Week 1 // Kuta and Bingin

     The trip started in LAX showing up to the airport with 3 large board bags, 8 backpacks, and 2 camera cases, yaaaaa we gotta lot of shit. It just so happened that the lady working at the Cathay Pacific desk was Indonesian, so David my mate that studied in Bali started chatting with her. She loved it and that basically set us up to get hooked up with our luggage which everyone knows you get screwed for oversize/overweight usually. After 20 minutes or so we all had boarding passes and were outta there paying nothing for our bags which should have been at least 400 total! Off to a great start and on the plane we settled in for the 13 hour flight to Hong Kong where we had a 4 hour layover to grab a bite to eat before the final 5 hour flight to Bali!

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

      Landing in Bali you have to wait in line to get your visa upon arrival, that took about 1.5 hours, then we picked up our bags and heading for customs check out. We got stopped, David and Travis bags got checked for how many boards and had to end up paying $1,000,000 RPH (just over $80 USD) for having more than 3 boards. After finding a transport driver in the sea of hundreds of people asking, we got all the boards on top and packed the 4 of us inside, quick 30 min drive to our hotel in Kuta where were staying for few nights. Hotel was traditional 2 beds and bathroom very simple, 50K RPH a night ($4.20 USD) per person. Once we settled in we sorted motorbikes out, which we got 4 for 30K RPH each per day ($2.50 USD), I love this country! Walking down the street we found a traditional Nasi Goreng plate (fried rice, veggies, chicken) we all ordered the same along with a Bintang, the local beer. There was a large shopping store nearby where we all headed to get some legit nice helmets since we'll be here for awhile and the helmets the rentals give you are shit.
      After few hours of laying around we got on the scooters for a ride up to Uluwatu, since the swell was small, Ulu's would be the only decent wave breaking. All of us had a couple decent ones, only out for an hour, munched down another nasi goreng for lunch and then cruised around looking for a place to move to the next day. After going to about 8 different homestays/villas we found a nice one that we could all split for a decent price then headed back to Kuta since our 5th friend Jay was supposed to arrive around 5 pm. We waited for him by sipping a Bintang while watching the crazy traffic down the back ally of Poppies St 2. When Jay arrived the vibe got a lot funner by hearing his story getting here, walking down the street finding another great spot to grub was a perfect ending to our second night on the island of Bali.

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

      Day 3 was off to a slow start since a few people were hungover from the Bintangs the night before, but Alex, Jay, and I went for a walk down to the beach to check out what it was like. We encountered a baby monkey that we played with for a bit and got some really cool photos of! When we all got back to the hotel few guys went off to get a massage as I started packing up. After a few hours of getting all our gear together we were on the road following the van with our stuff and Jay in it while we were on our 4 scooters. I got separated from the group and doubled back a few times but still couldn't find em so I took off cruising up the windy roads of the bukit, I finally arrived at Bingin Sari our home stay we picked out. The family were staying with is awesome, the mom Made runs the place cooking, cleaning, and booking rooms. She has a few lil girls which I gave a nick name Kachang Kecil (Ka-chong Ca-chill, means little peanut), the rest of our time there they would smile and sing Kachang Kecil Kachang Kecil, it was super funny.
     We ended up staying at this home stay for 6 nights, the setup was beautiful, location was great, and breakfast was cheap and good! The homestay is up on the cliff and a lil back from the surf break at Bingin Beach, just up the point is another famous wave of Impossibles. We all got out to Dream land a wave down the beach that is a sand bottom wave with usually pretty crowded with beginners as it was this day. But Alex was filming and got a couple sick shots of just the lifestyle on the beach and a few of our waves even thought there wasn't much going on in the surf!
     The next few days we explored a few different spots I had surfed before but they weren't really turning on like they had when I surfed them before. But no the less we had some fun getting more footage romping around on the scooters and flying the drone! On Sunday we went out to Single Fin a bar at the top of the famous surf break Uluwatu, Sundays it goes off with live music and hundreds of people having a good time. We also went to a sick full moon party on the beach that had a reggae band and DJ until about 1 or 2 in the morning at Padang Padang. The bukit is beautiful place with pretty mellow roads to all the surf spots and hundreds of home stays and restaurants tucked into every corner and crevasse, it would take months to go to them all.

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

     Towards the end of our stay on the bukit at Bingin Sari my mate Jeremy that I actually traveled to Indonesia with last year arrived on Wednesday. He linked up with us and we got a bed for him to crash on for a few nights before we headed out to a new area of the island called Sanur! We got our last surf in at Impossibles for a few hours before making the trek over to Sanur again with a van full of gear/surfboard bags while 4 scooters followed!

Once again thanks for following and stay tuned for the next post!
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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.....