4-6-10

so i've been majorly lagging in the blog posting stuff so this will be a long one with lots of fun things.

3-26-10
this day in indonesia we went surfing out in green bowl. the surf was pretty good. its a journey to get to the water. you stop above the cove there and walk about 400 steps down to the beach. its quite the journey down as the steps are huge! really tall steps so when you walk down its great, but after being in the water for a few hours catching waves going up sucks! well a few of us surfed and scored some great waves. after surfing we hung out and relaxed. after we got our energy back we went to pandang padang for some snorkeling fun. we went out and around the corner where there was surf and found an epic corral reef. it was beautiful. there were tons of fish to play with and they weren't to scared of us either. looking back at land you really realize just how grren and lush everything in indonesia is. its an incredibly green and beautiful place. we got tired of snorkeling went our seperate ways to clean up for more evening activities. After cleaning up Will, Julia, and I went to go see the fire dance at the padang padang temple. its a super interesting event. i would compare it to a play where people chant and make music to the play. I don't know the play or really what it meant, but there was a white monkey, a red monkey, some princesses and a few fat mean faced people who had scary pig masks on. it was a super wierd event. the chant the people do is very eerie, but soothing. The play was bacially incredible. An hour of fun for about 5 bucks. After the "fire dance" we met up with the rest of the crew for dinner at 3D warung. we ate a wonderful meal of nasi goreing and mei goreing (rice with fried egg on top and noodles with fried egg. both had veggies chicken in them too.) That made for a great meal and end to the day.

3-27-10
today we got up pretty early and did a trip to gungung payung which is about an hour scooter ride away. It takes the swells pretty good and is usually pretty good sized. we had been there before and hoped it would be good to us again. Most of indonesia is a cliff then water below so you walk a ton of stair to get down to the beach. on the way down to the beach if you look off the cliff you see green squares in the water. those are seaweed gardens. the indo people farm seaweed in the shallows for food. its so interesting. the structure of the water is interesting too. from the sandy beach you start your paddle out in perfectly calm clear water, you have to watch out for the seaweed gardens because they are made with fence materials and rebar. once you have paddled pretty far out you get to the reef where its super shallow and you stand up and walk. after walking for a while it gets deeper again and you can start swimming out to catch waves. Anyways we had a solid crew of people out surfing this day. me, swardo, will, and mad mike. mad mike origionally showed us this spot. hes my south african friend who is an indo guru hes been many times and knows everything about it. we scored near perfect rights for hours and hours, until we were all too tired to surf anymore. then we walked to the stairs which kicked my butt. i took like 5 breaks coming up the stairs. after getting to the top we went and got food at the warung thats right at the top of the stairs. i had a small snack or noodles and egg. after snacking we headed to another real food place somewhere where i don't know where it was. it was a super local place will and julia had found a day or so earlier. they raved about it so we all went there. i have no clue what most of the food was, but it was darn good. one stand out item was these peanuts with an awesome sugary glaze that had mini fried guppies in it. they were so good and unique! food there for all of us was like 7 bucks. it's like a buffet too it was awesome. After eating we went our seperate ways. me and swardo went back to our room and relaxed for a bit then met up with some people he'd met from cape cod. we went to their hotel that had a great pool that overlooked part of uluwatu beach. it was beutiful and after soaking in a pool for a while i finally felt clean. For dinner we went to 3d warung again to see brian off for his final day in indo. we had a glorious meal... we wanted to celebrate swardo leaving so we got ice cream at this resteraunt on the way home. it was a bitchen day!

3-28-10
so this day was a neat day as well. i got a new roomate, eddie who was my neighbor before, we'd also surfed together and hung out too. so the two of us got in touch with will and julia and decided we would head off to gungung payung for good waves. we headed down the main road in uluwatu to find it blocked off because of a fire! gnarly! the ice cream place we ate at the night before burnt down. so we turned around and were headed the back way to get to the surf. we saw 2 girls erin and molly we had seen earlier walking on the street and we asked them if they wanted to join us for some awesome beach activites. they said yes so the 6 of us were on the way to the surf spot. we got to the spot and the surf was smaller, but still awesome looking. we left the girls on the beach and will eddie and i paddles out. the surf had some really fun rights, but most were pretty fast and it was hard to make it out of them. either way the tide got super low and it got a little sketchy and we were getting tired so we got out. we hung around on the beach together and jumped around in the water until we were too hot and hungry to hang around anymore. we climbed the stairs back to the scooters and headed for food. we went from place to place and everything we wanted was closed or one person wasn't interested in the food. finally we found a hole in the wall place and sat down to eat some food. we finished up eating and everyone parted ways for nap time and to get ready to snorkle!!! we met up at padang padang to do some snorkeling. will and julia were late, but me eddie erin and molly met up and hung out for short time on the beach before me and eddie hopped into the water to snorkle. we saw all kinds of great sea critters in the water. one fish fell in love with my flipper and followed me around everywhere. he was an awesome colored fish with blues, yellows, blacks, and greens! Julie met us out in the water to snorkle some. we found yellow black and white angel fish and one fish that was blue orange and yellow and even some wild nemo like fish! It was getting closer to the evening and we wanted to catch the sunset at uluwatu so we got out of the water and boogied down to uluwatu. we watched the sunset together and had some bin tang beers! Once it got dark we left uluwatu and headed to our favorite evening eater 3d warung for some more bin tangs and some dinner. After dinner we dropped the girls off at their place and will julia eddie and i figured out a little more about our journey for the next day.

