USA

You know, when Neil Diamond sang of coming to america, he only mentioned boats and planes. he never mentioned 24 hour bus rides north out of mexico or getting stuck at the border to get searched over and over again. if i could ever get up with the guy, i would have to sit him down for a dicussion. But now, at least i'm in a new and shiny place (Arizona). and compared to where i've been, this place is like ultra futuristic world. shiny and clean and big and strange. i made it up here ok though. just took a while. and my buddy chris came to get me from the busstop. i've made a move back into the place that he lives now but he's hoping to sign some papers in a few days and get his own place pretty much just down the road from here. i'm hoping that i can just find some work while i'm around here. hopefully i can stay for at least a few months and save up some cash, hit the gym to get myself strong again, and hang out with chris. All these wipeouts i take are telling me to take a break from surfing i think and get back into better shape. so that's what i'll do. bummer to miss so many waves since this is the prime season, but i gotta get all better first. and i've got a great place to stay while i do so. and chris's buddies are all pretty nice guys to hang out with, so that's good too.
So i'm really hoping that i can find some work within walking or biking distance from his place. we'll see how that works out. i've already asked at one place, but they were full for the time being. I even rummaged through chris's closet to get a nice shirt and shorts on, even showered and shaved, but all to no avail. oh well. i'll get the next one.
So the boards are snug in their boardbag. not to be seen for quite a while. and i have to avoid watching any kind of surf movie or looking at many pictures, lest i go completely crazy in this landlocked state. i'll just keep telling myself that it's for the greater good. get better to get back on the road. plus, since i'm in the states, i'm hoping to plan a little trip home sometime in the future to see the fam and friends. so cross your fingers. Also, chris is really pushing my to write a book. maybe if i can get a few words on a page i might get something good. especially since everyone else i know back home tells me the same thing. we'll see what happens with that though...
For the time being, it feels great to be back, once again, on my home turf. good ole american soil!

More Mex

welp, i´ve made up my mind to skip the copper canyon which is where i was headed next. it´s just more bussing around than a really feel like doing right now. kinda just wanna get into the states and see my buddy chris and hopefully pick up some work and give my leg time to heal up completely. save up some cash, and take off again somewhere unknown. also, hope to plan a little trip home to see the fam and friends sometime! now i have to ride in a bus for about 20 hours, and i´ll be in phoenix!

Sayulita to Mazatlán

Well, i got a ride from someone staying in the hostel in puerto vallarta to the bus stop. there i took a slow, hot bus to sayulita. on the way, i was fortunate enough to meet a really nice swiss couple who just got in from mexico city. (by bus!) they ended up finding a nice little hotel to stay in and i took off for the campground upon reaching sayulita. it´s a pretty tiny place, and it wasn´t too busy since it´s the slow season now. i can imagine that in winter it´s packed out there. and the prices for things were definitely tourisitic!! but still manageable. since im cutting the trip about a month short or so, i dont mind spending a few more bucks to eat and pay for a place to stay. of course, camping was 70 pesos, which is almost $7! that´s like unheard of! and it was sooooo hot. each night i was sweating just lying there trying to fall alseep. not too much fun. and the mosquitoes were killer too. under the shade of the palapa, they were thriving. and the tent is, of course, located under the palapa. (a palapa is basically 4 sticks supporting a roof of palm leaves. open air). but it was a good place to hang out for a while. i hung out with the swiss couple and chatted a bit. the waves there are pretty small and suited for longboarders. looked like some fun, small ones. i was plannig on spending about 2 nights there then heading up the coast to another small beach town called san blas, but i talked to 2 people who had just come from there, and was told that the mosquitoes are out of control and it was better to just stay in sayulita a couple extra days. so i did. and i spent my bday there. the swiss couple even got a bottle of champagne from the store for us , and we went out to dinner and had a huge burrito each. met a couple aussie guys there too that i got to hang out with. nice fellas. had a couple beers with them at a beach bar.
my days there were pretty slow. no hammocks at the campground, so i was hating that. but i found nice cool spots to sit around and read. and the morning after my bday, i packed up and headed out. i asked the bus driver to just drop me off at the main road, beacuse apparently the buses will just stop on the side of the road and pick you up. well after an hour of waiting and 2 buses flying by me without stopping, i got back on the sayulita bus and asked him to take me down to a busstop. so i had to travel about 20 minutes in the wrong direction, back towards puerto vallarta, and get dropped off and wait for a bus. and lo and behold, when we pass by the sayulita turnoff, there are 2 gringos waiting there, and the bus picked them up!!!! i was flabbergasted. anywho, i made it to a town called Tepic, where i got another bus to mazatlán. i found a realatively cheap hotel right next to the bus station, so i didnt have to walk too far in the heat. the room was really nothing special. and it kinda smelled like poo, which was just not nice. but, i took it and went awalkin. headed to the beach and just walked down the malecón, which is just the beachfront road. like the boardwalk in OC. but concrete. a bit touristy here. it´s like a resort city i think. some big clubs for the kids down the road and lots of tourst t-shirts. (4 for 100 pesos!!) just like OC. but i got some kickass tacos after walking for like 45 minutes. then came back and went to bed since i got in kinda late. of course, on the walk back, there were a couple mama sea turtles laying their eggs in the sand on the beach. they must have had stage fright since there were so many people around weatching and taking pics, but they managed to squirt those eggs out. and cops were around to make sure no one stole them and someone was taknig them, hopefully to a place where they can be safe and grow.
the next morning my plan was to find some clothes and shoes and see a movie. well, i went to 3 different places and didnt find any decent, cheap clothes or shoes. and i saw like no shorts anywhere! what´s that al about? only jeans. and those just wont do. so no success there. my next plan was to see harry potter 6.....it´s been a long time coming and i´m a geek, so i love it! but i was told that it was only in spanish!! so i settled for GI Joe, which i gotta say, was just kinda lame. oh well. i´ve had some really good food here at least, and i´ve been chatting with a really nice mexican couple staying at the same hotel that i see here and there around town. i soent 2 nights in poo hotel, and they were gonna raise the price on my tonight since it´s a weekend (stupid) so i checked out and moved 2 minuted down the road to a place with a good price and it´s like 10 times better. nice and cool, tv, fan. i paid for a room without a/c, but my room actually has it, so im not sure what´s going on there, but good for me i spose. anyways, i shoulda been staying there from the beginning! and today´s plans are to head in the opposite direction that i walked yesterday and look for some clothes again. very exciting i know. let´s see how much luck i have today. ta ta

Puerto Vallarta

Well, I must say that i'm not really sure what the draw of puerto vallarta is. i guess it is the slow season at the moment. maybe in december and january it's really busy and lots is going on, but who knows. too resorty and touristy a feel for me really. hence, no pictures. i'm staying in a pretty nice hostel, but unless you want to stay out til 4am every night and go clubbing, this is not your place. glad that i saw it at least. saw some beaches and walked around downtown a bit. had a good tamale yesterday. so now, today, i'm off to a place called sayulita i think. not far up the coast and pretty relaxed from what i understand. let's see how that goes!

Pascuales

Here´s a couple shots of Pascuales just so you all can see the place. That´s the ´main road´ there. not much to the town. 5 minutes walking and you´ve seen it all. basically only a few restaurants and a couple little hotels or rooms for rent. The second one is the sunrise in the morning. we normally get up around 7:15 or so to check the waves. there´s usually a bit of morning sickness out at sea at that hour (which means that the offshores haven´t kicked in yet and cleaned up the waves, so there´s a bit of chop on it) so i get to have a coffee and see what the swell´s doing.

Sweet nectar of life. That´s the biggest machete i´ve ever used. I´m lucky to still be the proud owner of 10 (count´em, 10) fingers.

Rodeo in Tecoman

Made it out to a rodeo last night. The town of Tecoman is where i go when i need some groceries or internet or whatever. also a food place to get some really good, cheap food. it also happens to have a little bull ring. much like most towns and cities in mexico. although i have been here 4 times now, last night was my first time at the bull ring. pretty interesting. A bit slow at times, cuz all the did was take their time getting the bulls ready, so it was like one ride every 20 to 30 minutes or so. and there was really loud, live banda music playing the whole time. too loud to talk, but fun. and a beer was a whopping 25 pesos, which is unheard of, but since i hadn´t had one since i got here, i decided to have a couple. (25 pesos is just over $2US). what a splurge!
The first few bulls were little ones that little guys rode, and the last 5 or so were pretty big things. Some crazy rides last night. no fighting of the bulls or anything thuogh. just some rides. and then afterwards was a big concert out the back of the ring. in fact, most people were showing up quite late to just see the concert. some guy named El Coyote i think was there. not sure who he is, but i thnik he´s quite famous. the band was a bunch of guys in white suits with a lot of brass instruments. they love that stuff here. apparently there are a bunch of different types of music in mexico, but to the untrained gringo ear, it all sounds the same. basically a tuba going toot toot toot, and a trumpet and an accordian.
ps- that´s not me on the fence there.

Mex update

Got into a little town called pascuales last week. update thus far, is that i´ve been getting some waves every morning. quite fun. had a lot of tacos. quite delicious. and had some good times getting reacquainted with a hammock. quite nice. contemplating purchasing one of my own even. might splurge and get it.
hotter than the gates of hell here during the day, but not bad in the shade....and in a hammock. little warm at night, but found a nice little place with a fan and a fridge. had to put the tent up on the bed so the mosquitos dont get me. they´re not too terrible here, but they can be a pain at dusk. and i´m pretty weirded out by the daylight thing too. im used to it getting light around 6am, and datrk around 630pm. it´s been that way for about 6 months for me. now, all of a sudden, it´s light at like 7am, and dark at like 930pm?!?! what?!

