where am i

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's sideways...

More...

2011-12-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

A few more here. The old castle that i walk past a lot while going into town and a nice cliff. Lots of open space out here. All green hills, sheep and cliffs.

More Pics

2011-12-16T07:11:00.001-08:00

Here's a few more....just the outside of the house and the sitting room where i get a nice fire going every night.

Pics!

2011-12-16T07:09:00.001-08:00

Here's the ole homestead. the white manse. this was taken this morning before i went for a surf. it was pretty frosty out this morning! nice and crisp and just a tiny bit of wind. crunched through a few icy puddles on the way to the wave.

Up North

2011-10-19T08:40:00.001-07:00

Its been quite a while since my last post...sorry about that. I hopped a bus up from glasgow all the way north to a tiny town on the coast that has some waves around. i had a friend of a friend to stay with for the first few nights which was really nice. got a surf in on the first day i was here too. there was a UK competition going on, so it was really crowded with locals and competitors, and even when the comp started and the guys in colored jerseys paddled out, no one wanted to go in. it was pretty good. that started a few words going back and forth in the water though. and there i was sitting out there thinking that i had escaped the riff raff by coming all this way north to a cold location for some waves, and they had followed me here!! oh well. had some fun waves at least and met some of the local crew.
Had to move out of the fella's house when the missus came back home, so i checked into the local hostel in the middle of town. they cut me a deal since i paid per week,but it was still a little steep. met some nice folk around though. always a new crew of people coming through there every night. and actually, that got old after a while. nice at first to meet and chat to people, and then after a week or so of it, i just wanted it to be quiet when i was making and eating dinner. there was one nice english fella with his girlfriend that were fun to hang out with though. had a couple surfs with him.
i spent about 2 1/2 weeks in the hostel geting a few waves here and there. only a couple good days and a bit crowded. every knucklehead between here and cornwall who owns a van pops around here when the weather's still warm and they see a swell on the way. so that was kinda disappointing. but i was having a surf one day and a local guy told me that one of the guy's girlfriends had a room to rent just up the road from the main wave in town. lucky. so i walked over one day and left a note to call me. got a call, went and looked at it, and got a great monthly rate on it so i took it. it's spitting distance from one of the waves but it just so happens that its the coldest house in all of town! i can see my breath inside most days when it's barely cold enough to see my breath outside!! but it's a cozy place to hang out and i have a nice woodburner in the tv room that i crank up every night.
however, once i moved in, there began the longest autumn flat spell that scotland has seen in probably the last 50 years. 3 weeks!! barely a ripple out there. not even the swell magnets were working a lot of the time! ridiculous. perfect conditions, nice and sunny, light offshore winds.....no waves. like lake atlantic out there. or lake north sea...whichever it is!
so i spent about 2 weeks hitting my head against the wall and pulling my hair out. i've made friends with a guy out here whos not working so we just hop in his camper and look for waves if we see a little swell out there. so we've done a bit of driving, drank tons of tea and coffee and surfed very small waves just to have a paddle and say we did something with our day. watched a lot of movies and i've gone through a few books already.
after 2 or 2 1/2 weeks of that nonsense, i saw there was yet another week of flat surf on the charts, so i hopped down to glasgow and found a relatively cheap flight to copenhagen to see my buddy owen, his wife emily and their 4 month old baby girl, francie. had a nice time over there. must be the most expensive city i've ever been to, but O and Em took care of me. ate in every night, had some danish beers, and walked around town. had a warm mulled wine that's popular out there called Glog. (the 'o' is supposed to have those 2 dots over it, but not sure i can do that on an english keyboard!) other than that though, just took it easy. wandered about the city a little bit on foot and on bike and scoped out all the ladies that were around. we're on the same latitude as denmark is over here in north scotland, but for some reason, scandanavia has all the babes!! not sure what's going on there. the women here most colsely resemble potatoes, i'd say. but i dont want to be too harsh, so we'll talk of other things.
lots of swell around when i got back, so i've had a few fun days of waves since last week. and some more on the way, just gonna have to wait out some nasty winds.
most mild autumn ever going on, so only had one morning frost so far. unheard of. im actually hoping for a big dumping of snow and ice so it keeps the riff raff out! if it gets cold and snowy, the only road into the next big town, inverness, will be closed and no one else can get up. so onyl the locals and those already up here can surf.
fingers crossed!

Glasgow, Scotland

2011-10-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a bit of a rough start on this leg of the trip. I got to Glasgow alright, but in the airport when i handed in my passport and the little paper you fill out with you info on it, the lady at the desk didn't like the answers to my questions apparently, and was none too impressed that i didnt have an onward ticket. so i was told to sit and wait while the rest of the plane checked in and then i was taken back to a little room to be questioned. They seemed to think that i was some sort of sketchy guy running from something in the states and coming over to the UK to work or something. Having only a loose idea of what i'm doing, no return ticket and no definite places to stay raised a red flag i guess. they even called up my buddy ian since he was my one contact over here so he could vouch for me. he basically backed up everything that i had already told them. i'm just a surfer who travels around and looks for waves and meets new people, and im not some sort of criminal. they saw that both of us spend a lot of time in indonesia and they kept asking if we were worknig there. you want to shake some sense into these people. the daily rate for workers over there is like $5!! what on earth would we be working there for?!

Another flag was the fact that i only had US$100 on me. the lady thought that this was all my money in the world and that i was broke and giong to find work. so she asked me to show her my account balance on an ATM. so when that didn't work, i had to show her online. and this just led to more questions later on from another guy.

She basically was this close to sending me back to the states. She said i didnt fulfil any of the criteria that a customs agent wants to hear. no onward ticket, no plans, no place to stay. i told her that's just how i travel. i save some cash back home and i take off with little or no plans. best way to travel. but i guess some people just cant get their head around that. she then proceeded to talk to me like she was my mother. 'what are you doing with your life? you can't do this forever. you're 29.'

thanks, lady.

So when she had another flight to check in, i was to wait in the little room for someone else to come chat with me. i sat there for a least and hour, waiting. probably more, but they didnt have a clock in there. at least they were all nice enough too keep offering me coffee, tea, water and snacks. Then, finally, another agent came in. a big guy with some blank sheets of paper. he wanted to get to the bottom of where my money came from and what i was planning on doing in the UK. so i had to go through the last 7 years of my life with him, tell him about all my jobs and what i was making at each one and go over my life story pretty much. college, recycling truck job, work in australia, work last summer for uncle rick...blah blah blah. he was trying to figure out how i funded my travels with minimal work. well, when you live at home or somewhere that rent is cheap and travel to 3rd world countries living off about $10 a day, it's not too hard to keep cash in your account! he didn't really understand this.

Anyways, he then gave me a full psychological breakdown with his point of view. 'you're 29, you're not daft, you have a degree, you have a good head on your shoulders. but you're chasing something that you're never going to find. you're basically a nomad. you're going nowhere...' something like that. he then left me for 10 more minutes while he went to talk to the head guy, and i sat there in a depression. head down, thinking he was right.

Then he came back in with my passport, my journal (which they had read!!) and any other odds and ends that they had kept to look over, and he said i was in. got the stamp to come in but was told to be more careful in the future and make better plans. i was so down i didnt really care. i was expecting to be heading home, but at least i could continue on with this trip.

So I hopped on the bus into town, and then walked to a hostel i found in the lonely planet. (really cute spanish girl working at the front desk.) so i checked in there (had to lug my boards and bag 30 minutes to get there) and had a bite to eat before passing out around 7:30. slept for about 13 hours or so, then met a couple girls the next morning to go walk around town with. got a mobile phone, walked about town, had a coffee. then we had to try haggis. we got a tip on a good place to go , so went to try it out. I thought it was actually really good. i have a pic of it, and some other pics, but my camera is acting up at the moment and not loading onto this page. so i'll try again later.

