Bali Bye

Bali exists in a time warp where ancient coincides with modern, where the people seem to be timeless because nobody realizes that the days have melted into weeks, the months into years and the years into eras. While one could spend a lifetime time-traveling through all the nooks and crannies of Bali, we were not given the luxury of infinite visas - in fact we have to be out of the country in about three weeks - and there is still so much to see.

A few days ago Kyle and I were sitting at the top of the cliff at Impossibles, watching the wave work her magic. "Dude, how long have we been here?" Kyle asked. "I dunno... a few days? A week? I really can't remember. We should probably find out when we need to be back on the boat." I replied. After talking with Mom and Dad we realized that we only had a few days left in Bali, and somehow over two weeks of our epic surf backpacking trip had passed.

"Ok, now we have to figure out what to do with our last few days. I mean, we have not seen much of Bali. But I feel like we are currently seeing the best of Bali, so is there really any reason to go anywhere else?" I asked pragmatically, still buzzing off the fact that after taking beatings at Impossibles for four days I finally got one of the perfect ringers of a wave that had been taunting and eluding me for days. "I kind of feel like we should see some other part of the island, you know, like Ubud or something cultural like that, although I agree that we probably won't see anything better than this," Kyle reasoned. I agreed.

We got the motivation we needed to leave the Bukit peninsula in the form of a message from my very dear favorite German surf buddy who I spent my entire study abroad surfing around northern Spain with. Ralf just so happened to be Bali and staying in Canggu (pronounced Chan-gu), and encouraged us to meet up with him for waves and beers. Kyle and I made arrangements to leave our beloved Padang-Padang and were soon on our way to meet Ralf on the beach at Canggu.

I can't tell you how sweet it was to meet up with my old friend on the beach in Bali after five years of little to no contact. We immediately fell into filling each other in on the past five years of our lives, lamenting how our surfing has not progressed as much as we had hoped, reminiscing about freezing our asses off surfing under the snowy Picos de Europa and planning future surf trips together. Meeting new people is one of the best parts of traveling, but there is something about being reunited with a good friend in a foreign country that makes it all the sweeter.

Ralf, Kyle and I spent the afternoon and evening swapping stories and drinking excessively. Kyle and I were very impressed with Ralf's accommodations at Bali Surf Camp, where they provide three meals a day, guides to take surfers to the best waves, film all the sessions and provide all transportation. After shouting us dinner at the surf camp, Ralf promised to text us and tell us where the guides were going to take them in the morning for surfing so we could piggyback on their local knowledge.

The next morning Kyle and I walked 20 minutes down the beach to Old Man's, where Ralf said they would be surfing. The waves were glassy and overhead on the sets, but it was so crowded that I didn't expect to find Ralf. Of course I did - sitting in the line-up grinning from ear to ear - typical Ralf. For the next few hours we call called each other into waves and cheered each other on. After surfing Impossibles, Old Man's felt gentle and aptly named, and I surfed until I thought my arms would fall off. I am not sure there is anything in the world better than surfing good waves with great friends.

I spent the rest of the day eating and sleeping, catching an evening surf as the sun went down. The eat, sleep, surf, repeat lifestyle in full effect. So good. After a nice dinner we said goodbye to Ralf, as the next day we had to leave for Lovina Beach to get back on the boat. Our visit with Ralf was short and sweet, but it was the icing on the cake to an epic surf adventure.

Yesterday morning as we were packing up our bags to head for Lovina Beach I got an email from Mom saying that she and a friend were going to Ubud and, if we met them there we could catch a ride to Lovina with them. The idea of making the three hour drive in an air conditioned car rather than a hot, crowded bus was much more appealing, plus the opportunity to see Ubud, however brief.

We ended up sharing a car with two other backpackers to Ubud, where we were dropped off with our surfboards in the middle of the city in the middle of the island. It is always funny to walk around a landlocked city with a surfboard, and as we walked to find Mom taxi drivers incessantly offered us rides: "Where are you going? Padang-Padang?! Uluwatu?! I take you there!" Thanks buddy, very tempting, but we just came from there.

It was fun to meet up with Mom in Ubud. After being gone over two weeks I missed her a bit! We all did some shopping and had a nice lunch before heading back to Lovina. Ubud seemed like a very cool city - not the sleepy, quiet, monastic place that I imagined - but interesting and worth a few days visit all the same.

Last night we celebrated Dad's birthday with pizza but didn't party too hard because we pulled up anchor (or rather Dad did, I slept) at 4AM. It is very nice to be back "home" and sleep in my own bed, although it was hard to leave Bali and today I have to regain my sea legs. We are now headed to Kumai on Kalimantan, island of Borneo, where we are going Heart of Darkness stylee and going up a jungle river on the boat to see orang-utans. How crazy is that? How crazy is this life!?
-----
At 10/2/2013 5:13 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°18.69'S 114°32.22'E

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com