Out of indo

Well i´ve made the long haul back to the other side of the planet. if i ever make it back home, then i will have truly circumnavigated the globe. not only a cool thing to do, but also a cool word to use in a conversation. ´circumnavigate.´ I left my fleapit hotel in kuta around noon and headed off to the airport. it´s like 5 km. away, but in traffic takes about 1/2 an hour. made it ok though, and got checked into my china air flight. got raped on board costs, but whatever. it was the cheapest airline i found online. got a great deal to mexico.
had a nice seat on the first flight to taipei. didn´t knw where taipei was, so i looked on a map in the airport. nmot even sure what language they speak there. mandarine? saw some funky prices in the taipei airport and wasn´t sure that i should buy anything, so i refrained. prices like, $120. now what the heck does that mean?? surely it isný 120 dollars for a coke!
anywho, got out of taipei in an hour or 2, and flew 11 hours or so to los angeles. watched about 3 movies on the way, and tried to get a little nap in. got fed some slop too. not the best. word to the wise; when flying across the pond, choose qantas. you won´t wanna get off the plane. and the stewardesses funny accents are a nice welcome when flying that far away. makes you feel exotic or something.
so i landed in los angeles and was at once misty eyed and nostalgic to be back in my country of birth. almost got a flight back to baltimore to see home, but decided to keep to the plan.
got my flight into guadalajara on mexicana air. the nice lady at the desk tried to wave my board fees but to no avail. at least it wasnt as bad as china air though. im not gonna have to cut the trip short becuase of it.
got to guadalajara, got a cab to the bus station, and a bus to the town of morelia. 2 bad movies in spanish later , and one more cab and here i am in hostel san fransiskuni. met up with an australian buddy of mine i met in HTs, and now imjust hanging out in town while he finishes up his spanish classes. one more day, and we´re off to the coast. a nice 6 hour bus ride oveernight to the town of colima, then another hour or so to the beach. boca de pascuales it´s called. im hoping for some nice big barrels and not many surfers. we´ll see how that goes. should be some cheaper places to stay too, from what we hear. might get to put up the ole tent for the second time that i´ve been dragging around for 7 months. who knows.
oh yea, and for anyone who wants to see where all the most attractive ladies live in mexico, just come to morelia. it´s like the epicenter of the universe for hot, mexican babes. totally unbelievable. it´s a university town, so i guess that explains it. but it´s definitely a reason to learn some spanish, and fast!of course, when you´re tongue tied around english speaking babes, how do you handle the foreign babes?! i ask you!

Well the first one here is mom haggling on the beach for a bracelet. we finally got it down to 10,000 rupiah (about a buck). the second is what my back looked like after a funky massage i got before everyone showed up. they put something in these hollowed out horns, light them, and then pop them on your back and they start to suction cup onto you. weird. all about good circulation and whatnot. not sure if it really did anything.
the last one is here cuz i'm sure owen can think of a good, sarcastic O comment for it. enjoy.

you can really tell that i don't want to be wearing this right now. i think the locals make the whities dress up like this to enter the temples just for a laugh.

pictures

Here's a nice waterfall in Munduk, and here's me showing the local ladies in Ubud how to carry a waterbottle on your head. it's not that hard! and they all have such great posture.

motorbikes!

VROOOOOMMMM!

The Visit

Well, my folks have come and gone. I have no pics to show cuz i wasn't the main camera holder. in fact, i took a total of 2 pictures in the time that they were here i believe. so once they send a few my way, i can put them on to share with the world. anywyas, needless to say, fun and merriment was had by all. if you can see the names on this bali map(which might be difficult) we started down south in Seminyak. nicer than the kuta area that i stay in lot, but still not "real bali." had 3 nights there in a nice little villa and spent them going south to uluwatu where i surf a lot, and wandering around the streets of kuta and legian.
After that, we hopped a ride up to Ubud. just a little bit north. infact, seomthing like 20 km. north, but it still takes like 2 hours to get there through traffic and tiny roads. little artsy town. nice place. got a couple massages while in town.
After that, hopped another ride up into the hills in Munduk. almost passed right by cuz there wasnt much there! decided to spend a night and took a nice nature hike the next day with our local guide Putu. saw the coffee beans, and cocoa and everything growing. got to see a couple nice waterfalls too. andhad some good meals there too.
Then it was off to the north coast. passed through Lovina which Pete and i thought was a nightmare because of the hawkers. was over it in about 2 minutes. but we didnt stay there. kept on driving to a litle place called Tejakula where we spent 2 nights in a nice spa/resorty place. lived the high life. saw the sunrise while on a kayak in the sea one morning with dad. had good food, again. then came back to the legian area so dad and i could have a surf on our last day. dad managed to snap his rental board in 2 and got charged a cool 50 bucks for it. so that kinda sucked, but oh well. i made out ok with mine.
now they're back home in the U S of A, and i have plans to leave indo for mexico. flying into guadalajara on tuesday, leaving here monday, and gonna head to the coast for some waves. have a friend from HTs who's there now, so i get to meet up with him and do some surfing. we'll see what happens. hopefully i can get some pics up of the bali trip soon!

Sumba - the rest

After i got dropped off in pero, i was lucky enough to meet an aussie guy named matt. i was pretty sure that i would be alone there, so i was hoping to meet a fellow surfer. the swell was pretty much dead, but we were thinking that it would come up soon. we had a few waves the next day and it was getting a little bigger every day. the only problem is that the wave out front is freaking hard! it breaks really fast and really hard, so it's a tough wave to make. even tough just to catch one. i've never had so many consistently bad surfs in my entire life and never have a surfed a wave so incredibly frustrating. just so hard to be in the right spot for a set, and once you manage to scrape into one, it just runs faster than you can and comes down on you.
it got pretty big one day, and we paddled out but couldnt really manage much. the next day, we walked to a town down the beach called ratenggaro that had a right hander out front. nothing special, then the wond got on it and make it even less special. so down the beach there is another wave, a lefthander, that proved to be ok. so we had a few there. but it's a good 40 minute walk from pero, and that's just not too great a thought when you wake up at 5:30am for a surf. cuz you have to get up super early since ant trade winds ruin the wavs out there. so i'd have a surf at pero sometimes, and be back in before 9:00! that sucked,. cuz then all you have to do all day is sit on your butt and listen to people scream 'hello mister' at you as they pass on the road. damn annoying. and just liek krui, any time you leave the losmen to check the waves or just walk down the road, people have to come up to you and have the same dumb conversation that you've already had 500 times before. hello mister, you play ski today, where you from, how long you stay, blah blah blah. and then there's the cheeky kids and adults taht just yell crap to get a laugh from there friends at your expense. no, that place just pissed me off most of the time. even where we were staying wasnt that great. $10 a night including all food, but the food was pretty crap about 90% of the time! somteims they would give us a pretty decent meal, but mostly it was fried bananas for breakfast (yuck), fried fish and rice and green beans for lunch, and something similar to that for dinner. usually the same exact thing! so while they're spending about $1 all up for our food each day, they're saving a fortune. knida annoying. i think it was worth maybe $5 a night, but we couldnt talk them down. and we could never seem to get them to grill the fish or give us anythign else. crazy place.
anywyas, i was dying to get outta there, so i left a week early. apparently you can just show up at the airport, and as lnog as there's an open seat, they'll acceopt your ticket out. one good thing that came of my trip there. there were a couple other things that happened that i dont really feel like talking about. but mostly, long bus trips, annoying locals, hassles and ripoffs every day. so i'm over it. oh well. at least i know now. im ack in bali eagerly awaiting my parents' arrival. should be fun. and there's a surf spot up the coast about 1 1/2 hours that i might stay at just to get outta the kuta area for a bit. might even have a bit of swell on the way.

Sumba - the beginning

Sumba actually started out ok. First i guess i should say that i tried lombok, but it was full of jerks, so i took off back to bali, ad got a flight out to sumba. I flew into west sumba, and was trying to find a bus to the town called pero which was sposed to have a good wave. i lucked out and found some white guys speaking english in the airport (i mean little house where the planes landed) and one was a french guy taking some visiting austrians to his place on the west coast. so he had a car and said he could take me near pero. so i obliged.
we left and started the drive west. not very far. maybe an hour or so. we stopped into the shop to get some waters and stuff. not much in there besides dust really. then we continued down the bumpy, bumpy road. we got to the turnoff to his property, and he said that since it was getting dark, and there may not be another bus coming by, why not stay at his camp? i asked how much, and he said i can pay whatever i felt like, and he would take me to pero in the morning. i thought we were actually heading to some sort of resort or something, but when we got there, it was the place pictured. this is how a lot of the locals live in west sumba. basic big house that looks like a gigantic mexican hat. in this case, there were no walls, but i think they normally have them. and the french guy, fabian, and hos wife stayed upstairs. the austrians and i each got a blow up mattress and a mosquito net and stayed downstairs. comfy. mosquito nets were great since sumba is like malaria island in indo.
it turns out, that fabian and a few of his friends are in a project together. one of the guys saw this area from a plane going over sumba years ago, and through lots of work they managed to find it onland and have been working with the locals and the government to try and preserve it. they've bought a bit of it for themselves, and they plan on just putting up a few of these houses i think.
Fabian also employs a lot of sumbanese workers to make bracelets and stuff for his shop in bali selling jewelry. so he's got it made. making money and has his own little place in the middle of nowhere. he even has people working for him at his place that cook for him and whatnot. so we just sat back and enjoyed it. and it overlooks the ocean and has a great little beach for swimming and jumping off rocks. and the water is amazingly clear. just like the clear blue water i saw in the mentawai islands.
There were a bunch of locals wandering around as well. all people that are well known. and in this part of indo, there are kepala desas, which are the town heads, or chiefs. it's very tribal or something down there. i'm still unclear on it. but you have to please the kepala desa all the time or you get kicked out. so he came over for coffee and a chat the first night. and he and his friends justr kinda hang out there every now and again. fabian doenst care.
i came there thinking i'd stay one night and go to pero, but i ended up staying 3 nights. couldnt get away from it. too good. but fabian had to go back to bali on monday, and the austrians were a bit creepy i thought, so i headed out when his car got back from the airport. and i got a ride to pero about 20 or 30 minutes away. once we left fabian's property, the driver yelled out the window. im not sure what he said, probably something like "who wants to go for a ride while i take this white guy to pero?" needless to say, indos swarmed the pickup and within about 10 minutes and 1 kilometer of driving, we had a full cab and a full bed too. incredible. and i had to tell them not to sit on my boards...or 'skis' as they call them.
so my introduction to sumba was actually quite nice.