3-29-10
i got up at about 8 and eddie went out to check the surf and i went to the internet cafe to catch up with friends and family. i went to my spot. JIWA JUICE and got a smoothie for breakfast. the internet was super slow there so i went to another internet place called SWELL. mad mike had reccomended it to me earlier. i got there and what do you know mad mike was hanging out there! he told me that eddie had called him and was looking for me so i boogied back to our hotel and met eddie. will and julia were there too and we decided to get on the road to a surf spot called keramas. I packed a backpack because we would be gone for a few days and we hit the road. we stopped in the mega tourist/swapmeet/store for some food, and to buy some random things. this is where bartering skills come in super handy. i bartered for all kinds of random things i wanted. i got some sweet shades and watches. fake of course, but who can tell. yay for gold blinging rolex!!! i scored it for 5 bucks! anyways kuta is super fun. its like TJ of indonesia. Not dirty like tj, but tons of shops on the sides of buildings and everyone wants to barter. if you get into a purchase battle with someone another guy will walk behind you and block the doorway so you cant leave until you buy the item you are bartering for. indo people are small so if i didn't get the price i wanted i simply moved the small indo man out of my way and walked out. other places you would look into their little shop and if you didn't see something you wanted the owner would come up to you and try to convince you that you get a great deal for something random and if you kept denying you he'd try to sell you drugs, or sex. so you go to store and hear "cheap sunglasses for you, i make good deal" ME:"no thanks" "how about (and he would do a smoking action or snorting) ME:"no thanks" and the final one which is the best thing they said was "banana massage?" i died laughing every time they said it. "banana massage, banana massage?" i declined the banana massage as well as the drugs :). After shopping in kuta we headed to our final destination of keramas. it took forever because will and julia drive like old people. also they like to take pics of everything so they drive like old people who need to take pics of everything. needless to say it took wayyyy to long to get there. we got there about 4ish and found a place to stay. we threw our stuff in the room and headed to the surf spot. we got there and there was maybe 2 or 3 others out. super stoked because we heard it gets really crowded. we got in and surfed until the full moon was up and was lighting the waves. not exactly sure what time it was when we got out, but the sun had been gone for a long time. After surf we needed to find some good food. we met some people who had been at the hotel we were at for a while and they told us where to find food. we went and had some food. mmm duck liver skewers, fish cakes, and all kinds of tofus and chicken! it was a glorious meal! after that we headed to bed and set the alarms for dawn patrol surf at just before 6.

3-30-10
We ended up hitting the snooz a few times and didn't get up until 630ish. we walked to the surf and got in at keramas. we were stoked again because there were only a few heads out. little did we know but there was a kamikaze of people that were on their way to ride with us. we had about a half hour that was totally packed and we all got some good waves. we'd heard by word of mouth that north was another good wave. we saw another guy surfing and decided to go for the long paddle. we paddled for a while and saw that he was getting these perfect barrels that had a super thick lip on them. me and will were amping. we got over there and it was the 1 guy me and will for about 2 hours. finally eddie paddled over from keramas to join in on the fun. we all got such perfect barrels it was awesome. we had some people from holand paddle out and it was fun with them too, however they had no etiquette and were paddling around you when you had the right away for the wave and then they were paddle battling for everything. those rotten people. its ok will snaked one guy so good that i laughed out loud in the water. the wave started to die a little and we went in so we could travel further to UBUD. a more traditional artsy town. we hit the road and were going through the greenest most beautiful landscape ever! there were huge fields of rice that were so green it was blinding. there were palm trees everywhere and the land was sooo lush and green. i've never seen such green landscape ever. we traveled through the rice fields for a few hours njoying the scenery until we were hungry for lunch. we found a fine eatery and had the usual rice and egg. we moved on to UBUD. we got there parked and it reminded me of kuta but much nicer. alot of art here. people had tons of carvings, sculptures, and paintings so it was really interesting to see their art. They also had their usual fake watches, hats, glasses, and other random items. we continued on through ubud and were told about the "monkey forest" now im not too stoked on monkeys after having one jump on my back and trying to steal my hat, but i heard the monkeys were not the type to jump on people. we got there and it was super pretty. there were banyan trees all over a few temples to explore and monkeys everywhere. they were mellow monkeys, you could walk right up and stand next to them and they didn't care at all. i wasn't bold enough to pet one as i didn't want to risk a monkey bite and rabies. they were really cool. i still dont' trust monkeys, but it was a wonderful experience. we finished our travel through the monkey forrest and went back into town to a place will and julia had heard about calle budha bali. we got there and sat down for a meal. i had an avacado shake which i've fallen in love with. here they eat them as fruits not vegis. in other words they add milk and ice cream and make it sweet where as we add salt and other veggis and make it not sweet. anyways avacado shakes are AWESOME! the service at budha bali sucked, but it was ok because we got stuck in a monsoon. the rain cam pouring down and we got thunder for about 45 minutes. after that it cleared up and we got on the road back home to the hotel. i stopped in at the hotel picked up my stuff and made the solo journey back to uluwatu because i was leaving in the next day. i raced through the streets of bali like a madman. i made it home in about an hour. i maxed out the scooter at about 105 km/hr which is just over 60 m/hr. i kicked ass and made it home just after dark. i went out for my final dinner at a place id been to a few times called yeye's pizza. i had my last bin tang and some awesome indonesian food. after i headed home and packed up everything so i could leave without any issues the next day.

