First off sorry everybody for not keeping this blog as up to date as promised, sometimes it is very hard to sit down and concentrate for hours on typing up an interesting post. I do post as regular as possible on my instagram ( @travelsurflive ) and on facebook ( www.facebook.com/travelsurflive ). I like to keep all my blog post full of story and adventure, I have a few backed up half written posts still saved to be published later on. But this part of my trip was way to cool to wait and post so I want to tell you now!
Airport, Bali, Indonesia prior to departure.
The journey to the Mentawi islands and this specific island in general is quite a bit of planning involved, my mate David has done it twice so he had a good idea on what we need to do. None the less last time he traveled there was 2 years ago and everything in this country changes everyday without notice or updates to websites! The whole journey would take an estimated 30 hours of traveling going something like this taxi, plane, plane, taxi, ferry, taxi, boat...... After we all sat down and went over prices for a few hours couple days in a row, the decision was made and we headed to the airport to book flights leaving on Thursday morning in two days. After getting all our gear packed and inside and on top a van heading to the airport for the 7 am flight to Jakarta (Java), which was of course delayed an hour. Arriving from Jakarta to the city of Padang (Sumatra) at 2 in the afternoon we waited for our bags to come out the baggage claim door. Once realizing we were the last ones standing there and no more bags on there way out we instantly had all sorts of thoughts and emotions. A friendly local Indonesian in the same situation told us to come with him to the counter and told us this happened to him before, after some translating we found out the bags will be on the next flight arriving from Jakarta in 4 hours.
Approaching the beach after a 2 hour boat ride.
We had heard form some other traveling surfers that the ferry we were trying to get onto is being fixed and is not working anyways so we wrote off that were not getting onto that later in the evening. So wait we did for 4 hours and sure as shit our bags had finally arrived we got outta that airport as fast as possible right as the rain had started.... Getting to a hostel near the port the ticket office for the boat was closing in 10 minutes, we threw the bags off the car while David and myself hurried to the ticket office 1 minute away. Upon arriving they told us the boat the next morning (Friday) was now full, just like most third world countries pulling out a stack of cash will change there minds pretty quick. Walking out of there with 4 tickets for the 7am boat the next morning, finishing off the night with a few beers, and some locals lounging out front the hostel talking about the season and the people they have come to meet.
Heading to the village to find some necessities.
Walking through the humid morning down the street with 70lbs of board bags and backpacks sweating in places you didn't know you had is a wonderful start the 2nd day of travel. Getting onto the ferry finding out the last minute tickets we got were basically standing room only, but screw it we were almost there, or so we thought. We didn't mind much until 30 minutes into a 3 hour boat ride were surrounded by 30 people chain smoking/ throwing up from being sea sick. I think we all agreed that was one of the worst parts of our trip by far! Finally landed on the island of Sipora, all the bags off the boat and put off to the side we had another surfer join us trying to get tot he same place we were, a guy from California named Todd. After trying to haggle with a few people trying to get a ride to our destination on the other side of the island we decided to find a spot for the night to get a shower, some food, and relax after two full days of travel.
Having a walk around the small town of Tuapajet there is not much going on other than what is the necessities in life. You won't find WiFi, a nice restaurant, warm shower, maybe just a little TV if you really search for it. After a bit to eat the hammock I had purchased the day before we left sounded awfully nice to sprawl out in, play some cards and wait for dinner. Dinner was a fish curry, everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of fish but when you know that meat is a rarity on this island you eat all of it you can. a good nights sleep and we were off on a boat to the south tip of the island where our destination was. I would more so call the boat a canoe hollowed out from a large tree, with a make shift roof, and two 25hp engines on the back. Surprisingly we fit all 5 board bags and gear in the boat without it tipping over, and to our surprise it actually made it's way through the water decently fast. After two hours of mild choppy conditions, water squirting through multiple holes whenever the boat smashed a good size wave, we cruised right up onto a perfect white sand beach in paradise.
Now the two weeks on an island in the middle of the Indian ocean begins. The place we are staying is located right in front of the wave, it is a families house that they have added some extra rooms to. The family is much older now but still very nice, helpful, and still cooking and cleaning everything for the guests. The price was 60K (5 USD) a night including dinner, over looking a white sand beach, with a view of a perfect right through the over hanging palm trees. The four of us took over 2 rooms upstairs with a nice big room to keep our boards bags in and a large patio with dinning table to converse. There were two other people staying as we arrived, one being Francisco from Spain and the other Ben from Australia. Both super easy going guys, Francisco did a lot of spearfishing, basically all day everyday unless he was fixing his spear gun or the waves were to big. Ben on the other hand loved to lounge in his hammock and read whenever he wasn't getting ridiculously barreled sitting way out the back ever session getting some of deepest barrels I've seen in person!