stuff

Well, I got back from Krui ok. only took like 17 hours in a bus and a flight to get back to Bali. I hung out in Kuta waaaaaay too long. A few days of being hassled to buy a fake pair of oakleys is enough. But i had no plans to do anything, and it was nice to get some civilizatoin and good food in me. I spent a week or so around here, meeting some people that i met the last time i was in indo 2 years ago, as well as others. I tried to get a flight out to sumba, which is an island further east of here, but i booked the flight online and wasnt allowed to pay for some reason. therefore, when i went to the airport to check in and fly out, i was denied access because the flight was full!! i dont know why they bothered letting me book. So a couple guys i'd met were heading to the next island over called lombok, so i decided to tag along with them.
We opted for the cheap route there, which was the shuttle bus, ferry, shuttle bus option. it only took about 8 hours or so. not too bad. 2 hours up the coast to the port, 4 hours on the ferry and 2 back down the coast of lombok. but my first impressoin of lombok was not good and i was ready to leave once i got there. too many hassles and people trying to sell you stuff. and we were told that it was cheaper there to rent a motorbike, when in fact, it was quite a lot more! not encouraging. and all the locals have banded together and made a syndicate or something so no one will go below a ceratin price per day. also, the place we stayed wouldnt give us free breakfast like they normally always do in this part of indo. and the owners and workers there just had a bad attitude. so we spent a couple nights there, paid the price for a bike to get to some waves, and we moved to another place that was nicer for the last night. it's called the surfers inn, and there were a couple of friends there from bali. so we paid an extra dollar that night and we had a pool to hang out in, a tv, a bed each, and a nice breakfast. not bad. the other 2 guys i was with were planning on getting their bikes for a month total and riding another island over to sumbawa and surfing around there. i wasnt really that keen on the idea, i just wanted to get out of lombok and do my sumba idea. so i got the shuttle back to bali, and here i am yet again in kuta. got a flight, booked and paid for this time, to sumba, so we'll see how that goes. heading out in a couple days. it's sposed to be totally different from the rest of indo as well as off the beaten path, so i think that it wont be too full of all the other monkeys and riff raff that visit this country to surf. but that's about it for now. just been hanging out as usual and trying to get some good food in me. something that isn't just rice and eggs. so i can head to sumba and get back on the indo diet and i wont go crazy. no plans after that except for the visit from the folks. which should be quite nice.

Krui Kontinued

30 days in Krui may be a few too many for me. While i was quite addicted to a nearby beach break, the constant onslaught of "hello mister" proved to be too much for me. not a moments rest for a white guy in those parts. the hotel wasnt that great beacuse there was no hang out area where you could be alone. always indo people walking through there and they all want to know where you're from, what you're doing, where you're going, how long you been here, blah blah blah. i had the same conversation 10 times a day every day. not fun. but the waves were ok. never got any of the reefs working, and the winds came up around 11:00 everty day, but the beach break was my saving grace. the first pic is a little store in front of the beach that i could get a coffee every morning. sit down, talk to an indo while checking the waves, and they would watch my stuff while i was in the water. nice couple. the other pic is just scenery on the way to the beach. rice fields and houses are all you see. and jungle. nice drive, but everyone you pass screams "mister!" at you. annoying. the food gets a bit monotonous as well. once you've been there a week, you've had everything. so it's the same ole same ole every day. at least i found some really cheap deals. i was eating rice and veggies (a huge plate) for about 60 cents every day. amazing.

some things i've notioced around there. the spiderman outfit is a bestseller for children. either the cheapest thing to buy, or they really like spiderman. strangly enough, no one was running around pretending to swing off a spiders web. which is what I would be doing if i had the spiderman pjs on. and pjs are another thing. every woman in krui wears pjs come about 5pm. it's strainge. it's like the old man pjs too. the long pants and button down shirt. except these have cartoon characters on them a lot of times. or just some design. but trips to the store are done in pjs every night. dressing down i guess.

also, at the shop, aside from people asking me questions, once i get in line, i become invisible. im next for checkout, and 2 people just jump in front of me and put there groceris on the counter. not sure about that one. whenever the checkout person sees that though, and they see my bewildered expression, they take me first. so that's nice.

and if i were to have a girlfriend, i would never be able to take here to a place such as krui. lots of non-touristic places dont see too many white people, and especially not many white girls in skimpy clothing. so they are blatantly staring and staring for ages. pretty disturbing really. and im sure there's more than one off in the bushes doing indecent things.

anywyas, im back in bali right now. well, back in the sense that i ahvent been here in 2 years. not the greatest place to be, but good to get some civilization after 4 months in indo. my plans, i think, are to find a flight to sumba, which is an island further east with some waves and not too crowded. we'll see how that plays out. then i get to have a nice visit from the parents in mid-june. should be nice!

ps - worst case of the hershey squirts were not enjoyed by me just last night. you'd think after 3 months here that i'd be immune to that stuff! i guess indonesia can always throw you a curveball when you least expect it.

Krui

Well, i got to Krui finally after 20 hours travel time. i left padang in a nice toyota suv, and the driver was a complete maniac. screeching the tires on turns and bascially driving mach 5 all the way down south through twisting winding roads. a 16 hour leisurely drive took him only about 12 or so. ane they charged me double since i had a board. when you have a surf board on the roof in some parts of indo, the cops take that as an excuse to stop you for a bribe. i think it's a bit much to charge me double for my ticket when the bribe is usually only about $1!! i had to pay almost $30 to get to bengkulu instead of the regular $15. oh well. live and learn. we got to bengkulu at about 2am and i had no where to stay (thinking we were to get in later than that) so i got a spare room in the "bus station" for free. so that was nice at least. and in the morning, someone who actually knew where krui was and where the bus left from came and got me and took me to the busstop to wait. bus came around 9:30am or so. and at 10:00 we stopped to fix 2 tires that were going flat or somthing. 11:00, we hit the road, and about 8 hours later i was dropped off in krui. you drive through the middle of nowhere to get here. all jungle, jungle, jungle. ad krui is actually a bit bigger than i expected. i thought it might be one hotel, one restaruant and a beach. it's actually a long line of shops along the road, a few hotels, lots of restaurants. so it's like an oasis in the middle of nowhere. (oh, krui is in south sumatran mainland for those who don't know.)
The first few days here were pretty lonely. i felt like the last white man on earth. everyone yelling 'hello mister' to me of course as well. ive worked out a deal at the hotel to get a discount for staying 3 weeks here. and i got a motorboke as well to cruise around on since the breaks are spread out here. to date, i have not had a good surf. no swell really. had a couple waves at a beach break. nothing special. the nearest good break is about 30 minutes south by bike. (yes i wear a helmet and keep my eyes open for potholes...which are plentiful.) some other good waves about an hour north too. and if the swell gets big enough, there's a couple waves in town that can get good. we'll just see what happens.
i was starting to go a little crazt those first few days being the only white guy and having no one to talk to or check the waves with. luckily a kiwi guy came here yesterday, and im sure he's had his ear talked off by me. rare for me to be the one talking the ear off, i know. this place isnt really on the surfer map too much simply beccuase it takes forever to get here. you can fly from jakarta, java, to bandarlampung on sumatra. but you still have a 7-8 hour bis ride in front of you to get here. i think there are plans for an airport here in the next few years, which will just destroy the solitude. but i guess that just happens everywhere now. there's still maybe 5 good years of empty waves here i'd say.
anywho, i'll get pics later. i have yet to take any. not much swell on the horizon unfortunately, but i really have nothing else to do but wait. so no big deal.

Singapore

This is me being American in Singapore. Drinking a Big Gulp from one of the 2 million 7-11s they have around here. and on tomorrow itinerary, after going to the indo embassy and applying for a visa, is Burger King! 8 weeks of withdraw from good western things tends to make your head spin when you're confronted with it so completely here.

Here's a typical toilet in indo. the ole squatter. apparently, it's cleaner than our method, but i still feel a sense of relief when i get to one where i can sit on. relief, physically and mentally i guess you could say. and i still am not real comfortable with the use of my "muslim hand" and wish to rather use the toilet paper method.
enough of that. the other pic is the padang food. im not sure if ive shown this or not yet. but it sits in the window there, and you just pick what you want. and hope it's relatively fresh. no stomach viruses yet! it's not a hot meal, but it's pretty good. and you're sposed to eat it with your fingers, but i usually opt for the fork and spoon. i've done the fingers thing to be "worldy" but i prefer my regular option. plus, the whole bathroom thing and then eating with your fingers thing kinda makes me sick when i see the guy next to me shoving food in his mouth. i hope they all know the left hand = unclean rule!

