The Journey Home...

So we stayed in a well nice place in Kuta for our last night, which was a treat and spanked the rest of our cash on cheap clothes and gifts. After a good nights sleep in an air conditioned room in our four poster bed (whilst Chris had a mattress and sheet on the floor) we filled up on the amazing breakfast buffet (which Jas fully took advantage of) and got a taxi to the airport (for 80,000).

All was well on the plane (except Jas nearly getting decapitated by a door in KL Airport) until an hour from home, where we were dropped in Amsterdam due to that bloody Ash Cloud again, given a fifteen Euro food voucher and told to make our way home. So, ever the optimists, we got one of the last hire cars in the airport and took a little sightseeing trip through Europe on our way home. Anyway, 40 or so hours of traveling later and we made it back on home turf. Let's hope next year is as eventful...

Back in Balian...

The following morning we all awoke to paradise once more. Max and I had started to feel some strain after surfing for several hours, every day and resisted to surf in the morning. We spent our time by the pool, reading, playing shithead, and smoking one million a day…standard!

By mid afternoon it was time for a surf at Balian. At low tide there’s a fun right hander in between the river mouth and a massive boil. It had been raining over the past few days, a lot of ‘plankton’ and other shit from the river had made it impossible to see through the water. It is the sharkiest place in Bali…

The Balinese had started putting up decorations for a three day holiday (kind of like Christmas). They go to ceremony, and then get drunk. This is repeated for three days. Agus had invited us out to the Balian rave which I attended with high hopes of finding a wife… After meeting many possibilities, I settled for a bit of dominos and far too many Bintangs= Rp 500,000 bill cheers.

The following morning Max woke me up for a surf at Medewi. Smaller than we had it last week, it was still a fun wave and Max and I managed to get 120 photos, while Jasmine enjoyed breakfast over looking the surf.

A chilled afternoon with the Manson book, and some much needed sleep. Jasmine and Max headed to explore the Balian Yoga Palace. Finding wifi, nice people and good food we all returned later in the evening,

For the last day of the holiday Agus invited us all up for the rave. Sadly I chipped my tooth on a Bintang bottle while dancing….Bill = Rp 500,000.

After our last day in Balian, Max and I surfed. My last wave was an emotional one. Max dropped in on me and while we were weaving down the line our hands connected, he returned “That was weird, we just held hands…” Not being able to stop laughing I swallowed some ‘plankton’ and headed in.

We left the following morning for Kuta. Leaving Balian was hard, it has become our Balinese home and we will return next year. After sorting out our flat tyre, with a bold spare we said our goodbyes, gave Agus one of my boards and left.

We had decided to stay at Poppies 1 for our last night. Max and Jasmine had an amazing double bed, while I donned the sofa. We headed out and did our shopping, got tattoos, and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimps.

The following day we packed and started our long journey home…

Padang Padang, Bali Zoo, Ubud, Nusa Lembongan in Jasminaaas eyes

So we left Balian to continue our adventure...

And headed towards Uluwatu so Max and Chris could surf the world famous wave, after two hours of trying to find somewhere to stay they made me settle for an okaaaay-ish place in Padang Padang as Balangan had no rooms left anywhere, A-holes!! The food was really cheap, we finally got our clothes washed for pennies which came back in cling film with an over powering smell of soap, I didn't mind although no stains were removed, Grrr!!

Max and Chris got to surf Ulu's, the famous left hander at six in the morning to avoid the hustle, while I slept with one eye open due to Killer Ghecko preying on me in our room. They came back moaning that even at six in the morning it was packed but Max says it was still aaamazing and overcame his fear after "fucking his back up there two years ago".

The next day after another six am surf for Max and Chris, we headed to Bali Zoooooo!! Got there to be greeted by a woman who insisted on putting millions of birds on us and one took a poo on Max. It was pretty much the same the whole way round getting to feed and hold EVERY animal there. And at the end they brought the animals out including a LION for you to have a photo with!! Although I left in a huff due to their man-handling of the poor thing, the overall visit was incredible!!! We then went into Ubud for the Monkey Forest, and I was soooo excited to actually feed a fluffy monkey a banana BUT instead I only got attacked by these devil bauld creatures ripping off my sandals and chasing/snarling at me with these massive fangs. Extremely disappointed with that but the forest/temples are amazing!!

After that in Ubud we decided to book a boat ride to Nusa Lembongan. We left Padang and our jeep behind in smelly Kuta to get the boat ride over there, we were greeted by some locals who straight away helped us out with accomodation which had a nice pool and our first air-conditioned room!! While there Max and Chris got to surf Playgrounds and Shripwrecks which they both agreed is the best right hander they have ever surfed! While I enjoyed a noodle soup on the beach front and finished my Charles Manson book (A must read.). Only there for one night we boarded our boat ride back to Bali. As it was a nice day we were offered to sit on the roof... five minutes into it doing around 100mph we come across the roughest sea so we're holding on to the rails for dear life completely drenched by continuous over-head waves and I'm desperate for a wee while laughing/crying/flying in the air... We make it there alive and no one got wee'ed on :)

We go back to Kuta to pick up our beloved jeep and head back to Baliaaaaan which we were all overly excited for, especially Chris to see his new best friend Agus and numerous eye-candy!!! After a load more near-death experiences due to lunatic locals on the road we get back our mansion on the beach (with a clean bed/shower and no gheckos, MASSIVE happy face) in time for dinner and my now favourite card game 'ShitHead'....

Only four more days of the blog boooooo :(

Surfing Medewi – the longest left in Bali?

Medewi is a sick left-hand reef/ point break about a half hour drive along the coast (West) from Balian.

When Chris and I got there at stupid o clock in the morning it was bang on low tide, so as well as being long and wally, it was hollow in sections.

Unless you’re a leatherfooted local, you definitely need reef boots, so we hobbled along the reef and started the rippy paddle out. Being the hero I am, I paddled right over to the main peak, which for some reason still unknown to me now, I had to myself for about 2 hours!

After having some seriously long waves and knackering paddle outs, we got out and were greeted by some locals who had taken a load of pictures of us, much to my delight (of course). These guys do this all day everyday and in the time it took me to drink my coffee, a hundred or so really professional photo’s were on a disk, all for about £7! Stoked with our photo's, we headed back for breakfast and humour ourselves with Jas's sunburnt legs (which she managed to make go golden brown overnight!)

Although it’s a Muslim-based community and we’d heard rumours of serious hassle, we found the people of Medewi to be friendly and helpful. So if you’re in Bali, you have to visit the West Coast and take the trip up to Medewi. I am going to chuck it out there and say it’s one of the best waves I’ve ever surfed…