Thursday, March 20th, 2008
above: by myself in the jeep drving back from Ubud and caught this sunset at Kuta Beach
For the majority of the time in Bali we chose Masa Inn in Kuta as our base of operations. This place cost us $33 USD ($11 each) per nite and we might as well have been staying in a palace. In our spacious, well air-conditioned room we each had our own bed, cable TV, and a hot shower- luxuries you don’t often find in South East Asia. The expansive hotel grounds featured two pools, impressive buddhist statues and shrines, and the greenest most meticulously manicured grounds where guests often played rounds of croquet. It all felt really surreal and out of place compared to most of our other accomodations.
For transportation we rented a jeep which only cost us $15 USD ($5 each) per day. Around day three or four and after sunburn and soreness were setting in from surfing endless hours of 6-8 foot swell, we set off to explore the island.
If you think you’ve seen some crazy driving in your days, I implore you to rent a car in Bali. I’ve driven in Africa, Thailand, Costa Rica, NYC, etc… nothing can prepare you for the experience of driving in Bali. A two lane road at any given time is 1 1/2 lanes wide, streets are poorly marked/ constantly changing names and there is no such thing as a road map at the local convenient store. Ninjas i.e. crazy-bastards-on-mopeds are passing you in swarms on both sides, roads are heavily congested for stated reasons, potholes abound and emerge out of nowhere… all this takes place while driving on the opposite side of the road and shifting gears with your opposite hand.
above: our travel route across Bali with marked areas of interest.
Its amazing how beautiful this island is once you get off the beaten path. Along our route to Tulamben in the north we took plenty of time to absorb the views and the culture. We stopped along lush green rice paddies to watch the women pull the rice while men tilled the earth with ox and plow. We observed a funeral procession of hundreds of Balinese making their way through a village street. It was quite the noisy and interesting spectacle, and a local explained that the aim is to confuse the spirit so that it can not find its way back home.
After exploring the beaches along the north coast and getting in a few days of excellent dives and snorkeling, we dropped down through the interior to the volcanoe, Batur. Batur is a double caldera– one crater inside another. It looked magnificent in the distance as we approached along the meandering mountain road. The hike into the crater of the volcanoe is supposed to be out of this world, but we didn’t get the opportunity becuase to the weather conditions.
Monday, March 17th, 2008
The SS Liberty was a 411 ft. US cargo ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese during World War II. It rests off of the NE coast of Bali in 30 meters of water. We dove the wreck twice, once during the day and once at night. Visibility was pretty good and we saw a lot of really cool aquatic life such as Bumphead Parrotfish, Giant Grouper, Lionfish, and Moray Eels.
above: the venomous Lionfish.
The night dive was really different to anything I had done before. First of all, it made the shipwreck extra creepy. You could only see about 3-4 meters in the immediate direction of the spotlight. Huge grouper and bumphead parrotfish would pop up out of nowhere. Different fish were more prevelant at night so it was like diving a completely different spot than during daylight.
Monday, March 17th, 2008
above: rice field outside of Ubud
The people in Bali (the Hindus and the Buddhists) are the most friendly people I have ever encountered. Anywhere. They make eye contact and smile as they walk by and some actually go in for a handshake. In the clubs, locals will come up smiling and give you a hi-five and ask how you like Bali? I kept thinking they must want something from me. By the twentieth guy that introduced himself to me (on the side of the street) and struck up a conversation (usually about Bali, or girls, or “where else have you traveled?”) and didn’t try to sell me something, i finally conceded that they were just really that happy and friendly. On more than one occasion, one of us overpayed for something accidentally, and the local made the effort to track us down on the street and return the difference. I’ve never heard so much laughter while surfing as that which was coming from the Balinese guys in the lineup. And yet there’s incredible poverty throughout the country. Just goes to show that paradise is a state of mind.