Bukittinggi

I've made for the hills, as they say. it's a bit cooler here which is nice. in padang, you're sweating even with a fan on you all night. here you just open the window and let some breezes blow in. it's nice. It's a bit smaller than padang. i went to the zoo yesterday, and that was just depressing. cages are small enough in the states for animals, but here it was pretty bad. really confined and not one animal looked happy. and some cages only had one animal, so i guess that exhibit is finshed once it dies.
There's a few touristy things to do outside of town here, but i really dont feel like doing any of that. i mostly came here to get in some cooler weather. there's sposed to be a nice lake about an hour away, but i've seen some nice water out on the islands. i dont think a lake can beat that! so i just walk around town. get a few supplies that i need. i dont stand out so much here beacuse there's a few more toursists around town. which is also nice, beacuse people tend not to tell at me here. i got a few "hello misters" so far, but nowhere near as many as i get in padang. unfortunately, i need to head back there tomorrow and fly out saturday. should be ok though. i can handle one day there.
The main mission upon returning to padang was heading to pizza hut. mission accomplished. after 6 weeks of the same food, i was dying for some pizza and a salad. i went there with a couple guys from the island that were headed to bali. i also had to get some ice cream bars there too since i've been dying for one. i've had one a night i think so far.
The hotel i checked into is giving me the local price for the room since i speak a bit of indo. that's cool. everyone keeps asking me what im doing with my day. they all want me to do some sort of tour to a lake or a volcano, but i just tell them i want to walk around a bit.
Most people speak english here too, which is a bit different. i can actually get my point across when i need to. and for some reason, they love KFC. there's one in padang too. and i hear from a fellow traveller, that KFC is the one restaurant that's really gotten into asia. not sure why they love it so much. i noticed a lot of Long John Silvers in singapore last time. weird.
i've gotten some more padang food. there is a picture here of that. you can see how the food is just hanging out in a window. waiting for someone to eat it. it's never a hot meal, but it's usually pretty good. although it gets old after a while. same thing in every window. chicken, fish, curries, green stuff, rice. i'm trying to get some fresh fruit here since you cant get much out on sipora. mama used to go to market once a week and we could give her a list, but we usually only got some apples back. not much in the market some weeks. it was located about 2 hours up the island by boat. all the locals go each week.
one funny thing about people here is the way they keep their money. in a little shop, the money is usually in a little plastic bucket behind the counter. and your change comes to you all crumpled up in a ball. and the same with their money in their bags or pockets. just crumpled up in a big ball. so i guess i'm unique in that i keep all my bills lined up in my money sac. some places here in the city are a little better about it. it's more of an island thing i guess. but weird nonetheless.
i got some great smoothies in padang too. francis and i found a kebab shop there the first time in padang, and they also made smoothies. orange, mango, dragonfruit. all pretty good. i even got a cappuccino shake the other day which was as good as any frappe you'd get in starbucks. and the cost was like 50 cents!! can't beat that with a stick. they have cappuccino mix in packs that you can just pour hot water in for a drink,but they put it in a blender with ice and water i guess, and they put chocolate syrup on the sides of the cup which is just awesome. and their kebabs are pretty good too. although you order a large kebab, and the thing they give you is small enough to make you think they misheard you. i think they're always amazed by how much a white guy can eat. i order to kebabs and a smoothie and i can still be hungry afterwards. an indo would be stuffed after that fare.
Another good thing about Bukittinggi is the little food stalls. during the day, you walk around and there's no food stalls,but right before dark, they all come out and set up for dinner. they're basically little makeshift restaurants with a tarp or cloth as walls with pictures and words of what they serve. and they all bring out a little propane cooker and lights and get to it. good food. cheap too.
anyways, my time is coming to an end here at the internet cafe, so i'll sign off now. i'll get back in touch after singapore i guess. or some other time....who knows!

Some Pictures

Here's some nice pics of good ole reef rash that you get out here in indo. The one on my side is quite nice. Got that by being rolled along the reef after a misjudged takeoff. also have a nice rub rash in my armpit there from a faulty rash guard. i found a rash vest that seemed as though no one was using, so i took it out one day. it's basically like a wetsuit top to help protect against the reef, but it didnt fit right and it gave me a huge rash there. so that sucked. i was lucky enough to find a big jar of petroleum jelly to put on it all day long to stop the rub.
also here is my foot. this was the 3rd nasty wipeout in about an hour, so i decided to go in and get my reef booties and a bigger board. pretty good after that. as you can see, i was ok after all this.
the other pic is ian, me, anas, and francis. ian's a guy from jersey island off england. basically a big wave charger. he got some great rides. and then anas is the son of the owner of the losmen in katiet. he helped us out with speaking indo and stuff. and then there's francis. you all know about him. he's still out there looking for waves. heading home in late april since he's about out of money.
My typical day there consisted of waking up around 5:30 am with ian and francis for coffees. And i've received some questions on how the coffee is, so i feel i should explain. at first, i didnt realize i could buy anything out there. for the first week or so in december, i was in de-tox since i was eating almost no sugar, and having no coffee or anything. just veggies, rice, and the oatmeal and pasta i brought out to cook. then a boat from a resort on another island came down for a surf and gave me some coffees. some 3-in-1 packs. coffee, creamer, and sugar. i was lovin that. then i found out that i can buy cookies and coffees and lots of stuff like that in little shops in town. amazing. no one told me!
anyways, after a bunch of 3-in-1s, i got sick of the soft stuff and went on to the hard. kopi padang, it's called. padang coffee. it's really fine ground, like espresso, and you just pour hot water over it and put sweetened, condensed milk in it and give it a stir. it's so good. and you have to let it settle for a minute or you just end up drinking the grounds. one or 2 of those and you can paddle around the island no problem. and for some arcane reason, we always felt the need for a coffee or hot chocolate some time during midday also...when it's already stinking hot. i dont know why we did this. it must be a sugar or caffiene addiction. i've slowed down since coming back to the mainland however. one a morning is good enough. you know, it was probably more of a boredom thing actually.
lunches were usually cooked by me or francis for us. either pasta or oatmeal. sometimes a combo of the 2. with pasta we could put a can of tuna with it. although our tunas were limited since they came from padang. we had to ration. and oatmeal was had with honey from padang. pretty good. simple. and then dinner was about the same thing every night. and for some reason we were fed eggs all the time. living on an island, you'd think there'd be fresh fish daily, but we got eggs. hard boiled or in quiche or something. and the veggies were always potatos, carrots, and cabbage. and sometime something green which i assumed was leaves off the tree out back. and a big pot of rice. every few nights we'd get the same veggies, but they'd be in a curry, which was always a treat since she could make a good one.
so each day was much like the last. somtimes reading in the hammock, sometimes walking to the other side. nothing much really. enjoy the pics!

HTs : part II

Got back here in padang finally. since the last post, i can't say that i've been a "traveller." i've been more or a "sit-around-and-waiter." got to katiet again, after the awful 3 week visa run/getting sick episode. anyways, got there to not many waves. i basically slept for an entire week almost upon return. i think the heat hit me hard, and i had nothing else to do since there were no waves! i took up backgammon much like the other guys in the losmen. after 6 weeks thoufgh, i was ready to throw the stupid board in the ocean. so we waited and waited for waves. hung out with some guys from jersey island, some frenchies (6 in fact! all basically refusing to speak english, making it difficult to get to know them!) and francis, of course. so we waited and waited. some days walking to the other side for some waves if the wind was onshore at HTs. sometimes getting swell reports from the charter boats from the rich old guys that travel around the mentawai islands. not much on the horizon was the report mostly. and anytime the waves picked up to about head high, there was a charter boat on it early with aoubt 10 guests in the water. soooo frustrating. waiting and sweating for weeks for a couple waves, onjly to have an air conditioned boat pull up and see everyone hop off and steal your well-deserved waves.
so that happened for almost 6 entire weeks. just hoping and waiting and sitting, and backgammoning. and eating the bad food that we get! almost the same meal every night. and in such a fish-rich environment, thereshould bve no excuse for not having fresh fish every night. but we had a lot of hard boiled egg nights, and quiche night. no idea why.
and then it happened. we heard swell was coming. sposed to hit on a friday, the day before i was leaving. lucked out on thursday morning and it started pouring in. we woke up around 5:30, as was usual, for our morning coffees and wave watching in the dark. it looked small but it was so clean that i had to try a few since i was leaving soon. i paddled out alone, couldnt see a lot, paddles for a wave (maybe a shoulder high wave) couldnt see well enough, had to ditch the board, and WHAM! hit the reef about 3 times! that sucked. people started slowly coming out for a surf, and it started getting slowly bigger. sets went from head high to slightly overhead, then to a couple feet over head. and there were onlyt about 5 keen surfers staying on land at the time and not a charter boat in sight! so we surfed like 3 or 4 hours til the wind came up. this was the time that i got a nice little gash on the bottom of my foot from a wipeout, but it was too good to go in from a little cut. actually yeah, there was a charter boat on the other side of the island, and the goofy footers stayed there, and the regular footers cam to HTs. but they were sitting on the shoulder and we were sitting deep getting barrels. not bad. than that afternoon, it got even bigger and more hollow. got some great rides. scary. some more the next morning too. little smaller maybe, still good size and good. and it only took 6 weeks of waiting. so it's a fickle fickle wave. not great for a quick trip. even in season i hear it's pretty fickle. it needs the right tide, wind, and swell direction. and if jupiters moons align just right, you can get some good waves. otherwise, go to bali and surf with everyone else. they get waves guaranteed. i'll get some pics up later. just got inthis morning, and i need to eat. only had a little egg sandwich so far from a little cart on the street. it was so good. i gotta figure out my visa stuff too. might be able to extend instead of flying to singapore on saturday. not sure. might take the flight out just for a scenery change and some civilization. we'll see. i'll get some pics up later.
oh yea, i met a guy at HTs that read my blog after googleing "katiet, indonesia" and the pictures and words convinced him and his wife to come for a visit. how about that!

just a friendly reminder. to day is friday january 30th, and im heading back out on the ferry to HTs tonight, so i'll be out of contact for around 6 weeks or so. i'll let you know when i get back!

Singapore

Well, we had to spend a bit of time in Padang doing very little, and now we get to spend some time in Singapore, also doing very little. Upon flying into Changi Airport, we met with a guy from the Czech Republis who's been living here for the past 5 years, and was eager to help us out. He showed us the ropes of getting into the town via the subway just under the airport (even paid for our tickets) and tiold us of a place that his friends had recently stayed for SG$10/night. a good deal in this town where everything is grossly overpriced. Granted, I get around SG$1.20 for my US$, but it still is a bit expensive.

My first impression of this place, though, was that i was stepping off a plane from the past and into the future. This is an incredibly modern place where the rich seem to flourish. Everyone has a pretty nice car, and apparently, once your car is past like 20 years old, you can't drive it anymore! Well, I think you can, but the taxes are less for a newer car. So everything around here is new. I was surprised to find a used book store in my wanderings. even some of the taxis are pretty sweet. i've seen more than a few mercedes taxis flying by me on the road. and the typical one is a nice toyota.