Other than that, i just hung around a bit. met some of the other folks staying at the hostel. then the next day, i hopped on the bus heading north. but i'll write about where i am now later. hopefully i can get some pictures up later on too.

Mex pics

2011-09-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here's just a few pics of mexico. That's the place that i stay up on the top left. i lived upstairs and spent most of my time in the blue hammock. Had it all to myself. Then we've got the board that i snapped in 2. Got it fixed, and it only took them a day to do it. pretty good job too. just a little heavier now. And, finally, we've got a nice shot that i got on one of my last days out there. There's an american guy living down there who rides around out in the waves on a jetski while taking pictures and selling them. They're $20 a pop, so i could only grab one off of him. so i took the best one.

It was time to head back north for me though. i left at around 8:30am from the beach and took a few buses up through guadalajara and over to mazatlan. took 12 hours that first day. I stayed in a hotel that night and walked around a bit, just to break up the trip some. the next day i took an afternoon bus that was about an 18-20 hour trip. that was the killer. not as comfy as some buses i've been on, but i survived. got into nogales at the border the next day around 10am. Had to wait about 5 hours for the bus to phoenix so i walked around town a bit, got some food, wandered. Then it was just a matter of crossing the border, answering stupid questions that the officer at the border had, and waiting until we got into phoenix. Back in scotsdale right now, and heading out to scotland on october 1st. going from sweating my butt off to freezing it off.

MEX 2011

2011-09-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Been having some fun down here. right now, since sept. 15th, lots of mexicans have been on holiday. mexican independence day. so they got a long weekend. the guy that i rent my room from was looking pretty rough yesterday. he told me he had 3 big beers and 3 glasses of tequila the night before. i refrain from all the festivities since i wanna get up early and get some waves. hasnt been to loud surprisingly though. and the hotel in front of the beach now looks like tentland. not many mexicans renting out the rooms, but plenty renting out space to put up a tent. ive been waking up to check the waves and walking past pick up trucks with people passed out in the back and tents all over the beach. but i think they all go home today, so it should get quiet again by tonight. also, all the guys that i had madew friends with and was hanging out with have all taken off too. so i need to meet some more gringos. only about 4 of us in town right now though. some of the guys i was with have gone home, some went south, and some have gone north up the coast. no worries though. ive got my hammock, books and music.
Lots of waves since ive been here. never under head high really. and little pushes in the swell here and there that give it a little more umph.
i managed to snap my board in 2 the other day though. not even a great day. not too big. i was just in the wrong spot when a set came in and i wore it on the head. came up and there were 2 pieces of my board floating next to me....bummer. had to take that to the guy who fixes them out here. he put it back together for a bit under $100. not bad i guess. its a little heavier now, but still works pretty well.
average day here, is wake up and surf. wind comes up around noonish every day like clockwork. so i get about 2-3 hours every morning in the water, then come out and have some fruit for breakfast and hop in the hammock. sometimes i pass out for a bit, or i read. and other times i come into the main town by bus and get some groceries, check email, and get something good to eat. pretty slow livin. hot too. trying to stay in the shade as much as i can.
i think 25 days should be about good this time around though. little less than a week left here before i have to hop back on the buses north back to arizona. flying outta there on october 1st, scotland bound.

Dirty South

2011-09-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Had a good time in scotsdale with chris, as usual. but i had to hop on the bus eventually and make my way south. got dropped off at 1:00 pm, and made it all the way across the border and to mazatlan by 1:30 pm the next day. looooong way. once in mazatlan, i figured i would just keep on going. thought i only had another 9-10 hours to go. but there was no bus heading south down the coast where i wanted to go. not until midnight anyways. so i sat and thought. i decided to visit the dentist in town that i´ve been to before just to get a check up. he did a little drilling and gave me a filling. no big deal. wandered town a bit, got some food, and then sat and waited, and waited, and waited for my bus. the ladies at the counter were telling me something but i couldnt quite figure it out. but the jist was that i couldnt get a ticket until closer to midnight. so a little before 11:00 pm, i asked again, and there was no positive response. maybe it comes at midnight, maybe 1:00am? so i hopped the overnight bus to puerta vallarta. 7 hours. from there, got on another bus to manzanillo thinking it was only about 3 hours away. got on the second class bus.....big mistake. i forgot that those stop for anyone who wants a ride along the way. so 8 hours later and we finally get to manzanillo and im not too happy. get one more ride to tecoman, and here i am finally. went out to the beach and found a little place to stay in. got a hammock, bed and fridge, so i´m set. good price too, for my 25 days here.
waves were out of control the first 3-4 days. incredibly huge and unorganized. like 30 foot huge. so i had to play the waiting game. second guessed myself many times in those days about coming here. but we´ve had some really fun mornings since so i´ve turned around. it´s been big here and there, but you can walk towards the rivermouth and the waves are a bit calmer there. so it´s a good time. and not too many guys in the water. a few jetskis doing tow-ins on the big waves and a few gringos here and there. quiet town. not much happening. already one book down.
i come to the main town every couple days for internet, and the supermarket, and also just for something to fill the day with. looooong afternoons in mexico. and normally a bit windy so only surfing in the morinig is possible. not a bad place to hang out for a while though.
there´s a few nice folks around, so i have someone to chat with every now and again. otherwise, i´m sat in my hammock. surprise surprise.
good food here too. real mexican food is the best. just not the best for you!

Summer's about over, work's done, moving on...

2011-08-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

So it's time for an update since i've been out of it for quite a while and i'm sure everyone's sick of pulling up the blog and seeing my head wound every time they check it. I've been home since april working for my uncle rick who was nice enough to set me up with a job outdoors with him while i was around. sweating in 100 degree weather spreading grass seed and straw.
Been living at home in order to save up faster too. I was offered a job out in OC again giving surf lessons and working at the surf shop, but opted out of that and spent my time in salisbury.
The next trip is starting tomorrow. heading out to arizona to see my buddy chris from college, and who i lived with a couple years ago. hoping he's actually going to be there, but he might be somewhere else in the country working and flying planes so i might be hanging out with his girlfriend instead. she'll pick me up in phoenix, and i'll be dropping off a lot of my gear at his place so i can head into Mexico yet again. i've got a ton of cold weather gear packed up, but the first leg of the trip is going to be hot weather again. i'll be taking the bus into mexico, as i've done before. that'll be a good 24 hours sitting i think. not quite half way down the pacific coast. not even as far as acapulco. let's hope i stay out of trouble this time and get some good waves.
That'll be the first 4-5 weeks, depending on the waves, then it's back up the coast in a bus again and back to arizona. maybe see chris that time around? then i have a flight out of phoenix on october 1st, over to Dulles, then hopping across the pond to Glasgow, Scotland. Where i hope to find a cheap van to live and cruise in. hoping to meet up with a buddy that does some surfing up there too. (yes, there are waves there....it's an island. cold water, wind, rain, but there are waves too.) so we'll just see how that goes. probably blow through money fast over there spending the pound, but whatever. earned it to spend it. maybe get into europe a little bit was well if i end up freezing in scotland. maybe head down the west coast of france and into portugal. (yes, there are waves there too....stop asking me!) but that's all tentative right now. first step is just getting all my stuff on a plane at BWI.
Pics here are to show you all my gear. normally, i can pick up my backpack with one arm and my boards with the other and hold them at shoulder level. this time around, since i've got all the cold gear as well as a new, thick wetsuit, i'm gonna be a little more weighed down. the pic on the right (that should be right-side up, but won't cooperate) are my boards. Yes, there are 4 of them even though you can't really see. but i get asked all the time, "how many boards do you take," "why do you have so many," and "how do you carry them all?" well here's your answer. a big ass board bag! i've got three in the blue one there, and a 4th in the gray one that i've got strapped to the side. i may, however, take one out and leave it though since it's way to heavy to carry around with me. a normal amount to travel with would be 2 or 3 for an average surfer like me. reason being, different conditions call for different boards. you wouldn't take your prius offroading would you? nope. you need a truck for that. you're not gonna drag race your old Model T, right? you'll get a porche for that job. same idea in surfing. basic rule of thumb, the bigger the wave, the bigger the board. (excluding longboards with are more mushy slop.) i've got a 6'3", 6'7", 6'10" and the 7'4" i got in australia. that might have to stay here cuz you need a big wave to ride that board and real big waves don't happen so often that i can justify taking it. we'll see...
6'3" is like the 'go-to' board. used in most conditions from waist to overhead waves. 6'7" is a step-up board when you need some more paddle power, and the 6'10" is my fav cuz that means there are some good sized waves breaking.
so there you have it. board science 101.
The first pic there is the rest of my stuff. too much to go into my old backpack, so i dug out my old lacrosse bag from the attic to jam everything into. got my, surfboard fins, camping stove, cold weather gear like pants, underarmour liner, hat, neck thing, gloves, super cold weather sleeping bag, flannels, long undies and wool socks. trying to go prepared. stuffed into my board bag doubling as padding, are a down jacket as well as an old north face jacket of mine that are both coming along.
also on the bed there is my small backpack that's loaded up with books and all my odds and ends; like camera stuff and journal.
And there you have it. that's me packed. think i'm ready to go. maybe a few small things i need before mexico, like sunscreen and shampoo. but i can get that anywhere.
oh yea, the board bag zips all the way up. just undid it to show you the inside a bit.
i'll let you all know what i'm up to, so keep on checking out the blog!

