Break in, hospital visit, and haggling

     After a long day of surfing Uluwatu the day before, we decided to check out a new spot on Sunday. We were trying to find Dreamland, but ended up at a spot we both have heard of called Balangan (Ba-lang-in). It was a dream like beach with 100ft cliffs straight into the water 30 ft from the take off spot, exactly what I picture a wave in Bali to look like. It looked fun, about chest high, ripable, and way less crowded than Uluwatu where we had been surfing last few days. We grabbed our boards off the scooter and walked down the hill, down the beach, got a quick stretch and then paddled out into the line up while watching chest high lefts reel off. Both Jeremy and I found our spot and traded off some fast waves we had to race down the line dodging sections to get a few quick check turns and either a barrel section or a big snap at the end. One thing that has been very weird to me about surfing here in Bali is what they call sea lice, there these little microscopic tadpole looking things that will bite you. It's nothing to crazy but some of them kinda hurt and it's just annoying haha, I didn't get any the first few days, but they were pretty bad at this spot. After surfing for over 2 hours and getting some of the longest waves I've had a in a long time (200ft+) we got out to get a bit to eat at the warung. Jeremy had his usual local style banana pancake, they basically through a bunch of mushed bananas into a waffle style press that fry's a pancake. It's pretty delicious, filling, but super fatty, who cares were surfing close to 5 hours a day and sweating more than enough to burn it off :) haha. I tryed a local dish I had been seeing recently, fried rice plate which was also good and filling. As we got back to the scooter and I opened the seat I realized that someone had broken in and stole my phone and a few bucks I had in there. We had my phone with us because we use it for the navigation since some of these roads are super confusing, and rarely haves street signs over there names. I was of course mad, devastated, and just a lil sad since I had so many photos, videos, and memories from my trip so far on there! We raced back to the room so I could try to locate it with some software I had on it, but it wasn't working they must have already turned it off and erased it. I called my mom to tell her what happened and to report it to verizon and started changing my passwords just in case even though I doubt they wanted my facebook haha. While I was talking to mom, Jeremy headed down to the beach out front to catch a few waves, I finished skyping and headed out to meet him. I got out there and he was nowhere to be found, I couldn't have missed him since there is only one path down tot he beach. A friend of ours staying at our place swam out and after it took a minute to understand what she said since she was out of breath and has a thick british accent, but I guess Jeremy hit his head and got a pretty good gash. I got into the beach and up to the warung to take a look at it, he was already wrapped up by a nurse that luckily was there visiting from California! He was a lil nervous having his first head injury in a foreign country, but we kept him calm and I got him back to the room to grab a few things then we went to the hospital. We ended up at a private clinic and he got 6 stitches, took about 30 minutes, cost us about $50 and we were good to go. Grabbed few things at the store on our way back and hit some traffic, we got back around 5pm, chilled for awhile then went out with some friends from the place were staying at. We went to a bar on the cliff at Ulu (uluwatu's) called Single Fin, super fun cool environment, we had some drinks after a long day, and got back and to bed by midnight.
     Monday we woke up around 8 and just cruised around the the property, hopped in the pool, then helped Jeremy buzz around his cut and clean it up to put a new bandage on. After I skyped the family, it was nice seeing them all since I hadn't skyped all of them together in a few weeks, they are all jealous of all the pictures I have been posting. We chatted about what they have been ding the past week, and how everything is around the house, my dad had just gone to the desert for the weekend so heard some funny stories form that. Then I showed them around our room and where were staying with the webcam, explained how the money works, and how busy the roads are! It was over an hour skype sesh but was really nice to have time to talk about so much and explain everything I could about my experience's so far. When we finished Jeremy relaxed and took it easy while I went over to Uluwatu's to grab a surf and pick up some photos they got of me a few days ago, there were some cool shots! The waves were really fun, about chest to head high, got quite a few fun ones, perfect lil quick evening session. On my way back I had to get some petrol (what they call gas here) for the scooter, and we needed some water since we have been going through it so fast, we had been drinking 2-3 waters ( over a gallon) between both of us per day. I found a small market that I went into and ended up haggling for a whole box of 12 bottles which comes out to almost 5 gallons, got it all for $4 :), literally 33 cents each. It works great for us since the waters at the warung's and where were staying are close to a buck each, now we can just grab a water before we leave and be good to go! We chilled for awhile, went and watched the sunset and had a smoothie, came back and Jeremy was out early, I was up for awhile munching, working on this blog and editing the surf pix, ended up passing out around 11:30pm.