The typical hostel here is going to be between SG$15 and SG$20. (SG means singapore dollars) We got lucky in the fact that this place we are now, the Prince of Wales Hostel is having a january re-opening special for buy one night, get one free. So SG$20/night, turns into SG$10. so 7 nights cost us SG$80. I would have thought 70, but since it's buy one get one, the last night is full price. interesting, i think. not too sure that i;m nuts about the place thoguh. the staff is nice enough, but it's bassically a pub with a place to sleep over it. so unless you want to hang out in the pub all day and drink and listen to really loud music, you have no other place to hang out other than the dorm. which isnt too bad i guess. butit can get a bit loud at night when they have a band from 8-10 and a dj from lik 10-1 or so. anywho, upon exploration of the city, I find it's nice to not be the center of attention. even though im a tall white guy, i fit into this melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. I'm not the only one standing on a corner with my free singapore map looking confused as to where to go. In fact, there seems to be as many tourists as locals.

The food here has been ok. I'm staying in a hostel in Little India, so dinners are tyipcally indian fare. But, as of late, my belly has been disagreeing with me only slightly, and i can't seem to get in the mood for indian these past 2 nights. curries, bryanis, naan bread, it's all pretty good. I just can't seem to stomach any more of it! and the others foods are ok too. We've found a lot of little college-cafeterie-type eateries, where we can get a meal for around SG$4 which is nice. There are like 10 little restaurants in a row and you just pick one and look at the pictures and ask for it. Oh yea, and they all can speak english here, so there's not much communication breakdown. The cafeterias are located everywhere to. some you just find on the road while walkinog, and some are under the big shopping malls that litter the famous Orchard Rd. I had never heard of this place before i came here, but maybe some of you out there have. orchard rd is just a long street with mall after mall after mall. and they're pretty good size. what they lack in length, they make up for in height. like 5-9 stories each. so that's a lot of shopping one can do here. if one has the inclination and the money. i have neither.

but orchard rd is a good place to wander to look at all the people, or find a meal or something. i've even gone to a couple movies to pass the time. and i am now the proud owner of a 2 month visa to indo. and it only took about 5 days of waiting. since we flew in on a thursday, and they only accept applications between 9and 12, we had to wait til friday to lodge one, and then they were closed all weekend, and it takes 3 days anyways to get approvedd (for some unknown reason) so today is tuesday and we finally got our passports back with the appropriate sticker in them. Now we have one more day here and then fly back to indo on thursday.

What else can i say about this place? well, one thing i found interesting as i was sitting to another indian dinner the other night, was that the asians never eat indian, and the indians never eat asian. why this is i cannot fathom. it seems they both have good food, but indians stick to little india and asians stick to everywhere else. who knows why. and upon my exploration of chinatown, i can say with confidence that i never want to go to china. while i had a decent lunch there, if there are that many people just in chinatown, i cant imagine the crowding in the actual country. even though it is chinese new year sometime next week, there are still throngs of people in that area. and happy lunar new year to you all. hope your next year (of the ox this year) is a good one. not sure how the ox was allotted priority this year, but i'll just add that to the list of "things kyle doesnt know."

I noticed a few restaurants titled 'vegetarian and non vegetarian restaurant.' thought that was strange, when they could have just called it 'restaurant' and saved themselves some trouble. and i must say, that if there was one location that could just completely ignore me budget and in fact throw it right down the crapper, it would be singapore. although i seek out all the deals, in order to be frugal, smart, or cheap (choose your own adjective for it) i still manage to spend a bit of money. but i'll live and i won't be thrown out on the streets just yet.

As for my pictures here. The first is the inside of one of the malls on orchard rd. it's hard to really capture the size in a little shot like this, but it's big. and they're all like that. the 2nd one is the 'merlion'. not sure where he cam from really. but it's a big site to see in singapore. and the backdrop is some of the bigger buildings around. at least that i could see anyways. and the last pic is kinda looking the other way from the merlion. the round thing on the bottom left is the esplanade where they have plays and stuff. pretty nice, i walked around the inside for a little bit.

But that's that. i'm back in padang now and pretty glad to get back to indo. unforunately, i've fallen ill and had to miss the ferry back to HTs. i told francis to go on and i'll be ok, cuz the people at the homestay can take care of me if i need anything. i got back from the doc a while ago and it turns out that i have a throat infection. strange how that could make me so miserable and achy. so i have some antibiotics to take care of that and hopefully i feel better. and oh yea, a visit to the doctor (for 5 minutes) cost approximately $3.50. amazing. back home that would have cost at least $100. and 3 sets of antibiotics cost about $5.60. another thing that would be a fortune back home. so i'll let you all know how im doing and hopefully i start feeling better soon so i can get back out to the island. see ya!

Hello Mister!

Just wasting some time while here in Padang. Had a few observations about indonesia. First of all, I would really like to meet the person who first told indo kids to refer to everyone as 'mister.' every time a white guy (ie. me) walks down the street, there are normally a group of kids coming the other way and every single one of them literally yells, "HELLO MISTER!" to me. not sure who taught every single indo kid this phrase. every island that i've been to on this trip and my first trip here, they say this. so it's a country-wide epidemic. interesting. they can also say little phrases like 'how are you' or 'where are you going', but i dont think they know enough english to understand my response, so i try to respond in indo when i can. even a bunch of adults have yelled at me from 10 feet away, "HELLO MISTER!" in these cases, i sometimes feel the need to yell 'HELLO' back to them. not sure why they think they need to yell it at me.
Also, just to let you all know. There is indeed a Pizza Hut here in Padang. And of course, after 3 weeks of a fairly monotonous diet, i chose to go there last night. and i must say that it was worth every last rupiah spent! I went there with Francis and we looked at the menu and looked at the pizza sizes and thought something was amiss. The personal pan pizza was said to feed 1-2 people, the medium was said to feed 2-3 people, and the large was said to feed 4-5 people. well needless to say, these ratings are based on a small indonesian stomch i feel. we got a large between us and polished it off in no time. the personal pan pizza looked about big enough for a large mouse to eat. that and a salad bar each, and a drink, and we spent like 7 bucks each. not bad considering a pizza hut in the states costs quite a lot more than that. and im sure the waitresses in america are nowhere near as cute as the ones working here.
I am all for the food around here, but man, sometime you just look at it and say, 'rice again?!' but they have a unique food here in padang, called, imaginatively enough, 'padang food!' this is pretty much the main food here. every little restaurant just have a big window with like 15 big bowls of different meats and vegetables in them. and you sit at your table and they bring you a plate of rice, and then one little bowl of each dish in the window. and you are wise to ask which ones are 'tidak pedas' (not spicy) becuase it's already hot enough here without putting a pound of hot chili in you. but it;s pretty good stuff. i'm a little wary of food that's been sitting in a window all day, but so far so good! we normally just go there and find one or 2 things we like and ask for those now instead of getting the whole shmorgasboard. the good thing is though, you only pay for what you eat, so ewven with all the dishes, you can pay just a little bit. and one of the cool things about it is that you're expected to eat with your hands. you get a little water bowl to dip your fingers in and clean them, and you go to it. they have utensils at the table too, so if you're not feeling up to it, you can just use those.
Another thing here are the mini bus taxis. Like low riders back home. every single one has been 'pimped' to use the parlance of our time. they mostly all like to play loud rap or indo music with a lot of bass and they're decked out in loud colors and stickers. and they cost like 20 cents. so not bad. they kinda run certain routes, so you have to figure out where they go before you get on. a lot of times they go right by our hotel, so we get dropped off at the doorstep.
Anywho, that's about all for now. I'm heading to Singarpore tomorrow for a week to get a 2 month visa and then head back to padang and then back to HTs on Sipora. Not looking forward to that ferry ride, but once there we'll be sitting pretty for a while.

PICTURES!!!!!

Here we have a few pics for your looking enjoyment. The one of the place that looks like a place to stay in the jungle, is the place we stayed in the jungle. It's called the Katiet Losmen. Losmen is the indo word meaning something like guesthouse. pretty sweet place. francis and i got the room upstairs on the right, so we could see the wave outside our window every morning. from the safety of our mosquito nets of course.
The big boat is the ferry that we came in on. you can see some of the supplies loaded up front there. those are a bunch of beds. we were hoping they were going to padang so we could sleep on them, but no such luck. quite a worthy looking sea vessel huh?
And the other pic; one was just a scene from the beach/jungle.pretty impenetrable jungle out there. we're lucky that there's a concrete path leading to the other side of the island. something to do with having an easy place to get to higher ground if there's a tsunami i think. it does go uphill after about 25 minutes walking. (this photo had troubleloading, so it's not here. im giving up on that one).
And the last pic is of Mama and me in the market at Siouban. I asked her for a photo, and she complied, but failed to look at the camera. I think she was eying up the sweet sweet oranges on the ground for sale in front of her. oh well.when i took it and showed it to her, i said "hey bagus!" (good) and she said "tidak bagus" (no good). so i said"ya, gantik!" (yea, beautiful!) anywyas, these photos take forever to load here. we had some internet last night that wasnt too bad. and for some reason we took 2 taxi things to get to this other internet place, and im pretty sure it's slower than the one we were at last night. interesting. at least the taxis were only like 20 cents each. and we're near a market so im gonna try to find a nice, thin button down shirt to protect me from mosquitos at night. im currently wearing my gray thermal shirt. not that hot, but i think i can do better and it wont break the bank. so im off to explore a little i guess.maybe eat some rice for lunch.....again.