Island living

2011-04-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go. Been a while since i posted anything. I spent 2 weeks on the island, didn't have many waves. there were a few fun days here and there, but nothing to call home about. i got a swell report for the following week, and since it was flat, decided to go back to padang to turn in my visa so i could stay an extra month once my first 60 days ran out.
Got back and proceeded to sit on my butt in the hammock and read while the nasty north winds blew onshore and the knee high mushy waves came in. bored bored bored.
Nothing notable came in at all. but 2 weeks later, but friends showed up off the ferry so i at least had some company. 2 weeks there i was completely alone. which would have been nice had there been waves. not many charter boats running around in february, and no one on land would have made for one happy Kyle. no such luck this year.
however, about 2 weeks after my buddies came along with a few other folks, we had one decent sized swell. well overhead, but not breaking properly like it normally would. it's too fickle a spot to break properly on every swell. either the tide, wind, swell direction or crowd factor are wrong. anyways, i got a few average waves until i took off on the wrong one, went straight, kicked my board out in front of me, and then WHAM! somehow the board got behind me, smashed me in the back of the head, and i was lucky i wasn't knocked out. it felt like the rail of the board had hit me, but it may have been the fin since it was busted when i got back to the beach. blood pouring down my back and chest, and lots of people on the beach looking at it to tell me how it looks. i wish i had a pic of all the blood cuz it was pretty cool. i was pissed off of course because we finally have waves, and now i'm in need of possibly getting stitches. well, in the middle of no where, there is no where to get stitched up. possibly on the charter boat full of surfers that was there, but i had a frenchie that was staying on land cut and shave my hair off, my buddy francis cleaned my up with hydrogen peroxide, and then applied the butterflies for me. so it coulda used stitches i'm sure, but we dealt with it our own way. i had a bit of a headache for a day or so, but nothing bad. and surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all to clean out with the hydrogen peroxide. normally it fizzes up and burns really bad, but i guess head wounds are different.
the same session, my buddy ian came out with what looked like a murder victim amount of blood pouring down his arm. but once clean, just turned out to be a little cut on his elbow. mine was bigger. so it was a bit of a rough session for us i guess. and i was out of the water for the next few days, while there were waves of course. then the ocean went flat yet again. of course.
was time to get outta there. we got the overnight ferry back to padang and hopped a ride right to the airport to fly to bali. did a trip to G-Land (iconic surf spot in indo) where we had terrible onshores for 6 days. one day it lightened up a bit enough to have some fun waves, but still not that great. then we got back to bali, organized a rental car, and drove and ferried over to the next island east, Lombok. tried to get a wave on there and had a day or 2 that were pretty good. had a couple barrels. saw some pro surfers who came in for a swell surf the place one day. nothing special.
the whole trip in general was kind of a bust, wave wise. had some fun, but sat around too much waiting for waves. came home the other day and i hope to work a bit, save some cash, and hit the reset button. maybe get back out on the road again after summer. we'll see how it goes.

Travels as of late

2011-01-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well, i forget where i left off exactly. i think i was on my way to bangkok. i got there okay after a 10 hour bus ride. got into town super early, like it was still dark out, and not one place had an open room. had to search around and wait until about 11:30 for one to open up. spent some time in the city again. nothing exciting. got my indo visa at a tourist office. went for a couple days to Kanchanaburi, which is about 3 hours west. it's where Bridge over the River Kwai was based. sounds interesting, i thought it was anything but though. full of fat old guys hanging around in bars. not my scene really. 2 nights there, back to bangkok, 2 more nights, then flew ack to singapore.
once again in singapore. the first 2 days were pretty slow. then i was fortunate enough to meet some other travelers at the hostel and had some nice meals with them, wandered the streets with and irish guy and gal a couple days. it's nearly Chinese New Year, so we went to chinatown to witness the pandemonium. shoulder to shoulder through the alleys, all full of a bunch of useless crap for sale. interesting to see at least.
we also took the subway out of the city to the northern part of the island to see more residential areas. basically, it was all huge apartment blocks everywhere. strange. sometimes a little patch of grass, but mostly singapore is one huge development. we went 30 stories up in one apartment to check out the view. buildings as far as the eye can see almost. and lots of tankers out in the water unloading containers or just waiting. i got vertigo while up there too.
then it was time to hop my flight outta there. had to fly to KL first unfortunately. and they couldnt check me all the way through to padang, indo, so i got to collect all my stuff, go through malay immigration again then wait in the airport overnight for like 7 hours until my next flight. slept on the floor a bit. got woken up at 3am cuz they wanted to spray outside for mosquitos, so all the sleeping travellers woke up and went inside to continue sleeping. only problem was it was freezing cold in the a/c! checked in again though, had to pay for my boards again, and hung out til the flight. just tired.
got back to padang ok though. came back to my little hotel that i normally stay in. seeing all the same faces as usual. i'm always shocked at the number of people i know in this town. even saw one of the guys who lives out on the island here in town. called a friend here to reserve a ticket for me on the ferry so i can sleep in a cabin instead of on the floor. and i should have a handful of friends showing up in a month or so to join me out on the island. i might come back to sumatra to meet up with them and see another town or 2 before going back. we'll see what happens.
i'm heading out on the ferry this afternoon. earlier than normal, but i guess that has to do with the tides. so i should be back in a month to meet everyone here, and check some other spots out.

Vientiane

2011-01-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

The ride to the capital of Vientiane was pretty easy. maybe 4 hours or so, than a shared bus from the bus station into town. Had to wander for over an hour to find a place since they were all full for some reason. there were 5 of us in the group looking for a place, so the big number didn't help. finally managed a room for me, jolien and mack to share. the other couiple got a place next door as well. wandered around the next day. we rented some road bikes since we'd been so inactive, and road about 9 kms around town to see some temples (wats), run some errands, and then 25 kms out and 25 kms back to check out the Buddha Park. that's the pic here. (the other is a temple in town). just a little grassy park full of stone buddhist images. pretty interesting. not sure why there are so many snakes in buddhism, but there you are. we spent 3 nights in vientiane and then went our separate ways. jolien and mack went a bit further south in laos to check out an underground cave, then mack was on his was to vietnam, jolien on her way to cambodia. i decided to hop a bus and come back to bangkok to get my visa for indonesia. getting antsy for a surf. it's been really cool hanging out with some fellow travelers and seeing some sights, but i figure i'll head back to indo yet again for some waves.

