Well that was all a long time ago. Same story as always. In the end the sore throat went away, but made a comeback after a big night on the piss a week later. But I managed to kick it again with water.
That night, after sleeping most the day I went off and booked a trip to Lombok. And thence begins another chapter…
November 15, 1992
Wow man! Aeroplanes are incredible! I’m now on a 747-200 cruising over a place I spent 2 months getting the little picture. I’m sitting here going – wow that’s Nusa Lembongan, wow there’s Uluwatu, shit it took me 2 days to go from there to there and now I can see both at once!
Gosh its hard to get a pen that works.
Let’s try some thoughts on Indonesia.
It took me 2 months to find out the best way to do it. It was right in front of my nose all the time – but then if I’d gone straight to it I wouldn’t be satisfied that I’d seen the real Indonesia. I’m still not sure that I have but I’ve got a pretty solid impression.
I reckon just go to Kuta, rent a bike for as long as you intend to stay (about $3/day max) and stay down at Uluwatu or Bingin. You can sleep out there for free, as long as you eat the food which you have to do anyway – noodles, rice, jaffles, banana pancakes and bread are whats on offer. You stay there with a view from the cliff that you would never believe. You know exactly whats happening with the surf and wind and a perfect uncrowded break is easily fround within 30 mins by bike if the one in front of you is unsatisfactory. I did this for the last 4-5 days and had the bast time of my whole stay for less than 15,000rp ($10/day).
Now I must mention the surf on the last day.
I woke up at dawn after listening to the surf pounding all night to find it was HUGE!! (I’ll try not to rave too much this time). There were two other guys staying out at Ulu’s with me but they were in no hurry to get out there – had to have a coffee first. So I was the only one out at Uluwatu, again, in perfect big surf – on my gun 6’5 1/2″ which is a superb board but still not big enough. I paddled way way out to the main peak – not wanting to get caught by a set, and ended up catching two 10ft waves – about the same size as that day I called 15ft at Newport Reef.
About 1/2 hour later the other two came out and I joined them at outside corner where we surfed for 2 hours by ourselves before two others came out. We surfed the racetrack at 6ft, which is not the sort of 6ft we call 6ft at home. At home, in comparison 6ft is not that big – more of a really enjoyable size, challenging but not huge. This 6 ft was huge. The soft of 6 ft that is double or even triple overhead and you just hope to live. My board was not big enough for this kind of six foot.
It was too big to barrel hideously like the evening before, instead of hurling itself at the reef it was more spilling heavily for a long long way. One wave meant about a 15 minute paddle back out. If you went all the way you could go for 700m or so. Lets do another map.
[Handdrawn Map of Uluwatu]
That afternoon I went back down the road to Bingin. Now that was incredible. Here it was a bit smaller. 6ft, but more the 6ft we know, but the wave – I’ve run out of superlatives. Its very short, insanely tubular and very dangerous. Looks a lot like Hawaiian pipeling. It was amazing. The swell just soft of hits this reef and jacks from about 1ft to 6ft instantly. The paddle out is easy, you just paddle out at the bit 5 metres away where it is 1ft. Don’t understand? Neither did I. From the cliff above Bingin you can see the whole setup.
[Handdrawn Map of Southern Bali]
Ok its not to scale. Impossibles is the longest wave on the coast. I watched one guy surf for about a kilometre at Impossibles. Its a very fast down the line wave – not impossible though.
The worst thing about all this is that I have absolutely no photos of it! I left my camera in Kuta, thinking that I already had enough photots of Uluwatu and I wouldn’t have to worry about losing/damaging it.
Let’s see if I can think of something other than surfing to talk about.
Indonesia is not dangerous. On Bali there is almost no theft. The only trouble I had was when a bemo conductor tried to pick my pocket, but knew that he was going to and caught him at it. The only stories of theft I heard were all of cameras.
Lots of Indonesians smoke. Its rare to find any male that does not smoke. Its also rare to find Indo girls that do smoke. Ads for the Marlboro man are everywhere.
The Balinese are rich. They pretend to be “bankrupt” but many are filthy rich – all from tourism. Many Indo’s are still poor, but they are not in Bali. If you want to see poverty go to Flores or Timor. I wasn’t there but the two other guys at Ulu’s were. They were taking vitamin pills. The locals have tea for breakfast, a banana for lunch, plain rice for dinner. 75% infant mortality rate and a 35 year old is a very old man.