A few hours after arriving, settling in, unpacking, and getting a quick mie goreng (fried noodle and vegetables) Jeremy and I headed out for a surf. There was nobody out and we saw a few fun lil waist to chest high fun rippable waves coming through with nobody out. We were careful for the first few waves since it was lowtide and quite shallow on the inside, after about 30 minutes we slowly made our way deeper and farther out to better waves. On my 4th wave, 45 minutes into our first session I took off on the biggest wave we had seen so far only about 5ft and had a late drop, air dropping a few feet before landing and unfortunately sticking the nose and falling over the front of the board. I had penetrated the water luckily and popped out the back unscathed until I pulled my board toward sme and saw there was only half remaining. I quickly yelled out a few curse words as it was a basically brand new board and one of the favorite shaped I've had in a long time, but what can you do.
It wasn't the best way to start the two weeks here but luckily I have 3 more boards knowing this would happen eventually. I didn't surf the rest of the day but sat behind the camera lense and got some shots of the boys getting some fun ones till the sun went down and the Beer caps started popping of the bottles......
Look out for Part II coming in the next few weeks!
Tuesday we decided to head down towards Uluwatu for a morning sesh again, we got in the water around 10. It seemed quite a bit less crowded today for some reason, but of course we were not complaining. We both caught lots of fun smaller waves down towards racetracks, also a few up toward the middle, ended up surfing for almost 2 hours. We got out and checked some pictures that the photo guys got, we each got a few sequences, and Jeremy had some sick backside snap shots. After running into our older lady friend Jodie, that we have been kidding joking around with the last week we had been surfing there. Shes funny speaks good English and is always saying something to make us laugh, we trucked it up the hundred or so stairs back to the top and scooted back to our place for lunch. We enjoyed another great lunch of pasta carbonara that we both have been obsessed with the last few weeks, I also got my usual coca cola and french fry fix, that Jeremy always rags on me about. After lunch we both chilled on the balcony and tapped away at our computers looking up where we should travel to next. We decided to stay on Bali for the next two weeks but move to a few different spots like Canggu, Seminyak, and Sanur (near Kerama's) until we need to renew our Visa's again. Then we are going to try and make a big trip to either west Java home to Ombak and Turtle's or to Sumbawa where the infamous Lakey Peak is. We researched transportation, airfare, prices, roads, food, accomodation, surf forecasts, and spots, it really takes a lot sometimes to find a smart plan that will work out. After we had finished we decided to stop by the Flame Balls surf shop to pick up a surf movie I had been seeing displayed the whole time we have been here, it's called Indo (link to trailer), starring the islands best surfers. We looked through a few books he had on the shelves to check out the spots we had been researching, after getting some more info we headed back to Sunset Grill to get a pizza that sounded good to both of us! When we got back I started editing my second webisode that you can watch here , I have always been interested in making movies and this is the perfect opportunity to start my hand at it.
Wednesday the waves were awful small so we didn't surf, I was on the computer for quite a bit trying to upload my second webisode. I had finished editing it the night before, the internet has it's times where it doesn't work at all so it took almost 4 hours to upload it. As I waited Jeremy and I went down to the water snorkeled, swam, and got some Go Pro footage, it was actually nice and relaxing to just float around and enjoy the ocean. We made the walk up the 150 or so stairs back to our place we were staying, enjoyed a great lunch once again, we started packing up and getting ready to leave in the morning for Canggu. We went back to Uluwatu to grab some photos we had saved on the photo guys computers from the last week and a half of surfing. Me and Jeremy both got some cool pictures from each and haggled them down to a fair price, then we went to our favorite lil warung Salin for our last meal there for awhile. The waves were small, it was super low tide, but the sunset and setting was beautiful, while leaving we ran into a taxi guy and negotiated a price to get to the hostel in Canggu, he agreed to be at our place at 7:30am the next morning. We got back and popped in the movie Indo that we had bought the night before, it is an awesome surf flick that any surfer would enjoy. It was especially cool to us since we have now surfed some of the spots in the movie and also have seen a few of the surfers in the movie out surfing since we have been here!