Some things noticed it laos. the people walk down the road, or ride a motorbike or bicycle, and they all have an umbrella....despite the fact that there's no rain. it's like most other countries i've been to where the people are brown. they seem to think lighter skin is more attractive, so they avoid the sun at all costs. funny, cuz us white folks consider a nice tan to look good. seems like you always want what you don't have, huh?
the laos food.....not as good as thailand!!! pretty good, we found some nice dishes, but thailand has the upper hand here. at least in laos there is a french influence from the past so you can always get a crusty baguette sandwich for about $1.25....which are amazing. i had 1 or 2 every single day in laos. i'm gonna miss those!
The people....they're nice, but again, thailand has the nicest folks i think. more apt to smile at you and have a laugh. the lao people are nice enough though. just kinda...i don't know...mopey, maybe? and fewer ladyboys there than in thailand. those are the guys who've had the operation to become a woman and dress accordingly. it's gross. you can normally tell one when you see it, but after a few beers, i think some guy's senses are a bit blurry and you see them chatting with something that just looks gross. this all connects in with the se asia sex trade thing as well, which i guess is running rampid. kids sold into prostitution and the whole area in bangkok full of prostitutes. not a pretty picture, i know. but it's out there. and it's creepy.
I'm going to indo!

Vang Vieng

2011-01-16T17:56:00.001-08:00

The ride to Vang Vieng wasn't too bad i thought. i had a great seat though. we got a minivan, which was the cheaper option, and i managed to snag the seat right behind the driver who was a short lao guy and therefore, scooted way up towards the wheel. i had the best seat. it was a pretty windy, twisting road, and like most laos roads up north, full of amazing scenery. mountains all over. A great place for a roadside pee. (pic 1).
I wasn't even going to stop in Vang Vieng, but since i was with jolien and mack and they wanted to, i figured it would be fun with them. what EVERYONE who ever goes to laos and vang vieng does is go down the river in an innertube...it's just what you do. they all buy the tanktop that advertises it as well...which i think is just stupid. but the tubing is kinda fun. you rent a tube, they drive you up the river about 4 kms (not the Mekong) and you walk about 10 minutes more to the start of the trip. the first km is nothing but bars blasting music on the banks of the river. they all call at you to come in, jump around like monkeys, and throw a bottle on a string at you to pull you in. we just wanted to hang out in the tubes and make it all the way back to town, so we just ignored the bars and floated for about 3 1/2 hours down the laaaaazy river. i didn't bring my camera to capture anything cuz i would have probably dropped it in the river. it was some amazing mountain scenery in the first 2 kms of the trip through. floating slowly through really impressive cliffs. (pic 2 is the bungalows where we stayed....similar mountains on the river, but more impressive when in your face).
The thing about vang vieng, is that it was once a nice town i feel, but it's since been converted, basically, to a club. one big club. bars all over the place, restuarants that all serve the same menu, and for some reason, either Friends or Family Guy on the TVs in EVERY restaurant. it's the strangest place to ever go. and it doesn't feel like travel whatsoever. it's basically a place for lazy travellers to come, get hammered drunk, and then space out all day so they can go drinking the next day or night....or both. weirdest place i've ever been. It's like they found out exactly what travelling kids want and gave it to them in vang vieng. and while it's cool to see with friends, it's not a travel destination in itself, i feel. i bet it was something 20 years ago though. (here's an example...the guy behind me in the internet cafe is talking about how great bangkok is because on kho san road you can party all the time, go to restaurants and buy stupid crap at the market....this is the mentality of the average traveler through SE asia...not really my thing, but luckily there are exceptions and i met a couple to travel with. you can drink your face off at home...why travel to do it???)
The next day we took a little hike to check out a cave in the area. lots bigger than the one we saw in luang nam tha. pretty cool place to check out. the 'guide' we had to hire to see it mostly pointed out rock formations that looked like toilet seats, dinosaurs, and of course, weiners and vaginas. awesome.
time to get outta vang vieng.

More Laos

2011-01-16T17:38:00.000-08:00

After new years, Jolien (the dutch gal) signed up for a trek through the woods with some other people and i planned to get a motorbike and explore a little bit. i didn't have any shoes to trek in. this is what happens when you decide to head for the hills on a whim. no shoes, and no warm clothes. i had to search the local market for over an hour to find a jacket that almost kinda fits me. got a thin one, but still pretty cold for me. anyways, she headed out on the 2nd for an overnight trek, and i got a motorbike and headed further north to check out a place called Muang Sing.
I had woken up that morning with a bit of an upset stomach, just figured it was the beers in me. Well, the ride to muang sing was really pretty through the mountains, but sooooo cold. i got there after almost 2 hours and immediately got a room in a guesthouse and curled up in a ball freezing cold and getting sicker, unsure what was wrong. upset stomach, cold from the ride, and getting a headache and achy all over. i really didn't want to get sick. especially in such a tiny, tiny town in the mountains with no one to help. i had to lie in bed the rest of the day and all night, and in the morning managed to eat something before heading off back to laung nam tha, having not seen much of muang sing. i just wanted to get back there and wait for jolien to get back. i waited for it to warm up a bit before heading out so i wouldn't freeze quite so much. (the first pic is the ride to muang sing through national park).
I got back ok, but had a few more days of funny stomach trouble. like food just didn't want to move through me. got backed up for about 4 days or so....which is a weird feeling. and not cool when i was about to undertake a 10 hour bus ride to the next town south, Luang Prabang. I think i just refused to eat on that day and only nibbled on a few little things throughout the journey, which was me, Jolien, and an american named mack crammed into a tiny bus with about 30 other people and bad seats. Literally crammed in with limited leg space and not much in the way of movement. the saving grace was that we stopped a bunch for food or pee breaks and got to get out each time to stretch. after 6 hours, you just wanna keep going and get there already though!
We finally made it to Luang Prabang, and like all other towns in Laos we noticed, the bus didn't go right to town. We had to hop in a shared sangtheauw to get the last 10 kms or so into town. annoying, really. But we found a guesthouse and some food and were ok.
We took a trip to the local waterfalls the next day. (pic 2). Not bad. looks nice in a picture, but it's pretty touristy. so many white faces all over. nice place to see and swim though. Spent about 3 nights in luang prabang. pretty touristy, but a pretty place as well. nice to just wander a bit. see some temples, walk the streets. see people you met from the town before. (everyone's on the same trail!) Saw a nice sunset over the Mekong River one night while having a beer. (pic 3). then decided that it was time to head further south.

Luang Nam Tha, Laos

2011-01-03T23:12:00.001-08:00

We all stayed at the same guesthouse in luang nam tha, and rented motorbikes the next day to explore. headed south to check out a cave we passed getting here. took about 50 minutes to get there and great views the whole way. that's the 1st pic here of the rice field. nice little cave too. had sort of a guide, and were followed by almost every kid in the village.
Next to no traffic on the road here as well. it's so easy to ride here cuz there's no danger of anyone else on the road almost! only danger is running out of gas since there are only so many places that you can get some.
After the cave, we came back to town and just a bit north through a little village down a bumpy, dirt road to check out a waterfall. but lacking in luster, but nice. the village and the surrounding fields were more interesting that the waterfall. and we were heading back to town just before sunset, so it was even nicer in that light. (that's the 2nd pic) nice hills and all those little huts in the field which, im guessing, are just shelters to get out of the rain should it start while they're working.
Got back and since it was new years, had some beers. met up with italians. had some beers. went to a laos nightclub, had some beers. one italian lady had a bottle of champagne with her, so we got to pop that at midnight. it was a good night. didn't get a lot accomplished in the 1st, but no big deal.