3-31-10
Today began my journey to taiwan. i got up early and headed to uluwatu for some breakfast and a surf check. surf looked like storm surf and big, but not very good. only 2 dudes out so i knew it was a good day to be leaving. i ate and headed to the photo man to get all the pictures he'd taken of me. i bartered for a while with him, but was in no mood to waste time on bartering for an hour so he won and i lost this one at bartering. i had my photos and headed back to the hotel to set up a ride to the airport. i got my ride set up and needed to hit the bank to get money for my stay at jaya homestay in uluwatu. for 10 days with a scooter and 10 nights of housing and a few beers and waters it cost me 120 bucks. what a steal! i went to the bank and pulled out cash and decided i wanted these sweet paitings id seen in kuta and headed that way. i had to book because kuta is an hour away and i needed to be back to catch my ride to the airport. i booked to kuta and searched everywhere for the paintings, but no one had them. i got another watch and a pair of shades because i broke a pair already, and headed back to the hotel. i booked again and made it home in record time. On the way back i booked around this corner and took this car on the inside. the drive pinched me off between a curb and her car and she bonked me pretty solid. i thought my surf rack had broken off my scooter, but all was good. i didn't fall and she was ok in her car. i rushed home and what do you know. she was my ride to the airport. how awesome is that? well i packed everything in her car and headed to the airport. she sucked at driving and bonked her mirror on another car so i didn't feel so bad that we had crashed. i made it to the airport and waited for my flight. the flight was incredible. no one was on it so i sat in the front spots with as much leg room as i wanted with no one around me. i put all the armrests down and sacked out the long way for a while too! that was my best flight ever. i landed in taipei and found my way to someone who spoke english. i got a bus ticket to the train station that i needed to catch. the bus ride was nice. i got to the train station and it took me about an hour to get a ticket because the train station was huge and i don't speak mandrin chinese... i got my ticket and all that was left to hoalien was the slow train. great a 4 hour train ride. the train sucked i couldn't see anything outside. there were tons of open seats, but some man decided to sit next to me and squish me. then he sacked out by me and i was pissed. i nudged him and woke up a bunch tho so i felt good inside even tho i was so over traveling. i arrived in hualien at about 3am and called brian to pick me up. he and willie showed up and drove me and my luggage home on 2 motorcycles. and i slept for what seemed like an eternity.

4-1-10
we cruized aound the town and i got to see a little bit of taiwan. i didn't do too much this day as i was tired and slept most of the day away. i did get some good food and surfed. just a mini sesh at this spot called 2 bridges. the surf wasn't great, but the water here feels so nice and refreshing. i loved it. brian had an early session teaching at school and willie had a late one so willie and i went skateboarding at this skatepark for a few hours and man its hard to skate when its hot and muggy out. i did some sweet stunts and willie did some sweet stunts. We decided to leave because i ripped my jeans on a fall. not before i jumped the scooter off a skate ramp a few times for the locals. these 2 girls were laughing their heads off. we headed to town for some snacks. we had these dough balls filled with some sort of meat and smoothies. both were satisfying to the max. then willie dropped me off at home and headed to school and gave me directions to meet him there after for dinner. i left early with plenty of time, but what do you know i got lost. i made it to school and we had some dinner. dinner was at a fancy resteraunt, but was very cheap. it was right up my alley. we went home and planned our journey to kenting which is the souther tip of taiwan.

