Week 1 | Lombok

This is how my trip started...
      Woke up at 4am on Wed, got to the airport and flew out of Brisbane by 6am. After a 2.5 hr flight I had a 7 hr layover in Adelaide south Australia which I spent skyping the family then grabbed a bus to the beach nearby for some lunch. I got back to the airport and boarded my 4pm flight, 5 hrs later I landed in Bali, Indonesia 7:30pm local time. After an hour of waiting in airport to get through customs and get my visa finally got outta there, grabbed my board bag and hired a taxi, heading

Traffic on the road

straight for the ferry terminal in Padang Bai. 2 hours later now 10:30pm I walked onto the ferry with about 150 Indonesians, during the passage a couple people came up to me just wanting to talk. One guy approached me and after a bit of chatting the best we could in English we went through a lil language book I have and we taught each other some words. A bit later another man sat next to me and asked about my bracelets after I told him where I got them from he left and returned with a bag of some he had made. He picked out two and tied one to my wrist, before I could give him a couple rupiahs he said "for you my friend I want no money..." Where this kindness came from idk but this is Indonesia, a beautiful country everywhere from the people that inhabit it, the land, and of course the waves. Arriving on the island of Lombok at 3:30am I met a very nice and pretty Argentinian girl traveling alone, we decided to split a taxi since where she was going was on the way to my destination. Arriving at a hotel in the middle of Indonesia at 4:30 in the morning, let's just say the reception guy sleeping was very surprised to be woken up and asked in what room are my friends staying. My friends Eric and Zac from back home in California have been here in Indonesia for over a month. They were even more surprised to get a knock on the door and see me standing there after I txted them a few days prior saying "see you soon". We all were so excited to see each other we stayed up and talked about each others travels until the sun rose and it was time to surf. Now this picture comes into the story, after 24 of traveling including 2 flights, a bus, 2 taxis, a ferry, and quite a bit of walking with a large surfboard bag I am about to paddle out to a surf a perfect 6-8 ft right hand point with 2 good friends on the complete other side of the world.
     I stayed on the island of Lombok for 5 days and we scored waves everyday, and it even got so big that almost every spot was maxed out! My last time to Indonesia last year I had wanted to explore other places than Bali, I got out to the island of Sumbawa which was a amazing with semi uncrowded waves. This time to back to Indo I wanted to go somewhere new and Lombok was definitely high on the list, I was stoked to find out my mates were there. Once your off Bali, you see a whole different side of the Indonesian culture, it's beautiful and something I highly recommend if your ever in Bali. 

Lombok, Indonesia

     
     During the 5 days on Lombok I stayed at an awesome hotel that I have recommend in my Travel Surf Live Surf Guide to Lombok. The village we were living in is mostly made for surfers, all you see is lil warungs, couple surf shops, small surf hotels, and advertisements for boat trips and transport to other islands. My friends Zac and Eric had been there for a week before I arrived so they already knew the surf spots and everything so that was nice. We surfed 4 different waves in the 5 days, all rights over reef/rock bottoms. The food was alright, I ate mostly local food which is fried rice or fried noodle, but we did try a few burger places and also a pizza place which was actually pretty good! It's awfully rare to head to these countries and not have an upset stomach, some how I have yet to have food poisoning in a foreign country. What I found from traveling in foreign country it is easy to change most comforts except food, if you aren't feeling comfortable with what your eating it makes your trip very hard. 
     Some friend's I had made in Byron, a few swedish girls Elin, Jasmine, and Amanda had happened to be in Indonesia the same time I was there. They were on the Gili Islands just a short boat and an hour taxi from where I was at the time, so they decided to come by for a couple days to hang out. It was awesome seeing them again, my friends and the girls all hung out for a few days. Lounging by the pool after a surf, going for lunch, riding the scooters around, and hanging at the beach. After a few days they headed to Bali where we would soon meet up again!
     The first couple days on Lombok we surfed an epic right hander that is a 15 minute scooter ride outside the village. The setup up is beautiful with cliffs all around you and a couple small islands off the coast. The paddle is about 10 minutes at least so definitely gets you warmed up for the epic surf session your about to have. The next few days we switched off between a big bay about 30 minutes away where you can grab a small boat to 4 different waves in the bay. Its always fun getting on and off a boat to go surf, its basically the epic surf session to jump of a boat into the lineup. And for only 5 bucks round trip out to the waves, you can't complain at all!
     Lombok was much better than I had imagined it, so many opportunities to get out in the water to semi uncrowded line ups. The scenery is lush, jagged, extreme, and just plain beautiful. There is so much to explore with little to no people around, I can't wait to venture further and further next time. But for now 6 days was a perfect intro to the potentional of this 1 of the 10,000 Indonesian islands, back to Bali.....

And the time has come.....

