Bali: Ubud and The Bukit

We rented a van for half a day and checked out Ubud, Bali's art central. We didn't get to eat any babi guling (boo!) or see Antonio Blanco's gallery (boo!) but we did score a nice print for my mom (yay!), some carvings for JP's mom (yay!) and take a walk through the Monkey Forest where we found ourselves in the middle of a monkey tribe war. National Geographic moment!!!

In the afternoon, Phil and Moro surfed while the rest of us chilled on the beach with Teh Botols and, later, cold Bintang. :)

On the next day, we finally left Kuta beach to check out the Bukit Peninsula. On the agenda were Dreamland, Padang Padang and Uluwatu.

Dreamland is BEAUTIFUL. Terence plans to retire there. Hehe. Phil, Moro and Ter went out while Aya and I waited for the conditions to get a little better. Eh, wala. Hahahaha. So only the boys scored Dreamland... land of shoulder high shorebreaks. To be fair, the waves from outside were breaking naman but there were monster sets coming in that were hella scary. A lot of the guys out had to suffer close out barrels if they couldnt manage to bail in time.

Our new friends Sam and Paddy came up to us and said they were going to move to Padang Padang. They promised it would be smaller and cleaner. So, despite the rep Padang has, we went to check it out.

The break, which is usually hella gnarly, was nice and clean. So we did the pre-sunset session there. My fingers were so frozen that I couldnt feel my board anymore. On one of the bigger sets, I lost my grip and nearly dinged Moro on the head with my nose. Eeep! That kinda rattled me so I crept away from the peak and sat on the inside (again) with this cute Thai grommet. Got a few good rides but ultimately, nearly spearing Moro through the head had shaken me too much... so I left everyone and paddled in... (this is the good part)

While waiting for everyone to come in (Aya caught one of the best right handers that afternoon by the way... super yeah, yeah wave for Aya!!!), I noticed this girl about ten feet away from us... I thought I recognized her from somewhere but I wasnt sure... so I checked out her gear and her board... all Billabong... and I stared at her some more before I became convinced ... I WAS TEN FEET AWAY FROM SANOE LAKE!!! Sobrang kinikilig kami ni Aya.

I'll post our whole convo about it later cos it merits its own space. Suffice it na lang to say that we cam-whored with Sanoe, who is super nice and very friendly... and then went to Uluwatu to see the sunset.

We ditched the prices of Jimbaran Bay and ended up having dinner at this awesome place near Kuta Night Market. Go to the place owned by Romano. You cant miss him. He looks like he is on his nth round of roids, is cross-eyed and has this charming personality. Total character man. But one of the good guys. His food is cheap and tasty. Para siyang Gerry Shan of Bali. :)

All in all, a good day... even if the Dreamland waves did try to kill us.

For photos click this link

Bali 2007: From Kuta to Uluwatu

Landed in Jakarta well past midnight and spent the rest of the night at the house of Aya's tita (we slept girls in one room, boys in the other). Breakfast was thin slices of proscuito and heaping spoonfuls of nasi goreng. Then... off to Bali!

Arrived in the Island of the Gods after lunch and spent the first day getting settled in. Moro, JP and I were booked at Taman Ayu Bungalos -- really cheap place with clean rooms, comfortable beds, and a super friendly staff. I found out about Taman Ayu through Denver, who stayed there last year and made friends with one of the staff... this super nice local named Juli. Juli is the best.

Aya, Phil and Terence stayed down the street at Masa Inn. We heard about this place naman through Paolo and Cat (later backed up by Vince and Andrew). Value for money. Really great digs for a price you wont find in the Pinas.

Across Masa Inn is a restaurant called Nusa Indah. Yummy food at really low prices. Most of our meals were eaten here. Most of our Bintangs downed right after those meals. We made friends with one of the waiters pa. Komang (I know, whattaname!) became our command central... "Hey Komang, did you see Phil and Aya?" and he'd go "Yes, they just ate and went back to Masa Inn". Really convenient.

Oh... I took everyone to Legian Street the first night and introduced them to the Surfer Girl and Quiksilver store there. Third floor = sales floor. Little did any of us know that this was going to be a very small portion of what our shopping was going to be like. Hehe.

Surfing happened the second day. COLD water. So cold that after a while our fingers were going numb and our toes felt like they were going to fall off. But, since the swell had dropped off, we at least managed to have a fun session. I got long rides and got to practice my turning. Timing lang cos a lot of the waves were closing out and the sections that were consistently working were filled with locals we didnt wanna hassle.

Ano pa ba? Ah, Moro scored a board! He sold his 6'3 before we left for Bali so we were on a mission to find a a good deal on another board while we were there. The Kuta area is awash with surf shops so it took us a while to make a decision and to wrangle a good price. But on the third day of our stay, we made a choice - a 6'0 pintail Barreira board.

After we found our bearings, we decided to stick around the Kuta beach area for a few days, braving the cold water and the often close out waves. I made friends with some local instructors and they picked waves for me to take. Nothing great but deffo long fun rides. By this time, we'd all developed a taste for Teh Botol, a locally bottled tea drink. And we were starting to make friends with the vendors on the beach... getting discounts on our Teh Botols and Bintangs... and earning a safe place for us to leave our bags while we all surfed. (Most of the hangin' and surfin' Kuta pics are with Terence).

Moro and I took an afternoon off to head up to Uluwatu. We rented a motorbike (Rp80,000 with insurance for two days), asked Juli to draw us a map and took off. Ulu was small that day - small for typical Indo standards. As it was, waves were head high, peeling and perfect. We watched the line up at Ulu and this cool guy taking off on double overhead waves with his paddleboard at Temples. Then up to the temple itself to catch the sunset... and lose sunnies to a cunning macaque.

Terence joined us in the motorbike brigade the next day and we went off in search of... sales! Hahahaha. Really chill day lang using the bike, surfing a bit and then checking out Joe's Place for the first time. Think Big Sky but chiller pa.

Next up! Ubud and the Monkey Wars!