Bali finally!

     So we left off before I hoped on my flight from Honolulu to Shanghai, I am going to some up our 2 days of traveling to get to Bali in this next paragraph. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before our flight, got our surfboard bags all situated and paid for, then went through security. After getting through security I made eye contact with a girl I had recognized, she was at the end getting everything together from the scanning machine, ended up being my friend Brooke that I met in a sailing class down in Dana Point harbor a few semesters ago! She had moved to Hawaii a month ago and was going home for a few days, I thought it was so funny and random to run into her but we all ended up sitting down and chatting for awhile before our flights. It was cool catching up and talking about her moving to Hawaii and what Jeremy and I are doing on our trip! And then we were off onto the plane for our 11.5 hours flight to Shanghai, the flight ended up not being as bad as we thought. We got two meals, and snacks every so often, plus snacks that we brought ourselves, I also had my laptop with two batteries so we could watch a few movies. They were playing movies but there all in Chinese, I am pretty sure out of maybe 120 people on the plane we were the only white people, everybody was a Chinese tourist visiting Hawaii. One thing we thought was funny was the whole flight it was sunny, we had basically followed the sun across the Pacific so during our travel we had seen the sun for about 18+ hours! We landed in Shanghai at 3:30pm local time and our next flight to Bali didn't depart until midnight, so we definitely had sometime to kill. We cruised around the airport and found the gate for our next flight, stretched our legs and got some food and relaxed for a few hours. We kicked it by the gate and charged our electronics and started looking up some places to stay in Bali for the next night. I called my family to let them know I landed safely in China and that I would try to contact again when we arrive in Bali. We boarded our flight and took a nice 3 hour nap that cut out half the flight, the next couple hours it was still dark outside. But about 45 minutes before landing the sun started coming up and it was one of the most beautiful flight experiences I've had, flying over island chains with the sun rising as we were passing through the clouds!
     We landed in Bali on Thursday at 6am local time, got our VISA's super fast, and board bags were ready to go at the baggage claim. We had booked at room for a night in Kuta to get our bearings and look up some places to stay on the bukit, where all the waves are. We got to the hotel via a taxi with our board bags strapped on the top, kinda sketchy, cost us about 20 bucks. We arrived to the hotel named Warung Coco, got everything in our room then went back to the front desk to rent a scooter and grab some food, since we hadn't eaten in awhile. We grabbed the scooter which we both hoped on and cruised around Kuta for a few hours, just to check out the beach and what was happening around everywhere. The streets are crazy, first off everything is the opposite, so you drive down the left side of the road, and making turns across traffic is nearly impossible. For every car there is probably 25 scooters, they get around the crowded and sometimes narrow streets so much better, and of course much cheaper on gas. The traffic reminds me of the fourth of July back home in Huntington/Newport Beach, bikes everywhere and people going every which way, but picture all the bikes being scooters and there are no rules of the road! It is complete madness, but with my experience riding dirtbikes since I was 4, it is so much fun, everywhere you go is like a technical motorcycle race. We tried all day to find a place to get international driving licenses, I needed a mosquito net, and also some wall converters for our electronics. We looked up a few places on the map and Jeremy navigated as I operated the scooter through the madness, we literally rode the scooter around some of the busiest streets in the world for about 3 hours trying to find everything. We ended up only getting the wall converters at a big mall we stumbled upon, but while we were there we went to the market to grab some stuff we wanted like shampoo, snacks, water, fruit, etc. We then made the 45 minute trek back to the hotel in crazy traffic now that it was around 4:30pm, I think Jeremy was lack of better term, shitting himself the whole time we weaved in and out of cars, scooters, construction, potholes, and jumping up onto the sidewalk once in awhile to get around a group of cars, but I was totally in control :). We got back all in one piece and relaxed at the hotel for a bit before we grabbed a few beers and literally fell asleep with computer on lap at 8pm, great first day!
     We awoke on Friday, our second day in Bali, keep in mind we are 15 hours ahead of home (California, by the way on the top right of my blog I have a clock and date of my local time), so sometimes we are a day ahead! Got a quick included breakfast at the Warung(means shop/store in Indonesian) and found a taxi van to drive us and our bags up to the Bukit (hill in indonesian). We dropped off the rented scooter and packed our bags into the taxi, and sat back for the ride, it took about an hour since the cars can't go as fast as the scooters that are zipping around everywhere. We had looked up a few places on the Bukit and I had been recommended a few also, we parked in the general area, and I jumped out to cruise around and ask some prices. There were a few super nice places for a lil more than we wanted to spend and also a few cheap places but without some amenities we wanted. I finally went to a place called Leggies that had been recommended to me from a friend that was just in Bali a few weeks ago, and I fell in love with it. It'a probably about and acre small resort/villa style looking place, with a pool, full service cafe/restaurant open 7am-10pm, laundry, scooter rental, and of course WiFi. On top of that there's so many cool people that come through here that are younger which makes it a fun atmosphere meeting somebody new everyday. The vibe and setup is all very laid back, lounge chairs by the pool, big open lounging area in the middle with pillows everywhere, and its a 2 min walk to the cliff that's over looking the surf spot, and beach called Bingin, you can also see Padang Padang down the beach. We made a deal with the nice