Pad Thai vs Barrels

The life of the solo surfer has consisted of a few down days to organize.  Laura, Kristen and I parted in Singapore where I basically sat around killing time on the internet until I could head back to Bali.  I was moved dorm rooms into one packed with older guys and all snored louder than me.  There was one Pakistani rice grower/trader who decided to have heated opinionated debates on the markets and politics.  I mentioned 9/11 in terms of changing the industry regulations, which I quickly regretted and had to change subjects immediately.  Lesson learned.  I eventually exhausted the pooch and made my way back to Bali.

I arrived in Kuta around 1:30am and eventually found a room by 3am.  Slept in and then checked out of the dive I was in and moved to a nicer place.  I bought my new surfboard, a 6'3 round tail to get me into some bigger stuff and organized my escape from Kuta. 

One more night and I was on my way to Nusa Lembongan.  It is a small island just off of Bali in between Lombok.  The main industries are seaweed farming and tourism.  The main attactions are the reefs for their clear blue waters to snorkel, scuba and surf.  The surf is made up of three main breaks right in front of where I am staying and then one other spot 20 minutes away.  The swell has been relatively small but Shipwrecks, the most consistent wave of the three has produced blood, sweat and joy.  Writing about the waves I have been surfing puts a smile on my face.  The wave is a perfect right hander which drops into barrel, then an open wall to do some turns and a final punt section if possible.  I have be blessed with some phenomenally epic sessions but none with out consequence.  As the tide drops the wave gets hollower and shallower.  Below this wave is a gorgeously sharp reef.  As the tide drops one has also been usually surfing a while and a mistake can happen.  It is very picturesque but upon hitting the reef you are left with cuts and scrapes, one on my foot and one on my hand.  It is all worth it in the end after nailing a few great barrels and all in all great sessions.

Just down the bay I surfed Playgrounds which is a mellower wave and hope to have a few sessions there once the famed swell hits.  I also ventured around the island on scooter to another spot Cheningans which it was more fun seeing the island on the scooter compared to the waves that I got.  I crossed a 200 meter bridge on the scooter no wider than a sidewalk and at one point there are two pieces of wood missing on the track which I thought I was done for.  Scootering has produced the best vistas, adventures and form of travel in Indo so far. 

Aside from surf I have found a place to eat that fills my void of hunger. It is about a pound of pad thai for cheap and you get to play jenga with the lady who owns the place and she is unbelievably good.  The place I am staying at is cheap and nice people. 

The only interesting story non surf related was my first night here. I went to bed 11pm and awoke to the sound of someone walking very heavily down the path.  I couldn't smell the booze but every step was telling me this person was slammed.  So I am the first unit when you walk in and I hear these foot stomps come by my door then instead of passing by it stops at my door.  I sit up in bed nervously with a flashlight, but it is awkward to see and move because I have a mosquito net up so it is awkward.  All of the sudden this person starts ripping on my door which is not much of a door.  I yell at the person from my bed and they stumble off.  I was a little uneasy about it but heard the stomps go away.  I passed out for a moment and once again have the stomping come to my door.  I flew out of bed to grab the door so he wouldn't blow the door down and opened my curtain to look at this person to make sure it is not death knocking at my door.  With little surprise it is an absolutely blind drunk guy thinking it was his room.  He was unable to put two and two together.  I swore at him and told him it wasn't his place and he confusedly stomped off to find his place.  I stayed awake until I heard the dumbass open the door to his place.  I hope the guy is still hungover as some form of payback. 

Other than that I have been hanging out with a group of guys who are doing the same thing as me.  Surf, eat, sleep, repeat.  I plan on waiting around to get a little more swell and then make my way somewhere else. 

Laura has and will be sending me weekly blog entries with pictures to keep me posted and everyone else.

Laura's Comments:

Dan and I have now parted for a month. His mission is to surf some of the best waves Indo has to offer and mine is to spend some incredible time exploring Thailand with Kristen. 