Chiang Khong

2011-01-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

After Mae Salong, I had to head all the way back to Chiang Rae in order to get another bus back to the same area, just a little further east; Chiang Khong. Right on the border of Thailand and Laos. Not a lot to do there but watch the Maekong River go by....which was quite nice. it was so quiet. i got off the bus and had no idea where to go to stay, but at the 7-11 (which they have absolutely EVERYWHERE in thailand) there was a map drawn on the wall of a place to stay, so i headed over there and checked into the dorm.
I wandered town a little bit, but there wasn't all that much to it. pretty small. later on that night though, a dutch gal came to stay and we wandered more the next day and found a bit more to town just past a little bridge. wandered, had some coffee, i found a hammock to take to indo, she had her toenails done (for like $3!!), we found a pretty cool little restaurant that apparently had mexican food. who knew you could get chips and salsa and a burrito in thailand? and the owner baked his own bread which was amazing, so we had a couple of sandwiches.
Headed across the border the next day. This pic here is the view of the maekong from my guesthouse. just the other side there is laos. to get across, we got a ride to the border from the owner of the guesthouse, got stamped out at customs, and hopped on a little boat across to laos where we got our visas. had to wait for some tour group which had just gotten there before us, which was a pain. then we thought that the bus to Luang Nam Tha was leaving at 11:00. turned out that it didn't leave until 2:30, so we had quite a bit of time to sit around in a restaurant at the bus stop. tried to learn some Lao with the waitress. met some other travelers from italy. finally got on the bus for the 4 hours journey. twisting and turning through the hills. lots of little villages along the way, and neat little wooden houses that look barely big enough for 2 people. great scenery too. so many mountains, and the drive was through a protected area, so it was still full of trees. slow going though. bumpy at times. not the best road in laos. a few people throwing up on the bus. luckily there were plastic bags at everyone's seat to puke in.

North Thailand

2011-01-03T22:38:00.000-08:00

I went past Chiang Mae and onto Chiang Rae about 3 hours further north. i liked it a bit more. it was a little smaller and less touristic. and this was where i spent xmas. had a hamburger and fries from my hostel for xmas dinner. real american. felt good. i didn't really do a whole lot while there. just wandered the streets a bit. chatted with some other folks at the hostel. met and american guy who's been travelling all over on his boat for the past 5 years. he was surprised that i knew so much about currents and oceans. told him i was a surfer.
Spent 2 nights there and then hopped a ride a little further north by bus to a place called Ban Basang, where i hopped on a santhaeuw (which is a pickup with 2 seats either side of the bed) up the mountain and into a town called Mae Salong. That's where this pic is from. It's a really tiny town up in the hills that's big on tea. everywhere you can buy tea, and there are nice rows of tea plants everywhere you look along the hillsides. Cold though!!! i'm getting up into higher altitudes, and while nice during the day, nighttime and mornings are so cold.
I spent my time in mae salong chatting with a German fella who was staying at the same guesthouse as me. heard about his life that he spent most of in north india in a tiny place in near the mountains. it takes him about 1 1/2 hours just to walk downhill to his motorbike, then another hour or so driving just to get to a little village where he can get some basic supplies. seems like he likes his solitude. guess that's what attracted him to mae salong. less tourists around there. quieter.
This picture is taken from the top of a mountain at a chinese temple. i had to walk up 700 steps or something to get up there and i was pretty happy to get a seat once i made it. kinda sucked that there is a road leading to it as well though. you don't figure that out until you've already hiked up. but it's nice to make the trek. i hear a lot of people go up there for the sunrise over the moutains. i thought about doing it, but climbing up once was enough. and waking up at 5am wasn't in the cards.

Bangkok cont.

2010-12-29T02:01:00.000-08:00

Let's see...what's happened since my last post? well, i wandered the market at bangkok. Chatuchak Market. absolutely gigantic. you can get lost in there easily. i was lucky that im a relatively early riser so i beat a lot of the tourist crowd there. headed out there around 9am. hopped on a local bus to the skytrain, which is an above ground train that goes over the city. took a few stops to the north and wandered around the market. i needed to get a new sarong since my old one is getting torn and nasty. took me the better part of an hour to even find the sarong section of the market. too big!
i wandered there for a few hours and got out of there when the crowds started coming in. so many people that it was hard to move.
i managed to get up with a friend of JW's while i was there as well, which was nice. she's a manager at an english teaching school in bangkok. pretty big place actually. and somewhat expensive for a thai person to attend. but we headed out to a nice place for some dinner. good thai food. spicy. papaya salad, and catfish, fried rice, and some bbq thing. we're not sure what it was, but it was good. tofu, maybe?
we didn't finish up until about 11pm or so, and i still had to hop a bus back to my part of the city. she headed home (sara is her name) and i went out on the street to get a bus. problem was, at that hour, there aren't too many buses and the one i needed never showed up. i had to cave in and get in a 'tuk-tuk' which is like a 3 wheeled motorcycle taxi. a pain sometimes cuz they're really hard to get a good price out of. they tend to overcharge the tourists. (surprise surprise). but i found one for an okay price and hopped in. he proceeded to take me down a maze of back roads to the point where i was hopelessly lost. i was clinging to m backpack, getting ready to throw my sandals off and make a run for it cuz i was sure that he was leading me to some setup where his buddies would all jump out and rob me. i was prepared to bolt if need be. luckily, i noticed a temple that i had seen earlier in the day after a few more twists and turns and realized that we were on track to my place. he got me there safe and sound, and relieved.
I headed north the next day. took and bus and a sky train to the bus station north of town. i thought it was a 5 minute walk to the station from the train....took like 30 minutes in the heat with my backpack on. i wasn't too happy once i got there. but i got a ticket to a town called Phitsanulok, where there were some ruins nearby. thought i could spend a day shceking them out. got to town...it was gross. bought a ticket to Chiang Mae further north. spent about 8 hours or so that day travelling. got to Chiang mae about 11pm. late. got hassled by tuk-tuks. they wanted 120 baht (like $4) for a ride to a hotel. it was only 1 1/2 kms away!!! i got one for 50 baht finally.
wandered chiang mae the next day and was really unimpressed. what could have been a really nice town near some mountains (such as in chris clifford's days of travel 20 years ago) has become a complete and total tourist trap. around every corner is another place advertising jungle treks and elephant rides. disgusting, i thought. i would have left a day earlier than i did, but i had to wait an extra day for the old lady i gave my stinky laundry to to finish.
one thing that blows my mind about this country is that it's overrun by 7-11s. gross. too many mcdonald's as wel. i think i'm 20 years too late to see this place the way i imagined it. but there were some nice towns further north that i'll get to writing about soon. some pics too!
all i was imiagining in my head of north thailand was 'misty mountains'. so far, i had yet to see any!

