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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Outter reefs in Sanur

     Thursday was our first day in the new town were in called Sanur, we headed down to get some breakfast and rent a scooter. Had a nice lil breakfast downstairs while waiting for our scooter, we packed up the boards and went down to the beach to check the surf out front. We ended up in front of a resort where I saw some white wash way out there, started talking to a few guys with boats to see if could get a ride out there, ended up finding a guy that would take us out there and pick us up when were done for $5 each. We hopped on the skiff and cruised out to where we saw a decent left coming through, there were a few local guys out, they were nice and we all surfed this left for about an hour and half. It was really weird being about a mile off the beach in the middle of the ocean surfing, both of us caught some really long waves, getting 8 turns on a few for over 100 yards! It was a fun session and there were other waves breaking farther out and both off to the right and left of us, we think this place has some great potential but the waves and swell direction have to be right for it to get over here. After we got back to the beach, ran into a local guy that looked like he had just gone surfing also, talked to him for awhile and he said he goes and checks a few spots around there area, so said we would meet him down here tomorrow and hop a ride with him to the reefs. We got back to the hotel and both grabbed a burger for lunch since it was so good the night before, Jeremy was stoked to get a decent size burger also. Sat back and relaxed for a bit in our room which has AC and a TV which is both new to us haha, we wanted to go cruise around a bit, so hopped on the scooter and explored. Went down the beach road and saw all the cool lil shops and food, saw a sweet place we wanted to try for dinner. Got onto the bypass which is basically a big 2 lane highway that takes you around the island, except lanes aren't really put into use here. It looks like a nascar race with people on scooters all over the road not in a lane just weaving in and out of the cars going about 50mph, it is madness, you have to be alert and have your fingers on both brakes, gas, and horn at all times! We were on our way to Kerama's to see the setup, we made a turn onto a new highway in the right direction and were immediately pulled over at a checkpoint. Basically they ask for your scooter registration and an international driver license that both of us don't have, we tried to haggle with the guy for a bit. But ended up having to go to an atm to get some money out and come back to pay the guy so we could get our registration back. Gave him the $25 bucks, took back our registration and got the F outta there, pretty crappy situation but it is what it is, we got to Kerama's and it was windy, choppy, and no one out.  We hung around for a few but not long then headed back for dinner, went to a cool little Italian place called Sale Pepe that we saw earlier in the day. Each of us got a pizza that was pretty tasty, at the end of the meal they offered us a free lemon cello shot, both smelt the liquor and then just said eh and went for it. The shot ended up being pretty tasty, got back to the hotel which was literally around the corner and watched some TV before both passing out.
     Friday we got up early to meet our new friend Wayan down at the beach so we could go on the boat with him out to the reefs, another guy joined us also, his name was Rory and he was from New Zealand. We cruised out on the boat to check out a few spots, ended up surfing next to a large shipwreck, the waves were pretty fun at first lil overhead, then a few larger sets rolled through that were big and washed us down the reef. All of us ended up surfing a good size left for about 2 hours, it's so weird being so far out to sea, kinda sucks though since there is so much water moving around your getting sucked every which way and sometimes you might have to duck dive 15 or more waves just to get back out! Headed back to the beach and hung out for awhile and chatted with Rory and Wayan, Rory was telling me about an adventure he took with a friend. He and a friend sailed form Newport Beach to Fiji and in a year, since I got into sailing a few years back, I get very interested in these kinds of adventures that I would like to do someday. I picked his brain with 100 questions about the trip and how he prepared, I was also talking to Wayan for awhile about the kite surfing lessons he gives and how to kite, which is also something I would like to try when I get back home. After chatting and playing with a lil puppy running around, headed back to our hotel and both grabbed lunch and chilled in the room for awhile before dinner. For dinner we tried an italian place that Rory mentioned was the best in town, we got there just in time before it got busy, both of us had the Ravioli's that I thought were delicious. After paid the bill we were then introduced to one of our most frequented places on the trip, gelato... it was delicious and gone in less than a few minutes!