November 13, 1992
Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Dear Phil,
Its black friday and if you were here you would be looking at an extrememly happy chappy.
Let’s see if I can fill you in. I’m sitting high on a cliff watching an incredible orange sunset – a big orange orb like in all the photos. Below me is Uluwatu – the famed break is fucking GOING OFF!!!! Its fully PUMPING! AWESOME spitting hideous barrels, and the most incredible thing is – THERE’S NO-ONE OUT!!
I’ve just come in from one of those all time surfs. I’m staying here at Uluwatu in one of the warungs here. This morning it looked pretty lousy so I went off and met a friend and we cruised around on the bikes finding not much worth surfing. I got back here at 3:00pm and found it was going off! It was flat and f**ked everywhere else. It came good just after I left of course. To us its about 6ft, to the legends here 4ft. But its a hideous barrel all the way, 2ft of water over the coral behind you. Its so easy to get into the barrel its ridiculous. Getting out is harder but can be done. I got some of the best hackhand waves ever. I was too gutless to go for the full backhand barrel but sitting in the doorway was enough. Had a go at it and just got nailed badly – barrel landed on my head as always. The whole time there was only one other guy surfing – two others just floating around and one guy taking photos. (The bastard was gone before I came in so I could get some copies – reckons he got some real good ones of me) – Oh and one of the guys was an american who wanted to know “Where is the mellower part of wave?” What mellow part! I was scared shitless myself. Its a top to bottom hell ride – not nearly as bad as Lacerations on Lembongan, but pretty gnarly. Eventually he decided he wanted to know how to get in (not an easy task if you don’t catch anything)!
Anyway the swells building still – one more day then Hawaii.
Kuta, Bali
Ok, so the Melbourne Cup should be tomorrow and the US elections the same day I’m told. I can buy one paper instead of two! Oops my morning banana jaffle has arrived. Banana jaffle? Yes I must be back in Kuta. Got the overnight bus from Jogja the night before last, and it was terrible. It was full, so no lounging and the air-con was either too hot or too cold. The road was like a mad one lane version of George St the whole way – there’s no such thing as the “open road”. I lost count of the number of bridges under repair – which is no surprise, their construction methods are a primitive attempt to copy ours – only they use wooden scafolding, no power tools and try to stretch each bag of cement too far by diluting it with 10 or 20 times the recommended amount of sand.
Jogja
Yesterday I spent 10,000 for a tourist bus out to the main attractions of Yogya. The Borobuduhr – an 8th century Buddist temple – and another big old Hindu timple. Both were big old piles of worn rocks – rather exciting – not. They both have picture stories that go right around them – carved in the stone which made things a bit more interesting – if you could decipher the guide’s english explanation of the story.
View from atop Borobuduhr
I went into the museum at the Budda place, which was more interesting – to see how it was before restoration – and how they’ve restored it so that hopfully if won’t need another restoration (bacially by effective water drainage). To do the restoration they pulled the whole thing apart stone by stone, then put them all back together.
Both temples have an example of the Indonesians ability to piss tourist off. Not only do they hit you for admission they charge you for taking in your camera. Both charges are only minor so why they don’t just combine the two is beyond me. There would be a lot less irritation.
Met an Australian girl who is cycling across the world – sort of. She landed in Bali and is cycling to Bangkok alone, then flying to Copenhagen. I was suitably impressed.
Walked around Jogja trying to get my bearings, sat in restaurants talking to people. Basically did nothing but walk aimlessly and lounge about.
Walked around Jogja trying to get my bearings, sat in restaurants talking to people. Basically did nothing but walk aimlessly and lounge about.
Walked around Jogja trying to get my bearings, sat in restaurants talking to people. Basically did nothing but walk aimlessly and lounge about.
Walked around Jogja trying to get my bearings, sat in restaurants talking to people. Basically did nothing but walk aimlessly and lounge about.
John is a freelance programmer living in Sydney Australia. He blogs whatever takes his fancy; computing tips, travel letters, and random stuff from his life. He does it primarily to learn and demonstrate the running of a website.
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