people at Leggies, since we want to setup camp here for at least 2 weeks, we came to the agreement that were paying 240,000rp or roughly $24 a day for our big room with 2 beds, bathroom, shower and a scooter with surf racks to cruise around with. So we feel its a good price, basically $12 each a day for an awesome place and scooter rental, our other expenses include food, which comes out to $10 each a day since we have been eating a lot, also lil gas here and there which is basically $1 for 2 liters(half gallon). So we got settled in at our new home stay, met a cool chick here from Australia that we followed on the scooter over to Uluwatu to see it for the first time. It is such an awesome setup, with lil warung's and place to hang and eat all down the cliff to the bottom where you paddle through the infamous cavern. After a bite to eat we headed to the Uluwatu temple that I've always heard of and wanted to visit because of course they have monkey's! We got over there and put on a sarong and bought some monkey food for a few bucks, they are so funny and cute, there were mothers, dads, and of course lil babies. You hold some fruit out and they jump up and grab it from you or you can hold it higher and they will climb you to get it, one of them perched on my shoulder and just ate it right there! We cruise around the temple for a bit, then decided to head back, Jeremy and I really wanted to get a surf since the waves looked fun while we were eating at Uluwatu and we hadn't been in the water in almost 5 days, which sounds weird being on a surf trip. We scooted over to Uluwatu and got a quick 30 min sesh as the sun was going down which was absolutely beautiful, we headed back in the dark which was interesting to say the least. After a few wrong turns, we made it back to the hotel, we sat down for dinner at a table with a few girls that are staying here. We ended up chatting for awhile and talking about where each other is from and where we have been on our trips. I thought Hawaii had a lot of travelers but Bali has some many more and from so many different far out places!
     I awoke around 4:30am local time, my times are still very messed up, I was basically wide awake, so I messed around on the computer for an hour or so typing up some of this blog post and checking emails etc. Jeremy was up shortly after, we decided to check out in front where were staying which is Bingin beach, it is still relatively small out there since the swell hasn't wrapped all the way around the point, needs a bigger swell to get that far down the point, where were staying. We packed up the scooter and headed to Uluwatu because it gets the most swell, the waves were pumping at least to our standards. Over head, plenty of make able left drainy barrels, and some good spots to smash the lip, we were out there by 7:30am after a quick bit to eat at the warung. We surfed for about 3 hours and I caught about a dozen waves, keep in mind this is a very well known and easily accessible perfect left point, with only a half dozen take off spots, which means its pretty crowded! But none the less out of the dozen I caught I got 2 sick barrels and a few waves I got a some turns on, but one really good barrel, probably one of the better ones I have ever had. Uluwatu has a few takeoff spots and each of them shifts so you really have to be in the right spot at the right time to get that all time barrel, but it drains and becomes so hollow that if you get the right one your for sure getting a barrel, just gotta make it out! When you get out and walk up the sketchy steps up the cliff the first few shops you pass are photo booths that try to call you in to look at pictures there photographers on the cliffs get of you, and they got some really sick ones of me and my barrel, I haggled with them and got them talked down from $35 for 42 pictures down to $10 for 35 good pictures, 3 sequences. I am going to get the pix tomorrow, so they will be uploaded soon! We headed back home to eat and chill, we hoped in the pool for a bit to wash off and cleaned up and unpacked a bit in the room. But we were back at it shortly and got another hour and a half session in at Uluwatu, it was still sorta fun and a lil less crowded but wind picked up and brought it down quite a bit. We were now awful tired from being in the sun and water for close to 5 hours today we got back and lounged for awhile while chatting with some friends that we made here. For dinner we decided to try a place few miles down the road we have passed a few times, its a small Italian restaurant that had pizza, we were both stoked since we love pizza and haven't had it in awhile! It was a nice way to end the night, we ended up making friends with the owner who was a super nice guy that is from Indo and has been living in Bali for about 5 years. After a nice lil 15 minute drive back to the homestay we got a dessert banana pancake with ice cream on it and Jeremy passed out, I finished the night by typing up this blog.
     So that about sums up leaving Hawaii, flying, layovers, and the first few exciting and adventurous days in Bali! I can't wait to see what else this amazing island and country has to offer, and I want to see as much as I can since this has been my dream vacation. Since the first day of senior year at Edison high school, I was sitting in English class staring at a blank page for about a half hour after the teacher gave us our first assignment of writing a page about why we want to go to college. It was then and there that I realized I didn't want the normal straight to a 4 year university life after being in school for so long and really not knowing what I wanted to do as a career yet. Yes I am very good at many things and handy enough to fix or build just about anything, but I wanted more, and this adventure has fulfilled it everyday. There is no feeling like waking up in the morning and being able to explore and see something new that your eyes have never seen before. I strongly urge everyone and anyone if wanting to travel of course to get out there and experience something different, it will forever change your life and your perspective of living. Once again thank you to everybody that has made this life more enjoyable than ever, and continue to be in my life, I seriously can not wait to get home and be able to hang with all my family, animals, and friends again, Goodnight!

Coca Cola in Chinese

Sunrise flying into Denpasar

Monkey at the temples

A normal sight at a surf spot, pictured is at Uluwatu.