Mentawai Islands

Well, after a looooooong trip from Morocco, including a night staying over in the Singapore airport, Francis and i made it to Padang, Sumatra in Indonesia. Had a nice place to stay with air conditioning for a change. We splurged and spent about $11 on that place per night! only one night though. the ferry for the island of Sipora was leaveing the next night so we had to get on it. We lucked out and got a cabin for the ride, so we had a bed each and didnt have to sleep on the floor in the hallways or on deck. of course, the beds are made for short indo people, and i had to keep my legs bent about the entire night. not too comfy, but ok. so it left around 10 pm friday night, and 10 hours later we got to Sioban, a little city just north of where we were plannig to stay. we asked around for a boat to Katiet, and luckily the lady who runs the camp with her husband was at market that day and fouind us. see, the ferry brings not only a couple hundred people tp the island, but also all the necessitities of living for them. food, water, bananas, i dont know what else. there was so much stuff. so Mama found us and we had to wait a few hours for her to go to market, and we got a ride in the boat with her group heading back to Katiet for $5. if you dont get there on market day, you have to charter a boat ride down there. it's about 2 hours south, right on the tip of the island.
The ride wasnt without events. our motor decided to die about 1 1/2 hours in, and we had to paddle the boat to shore. oh yeah, it's a really big dugout canoe with an outboard on it. they call it a speedboat, i call it a canoe. luckily there was a tiny village right where we broke down, and after about 3 hours of watching the intense table tennis games going on and playing on the beach with the local kids, we had a different motor (from where i dont know) and headed out. made it to Katiet about 30 minutes later, and francis and i were absolutely soaked. we had to sit in the front, cuz i guess that's just where the white people go, and every little bit of wave came crashing over the rails into us.
So we made it there though, and found the place to stay right in front of the break. already there was an aussie we'd met in the aiport in singapore. he took the earlier ferry. only 3 of us in a world class location in the off season. and we found out why they call it the rainy season. rain so thick at times you can barely see anything. there was a nice gutter on the roof that funnelled the rain down in a bit spout, so that became my shower whenever we had torrential downpours. better than the bucket and water well in the bathroom. less mosquitos too. the first week was sloooooooow. no swell really, and we had to walk to the other side of the island for waves. where we were, HTs, was on the right side of the island away from the ocean. so we just walk along the path to the west coast, about 30-40 minutes, and there was a beachbreak and 2 reef breaks that pick up a little more swell. surfed the beach break mostly, some on one of the reefs. then we got lucky and the swell came up and we could just surf right out front. 3 of us alone at times. sometimes a few locals, but not a ton. no other white guys surfing...amazing. we even got lucky and had a couple more swells in the next couple weeks. one aussie left, a couple french guys came next, a charter boat here and there, and finallty a group of 4 aussies for the last few days we were there. so never that crowded. in the peak season ,, they say there can be about 40 guys in the water at this wave, whicih would just be dangerous considering the consequenses of falling off or wiping out. it seems every time one of us straightened out on a wave that we couldnt go fast enough on, we hit the bottom. not a fun ordeal. i got a few scrapes here and there, but poor francis was basically a magnet for the reef. he has so much blue antiseptic stuff on him, he's starting to resemble a smurf. you see, when you hit the reef in indo, it's usually live coral that you have to scrub out of your skin and keep really really clean. otherwise, you get an infection and then you can be in trouble. and the humid climate makes it hard to heal fast, and yo uhave to clean after every time you get in the water. my routine was just rubbing some alcohol over all my cuts, then putting some betadine on them to keep clean. so i have brown spots on legs, arms, and back. getting better though.
the place we satyed was cool. only electricity at night when they turn the generator on. rent is $5 and includes a really good dinner each night. normally rice and veggies. then either fish or chicken, fried. and it was a treat when she made here curry. we made sure that she knew we liked it so she would make it more often. and every morning for breakfast was a banana pancake with condensed milk for $1. she kept a tab for everyone so you can just pay when you leave. exactly 21 days cost me about $160. not too bad! 
so basically lots of surfing, hammocking, reading, eating...that srtuff. walkde around the village a bit. bought some goodies at the stores. stuff like cookies and coffees. its like 50 cents for a bag of cookies and 20 cents for a single serve coffee bag. awesome. francis and i left our boards there so we're just gonna go back after our visa run. we have 4 days in padang, then we fly to singarpore to apply for a 2 month visa. should be back at HTs in 2 weeks. (it stands for Hollow Trees. Also goes by the name of Lances Right). We here it takes about 3 days to get a visa in singapore, so we'll find a place to stay and hang out i guess. then go through the whole process again. hopefully getting a cabin on the ferry again. we failed to do so coming back to padang last night cuz they were all full. not  a great exerience sleeping on the floor around 20 indos who all smoke...ugh! between that and inhaling gas fumes from the engine, i wasnt feeling too good when we got to port.
anywyas, here we are in padang. gonna hang out. try to stay cool. no trees in the city like on the islands, so it's hot Hot HOT! here!! we are straddling the equator basically. a good time to be here is rainy season i think. keeps the clouds around and the sun away for most of the time.
not sure what else to say other than next time i get on i'll try to get some pics up. hope everyone had  great holidays. i appreciate all the emails i had to come back to today!

Moving on

Here we have a nice finished pot of sweet mint tea. Most places give us a few rectangles of sugars, but this place had a giant block of sugar that they hammered pieces of off. Quite interesting. and we have downed many a cup of tea in this country. but we are parting ways with morocco. swells have been too northerly which just makes the waves smaller than they can normally be as well as producing a raging current in the ocean that sweeps you away from the take off zone. we had a good day yesterday finally, and today was too windy, but im heading to indo with my buddy francis and were hoping to get some rainy season waves. and hopefully do some visa runs and exploring and maybe hang around indo for a while finding some good waves as the prime season starts to kick in in a few months. so farewell for now. you might not hear from me for at least a few weeks since ill be on a little island with no communications. but ill let everyone know whats going on when i get back. and if you care to consult an atlas, well be on an island off of sumatra called sipora. see ya!

Imsuoane

Well, Dominic had to leave us and head back to Quebec, but im still around with Francis and were now hanging out with an Aussie; Dave. We took a little trip up the coast a short way to Imsouane lookng for some waves. Got a few. Nothing too great; but fun to get in the water for a change. The time of year we went is apparently the Sheep killing time of year for moroccans. so all the buses were packed going up the coast, and we stood on the road for 2 hours until we found a ride. Got charged a little more than we planned; but thats ok. So anyways, about this holiday. basically, family or friends get together, absolutely no one works for at least one day. lkike the entire country shuts down. then they all pitch in to buy a sheep. the ,more poor families have to settle for the cheaper option of a goat. We asked the price of a sheep, and it converted to around 400 dollars if i remmber correctly. well, they take the poor thing out back and someone slits its throat and everyone just stands qround and watches it struggle in its death throes. as you can see by the pcture. pretty grim scene and almost makes one want to become a vegitarian. that is unti lyou smell it cooking. so you eat it, but you feel sad while you do it. ther must be a more humane way to slay the thing. anywyas, we taste some of the liver, byut didnt partake in the big feast. surfed a few days in imsouane then found a ride back to taghazoute with some travellers. so here i am yet again. some swell on the way, so fingers crossed!

marrakech

heres a pic of the market in marrakech. not really as crowded as it had been an hour before, but i didnt have my camera on ,e then. and the other one is just a msque like you see anywhere here. every town and city has one. big city - big mosque. little town - little mosque. and here in agadir, where we are now, our hotel is right next to the mosque and we hear the prayers over the megaphone every day. alaaaaaaaahhhhh mah wah. or so,ething like that. allah is great. im sure they ssay other things but thats all we knw at the moment.
so tmw were off to sidi ifni in hopes that we can pick up more swell there. were really prtected from it here so we might have a better chance there with this next swell.
just some things ive noticed here in mrcco. first of all; njo matter where you go, there will be someone there. strange but i guiess its the idea that these people have been nomadic for ages. yu can be driving in the middle of nowhere and still have people walking along the side of the road to some town somewhere. a bit unnerving that you can never really be in solitude. makes you look after your possesions a little better i guess.
also, the bike salesman is king here cuz nearly everyne has one. so he has to be a millionare.
they stilll do a lot of farming with a plow tied to a donkey here to, which just looks like no fun at all. and the ground is so incredibly rocky that i have no idea how they get anything to grow. but the clementines and bananas are delicious nonetheless.
thats qll fr now. tots

pics

Yup, thats me on a camel. And the other one in the desert is our little caravan. the 2 guides are in front leading us intrepid tourists into the sandy unknown. f course we werent exqctly far away from it all. a land cruiser drove up to us during the first lunch and delivered some more napkins to us. and we basically followed worn automobile tracks the whole time. but fun.

more-occo

well we had that little spurt of swell that was only really one worthwhile day, then it kinda crapped out. the forecast showed no swell for at lezast a week, so instead of sitting around taghazoute with nothing to do, we packed up, got a brit and an aussie that wanted to head out too, and made our way to marakech. we found a cheap place to stay, then went out into the mob scene. it was a friday night...or maybe saturday, i forget, but it was busy. i have pics but ill get them on here later. but the basic ideq of ,arrakech is that its busy and lots of people bug you to buy stuff or pay them if you take a picture. so the aussie and brit headed north to do some trekking and francis, dominic, and i headed east to the desert.
stayed one night in ouarzazate looking for some info on a camel trek in the sahara. turned out that its cheaper to go right to the startoff point to avoid any middlemen, so off we went. a litttle little town called mhamid. and everyone hasled us for a camel trek. all bad,outhing the next guys business. so we weeded out a good one and took off the next morning.
got 2 18 year olds as our guides. and 3 camels, but 2 were carrying all the gear. water, food, tent, etc. so we got to share one for riding. fun. i thought it was silly at first cuz we werre just tourists paying to walk in the desrt for 2 days. but it was actuqlly kinda nice. the boys made all the meals when we stopped and they were pretty good. we would walk and camel for a couple hours after breakfqst, eat lunch, nap, then walk one or 2 more hours to camp. spent the first night outside under the stars. gets really really cold in the desert at night. couldnt believe it. then the second night, the boys set up the tent, it fell over, then they set it up again. we were pretty sure it would fall over again...we were right. about 11 or 12 pm, down it came right on us after a big gust of wind. and of course it was raining too. could hardly see anything for all the sand blowing in your face. so we slept thqt night under a fallen tent. cold cold cold. woke up early and walkezd back to town in a lot of wind. so it was an adventure.
we drove back to taghazoute over 2 days taking our time. and of course theres no swell and none froecasted for like 4 days. and not too big either, so were striking out in the wave depqrtment here. might check a spot south of here that could pick up the swell better, but were at a loss for what to do with ourselves. so well see what happens in the future. kinda fickle here i guess or just a slow wave season thus far. could pick up later, who knows. ill get those pics up here sometime soon for you all.