A week has almost past and we’ve fallen in love with Thailand. To be honest, we really haven’t seen that much yet but the food, oh my, it’s unreal. The street vendors are the way to do it. For some, it may seem scary. It doesn’t always look that clean, the signs are in Thai and it kind of reminds me of the ‘no soup for you’ guy from Seinfeld. You must pick your choices quickly. The good ones have a lineup. Okay, intermission from the food talk.

Kristen and I arrived in Bangkok from Singapore with ease.  Our hostel choice, Lub D, turned out to be a hit. It had a very Nouveau industrial look to it and all the amenities. As for location, we didn’t really realize how far we actually were from Khao San road, also known as the backpacker’s street of Bangkok. We had to take the tram and boat ferry which took us over an hour to get there. Khao San is what you would imagine a backpacker’s street to be. Tons and tons of street shopping. Bargains everywhere. Bars, clubs, foreigners, tour booking centres, etc. After one day around Khao San we were glad to be sleeping where we were. It was too busy.

For those who don’t know, Thailand is quite well known for their ‘Ladyboys’ or what Thai’s call gà·teu·i.  Ladyboy’s (L.B.’s) are transgender people who started off as males and can be more beautiful than an actual woman.  Kristen and I were very intrigued to see one and hoped for the opportunity when ‘poof’, we met a couple from Texas who live in Bangkok teaching English. It turns out that our hostel was very close to Pat Pong street where the majority of the L.B. clubs are located. After sharing a picnic table with them over some unknown meal we just picked out of selected metal bins, they said they’d love to show us the best L.B. clubs. Excellent!! So off we went and into our first bar. It pretty much looked like a strip club except they had bikini’s on and wore numbers. At first I thought, boring…this isn’t even a L.B. bar- but it was. Wow – I couldn’t believe how much they looked like women, and hot women. The next bar was even better. Another older gentleman met up with us and gave us the whole lowdown on how it works. They spend thousands, upon thousands to get work done such as shaving their Adams apple, getting hip and cheek implants , hormone meds… you name it, they get it as long as it makes them beautiful.  One of the funniest things we noticed was the amount of young foreigners at the club who had no idea that these “girls” were “boys”. They would call them over, have them sit on their laps, flirt. Supposedly it’s very common that guys pay to be with these women and only find out the next day that they’ve slept with a man. Hahaha…

We’re now in Chiang Mai, about an hour flight north of Bangkok. They say it the ‘adventure’ city of Thailand. We toyed with the idea of busing or training here but it was either a 10 or 15 hour journey. The $80 one-hour flight seemed more tempting. By the way, AirAsia is wonderful. It was Kristen’s birthday yesterday so we wanted to fill the day with fun. It started off with a walk around the old city, followed by cocktails at a bar where we ended up getting in a pool competition with two Thai ladies. Pretty hilarious!! Then we jumped into a Tuk Tuk and journeyed to a recommended blind Thai massage place.  This was quite the experience. We’re not too sure if we could call it a massage or not? Maybe more of a ‘push down on our body with some force’ massage but hey, it was neat and went towards a good cause. After that we sipped on some incredible wine that I had purchased from duty free before heading out for dinner. Kristen wanted to try this interesting restaurant with hot pots where you pick out veggies, fish and meat to make your own soup. Delicious and cheap! Feeling like we needed a bit of exercise we hit up the bowling alley to be only one of two groups there! We were a spectacle for the staff in our dresses with white socks and bowling shoes. They kept filling up our beers and cheering. To end the night we went to a part of the city were the young Thai locals hang out. We listened to some live music and let the day sink in.

Some little notes:

-          Kristen went through security with a Swiss Army knife and an open-L knife. That was fun explaining to the Thai guards why she had them with her

-          You can purchase the best Pad Thai, noodle soups and rice dishes for around 30 Baht. That’s equivalent to about $1 CND

-          They love spice here. Rings of fire are common!!

-          All the locals eat this beef noodle soup with a tablespoon of fresh blood. We don’t know what it is yet but Kristen is determined to give it a go

-          If you want an out of body experience. Go for a foot massage at a place called Shewa around Khao San. We were speechless and it only cost 250 Baht or $8-9 dollars CND for an hour

-          Banilah hostel in Chiang Mai is the best. The first time we’ve had cable tv in over two months!