The dollar stretches and stretches in Indonesia. One US dollar equals 10,000 Rupia. We stayed comfortably in some really nice places (some beach front) for about $5-$8 dollars for person per night. Although the Balinese food was the worst any of us had ever had, an average meal cost about $1.50. Everyone wants to know why we thought the food was so bad… believe me we were all looking forward to trying Balinese cuisine ourselves. First of all there really isn’t much “Balinese Cuisine.” They generally copy everything off of other menus from around the world (mostly Thai, Chinese, or Australian dishes) and then they do a really bland or unpalatable rendition. It took us two tries in two different restaurants to give up on “Fresh Seafood Platters.” Highlights included a measly little Red Snapper thrown in the fryer with the scales still on, and Tiger Prawns barely the size of standard shrimp back home, battered and fried, legs, heads, guts, and all. Still hungry?
left: Tosh high rollin’ with 250 Million Rupia in 50,000 denominations. right: picturesque Sanur beach on the east coast all to ourselves
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
People often ask me if I would recommend traveling to many of the third-world locales that I have visited. Thats really hard for me to answer because the style of travel that I prefer is not the commonly accepted practise. I can’t imagine staying in a resort the same way my mom can’t imagine showing up in a foreign country without a reservation.
It takes some nerves. I get lost a fair bit. Sometimes all the good accomodations have no vacancy and I spend an hour lugging a backpack up and down foreign streets in 90 degree heat (or late at night) looking for some shelter. Sometimes I get landlocked for a day (or two) because I missed the last seat on a bus, plane, or ferry leaving town. I can say with certainty that I am well-versed in paying bribes to corrupt officials.
But its a pure form of travel– I go the way the wind blows and I let everything happen for its own reason. I rely on tips from other travelers, advice and knowledge from locals, the weather, and most of all a well-developed sixth sense. I end up finding paradise in places most people wouldn’t put forth the effort to look. The experience getting there (for better or worse) often ends up being more memorable than the breathtaking view that I was searching for.
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
above: Barong dancers from Ubud… we’ll get to that later.
I was supposed to meet my friends Mal and Tosh in Bali on Feb 3! We had established that six months prior but that was the extent of the plan. No meeting point, meeting time, or plan had been enacted. I realize this about three days before my flight. This suddenly reminds me of trying to locate these guys a year ago in Thailand– it was basically a treasure hunt across the country…
I was on my first flight connecting in Darwin and I hadn’t heard a word. Checked email in the airport in Darwin and jackpot… sort of… actually not really at all. It says they are flying into Bali from Singapore arriving an hour after me (10 PM), and to just wait for them in the airport. Only my flight is delayed 2 hours, putting me in around midnight and an hour after their arrival. I reply with this vital information sure that it will not reach them in due time. The likely scenario plays out in my mind: they get to the airport and no Chase. they wait half an hour, its getting late, they decide i didn’t get their email and they leave. They check email about once a week so this is a disaster. damn. I’m sweating uncertainty as I step off the plane in Denpasar, Bali and feel the humid, island air…
Well once again luck is with me. Mal actually checked his email twice in one day on the exact day I would need him to perform this act the most. I walk out into the open-air lobby and there in the front of the crowd, are two familiar faces donning a sign for “Marty McCall” (1 of 20 nicknames) and three ice-cold Bintang beers. This was awesome, and much man-on-man hugging and camaraderie ensued.
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
Sydney was dead to me… I had to get out. I was there for three or four days. It rained the whole time. Me and cities we don’t really see eye to eye– I need the fresh air and the sunshine, a lot of blue and a lot of green, room to stretch out without bumping into someone. So when I met Fred and Andy in a backpacker watering-hole and they suggested I join them on a surfing expedition up the coast, I knew I had a winner. Ambitious plans were made. Words like “glory” and “epic adventure” were thrown around, and tequila was had by all. It was a celebration.
We struck out the following morn at said time from said location, in a campervan that looked and smelled of Scooby Doo. Andy who was from the UK, reminded me for the most part of a watered-down British version of me- I knew we were going to be like peas and carrots. Fred was priceless in his own right- French and quirky as all get out. He told me the craziest story I have ever heard in my whole life. get this… he and some other guys who were all traveling in Cambodia decided to buy a boat and follow the Mekong River up into Vietnam. They end up buying some rickety old tugboat-like vessel and strike out on their adventure. well they get there coordinates wrong into the fourth day and cross the border without realizing it… and without clearing immigration. They are greeted the next morning to Vietnamese coastgaurds with machine-guns capturing their ship and conveying threats of jail time or execution. They pay a couple hundred in bribes just to get the Vietnamese to escort them back to the border where they spend hours and hundreds of dollars in more bribes to the Cambodians. They finally are granted official entrance into Vietnam. Ok this is taking too long, anyway the ships ends up sinking one night while they are on it. The first official on the scene tells them they will have to pay heavy fines maybe jail time for making part of the river impassable. In a crazy chain of events they make a run for it and flee the scene. Next they hitchhike in the back of fruit trucks through the night to the nearest airport and hop the first flight out of the country. wowsers.