...to leave home again and live what I dream about, this time with my best friend of 21 years Bryce! We have been planning an adventure like this since we were kids and the thought of being on a plane in a couple hours headed to a foreign land with no plans send shivers down my body. I could think for hours about what I ,want to do and where I want to go when we get there. but on this adventure were going with what ever happens at that moment and that's when you really feel alive. Once again thank you to all friends and family that has support Bryce and myself on this adventure, we love you all!

Don't Just Be Alive, Be Living........

No boards for 5 days in Sumbawa...

     We arrived to the airport at 1:00 am Wednesday morning, our flight didn't leave until 9:20am, the reason for us getting to the airport so early was to get our boards on the plane for sure. We couldn't get into the terminal until around 4am so we just hung out, I got some sleep and Jeremy listened to music and wrote a bit in the journal. Got into the terminal and had to wait again at the ticket window to grab our boarding passes and check in the board bag, we put all our boards in my big coffin bag to make it easier. We got into the line right as it opened and hassled a bit to check our bag, but payed for it and checked it in, in line made a few friend's with some aussies. As we watched them check in there bags one of them would crouch behind the counter and lift up slightly on the board bag so it would show it weighing less. It was so perfectly executed we were laughing so hard in line and none of the workers new what was going on! Got into the boarding area and waited yet again, finally boarded the flight and snapped some pics in the air before getting a small nap on the hour long flight. As we arrived in the airport and found our driver we waited for the board bags coming in, and of course ours wasn't F***ing there, after all we did to make sure, we were pissed. The transport driver said he would pick them up if they came in tomorrow, we split taxis with the aussies and had two cars packed since we were headed to the same place. We arrived to our place were staying at after a 2 hour car ride, all the aussies were frothing so we rented some scooters and headed down the coast to find this good right hander we had heard of. The road there was awesome, about 2 miles on a dirt road of mud, rocks, holes, and it was pouring rain haha, had a great time flying through mud getting wet and racing around. They got out to surf as we watched them for a few minutes then headed back since didn't have our boards, both of us were starving when we got back so munched down some great pasta here at the restaurant. Both of us passed out shortly after dinner since we had been up for over 48 hours.
     Thursday was boring mostly sitting around and eating at the restaurant, we took a lil adventure before the taxi drivers were supposed to arrive from the airport. We adventured down the road to another wave we had heard of, the beach was littered with cobblestones very similar to trestles. The wave as a cool setup breaking into a bay, with a mushy right but looked like a decent left, the swell was a lil big for the spot so might be better when it gets smaller in a few days. As we got back the boards did not arrive, I cruised around to all the other hotels and still no luck, everyone had told us that if they didn't make it on the flight they would come the next day. Disappointed once again being in such an awesome place staring at great waves all day and nothing to do about it, of course we had some friend's say we could borrow boards but there's always the possibility of breaking them. We sat down for an early dinner and started chatting with an older aussie guy named Larry that seemed pretty interesting, he started telling us about his life and traveling in Indo since the 70's. He had literally been everywhere in the world to surf for the passed 40 years in his life, of course I asked him about every place I could think of I wanted to go and search for waves. Larry knew everything about the country and spots, time of the year to go, and what he thought of the area, living in Bali now he chases swells around the area all year. Larry's new adventure is buying a sailing catamaran next year and sailing from Mentawis down Indo, over Aus through New Guinea and through Soloman, Marshall, and Tahitian islands, turn around and keep doing it until he gets bored, legend.