4-2-10
today we rented me a scooter because the one swardo and willie have is super ghetto and couldn't make the journey to kenting. i rented a scooter and got a sick helmet for the journey. my backpack started to rip so i got a new backpack as well. i went to school and visited brian and willie. the kids they teach are so small, but deffinately cute and fun. i pushed them around for a while at play time in these sweet mini cars. after that we headed home to relax.

4-3-10
today we headed to kenting. we stopped off at this bed in breakfast place for a bbq with surfer ken. we all drank and bbqed and had a wonderful time. we sacked out in this sweet room with the ocean waves crashing right outside the window. it was awesome. we got up early to get on the road and finish the drive to kenting. we said our goodbyes and got on the road. the stay there was free and so was the food and bbq. the people here are super kind and hospitable. we got on the road and drove for hours and hours throught mountains as well as a costal road much like the highway 1. it was a great journey, but after driving on a scooter for 6 hours my butt hurt and i was ready to walk! we got to kenting where we were supposed to go to a concert called spring scream. it was expensive and we couldn't find a way to sneak in so we passed on that. we needed a place to camp so we cruized around looking for a campsite or some flat land away from everywhere. first spot we found was a graveyard. we looked around and i said heck no no way thats too creepy. then we found an open field in the middle of nowhere and we didn't like it either. finally we ended up at an actual campsite. it was close to everything and fun. we set up camp and hit the city. we walked around kenting which is like a giant party. its the wierdest most fun place ever. i tried all kinds of interesting food and talked to all kinds of random people. i went home early about 1 and hit the sack.

4-4-10
got up and i had eaton something that really upset my belly. i think the stinky tofu did me in and gave me a belly ache and bad poops. either way we still had fun things to do. we went and snokled this awesome reef in kenting. it was so clear and pretty. there weren't a ton of fish like indo, but the fish here were prettier. we swam and played for a while until we decided we wanted to jump off the jumping rock. we climbed up this gnarly rock and sat for about an hour chatting and then we jumped off. im not a good judge of height, but it scared me to jump. after swimming we planned on heading to visit a friend named tim, he lives in taiwan and is like the taiwan dad. he knows everything, speaks english, and taked care of the crew. i felt to crappy to go so we headed back to the tent. we went out to eat at smokey joes the local "western" eatery. i felt poopy and headed back to the tent to sleep while everyone else went for some more fun times in kenting.

4-5-10
today we packed up and got on the road home. we left at about noon and drove forever. we stopped halfway home for some surf with a buddy we went to school with who is also teaching out here. the surf was fun but again not super powerful. it started raining while we were surfing which was cool. we got out and continued home. we drove in the rain until after dark which sucked so much! dark, rainy, and a scooter full of gear that i'd been sitting on for the past 6 hours was not fun. so now i've travel the whole coastline of taiwan though! i've been from the northern tip of taiepe to the very south at kenting. once we got home we were pooped, but needed some food. brian and i went out, returned the scooter and got food. we ate and sacked out.

4-6-10
finally we are cuaght up with the correct dates. i got up early and talked to my dad and bro. they are doing well so i am stoked on that. after that i met willie and swardo at school for their lunch break. we went out with tim to this place that we couldn't even order at because it was all chinese. it was great food. dough filled with meat, these tortilla like fries, and some other stuff. it was good, but my stumach is still sick and im not handling food well at all. tomorrow im sticking to a strict rice diet until im back on track! we ate and decided we needed to do activities until brian and willie needed to be back at school again. me and sward went out and checked out the coastline. he took me to all these really cool pretty lookout points. we were gonna swim, but it was a little windy and i didn't want to be cold and brian didn't want to be salty when he went to teach. we drove around and then i tried to drive the scooter on the sand. it doesn't work i instantly got it stuck. thats ok tho we got it out and headed back home. brian had the long evening session where as willie didn't so willie took me out to a temple. it was the most intricate temple i had ever seen it was like a house from candyland. everything was painted all crazy colors. there was dragons, and phoenix, and all kinda of wierd gods or whatever. it was really fun to walk around in. then we went to another one, but sadly it was closed. it was on university ground so we walked the university to all these sweet ponds. they had coyfish in the ponds and awesome huge catfish. the coolest thing was to see they had cichlids in the ponds as well. (i have a cichlid fish tank at home) we explored for a while then headed out to look for a fish store to see all the cool tiawanese fish. we couldn't find it so we just got smoothies instead. willie left for school and i headed back towards home. well i got lost for about an hour in the middle of taiwan. i backtracked and found out where i needed to go to get home. it started raining on the way home, but i missed the big rains. im no supposed to be meeting the guys for dinner, but its raining so i think im going to pass on dinner and sack out. gnight to all and thanks for reading the novel i wrote today. hahaha.