Heading north by train

2010-12-18T03:03:00.000-08:00

Well, i got outta KL. good riddance. i got a train ticket all the way to bangkok. look on a map...it's not close by KL. i took the first leg of it from KL to Butterworth, malaysia which took about 7 hours and was an overnighter. got the worst coach with the worst seats on it. so uncomfortable and freezing cold cuz the a/c was set to arctic temps. i could barely sleep even with my neck pillow.
got to butterworth around 6 am or so. was with a hungarian gal i met in KL, so we had a bite to eat and she got a bus ticket to thailand. said bye, and since i was so close to an island named Penang, i hopped on the ferry to get there. i had about 8 more hours to kill until my next train. can't say im too impressed with penang. just another tourist city. noisy, busy, hot. got some good indian food though. and a couple coffees. and on my way back to the ferry i ran into a couple that i had first met off the bus in melacca. we chatted then for 5 minutes, and saw them again and chatted on the ferry. parted ways yet again. crazy to run into the same couple as 5 days before.
got back to the train terminal and proceeded to wait..and wait....and wait. train was about and hour late.
finally got on and had to sit in the seats until after the border crossing. we left around 3:30pm, and crossed the border around 8:00pm or so. i thought it woulda been closer! then they served some food ( i had indian takeaway) and they pulled down the beds for everyone. most comfortable sleep i've had in quite a while. super clean white sheets, and a little divider curtain. and i had the top bunk. (all this cost me was about $40 from KL!) not much action on the train though. some malaysian families, a couple malay guys going to bangkok for a party, an aussie family behind me making noise. i conked out for quite a while once the beds came out.
woke up, thought we only had a few more hours to go. didn't get to bangkok until about 2:30. what a long trip. then it was the typical roam around for me. new place, new language, don't understand ANY of the signs or people. wild. got some thai money (baht) from the ATM and hopped a ride to town. the taxis couldnt take me to where i wanted to go because apparently there was a formula one race here today. wish i coulda seen it. i hopped on the back of a motorbike and he bobbed and weaved his way around. we got stuck in a ton of traffic because of the race and the closed i got to it was hearing a few cars zoom by. couldnt see anything.
took a while to get to my street since we had to go around the main area i guess. but $4 well spent. then i just walked to my hotel. booked in. basic room. bed and fan. shared bathroom. like $5/night. and away from the most of the nightly noise i hope. the main toursist road, khao san road, is just down the street and around the corner. so much stuff for sale. tons of t shirts and other crap. same as bali. same same, but different, asthey say.
gonna wander the city for a couple days i think . see some humongous markets and see what else i can find. have a Chang beer, or a Singa. eat some pad thai (rice dish). hope to burn my mouth on spicy thai soup or something like that. we'll see! i have 2 weeks on my visa here. hope to head further north too.

Melacca

2010-12-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was planning on a night or 2 in melacca. ended up there for 3 and had to make myself leave. i first got there on the bus from singapore, which took 3 or 4 hours including the border crossings, and it looked like a miserable place to be. small city, dirty, touristy. but i stayed at a place called Ringo's Foyer, which was run by a super eclectic chinese guy named Howard. he always has an idea for something to do and he would always gather all the people in the hostel and take us out. whether it was to night market for dinner, a portuguese fishing port for a seafood dinner, or to Jonker St. (the main shopping street full of worthless junk for sale) to get a good Baba Lahksa, which was a spicy coconut and seafood soup. really good. he took us on a bike ride to the fishing port for that one dinner and then on a tour around the city on little bike paths afterwards. this guy has way too much energy but being a hostel owner fits him perfectly. he must be popular around town since he always has a big group of hungry foreigners going to restaurants. most hostels don't have someone doing this. at least not for free! howard just loves hanging out with travelers.
so that was an experience. i stayed for 3 nights there and had to leave so i could keep moving along in asia. in kuala lumpur, where i spent 3 weeks earlire this year, so no need to hang around really. got a train ticket to bangkok for tomorrow night. overnight to northern malaysia, hang out in the city of Butterworth for 6 hours or something, then a looooooooong train ride to bangkok that afternoon. maybe 17 hours or so? but it was only like $40 for the ticket! i'll just stock up on some food for the ride and hope i can sleep a lot.
gonna wander a bit aruond town today i guess. already had my coffee at a little indian restaurant. nescafe and sweet, condensed milk. quite a party for the taste buds. they mix it by doing a long pour from one container to the cup, so it comes to you with froth on top like it's a latte or something. and i have some apples for breakfast, and i'm sure i'll find some cafeteria-style place to eat dinner for a couple bucks. had some thai last night. black pepper chicken for $2. really good. not as spicy as the food i actually expect in thailand though. so we'll see how it goes. i should be in thailand on saturday just before noon.

more pics

2010-12-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

pic 1: with lots of rain, comes lots of rainbows. i have like 10 rainbow pics.

pic 2: kauai treat, Shave Ice (not shaved!!!) there is no 'd' in it. shave ice. so good. like a snowcone the size or my head. this one with a scoop of Kona Coffee Icecream in the middle!! eat one and have a stomach ache for the next 3 hours. so worth it!

i know there's a ton of stuff im forgetting to mention in these kauai posts. sorry abuot that. the details are just not coming to me now, as happens to anyone writing i guess. tough to remember all that stuff that happened over a month!

kauai pics

2010-12-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

The first 2 here are from a hike i took uip the na pali coast on the kalalau trail. i hiked 4 miles into the trail and saw this waterfall. nice. about 300 feet up, and i thought i was smiling bigger...guess i wasn't. that first pic is the na pali coastline you see as you're hiking. really pretty. all the way at the end of the kalalau trail (11 miles) there is a beach where there is a group of people that has been living there for years and years. living off food grown out there and whatever they bring in every now and again when they hike out. the gov is looking to do something abuot them, but they never bother anyone, so i dont see the big deal. just hippies living how they want. it's apparently super beautiful to hike all the way out there and stay with them for any amount of time. i didnt make it. the falls were far enough. especially since i didnt have any hiking boots. just sandals. but i wore my reef walking booties that i use for surfing in indo and they did ok. i only slipped and fell twice. super wet out there with all the rain. people kept asking me how i liked those "new shoes", but i had to break the news that they weren't the new 5-toed craze a lot of people have. just some reef booties.

The 3rdd pic is Hanalei Valley i believe. taro fields and mountains and conveniently located on the side of the road at a pulloff spot. i was in a resort town called Princeville getting acoffee, so i walked over to the pulloff and snapped this one.

One Month on Kauai

2010-12-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a long time since my last post, I know. funny, how out on kauai, internet can be so scarce. unless, of course, you travel with a laptop in which case you can basically stand in the middle of the street and pick up wifi from any nearby restaurant or cafe. and it seems that everyone has a laptop these days. it's crazy! i dont wanna travel with one of those things!

Anyways, back to kauai. I got there around 7:30 at night and was too exhausted to bother hitching from the airport. just got in a taxi and they took me to the hostel in nearby kapa'a. the first hostel, Kaui International hostel, had crazy rules about staying there. rules like, no departing ticket, no room. made no sense. the guy runnig the place is nuts. So he directed me to a place called Kauai Beach House which was a hostel down the road. the only other one on kauai in fact. $30, a bit steep, but i slept like a rock.
The next morning i went out on the road and stuck out my thumb to hitch to the north shore. with 3 boards a big backpack and a smaller backpack. it was surprisingly easy. got there in 2 rides. one from a hippy lady listening to crazy music, the next from a nice fella living there making music.
I got there and set up my tent at Haena Beach Park ($3/night) and that's when the skies opened up. and the rain didnt stop for abuot 4 days. not fun. freezing cold in a wet tent. i was abuot to pull the plug and get a ticket outta there. had a surf or 2 in the rain. freezing cold. the winds there never stops!! rain and wind = cold kyle. shivering in the water.
A nice couple took pity on me when they saw me freezing my ass off and offered me a sweatshirt. ugliest thing you ever saw, and a size too small, but it kept me warm for about 4 weeks. white with tye dye on it. I was now a staff member of Monkey Business Camp...whatever that is.
the rain cleared up after a while and my daily routine was pretty basic. check the waves, maybe have a surf, sometimes hitch into Hanalei, 15 minutes away, to get food and to wander or do whatever. i got into the habit of frequenting a coffe place called Jave Kai a lot. such good coffee there and good music. and a good place to people watch for an hour or so. not a great habit to be in while travelling since lattes are like $3.60 or thereabouts, but it gave me something to do. I surfed here and there, but was always cold out in the water and grew tired of that prertty fast. no one ever really mentioned that surfing in hawaii gets freaking cold!! and no one certainly told me that the rain came incessantly at times and that the wind would never stop. not even the lonely planet guide book hinted at this. one just thinks that it's always summer in hawaii. pack your sandals and tank tops! nope. bring some boots and a hooded, rainproof jacket if you wanna go there in the winter!
The crew camping at haena was all nice enough, but they just wanted to drink and party all the time. it was a usual sight to see one or more of them drinknig beer instead of coffee in the morning. nice. lots of homeless people living out there as well as travellers just looking to live cheap. so i was over that scen pretty fast too.
plus, we all had to move out on mondays so they could do 'park maintanence' each week. i dont think they did much, but i was a way to keep people from living out there and making it into a tentland. big homeless and unemplioyment problems on hawaii it seems. also crystal meth problems, but i was never up late enough or at a bar to witness any tweakers. luckily.
on mondays, i would go back to kapa'a to stay in the hostel a night, or i would go to the next park east, anini, and camp there for the night. then just head abck to haena on tuesday. not fun when lugging 3 boards around, but i managed. i always got rides with pickup trucks, suvs, or vans.