     Saturday we headed back down to the get on the boat with Wayan, this time found a pretty big right that was in between the waves we surfed the last 2 days. There were a few other people out but not for long, we each caught some double overhead waves and a few that we got some good snaps and turns on. But it was once again a lot of work to keep in the same spot, and you don't have anywhere to judge how far in or out to sit since your no where near a beach or land. On my last wave I got caught on a turn and went over the falls, and while falling I landed on my tailbone right on the rail of my board, my back got super sore, and as I started paddling in I noticed my board got a pretty bad crack on the rail, so I headed back to the boat. We motored back in as the wind started to pick up and the tide was getting super high, the water was washing up the beach and over a lil seawall in front of some locals shops and almost getting to there food and clothes that they sell. On our way back we  hit a cool lil warung on the corner, I got a mei goreng which is a local Indonesian meal with noodles, veggies, and chicken, I liked it and it's nice to try something different. Jeremy had a pretty bad headache so he chilled in the room but I went to explore this lil island nearby, it's called Serangon and supposed to have a surf break on it. I got onto the island and was exploring for awhile trying to get to the spot where I thought the wave was, on the way I went through some awesome areas of small lakes and bays that reminded me of going to Lake Havasu back home. The island was like it's own little world, most people that lived on it never left, there were places to eat, temples, lil warung's, hotels, and some fun boat  and water rental activities in the harbor. I finally got the wave after some searching, it's a sweet lil beach with 6 or so warung's lined up looking out into the ocean, I sat down at the only one still open by this time and got a snack and coca cola. A lady walked up and I started chatting and I ended up buying these cool lil hand made turtles she made, she didn't have changed for the $5 I gave her so instead she offered a massage, I said sure why not sounds like a good deal! It was a great shoulder massage while enjoying a cola and chatting about all her friend's she had met over the years from America and of course she asked me if I knew all of them haha! I had to start heading back since it was getting dark and I didn't want to get stuck on the scooter on the busy by pass on the way back, as I got back Jeremy was feeling a bit better from having a lil snack downstairs. I got something to eat for dinner also and went to pick up my surfboard from a ding guy down the street that fixed my crack for a few bucks, wanted to get it done right since its a brand new board!
     Sunday we packed up and headed down to a spot I saw the day before when dropping my board off at the ding guy, it looked like a cool setup and there was nobody out! We watched for about 20 minutes, this perfect lil over head peak coming in with nobody around. It looked kinda shallow,but any surfer will tell you how awesome it is finding new waves that you have never surfed before, especially when there's nobody out you get way more stoked. I said F it lets go and Jeremy said alright I'm in, we paddled out through a shallow channel and then a few hundred feet to the wave, halfway out we saw another guy paddle out behind us, when we got out there it ended up being a local guy. We asked him a bit about the wave since he said he surfed here all the time, just sitting there it was shallow about 3-4 ft deep, and not just reef, but live coral, like colorful coral you would basically go snorkel in, pretty heavy... I caught the first left and took it easy and got outta there before it bowled up to super shallow section, after a few more I found out the right was actually pretty fun and a lil more rippable. We surfed the peak for hour and half and as a few guys paddled out during the end of the sesh, we decided to paddle a few hundred yards up the beach to a long point break looking wave we noticed. This spot was now a lot more crowded but looked like a longer wave, the reef was also sketchy, we both caught a few goods ones before heading in for good. Both of us were dead since we just surfed for almost 3 hours and paddled around a lot bunch, we brought some money so grabbed a sandwich with fries at a nice spot right on the sand, I had been looking into the zoo here on Bali and really wanted to go check it out. We got back from lunch and chilled for a few before heading out to the zoo, it was less than a 30 min scooter ride away, got there and Jeremy immediately headed for the tigers. Checked out the whole zoo for over 2 hours and saw every animal and got some great GoPro footage for my new webisode. The zoo is much different form one back home, we were able to walk into some of animals habitats and get up close and personal with some large and baby deer, bats, peacocks, and other exotic birds. I love animals so I was stoked to see some that I had not seen in a long time and definitely a few I had never seen before, just all in all a great experience. We got back and grabbed some dinner downstairs and watched Rugby with all the aussies that stay here, the owner is aussie and I guess this is just the hotel they come to and watch there rugby!