Morocco

Well I made it into casablanca airport safe and sound. i met é french canadiens in the currency exchqnge line there so we stuck together. its nice heving native french speqkers zith you in a plqce the not many ppl speqk english. by the way, the keyboqrds here are really weird, so its tough to type cuz all the letters are in different places. and i hqvent figured out all the punctuation marks yet either.
so, for the pics, we hqve us waiting for q bus in casablanca. they were trying to buy a car here, but it trns out that you cant unless youre a citizen. so we too kthe train and buses for a fez days. hung out for a night in a beqch town called el jadida. then a couple nights a few kms west at sidi bouzid. renting a house there was cheaper than the hotel, so we stqyed 2 nights. all the moroccans that the guys tqlked to were extremely nice. a fez even went out of their way to walk us to a hotel or to a place to eat. nice people.
then we bused to safi where we were hoping to get some waves, but alas, no. we actually decided to rent a car. now this is out of character for me, but it seems like a good idea to have one to get to all the breaks. not too expensive either betweenn 3 ppl.
Now the sunset pis is outside a town called Essaouira. nice place, and different. the town itself is really inside walls. it looks like youre entering a castle. you can see q bit of it on the right of the pic. we camped outside of town that night then walked qround it a bit the next day.
Then we drove to Taghazoute. were staying just north of that town cuz we found a campground there. had no waves the first day, then yesterdqy we had a bit of swell. surfed a place called boilers. fun but fast breaking. called boilers cuz the wave starts by sucking up over an old shis boiler. kinda cool. our feet got a few scrapes co,ing in back over the rocks. the waves got a bit too large to paddle back in easily, so we had to kinda get pushed in over the rocks. you get hassled to pay for parking by some local kids too which is just a dumb scam,but you have to pay cuz they probably know how to break into a car.
the surfing pic is of the main surf spot called anchor point. weve surfed there twice so far, and while its fun its also a bit crowded. so thats a bummer.
our consensus of morocco so far is that the people have been pretty good, the food good too, but its a bit chilly. nights are kinda cold. but zwe woke up early today to surf before the sun and i was freezing my bagguetes off. so we have the car for almost 3 more weeks, so ill be here at least that long. future plans are undetermined just now.
but its been nice here, dont get me wrong. im in good company and eating some good food. we cook a lot of cous cous and veggies. veggies cuz theyre good for you and cous cous cuz we like to say cous cous. had some tajine too which was good. kinda like a stew and they have all types. most with potatoes as an ingredient. then other veggies and chicken or fish or something. anyways , im heading to the tent to read a bit before bed. possibly some swell will be left over fro, today for tomorrow. then who knows. we still have a few more places to check off our list. take care.

A Summer in Review

Well, it's been a good run at home since April. And oh the things that have gone on in this crazy country. We had a nice trip to Louisiana to see my cousins and their friends and spouses, and where aunt sunny learned how to play beer pong. a big hit, however, was the drive through daquiri shop where you expect them to say, "now don't drink this 'til you get home" (wink).
I got to live in Ocean City and give surf lessons and work at a K Coast whist living with Aunt Sunny in her awesome apartment. I can't say that i was crazy about going to work in the surf shop every day, but lessons were fun. i got to see all my old school yard chums....all 2 of'em. and i got to answer the same dumb questions every day in regards to lessons. questions such as, "are we going in the ocean?" i honestly have no idea how case has put up with those questions for so many summers.
And the weddings abounded this summer too. Cousin Abby got married, which was nice. My sis got married, which was nice. And LOG got married and we all averted our eyes so we wouldn't have to witness the kiss. the high point of that marriage was the RV trip down to hatteras; during the peak of gas prices as was pointed out by adam.
Add in a few kooky neighbors, some nights out on the town, and good food at home, and it was quite a successful hiatus from travel. but it's about time to clock back in and head off again. First stop being Morocco, and from there i'm not sure. at least i got a few immunizatoins in case i decide to explore africa any more. if not, then at least i won't get yellow fever for at least 10 more years. i'll be sure to keep everyone informed of my goings on. hopefully i'll be able to move around easily on my meager french and non-existent arabic over there. maybe if i just carry around a pot full of hot sweet tea around, and a few mugs, i'll make friends everywhere i go.
Anyways, i'm sure i've forgotten an event or 2 from this summer, so sorry about that. but i just woke up. see ya!

hey

just wanted to say hi. im in a little town west of mexico city called guanajuato. just hanging out i guess. theres a mummy museum that i plan on visiting. probably tomorrow. other than that, id say its a nice place to get some good food and walk around in. anywyas, im coming home soon, and as vince neil from motley crue said ¨im comin home, home sweet home.¨ he also said ¨yankeee girls you just can´t beat, but they´re best the when they´re off their feet,¨ but i think the first one relates more to my situation. anywyas, ill see you all soon. i dont have any pics of this city and i probably wont relly get many. i mean, its just a city. i think the one of me in the hammock is better. and dont really expect any pics of mexico city either!

hi

Here{s just a quick update for all you kids out there. i moved out of nexpa on a voyage up the coast to seek out a doctor that ive heard a lot about in a place called playa el real. went to him the other day, and i feel great! my back is about 100 times better than its been in a while. i think that one good crack he gave me really helped. he also gave me a ton of nutrition stuff to follow for a while too .so apparently, im off bread and cereal now. which could be tough for me. luckily, i can still eat white rice...i know O was worried about that one. then, after my fixin, i didnt want to stay in that little town that i was stayting in, so i hopped on a bus and headed north up through guadalajara and into a city called guanajuato. nice place. got in last ngiht. have some sights to see, then im off to mexico city and flying home to see everyone. so everyone take care and ill see you soon!

Nexpa

well i actually made the move to get out of puerto excondido. unfortunately it was on the busiest night of semana santa, whihc is the easter holiday here. normally the main road is desolate of all life, but this night it was packed out and backed up all the way down the beach. i had to walk all the way up the hill to the main road to catch a taxi to the busstop. and it was tough getting onw up there too! but we made it. im travelling with a guy my age from spencer island off england. closer to france actually. and we made our way up to Nexpa. so here i am, yet again, in nexpa. and its about the exact same as it was 2 years ago. even to the people that are there! the same americans that i met there the first time and back again. it is the same time of year of course. so that{s cool. i am having a little trouble with my back at the moment, which i think is due to about 2 years of straight surfing and little stretching. so im trying to get into a stretching regime to heal me up and get back in the water for my last week or so here. ive had more trouble in the past 2 months that ive had in the past 2 years actually. i got to mexico, got sick for a week. then i got to puerto, and i recently got about a liter of water caught in my ear and had to go see the local doc there. had to have my ear washed out with hydrogen peroxide or something and a plastic needle that the nurse wasnt too adept at using. so here i am bleeding from a deaf ear in mexico in a grungy little doctors office. but i took some antibiotics to clear the infection and got it claened again the next day, so it came good. and then i did my back in the othere day at nexpa. so i think comign home and not surfing for a while is just what the doctor ordered. oh, and last night quite a few people in nexpa were robbed. my english buddy included. we woke up and he was missing 2 of his boards and we were both missing our boardshorts. which im bummed out not only beacuse he lost his boards, and a few others didd as well, but also for the fact taht grandma gave me those boardshorts and they were awesome. oh well. i was thinking of leaving here in a few days anyways and doing some siteseeing while moving slowly back to mexico city for the flight home. cant wait to see all you soon! and dont worry about me. thi all sounds worse than it is. im doing well and getting heaps of waves and hammock time!

a trip south

I opted for yet another side trip from puerto recently, and got lucky and scored some nice waves. just look at that nicelittle point breaking off the rocks out there. this is the view from the top of the hill that you have to walk up to get to the beach. the cabins are about 5-10 minutes walk behind me. real nice place. tranquil. just what i need in this hustle and bustle lifestyle im leading. we managed some really fun waves, and quite sizeable as well with only like 5 others guys out. that was amazing in itself. i dont think anyone had the right board for the big waves. i sure didnt., but i have to give it a go. then the swell settled down on the 3rd day there and threw some nice little barrels at us. really nice, but with the dying swell, i took off after that and here i am back in puerto yet again. some nice waves today. good size. too big for my little board. nothing too exciting being reported here at the moment, so i guess i´ll sign off. tonight is the big party night next door when the music is so loud that no one can sleep, so i might try to join in the festiviites this week. at least maybe a beer or 2 will help me sleep through the pounding techno that they´ll be playing until about 2am!

Chacahua

There wasnt much swell until just recently, but once i saw that there was some coming, i was hanging out with a fellow surfer in the hostel, and we decedide to take a quick trip to a place called Chacahua,. which is about 2 1/2 hours up the coast or so. we had to take a taxi to the bus stop, bus to a town called Rio Grande, take a shared taxi to the coast (called Zipolatito), then hop a boat across the lagoon, then take another shared taxi down a dirt road to the beach., interesting trip. and the shared taxis are just pick up trucks with a tarp over the back and bench seats. awesome and cheap!

Anywyas, this wave needs some big swell to puch the lines in, but it goes on the list of my ¨longest wave ever ridden´. thats pretty sweet. i got three from the end of the jetty all the way to the beach in 2 sessions surfing, and i think that the waves

lasted a good 400 meters....at least! it´s only really fast and wally on the take off,m and the rest is pretty fat and you kinda have to work your way down it, but its pretty cool to get one so far. you have to run all the way back down the beach and hop in again cuz its too far to paddle back!

amd as you can see, there isnt a whole lot there. in fact, if it werent for the restaurants, there would be nothing there! we were out in the water with no more than about 5 other guys at anyt one time. amazing. anyways, im outta time here, gotta go!