had a nice thanksgivig out at haena too. local food bank gave the guys out there some turkeys and hams, and a big hawiian family was staying there for the weekend. they made a hawaiian underground oven by making a fire over some big rocks, saving the coals, and uptting the turkeys and hams over them in pans, covering it was banana leaves and wet burlap sacks, then a tarp and dirt. juiciest turkey i've ever had. they cooked like 10 turkeys on that i think. as well as some breadfruit. one of the campers made mac n cheese for everyone. so good. everyone pitched in something. one of the fuin things abuot travelling. eating with others.
kind of a basic overview of my time on kauai. im not flooded with ideas on what to type about ast the moment. gonna try to get soem pics up for you though.

It Finally Happened...

2010-08-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I´ve travelled on and off now for about 4 years of my life, and i´ve been going pretty well thus far. I´ve had a few incidents where maybe some money was stolen, or boardshorts, or friends´ boards, but i´ve never had it too bad. This changed, unfortunately, on my birthday. I was having a few drinks with my friends, listening to some music at the place where one of them works, when 11:30 rolled around and it was time to head out to some bars. We hit up one nearby and, real close to the shore, and had a drink and sat on the beach a bit. Then wandered to another 1 or 2 later on. Around 2:00 am or so, I was chatting with a lady friend at one of the bars, and we decided to grab a beer and walk down to the beach to, um, chat let´s say.
Well, we were preoccupied, and a mexican guy walked up to us, and i´m not sure what he was saying, but by his tone i could tell that he wasn´t pleased about something and wanted something from me. I didnt register danger at that moment, i just stood up and said, ok let´s get outta here.
here, I should mention that the beach is that last place one wants to be at 2am any day of the week. it´s just not a safe place to be. i´ve known this since the first time i ever came to puerto and i´ve usually done a good job of staying away from it. This time, i was just drunk and not using my common sense.
So, as i got up to walk away, this guy threw me in a super strong headlock. Couldn´t even breath. And i was taken totally be surprise. My first thought was, What are you doing man??? my second thought was, air! then, im not sure what happened next exactly. I know another guy was there to take me cash and rough me up. I think i took a knee or 2 to the face after the headlock, and all i remember is having my face in the sand, a super bloody nose, and seeing someone´s hand in my pocket taking my money.
After that, they were gone like the wind. I got up and didnt see anyone. my lady had taken off running in search of help, but no one was too keen to show up to my aid. At least back to the bar on the beach they gave me a bucket of water to clean up with and some napkins. After that, we hopped in a cab and went home to sleep. So it was a good bday up until the time that i stopped using my common sense. Every story i hear of robberies is normally started with ´it was late at night and i was walking home alone drunk....´ (insert robbery here). i should know better, but it´s just what happens sometimes i guess.
The aftermath was a fat lip, and cut on the bridge of my nose, and a super bruised ego. Since i always figure im a big enough fella to take care of myself, this was kind of a shock to the system. add to that that i somehow wrenched my back. i dont think i got kicked or anything, i think i just tried to get up real fast of struggle somehow while in the headlock. so that kept me in bed for more than a few days. really hard to even walk, and forget surfing. i finally went to see the doc yesterday, and he said it was just muscular inflamation. luckily for me, cuz the last thing i ever need in my life is more back problems. so he gave me a shot to take down the swelling and help it heal, as well as a prescription for some pills to do the same. i went back today for a second shot, and after the pills, i should be ok. already im moving around better, so im super happy about that.
Not the cheeriest blog i´ve ever written, but this stuff happens in the world from time to time. Might as well report it since this is a blog of all my goings on. I dont wanna stress out any of the family members or anything though. just know that i´m doing better, i hope to be able to get a few waves soon, and i know where not to go. it´s a little scary walking back home late at night still, but i try and walk with one of my neighbors and i feel safer that way.
oh well!

Mex

2010-08-11T08:49:00.001-07:00

As per Dad´s request, here is the place that i´ve been staying while in puerto escondido. a nice little place with about 10 rooms or so. and as you can see Dad, yes,i do have a window. in fact, on the other side of the room is another one so there is some nice cross ventilation going on. it´s run by a nice family, and i pay about $7 per night. a little expensive i think, but it´s a nice place and it´s always clean, so that´s good. it takes about 10 minutes or so to walk into town, but that´s not too bad. a short jaunt. and the terrace up top is pretty cool since there are hammocks and a constant breeze. so there ya have it.

Salina Cruz cont.

2010-08-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

Still her in salina cruz, not really surfing much. I got a tip on a wave thats only a bit north of here, so i went there tent in hand and dreams of waves in mind. there were a few restaurants there that i could camp at. i picked the one, of course, that was furthest from the wave. didnt realize it at the time. oh well, the family that owned it were really nice. set up my tent and sat and waited. unfortunately, the only surfing i got to do was body surfing in the shorebreak in from of the restaurant. the point down the beach where the wave is located is situated at a funny angle and doenst get to take advantage of the near constant onslaught of NE winds that wreak havoc around here. from morning to night, there are winds. its crazy. at least i could drag my tent out from the front of the restaurant and into the breeze at night. so i got a good sleep. but i sat there for 2 days and didnt get anything. there was swell on the internet charts, but i didnt get to surf it. fickle waves down here i think.
the father at the resaurant was nice enough to give me a ride out to the main road. if i had had to walk that with my gear and my boards, then i think i would have passed out with head stroke. looooong dirt road leading to the beach. i took a taxi to get there, and had no means of returning. lucked out with the ride out. then it was just a matter of waiting for the right bus to come along and pick me up.
so i came back to salina cruz. gave the beach break another shot this morning but was let down. ready to move on i think. back to puerto maybe to decide my next step. at least i can celebrate my bday up there with some friends and beer in hand. ill give it another shot surfing around there. most likely its just gonna be super crowded still. and now theres a boogie board competition going on. i cant imagine any comp being more boring. oh well. we{ll see what happens.