left: Andy at the card table w/ some new friends. right: Fred…
The guys were following something that looked like a scribbled down treasure map and swore that they had received a hot tip about a magical place near Crescent Head. A friend of a friend had stayed at this “surf shack in the middle of nowhere sort of” where backpackers in-the-know could find quiet paradise and perfect waves. Two days, seven hours of driving, three missed turns, and an unmarked dirt road later… we did indeed come to find the fabled Mojo’s Surf Shack. Long story short: we were kickin it classic. California in the 60’s classic… a week of perfect waves, some new friends, campfires, drinking games, smore’s, guitars, hammocks, and heaps of sunshine.
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
Upon arriving into Australia via Sydney, took a few days to explore the city. I can say that it is very clean and picturesque (if you’re into cities you would love it here) but i definately prefer more green and blue and less people. It rained most of the time i was there. Other than hiking the bridge and the harbor to get these shots, the highlight of my time in Sydney was seeing Beowulf in 3D at Imax! Did take a day trip to Bondai Beach but it was way too crowded for my taste, despite the throngs of topless girls and g strings. Lets get out of here!
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
I’m skipping a span of about a week where I was camping around Coff’s Harbour surfing 8+ hours every day, and the story of the infamous cougar wrestling incident- maybe i’ll go back later and recount these events…
A
After making it to Byron Bay for a crazy nite, caught an early bus to Brisbane to meet up with my Aussie friends Jen and Boothie for Australia Day. Aussie Day is like the equivalent to 4th of July back home! Except everyone dresses up in rediculous Aussie outfits– bonus points for short shorts or speedos etc. Jen was hosting a barbeque and party at her family house. Grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs and played Cricket in the backyard in between playing in the pool and shotgunning 4X Gold- the local beer of choice. Her friends and family are heroes! Thank you Kerrs!
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Ok way back when, when I was in New Zealand…
Team Extreme parted ways in Queenstown and I headed north into the heart of the South Island for some world-class white-water rafting. Flowing down from Mt. Hutt(?) w/ a vengeance is the Rangitata River- full of raging class 4 and 5 rapids.
Here’s the cool part! You know i like a little adventure… was crossing my fingers for some action on the river and got it! On an average day it flows 80 cubic meters/ sec. At 200 its “too dangerous” to raft and they shut it down. The day I spent traveling to get to the rafting lodge it poured buckets of rain all day and all night… woke up to a pristine, sun shiny morning and a pissed-off Rangitata flowing at 180 cubic meters/sec.
Wait till you see the photos- every one is like huge whitewater consuming the raft and you can barely pick out little flecks of color of helmets or paddles here and there. awesome! Took about three solid hours to get down the river- 2 of 4 rafts flipped, one a couple of times- they were special. got some funny pics of them upside down in the rapids. Stopped off at the end for some clif dives and a barbeque. cm
I’m going to be turbo over the next few days to get some posts out one way or another so check it out. Come visit!
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Becuase of EXPLANATION A., I’m going to just write quick stories to stay more intouch, and then go back and add photos or edit/add more to the stories whenever I can. So just remember from now on i’ll be continually updating things you may think you have already seen.
PS. I really miss everybody!
EXPLANATION A:
There’s a process involved. 1. download photos from camera 2. resize each photo to websize files. 3. upload files to internet. 4. link photos on internet to the post 5. talk about it
The problem is finding a computer that doesn’t freeze up, has decent internet connection, and has some sort of photo-editing software installed so I can get the pics on the site. For instance this computer doesn’t have capability for me to put up any pictures… bogey.