     Tuesday we both slept in until about 8am, relaxed, cleaned Jeremy's cut, and changed the bandages. We took a dip in the pool then I got him setup to Skype his family on my computer, they hadn't talked to him much since we got to Bali, and hadn't seen him since he left for Hawaii almost two weeks ago! While he was doing that I hopped on the scooter and went to find a phone place since I explained earlier in the post mine got stolen, I had no luck but I adventured a bit too. I checked out a spot just a few miles down the beach called dreamland, to get there you enter this huge grand entrance like to a mansion or something. Its a trip like a whole new world in there, nice big paved road with no potholes, private villas, lil stores, and a few bigger hotels closer to the beach. I checked out the beach and the warung's, also grabbed a few things from a lady vendor, a few sarong's for some friends and was on my way back. I got back and Jeremy just finished Skyping the family, so we got on the scooter and headed to Uluwatu to get lunch and I wanted to get a surf in.  We ate at our local lil warung and watched the waves for 30 minutes, I paddled out for about an hour and had one of the worst sessions of my life. Just wasn't getting the right waves or in the right spot, it was very frustrating, I finally just gave up and figured it wasn't my day and headed in. When I get back Jeremy looked all nice and relaxed, apparently he had gotten a 30 min shoulder massage by lady that was walking around, he haggled her down from 60,000 to 30,000 (basically $3) and he said it was well worth it. I was so frustrated about my session I just wanted to leave, we got back to the room dropped everything off and packed up again to head to the clinic to get a check up on Jeremy's cut.  When we got there we asked about the price, and they said it was going to be another $25 to have them look at the wound and replace the bandage, we said no thanks, bought the ointment needed for $3 and went on our way, I have been taking care of the cut and it is healing great! We snagged more snacks at a market next door before heading back, we try to cut out one meal a day that we have to buy, so we get pbj's, crackers, wafers, pringles, and some other small things to snack on in between meals. We brought the GoPro with us on to take some video while scooting, we got some funny stuff that will be up in the Videos section a day or two after this is posted so check it out! I headed out to Bingin last night to get a quick evening sesh with the GoPro , I didn't get much footage but just practiced how to use it in the water, which if anybody has used a GoPro while surfing, it is very hard to get the right shot! We sat down for dinner around 8 and browsed through some local surf mags they had lying around, enjoyed dinner and crashed by 9pm, just another day traveling, surfing, and living the dream in a beautiful place!
     Wednesday we did our normal hang around till 9ish and then figured out what to do today, we decided to go check out a spot called Nusa Dua on the other side of the peninsula. We have both seen some sick pictures and videos of this reeling right hand point break, so I looked it up on the map and got a decent idea of where it was. We left around 11am towards the airport and followed the signs marked Nusa Dua, we arrived about 45 minutes later after a few wrong turns at the beach. It ended up not being the right day for the spot waves looked decent size and surfable but nobody out, guy we were talking to on the beach said tide and winds were wrong,it also looks like a hell of a paddle to get out there. Apparently when its firing you can hiring a boat to drop you of for about $3 bucks and at the end surf and catch white water back to the beach, just looking at the setup we could imagine how good it could get. After hanging at the beach for a bit, having a snack and some water while chatting we went on our way back up to Uluwatu. I went out for a surf but didn't have that great of a time, pretty crowded, and I was already tired from traveling a lot on the scooter earlier in the day. We cruised back to the room, went in the pool, had lunch, and watched some surf clips on youtube for awhile. I ended up going down to Bingin with my GoPro for a bit to get some clips but wasn't very successful, then ended the night with smoothies down on the beach at the usual warung while watching the waves and the sunset.

Jeremy's gash from surfing at Bingin, got 6 stitches

Always a lil scary when Jeremy pilots the scooter!

Our room here on the bukit, can see the ocean from the window, and that's the bathroom off to the right.

Surfing Bingin on Tuesday with the Go Pro didn't get to many surf shots but some cool sunset shots.