     Monday we went back down to the spot we surfed the day before with the fun peak, sat down for some breakfast while watching both of the spots, but the wind was just onshore making both waves really bad. Decided to go check out the other side by Kuta since the wind should be offshore or at least much much calmer there, we went back to the room to grab a few more bucks and look on the map for a quick direction to head. As we got over there to check out the beach, it was really big and pretty closed out, thought about trying to hop a boat out to the reefs, talked to a guy and he wanted $10 each. It looked pretty crowded out there from what we could see, so just decided to paddle out to the beach break, it wasn't very god at all but at least we were getting in the water. Both of us had to work pretty hard to get a good one but they would come through here and there, it was a lot of paddling and duck diving since it was a beach break and the waves were around 10ft faces. Got back onto the beach and enjoyed a coca cola while hanging with a few locals and chatted about some other surf spots in the area. It's really cool whenever you talk to a local surfer here, there not stingy or weird about telling you where the good waves are.  guess if your nice and they can tell that your a decent surfer they don;t mind sharing some tips on, they will tell you directions to the spots, tides, swell directions and everything, most people back home would never give up a decent spot! We were both starving so we hit the road to get back to grab lunch, on the way back I stopped by a post office to try and track a package my mom had sent me. After lunch I decided to scoot over to the post office in Denpasar, the biggest city here on Bali, to try and get my package, I then find out I have to pay $30 for customs and taxes before I can leave with the package! I was more than furious after everything I have gone through to try and get this package, I tried to negotiate since I disn't have that much on me, but apparently the customs office was already closed so I just left and hopefully could come back tomorrow and figure it out. We went back to our first lil Italian spot Sale Pepe, the owner was there again and she was excited to see us, we enjoyed another great meal accompanied with a Bintang!
     Tuesday we had planned to head down to a wave we were told was near Kerama's but way less crowded, after a lil exploring we found it and it was big with huge barrels. Paddled out there and I caught the first wave, paddling back out I got pretty worked and drug on the sharp rock bottom, which I can say wasn't very forgiving. I got a few cuts on my hand and arms, and a nice cherry on my lower back, nothing to serious though, I walked back up the beach and paddled back out, there were only a few guys out here and now I know why, as I watched the biggest most perfect and heaviest barrels I have ever seen in my life! We each caught a few smaller ones, one I got pretty shacked on and was stoked, but the bottom was just so sketchy we just decided to paddle down the point where some others were at a less sketchy wave. A local ripper from Newport that most surfers know of Alex Knost was out surfing with some friends, I have surfed with him a few times around Newp, and he is just a trip. In his mid 20's but just has the style and mind set of the 70's era, and of course doesn't wear a leash, but he got some of the sickest and stylish barrels I have ever seen. We both caught a good amount of waves but I personally didn't have a good session, but it was a super sick spot and always cool to surf somewhere new! On the way back to the hotel I swung by the post office again, now with some money, I tried to talk them down on the price but it just wasn't happening, I payed took my package and left. We grabbed lunch at the hotel, relaxed, and cleaned up a bit since we are leaving here tomorrow to head back to Canggu for a few days to get our passports sorted out. We finished our last night here by going down to the beach and watching the waves for a bit since the tide was super low it makes everything so much different. Ate at a cool spot that had a pool table and ping pong that caught our eye, while waiting for our food we shot a game of pool and had a beer. After eating our pasta that we both enjoyed we hit the ping pong table and Jeremy basically cleaned house, apparently he plays a lot and I guess is ambidextrous in ping pong? We stopped by our favorite gelato place yet again for the last time, this time we made it count and got like 5 scoops each, great last night in this awesome lil town!

Fisherman at low tide

Sign says it all

Tiger jumping for food!

Orangutan

I volunteered to hold a vulture

The elephants were awesome

Our sweet tooth spot, italian gelato

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.