Swell!

Welp, i´ve made a little side trip, which i´l ride about next, but it was only about 2 oe 3 days, and im back in puerto beacuse there is some mondo swell pumping in. check out how small the guy in the picture is compared to the wave. that was one of the bigger sets though. and there i was this morning standing on the beach thinking, ¨why did i leave the big board in mexico city?!?!?!¨ so i might have to make a looooong trip up there to get it, turn around, and come right back. it would be cheaper than buyinbg a used board here i think. anywyas, i did make it out there this morning. got a few on my 6´4¨. got smashed on one....fun. got dropped in on too on the last one! but it was nice to be out there. so i see that there is sposed to be swell through the week, so i may not be moving much from here. (that is, unless i take the trip to collect my board.) funny, i wasnt even going to come to puerto this time in mexico!

mexico....again

hi all. ive made it back to mexico safe and sound. spent all of one night in mexico city, and got to see the last 10 minutes of the superbowl in my hotel room. pretty sweet even though i couldnt understand what the announcers were saying. i got the gist of what was going on through my fuzy picture. then i left somewhat early the next morning to head on back to oaxaca to see a friend. i then spent the next week bedridden and feeling awful. after a few nights of that, i had to catch a cab to the hospital to figure out what was wrong with me. the doc said (in rapid spanish) that i had a bacteria in my throat and gave me a prescription for some meds. then my old spanish teacher took me to her house for a few days to make sure i was eating right and taking my pills. so that was good for me to get better. i was ready to get outta that town once i was back on my feet, so here i am back in puerto escondido again. the board-busting closeout of a wave. had a couple surfs the first 2 days, then sat in a hammock for the next 3 waiting and waiting and waiting. got a few waves this morning since we had a bit of swell, so that was nice. nothing much in the forecast until about sunday, so i may hit the road tomorrow and just get some new surroundings. im staying in a nice little hostel in my tent, and there are some nice people staying there. one guys name is The Gray Wolf. im not sure what to make of that, but he seems like an ok guy. other than that theres the regular eclectic gathering of americans, canadians (french and regular), israeli, and europeans that always seem to frequent this little place. in short, theres a lot of conversations going on that i just plain dont understand. anyways, its about noon and i hae yet to eat my breakfast, so im gonna head on out and buy some eggs. theyre like 1 peso each, which is about 10 cents....nice!
see you all in a couple months!

streaky pics

Well, here we go finally with some pictures from South Australia. the first here, i'm sure you all know, is the bus that i was living in. quite nice living quarters i must say. the second here is a sleepy lizard, or a stumpy, or one of another 20 names that they seem to have. anyways, there all over the place there. and over west as well i might add. this one is doing what i wish i was doing on a hot day in south oz, and lounging in the pool. as you can see by the first picture, there is'n't a whole lot of shade around that area. and this last pic is the 4 dogs that i shared a house with. molly, slash, spot and jack. nice dogs. anywayas, i've made it back to margaret river. surpirse surprise. i hitched all the way back, and it took 2 rides to get about 100 kms out to the main road, and then one ride took me all the way back across the Nullarbor and back to Margaret River. how about that! it took us about 4 days or so, but we made it. And i now have some plans coming up. now i'm in the caravan park by the beach again, but in a couple weeks, i'm flying out of perth and into mexico city. i'll be around mexico for about 2 1/2 months, then i come home. i didnt want to fly back now when it's freezing cold at home. so i figure a couple months in mexico to let things thaw out up north there and i'll be set.i believe i have a sweet pad to live in with aunt sunny at the beach, and i think i even have a job or 2 lined up. apparently i can run my life better if i'm half way around the world as opposed to being there myself. i seem to remember taking months and months to find work back home after i had just graduated. now i make a few phone calls, write a few emails and i'm all ready to go. nice.

What else can i say? not too much else going on. the guy who gave me a lift here is staying nearby my site at the caravan park. i think he likes the joint too. we went out for some beers on friday night when we first got to town. that makes my drinking nights in margaret river tally go to about 2 i think. i'd better slow down. plus, the folks in streaky were feeding me so much that i think they added an inch or 2 to my waistline! but it was some gooood food. anywyas, that's about all for now. hope everyone is doing well back home. see you all soon!

Here's just a few quick pics. Those 4 under the big tree are the Germans who i was going east with. and the big, beautiful bay was one of the stops we made on the way over. really nice place and blue, blue, blue water. and a few nice waves too.
and this desert shot is the first place we stopped once across and into south australia. nice little place called Cactus where there are a few waves. interestingly enough, there was nary a cactus around the joint...hmm. but it was nice. it has a reputation for having hardcore, angry locals in the water. but i didnt have any trouble. maybe beacuse there wasn't much swell while we were there, so there was no reason to get aggro!

Life in Streaky

I must say that life in Streaky Bay is quite nice. I was camping just above a break that seemed to never want to get any swell, and i was thinking of leaving the next day, when on xmas eve a local named wayne picked me up and invited me to stay at his house. i get to live in an old school bus that he and his partner vicky used to live in before they built their big shed that they live in now. i must say that i am set up quite comfortable. the bus has a nice bed that another guy was using, but i was on the floor on a swag. (that's like a roll up mattress and blanket that they use here in australia.) i got a few surfs in with some body boarders over the next few days. not too badm, but not much swell. wayne's been great to me too. he's cooking great dinners every night and probably putting a few kilos on me before sending me back to the bush and my rice. we've all had a few beers here and there, some good meals and i've been halping him pull up his crayfish pots every morning. that's stopped since the other day when we just took them out of the water. but we were going out on his jet ski and i was pulling them up while sittingon the back. so that second meal i got here was a nice cray fish dish...awesome. we had a heat wave the past few days. it was getting to about 47 degrees celcius inside the house. do the math...that's hot! but it broke yesterday and it's been in the 20s. so that's nice. all the other guys that were staying with him left this morning, so it's just me now. i'm sure we'll find some avtivities to keep busy. and i must say that they live in one of the most beautiful places in all of australia. even though i havent travelled this country extensively, i think i can say that confidently. we've been driving out to the boat launch just as the sun comes up and it's been amazing seeing the desert light up. and the afternoon sun is great too. the cliffs over the water turn an orangey color. and the dunny is a little triangle roof out back that looks over all of this. pretty nice in the morning after your cuppa coffee. (if you know what i mean.) i have pics....i need to upload them...i failed to bring the disc with the pics on it. for this i am sorry. oh, and i got a surf in this morning. 2 seals were playing around us. the surf was average, but it was cool to have a seal within petting distance. even though they may be attracting the wrong kind of company in these waters! but i think vicky is about to come back and pick me up from the library, so i gotta cut this off. i'll talk to you all later, and guess what?? see you all this summer!!

Across the Nullarbor

I've made the move and gotten out of margaret river. hard to believe. i sold my car to a japanese girl that i was woprking with in the kebab shop and got a cool 300 bucks for it. not quite the wad of cash i was hoping for, but something to travel with nonetheless. i hitched a ride out of town right after i sold the car. i was heading in a southerly direction. i made it about 20 or 30 kms down the rode, got dropped off at the turnoff to head east, and the next ride i got was with a german guy and a german gal, and they were actually heading all the way to sydney. after taking me a few kms and talking a bit, i got to stay on with them for almost a week. i told them i would chip in for petrol costs (which defeats the purpose of hitching!) but they were taking me so far, that i thought it would be fair. and they went to a bunch of national parks outside of margarets, so i got to see a bunch of cool stuff. cliffs and trees and beaches and whatnot. and we usually got a surf in most mornings while we were still in WA. So i got to travel in a VW bus with JT and Charlene for quite a wihle. they even cooked me up some nice meals, which is always nice when you're main staple is mostly rice or a tuna sandwich. We drove through places over west called walpole, albany, and esperance. in esperance ther was a meal deal of chicken schnitzel and a beer for $15 that JT couldnt passs up, so i went in the pub with him. turns out that around that area the bartenders are scantily clad women serving beers in their skimpiest of skimpies. quite intersting. escpecially since it was only about 10:30 in the morning and the bar was full of those creepy older guys who drink that early. anywyas, from there, you head north to a town called norseman, and that's the stepping off point for the nullarbor (which means "no trees" to the layman). and i think it stays true to the name. it's pretty flat and pretty straight. it includes australia's longest straightest road called the 95 mile straight. the novelty runs off after about 5 miles i must say. so we drove all day and got to a place called cactuc beach around 1am or so. this was our first stop in south oz. a nice little place that gets some good waves and is in the middle of nowhere. a place like the bluff wherer i was easrlier this year, and full of those crazy desert people who live to surf this one wave there. it wasnt really working the time that we were there, but it was still some fun little waves coming in and lots of spots to chjoose from. and as long as you don't mind surfing with ole' whitey, then you're golden. apparently the "man in the gray suit" makes many appearances in south oz. quite scary at times if the water is grey and the sky is cloudy, and there's only 4 guys out there with you. we spent about 3 or 4 days out there in the desert, and i was about out of food, and the germans had to make a move on to sydney, so we parted ways in a town about 70 kms east, and i stuck out the ole thumb again and got a ride right to a town called streaky bay which is where i am now. the beaches arent close at all, but im in a caravan park next to a family with a surfing dad and son, so if we get some swell in the next few days, they'll take me for a surf...sweet! then it's off again and to another town and another wave, but that's for another blog. glad i could put something interesting in this time around. and don't worery, i have pictures and they'll be on later!

hi

here's a couple pics for all to see. that's us in a little pub in a town called Berry. you can spit at one end of the town and hit the other. it was nice though. quaint. and i think this other one is of me and mom in tasmania on the "tesselated pavement." some geological formation from millions of years ago.

i think i have a buyer for my car. i think i get the cold, hard cash for it tomorrow, and then i dsont have to deal with it anymore. maybe i can find a way over east a bit and check that out. in my next update, i hope i've done something!