiful. We passed many uninhabited islands and turquoise crystal clear water. Thirty minutes into the ride the sun went down and it was pitch black dark.After an hour and a half on the boat we began to get a little nervous riding in pitch black darkness. The boat didnt have any lights, the islands we passes were black with darkness, and the only light came from the blue bioluminescences where the boat hit the water. The sound of the motor was too loud to ask the man at the front of the boat if we were near, so we sat with nervous anticipation as we rode into the darkness. When two hours passed and we were still riding in complete darkness negative thoughts began to pop up in our minds. What if we were being brought to some island where we were going to be robbed or brought to some tribe for a sacrifice? Just as our ridiculous thoughts began to manifest, our worries subsided when we saw a light in the distance. We finally made it to Tailana!