What could have been a short 2-hour flight ended up in a whole day’s mission due to some bad travel arrangements. I flew to Singapore with the rest of the boat crew. We landed at 5.15pm and my flight to Bali was at 7pm. Our plane taxied about 10min to get to its spot and it took quite a while for us to disembark. I realized that I had a very good chance of losing my flight to Bali so I had to rush to the baggage area. The only problem with travelling with boards is that you have to wait forever for them to be released. I don’t know if they scan all the boards for drugs, but it always takes a long time to get them. I eventually got my boards at 6.05pm and had less than an hour before our flight left, never mind the check in. I was still in terminal 1 and my flight left from terminal 2. I had to run through the airport with a bag on my back, a bag on my chest and pulling an 8ft long board bag, which looked like it might have a body stashed inside it!
I had to take the Sky Train to terminal 2 and the people in the train were looking very strangely at me. You can imagine what they must’ve been thinking of this European man pulling this body bag behind him, looking very lost and confused. I mean I look lost and confused at the best of times, now just imagine what I must look like when I’m really lost, dazed and confused. As the doors opened I ran through the terminal like the cops were after me. When I got to the check in counter the line zigzagged with about 200 people in it. I realized that I would not make my flight if I just stood in the line. I saw a lady standing at a closed counter, so I put on my best Bambi face and asked if she could help me. She obliged and I made my flight with about 3 minutes to spare. I was finally on my way to Bali !
Bali – what a great place – never a dull moment,-fantastic people, -interesting -sensory overload.
Bali for the surfer is a place with lots of different waves and lots of different surf spots for all sorts of skill levels, but it can get very crowded.
Tom and Brad picked me up from the airport and they took me to Bingin were we stayed at Stickey’s place for the night. Bingin is a beautiful place but to get down to the bottom is quite a mission and even worse of a mission to get back to the top.
Being on a boat for 2 weeks has a weird effect on you because it feels like you are still rolling even when you are on land. Waking up at night was the worst, since I was rolling so much I had to support myself while walking around during the night. This carried on for about 3 nights. The surf in Bali wasn’t great when we were there, but we were here to meet up with some friends and then to head to G-Land. We made the most of the windy and small swell conditions and kept ourselves busy with some sight seeing and some other amazing experiences, like going to the Uluwato temple to watch the Kecak and Fire dance. If there is one thing that I would recommend a Bali’s first timer to do, then it would be to go and watch this.
Why? Coz it’s a blend of culture and breathtaking scenery.
The dance is a traditional Balinese dance, in which hundreds of men dance and shout in harmony. It has a storyline, and with the help of a leaflet that’s provided, it’s easy to follow.
The costumes were quite amazing and the dancing extremely interesting. All went well until they made a ring of fire around this monkey. Well it looked like this p-off ‘ed the monkey and he went bos. He started kicking these fireballs into the night sky.
He miss-kicked one and the ball of fire went into the crowd not to far from us. We thought that that was pretty radical and we were ready to block the next salvo from this crazy monkey. Luckily he got his kicking boots back on and steered the next flame balls harmlessly past the crowd. I would recommend people to go and watch this; just take a fire extinguisher for your own safety!
Ubud was another place I really enjoyed. It has a mixture of very interesting curio shops, restaurants, arty shops, rice paddies and temples and all sorts of interesting people all intertwined in one amazing place. Definitely a place you can take your girl friend or your wife. This will earn a lot of brownie points and you can work on the relationship when the swell is flat and you have been surfing way too much.
We picked Gareth up, the fourth member of our party, at the airport and stayed in Kuta for the next two days.
Kuta = Shopping , surfing , maze of roads , party, party, party.
Yes. This is the Sodom and Gomorra of Indo. In the day it has a very nice relaxed vibe, but it’s at night when all the fun starts in this town. One night we hit the town and what an experience! Our final stop was at the Bounty, just one of the hundreds of places to party in Kuta. Things warmed up and we were dancing with everything from wasted Aussie and American surfers, indo prostitutes, Transvestites and techno heads around us. At first we were drinking drinks out of normal glasses but at the end of the evening we were drinking cocktails out of glasses that resembled fish bowls. We had a great time but when the “he/she” started to get a bit too friendly we decided to duck.
On our way back to our hotel Brad wanted to try to get all four of us, plus the indo guy, onto a scooter. Needless to say that this was very silly and wasn’t successful. Only the indo families can pack 5 people onto a scooter. A bit further down the road in one of the lanes a lady on a scooter stopped next to us and tried to grab Tom and get friendly with him. After his cold shoulder treatment she turned her attention to me. We decided to get out of there like quick! The evening took its toll since it took a while to get Tom and Brad up to speed the next morning….
We spent the rest of the day surfing Uluwato.
The waves were clean and 3ft. It’s quite an awesome feeling climbing down the stairs and paddling out of the cave of this mystic place. The only problem is that Uluwato gets very busy. After my surf I had an amazing banana pancake and massage from some ladies at the Uluwato warung.
A good way to get around Bali is to rent a scooter. It’s safe and heaps of fun. We rented bikes after returning from G-land and we were like kids.
We were scooting around the island and had so much fun. We raced around the maze of roads in Kuta and then went surfing at Uluwato. I even got stopped by an Indo cop and refused to pay a bribe. I thought he was going to arrest me and put me in jail but eventually he let me go and I realized that these schmucks were just out to make a quick buck for themselves out of the tourists. I was probably stupid because I could still be on an all expenses paid holiday in an Indo jail, and believe me these jails make Pollsmore look like Sun City.
After hanging out at Ulu’s we went back to our hotel and prepared for the next leg of our trip…G-Land
