Surf's Upp
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2010
1
15
32
Trip End
Ongoing
Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
From Bangkok we flew to Bali. We were very sad to be leaving Thailand and the surrounding countries but at the same time had been desperately looking forward to some relaxation in beautiful surroundings. The flight took only about 4 hours and luckily for us, we managed to avoid the terribly cramped seats as the flight wasn’t full, so we spread out on a row each and got some sleep-which was well deserved after our night in the airport! Landing safely, we were even more excited by the views we saw on our way in to Bali. Consulting the travel ‘Bible’ we were advised to walk out of the airport to get a cheaper taxi into Kuta, which is the main resort, about 3km from the airport.
When we arrived in Kuta we could see that it was very commercialised as expected, but we had no doubt that there will be parts of Bali that is the picture perfect paradise that everyone associates it with.
The original plan was to spend a couple of days in Kuta and then head to Lombok to go on a five day surf camp before going to the Gilli Islands for Christmas and then back to Kuta for the new year’s celebrations where Lou’s parents will be joining us for two weeks. However, after traipsing around a number of surf schools we soon found out that Lombok is not the ideal place for beginners to surf as it is all reef brakes with two/three hundred meter paddles where you can then be faced by twenty foot waves! So after a quick discussion me and Lou decided that we didn’t want to die just yet, so we decided to have a couple of lessons in Kuta, then head to Lombok for a couple of nights where we could brave the so called beginners breaks and still make Gilli for Christmas and be back in Bali just in time to meet Neil and Sue.
So, on our first evening in Kuta we decided to go to a cheap recommended restaurant and then out for some beers. We were pleasantly surprised at the cheap prices and ordered crab for me and Red Snapper for Lou. However, twenty minutes after eating Lou said she wasn’t feeling too good and spent the rest of the night being sick! Understandably the next morning Lou wasn’t quite in full fettle after a night of throwing up so we had a relaxing morning before renting a board where I spent a few hours shaking off the cob webs and trying to remember how to surf. To save my blushes a vicious thunderstorm ended my session of splashing around in the waves after a couple of hours.
With Lou feeling better we decided to have another go at a night out (it had been at least four days by this point now!) unfortunately this time is was my turn to be ill. About four beers in I had to rush to the toilet (had to use the women’s) where I think I managed to lose a good stone or two, followed by another couple once back at the hotel!
The next morning we were up early and went for our first surfing lessons (mine was at 09:30 & Lou’s 14:00) where we had a great day at the beach and Lou did really well, she got stood up on the board loads of times, see the pictures! The next morning we were due for a 07:00 start in the water, but we finally managed to hit the strip and have a just enough beers so that the surf would take the edge of any headache that we may have the next morning!
To our embarrassment when we turned up at the surf school we were an hour late as we hadn’t altered the time on our alarm clock from Thailand, but the lesson was cancelled anyway due to poor conditions. So that afternoon we got on our scooter and checked out the hotel that Lou’s parents will be staying in (very nice) and had a ride round the local area before relaxing on the beach about fifteen minutes away from where we were staying.
With poor surf conditions predicted for the next few days we decided to book the ferry to Lombok for the next day and to our horror we found that we were getting picked up at 6am, so it was another early night ready to see what Lombok had to offer the following day.
Lou and Mark xx