Thursday morning we got up early and made sure we had everything, and the taxi was there shortly, loaded the bags inside and hit the road. It took about an hour and half to get to Canggu, which is about 20 miles away, but the traffic and scooters everywhere makes it hard for a car to go anywhere fast in the more populated areas of Bali. We got into town and the driver couldn't find the place with the address we had given him, It happens quite often when you ask for a ride somewhere they just say yes so they can get the ride and money. But more often than not they don't even exactly know where that place is, we drove around aimlessly for over a half hour, we were heading down the bumpy gang (alley) half asleep from not getting much sleep the night before, I saw out of the corner of my eye a hammock in the front porch of a yard. I had seen that hammock and small lounge area in the picture on the website, I yelled stop here it is, we finally arrived! The owner of the hostel Bryce popped out and greeted us, we moved our stuff into our lil two bed room, we hopped on the scooter he had gotten for us for $3 a day and followed him to go check the waves. It was small and crowded out front where were staying, he said he new of a chilled out secret spot a good ways up the road, we headed back to the house, packed on the boards and hit the road. I can usually keep up with the roads were going down and know how to get back, but I couldn't keep up after 10 minutes, this spot was so hard to get to, I can see how there was nobody there. It was beautiful scenery and much different than the bukit where we were staying, the roads wind in and out of small rolling hills through the colorful villages with terraced rice paddies filling any open land you can see in sight! Every person we scooted by gave a us a smile and the lil kids playing and riding there bikes wave and yell Hiiiiiiiii, it's truly amazing to be in a place where people are just happy to see somebody they have never seen before. We ended up at the surf spot and took the scooters on the beach and drove a mile or so down for a surf check, took me back to a trip deep into Mex when we drove the trucks down on to the black sand beach, always love mixing my love of motorcycles and the beach! We parked the scooters and paddled out to some fun 3-4ft, beach break waves coming in with nobody out, surfed for a few hours till the wind picked up. Grabbed a liter water from the lil warung on the beach for $8,000rp (approx 80 cents) , chugged it and back onto the scooter for the adventurous ride back. We stopped at a awesome lil food joint Bryce frequents and each made our own hand picked bowl of rice, veggies, and meat for about a buck and half, we all woofed it down hen finally got back to the house. We sifted through the hundred something movies he has accumulated over the years he has been here, there all in a think plastic sleeve, you can buy each movie for about a buck and there was everything from endless summer 2 up to Taken 2. We all layed down and watched a few movies, later Bryce to us to a sweet dinner, 3 course meal for lil over 5 bux, we all got our own plate that sounded good and talked story and munched for the next hour. It was an awesome first day here in Canggu and can't wait for what were going to find to do tomorrow!
Friday we went down towards the same area we went the first day but tried a new spot lil farther past, explored a bit to find a new spot. We went out and caught a few lil nuggets, it was small like waist high but you could find a few here and there that wouldn't wall up. We made the 45 minute mission back to the house, stopped by the mart to get some ice cream and snacks, literally just sat down n watch movie for 3 hours! It gets tiring waking up early, scootering for a few hours round trip and then surfing, all in the sun and humidity, so we need a lil relax time midday. One of our friend's we have met here had a volleyball, so we all decided to play some pepper down at the beach before Sunset. It was actually really fun since I haven't played volleyball in a long time, a few locals on the beach ended up playing with us the whole time! We took a dip in the water before heading back to the house, we met up with some friend's down at the beach for dinner at a great lil local spot. We finished the night with the movie Blow which is a personal favorite of mine and our hostel owner Bryce's
Saturday we had all decided the night before to wake up early to try and get to the spot we surfed the day before early enough so the wind didn't come up! We got down there by 8am and it looked fun like the day before but still small, it's just nice to go on a drive like that deep into some villages with lil kids smiling and waving as you fly by on the scooter. On the way back we stopped at our local favorite already, Warung Bu Mi, where you can pick between 20 dinner sorts of meat, veggies, rice, sauce, and sides. You basically make what you want on a big plate, usually costs around 15,000 Rupiah ($1.50USD), the food is so flavorful and fresh. We did the usual chills sesh for a few hours at the house, one of Bryce's friend's from Australia (where he is from also) came to visit the night before from Singapore where he works. It's a quick 3 hour plan flight, and he says it's nice to get away from there come here for the weekend to surf and kick it with his mate. We packed up the scooters again to head back to the secret beach to hopefully grab an evening sesh, we got there to a blown out 2 ft wind chop, so we headed back to our local break. On the way back Jeremy and I got separated from Bryce and his mate Cameron, we got stuck behind a tourist charter bus, which basically takes up the whole road since the roads are small enough as it is. As I went for a sketchy pass on the bus around the corner, I had to slow down to dodge a scooter coming head on and then a stopped car behind him. At the speed we were going, which wasn't very fast but fast enough to not be able to stop in time to avoid hitting the stopped car, I had to make the quick decision of dodging the car and threading the needle between the now 3 ft gap next to the bus still turning the corner about to pinch us. Within 2 seconds we went from going head on with a scooter, dodging a van, then slipping in between the bus and van, and finally straightening out to not fly off the side of the road into the rice paddies, I forgot to also mention with surfboards strapped on the side of our scooter. Lets just say after Jeremy opened his eyes thinking we were dead or on the hood of a van, he was a bit mad, since it probably wasn't the smartest decision but we were still alive. Finally arriving at the sandbar surf spot just out front we got a quick evening surf in some okay choppy shoulder high peaks. We decided on hitting a pizza joint we had passed many times on our way to surf, and pizza is something we can both agree on and enjoy, must say it was pretty good but my standards. We got back to the house and some new guys had showed up, they were from Germany and had been staying here before we left, but just got back from Nusa Lembongan (an island a quick ferry away). Super cool guys that rip at BMX back home, they are also just traveling around Asia seeing as much as they can, we had a few beers with them, I passed out early and Jeremy stayed up a bit later just chatting.
Just another dinner watching an unbelievable sunset in Bali!
Offerings they make a few times a week and are put out every morning to wish a good day of business.
Impossibles on low tide.
Stuffed in the back of a taxi for the ride to Canggu