     Friday we got up and had some breakfast around 8, I was chatting with the owner of where were staying and he offered to let us borrow a few boards, after taking a look at them they were decent enough to surf. Jeremy laughed when he saw the boards and how my leash was basically duck taped on and his barely hanging from an eroded shoestring, literally... He paddled out to the left called Lakey pipe and i just headed to Lakey peak seeing a few fun ones roll through with no one going right. I had a fun session with how crappy the board was, nice to get in the water finally, Jeremy said he also got a few fun ones over at the pipe with 2 guys out haha. Of course after surfing for 2 hours and a pretty solid 15 minute paddle each way out to the wave we demolished our lunch and just relaxed for awhile. I got on the phone with my mom for awhile and also chatted with my dad, they were excited to hear from me and talked about what I had been doing last few days. I told them that they should move over to Bali and try out owning a hostel or small hotel for a year to try something totally different! They are both interested in the idea and have already started to minimize our possessions to try something different like that in a year or year and half. It's exciting to hear that and I hope it works out because I would love both of them to start enjoying life more and travel, since they have both worked hard for so long! I yet again went to all the hotels to see if our boards were here yet and they weren't, now 3 days without boards, we heard of a guy at another hotel getting a  full refund for his flight since his boards took three days also! We just cruised around where were staying listened to some music and played pool on the sketchy duck taped felt pool table, but hey it works and is just as competitive!
     Saturday we got up and scootered with some of the aussies and our local friend Jamaica down the road to check out a beach break. It was away's down the road through a few villages where you get the stares, like what the heck are you surfers doing down here there's no waves haha. And of course after the 30 minute scooter ride there wasn't, but cool seeing some more of the lifestyle around this area of the island! All if us headed back and surfed another spot we had been checking out, still had the old beat up boards the owner, Rachelle (Ra- shell, man's name in France) let us borrow. Both of us got a few waves, just frustrating because the boards aren't nearly close to what we ride on the daily basis. Arriving back to our place I got an email from some friend's that had left this morning and said they would check into our boards for us at the Bali airport. They said the check-in desk told them they have yet to and will not put the bag on the plane because the bag is to big, and that it is probably sitting in the lost and found office. We were both pissed of course but at least we knew where they were, I booked a flight right away back to Bali to figure the situation out, figured it would be easier and less money if just one of us goes! We tried to enjoy the rest of our day and I crashed early because had a long day ahead of me with the 2 hour taxi to the airport, wait for 2 hours, hour flight, then figure out the board bag situation.
     Sunday morning got up at 6:30am and had a bite to eat before hitting the road, the 2 hour drive from Lakey to the airport is filled with cows, monkeys, goats, dogs, and of course people all over the road! The driver gets you to the airport almost two hours before the flight, so just gotta sit and wait it out, luckily I chatted with an older guy that I met who was also staying at Lakey's but just now leaving. Like Larry that I had met a few days before he had to traveled Indonesia for a long time and has been quite a few places, he grew up in Morocco but is now living in France. As I have said before it's just really fun and interesting to me to meet new people from other parts of the world, and to also see what they have done with there life and if they are happy with there life! The hour flight wasn't bad, got into the airport in Bali and went straight to the Merpati airlines check in desk, I asked to talk to a manager and after some hassle saying "I don't want to explain everything twice". I basically explained to them what I had to go through to come back and get my boards and of course they speak english but act like they only understand a few things. If this were to happen in America it would have been a totally different situation, all that ended up happening was I got priority check in the next morning. I got the board bag from lost and found, and got our driver Putu to meet me at the aiport so I could get back to the hostel and separate the boards into 2 bags, so that they would for sure get on this time. I got back to Canggu and went straight to Bu Mi to get some food, it was pouring rain in Bali so I had to throw a poncho on and take it slow. When I arrived back at the hostel immediately dove into switching the board bags up, had to take everything out of Jeremy's which is the one we left there and move it into mine. Also grabbed one of Bryce's (hostel owner) extra board bag's n had to put 2 board's in each bag and take out as much weight as possible to make sure that they get on this time! It was pouring the rest of the day, so I just chilled out and watched a few movies, got to bed early since had to wake up and leave for the airport at 5:00am.
     Monday I was up early since our driver Putu came to pick me up at 5:00 am, I arrived at the check in desk at 5:45 and sat there waiting till they opened, which wasn't till 6:30. I was the first to get the two board bags checked in just taking all precautions, then when all was done with I still had 2 hours before my flight. Went over to a Starbucks and grabbed a smoothie and cinnamon roll, got onto there free wifi and started chatting with some family and friends on skype through my phone. It was nice chatting to a few buddies to see how they were doing and also give them a few funny stories from the trip, also got a hold of my grandma who was more than ecstatic to hear from me! After chilling out in the A/C and comfy chairs in Starbucks for hour n half, made my way back into the terminal to hop on the bus that takes you onto the runway where the semi small 60 person plane boards. Flight was quick and easy, landed and saw my board bags getting unloaded, thank god finally, yet again got on board for the 2 hour long, crazy, and uncomfortable car ride to the beach. Once I got back I was just done, it was such a mission and I had a headache and stomach ache since the night before I left 3 days ago, I got a bit of food then went straight to the bed to nap around 2:30pm. Jeremy was of course frothing and grabbed his board and was out there right away, super stoked. I woke up a few times but didn't get up until 5:00am the next day, felt so shitty, head ached and stomach ached so bad.

Sleeping the airport night before flight to Sumbawa.

The old school shred sticks we borrowed for a day when our boards didn't come.

The restaurant at where were staying, looking out over the left side is the beach.

Low tide on the inside reef, boats get dry docked for the afternoon.

The left they call Lakey Pipe isn't bad either.

You can walk all the way out to the contest tower on low tide.

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.

Friends and family bbq

The day before i left we set up a great bbq to have all the friends and family over for some shenanigans. Had a great group of people come over, people stopped by for some corn hole and beers,  then got some burgers going in the evening. Family got me a sweet cake that i got to share with all my friends after a little speech to thank everyone that they made it. But once again thank you everyone and enjoy the pictures, if you want i can send you some of them, just let