Salina Cruz

2010-07-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, i moved south from puerto. to a town called salina cruz. there are rumors of waves around here. took about 5 hours to get here by bus. i was thinking to maybe rent a car or motorbike to search around, but alas, that is not possible in salina cruz. no idea why. this is a port city, so there are ships coming in every day. one would assume that at least one ship would contain cars that could be rented, but i guess not. and after walking around town as well as bussing around a bit, im pretty sure that they werent telling me lies when they said there was no car rental here. but i managed to take a colectivo for a little while and search out a beachbreak. it took a little time to get to, and i had to kinda cross a little lagoon, but the waves looked pretty good. they looked hollow, fun, and headhigh to overhead. of course, i was only on a recon mission, and failed to bring my board. i honestly wasnt expecting to find a thing. but i think i may have a good place to surf a few days. ill just have to give it a go tomorrow morning. i was talking to a couple guys on the beach while there. apparently, this beach is one of the places that people from further south, like guatemala and el salvador, walk through on their way to the states looking for work. kinda interesting. and one of the fishermen was asking me about working in the states. it seems like every mexican i meet has either already worked in the states, or wants to go work there. i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but i gotta tell them sometimes, that yeah, you can make money, but the cost of living is a tad more high than in mexico. no 40 cent tacos and cheap rents in the states!
Im staying in salina cruz in a room just across from the bus station. lucky me, the cheapest place in town is right across from my bus stop. of course, cheap here means $15. a little more than im used to paying, but ill live if i can find some waves. ive upped the budget in hopes of barrels.
as for salina cruz, however. i cant say much for this town. of course, if you happen to have a car, and this car happens to need some service, you can find a mechanic on nearly every corner! weird. even weirder, there are so few places to eat. normally, mexican towns are inundated with eateries and tacos and whatnot. this place is almost devoid of them. i took a bus to the local supermarket this afternoon though, and luckily they have a ton of stuff there, so i shouldnt go hungry.
Oh, i looked for a place to stay out by my new wave, but there is so little there that it seems quite tough to find a room. no hotels or anything. just peoples cement box houses. interesting. i can handle a ride in in the morning though i guess. i think there was a circus in town last night too. i falied to make an appearance there since i was looking for food at the time (i found tacos) but i hope that it sticks around for a bit. i wouldnt mind seeing what a mexican circus looks like.
I think thats about all for now. gonna hang here a bit and hope to get some waves. hope to not run into one of the surf camp outfits that run around here. i hear they are kinda protective of their waves. but i think that just applies to the point breaks, and i dont really have any urge to get to those. too far away from me, and i{d need a car. oh well.

Huevos and olas

2010-07-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

´Eggs and waves´ is what that means. puerto escondido has been a little disappointing to be honest. bad sand banks + nasty onshore winds = no good waves. i took a little side trip up the coast a bit to find some better ones. to get there was a bit of a mission, but i´ve been before, so i knew the route. had to take a colectivo (a shared pickup truck where one sits on a bench in the back under a big tarp) up to town, where i took another colectivo, this time a van. an hour later or so, i hopped off and onto another colectivo pick up to the coast. from there, it was a colectivo boat, that i had to wait about an hour for, for about 10 minutes down a lagoon. and from there, one more colectivo pick up down a spit of sand and to the beach where i was to stay. i had brought my tent, one board, and the bare essentials with me. travelling super super light. there are many restaurants there so i asked one to set up the tent in. the deal in mex is that you can camp in any restaurant on the beach basically, just as long as you eat there.
the day i got there was really windy, so i sat in the hammock to wait for waves. the next day was more of the same. i went out to try for a few at sunrise (which was amazing coming over the mountains, by the way) and ended up doing more wiping out than surfing. i was also the only one out there. i guess for good reason since the waves sucked. oh well. i waited that day out as well. the next day was pumping. and there were so few guys there since it´s such a mission to get to. funny how there can be 60+ guys here in puerto, but a few hours down the road, there are 10! and the waves have better shape too! i was the first one out at sunrise again. i had no trouble getting up early since i had no bed or even sleeping mat and was quite uncomfortable sleeping on the sand with only a sheet and a tiny Spiderman pillow that i bought up north in colima. (20 pesos). also, the owner of the restaurant was there every day at sunrise to set up the chairs and whatnot.
so i paddled out and got a few good ones. tough to stay in the spot since there was a lot of current, but all the paddling was rewarded often. crowd got a bit much for me even though there were like only 5 guys out the back. they were really hassling for waves for no apparent reason. i wanted to tell´em to settle down, there are tons of waves and no one out, but i had had my fill and went in for some breakfast.
turned out that the dinner menu for the restaurant that i was staying in was super expensive. like $9-12 for a meal!! way too much! especially since i have a place in puerto rented out for the month, and technically im paying $5 a day for that already. so i had to take on the breakfast menu, no matter the time of day. the typical meal was huevos a la mexicana. (mexican eggs). so good. eggs with green pepper, onion and tomato, the colors of the flag) with a side of beans and a pile of warm tortillas. filled me up quite nicely so i could hang out and wait for the afternoon surf. the coffee was quite good as well.
the final day there was pretty good again. some nice waves and barrels coming in. the pack was sitting out the back as usual, so i paddled down the line. i let them have the first 50 meters or so of the wave. everyone seemed to forget that the waves continued on for another 200 meters or so, so that´s what i surfed...alone! i was quite content. i didnt get the best sections of the wave really, but i got to cruise forever on them. nice. soooo long!
i knew that the swell was gonna die the next day or so, so i just came back here to puerto. there´s still quite a bit of swell. i might head back there in a week or so, we´ll see. maybe hang here for the world cup finals, of which the US is unfortunately out of. i still have like 10 days or so paid for on the room, so we´ll see what happens here. my buddy i was hanging out with here last year just got back to mex as well, although further north. might get to see him in a few weeks and search for some waves. until then, i´ll be in touch. trying to find some decent sandbars and waves south of the border!

Mex...again

2010-06-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

I´ve moved along since my last post. Margarets was getting too windy and cold and I never succeeded in finding any work. I was too late to pick grapes in the vineyards, and too early to prune vines there. Kinda like being caught in limbo I guess. Had a few good days here and there but it was an average season in my opinion. Even the locals seemed to think so. Some of them at least. I bought a ticket to mexico once i sold the car to a euro staying in a hostel in fremantle, and dion was nice enough to again let me stay with him. only took about 3 days to sell the car, so i didnt have to mooch for too long. he was even good enough to give me a ride to the airport when i left even though he had an exam later that day. i think it was good that i was there though cuz hís brain was about fried from studying all day and night. so we had a beer here and there to relax. i think he´ll ace everything now.
i flew over the big pond yet again. i was going to hitch over to sydney to fly out of there, but took the wasy route and spent a couple more bucks to just fly from perth. went to melbourne, then over to los angeles. (watched like 4 movies on my own personal movie screen.) then i was supposed to fly out the next morning at about 8am, but changed my flight for free (thanks mexicana air!) to only about 5 hours later. so i got some mcy-dees and waited around til i left at 1am. got to guadalajara (got overcharged for my boards....thanks mexicana air) then hopped a taxi to the busstop. took about 5 hours to the coast. not much happening there so i only spent 5 days. out of control closed out waves. hopped on another bus to acapulco, to transfer to another bus further south. 11-12 hours to acapulco, then thought the next leg was only like 5 or 6 hours....turned out to be another 11 hours!! ugh. i dont remember it being that long of a trip the previous times, but i guess it was. must´ve been out of it on those other busrides or something. so here i am, for the 5th time in 4 years, in mexico. down south in the state of oaxaca. puerto escondido again. crowded waves, but a fun town. hoping for some nice waves too. been good so far for the past 4 days or so. nice warm water and a blazing sun. and a good place to be for the world cup as well. lots of restaurants to see the games on.
pitched my tent up in the back corner of a hostel. stinking hot at night, but i´ll manage. bit noisy at times too. maybe i´ll move later on or something. it´s just the cheapest in town though!
until next time...

Back in Margaret River, WA

2010-05-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Welp, here I am yet again. Not for as long as last time though, i think. finally made it here after a over a week in fremantle looking for a car. found one that seems like it should do the trick. fingers crossed. i took it to a mechanic and he said what was wrong with it and gave me a rough quote on how much it would be to fix. so i took that off the cost of the car and got a good deal. took it to marg's for a full service and one or 2 other things and got'er fixed up pretty good.

As for Margaret River, i gotta say, that nearly nothing has changed in my 2 year absence. there may be a new store where there wasnt before, but basically still a quiet tourist town. and being late autumn, on the verge of winter, it's even less crowded now. that doesn't go entirely for the waves per se, but still nice. unfortunately, it's freakin freezing!!!!! the days can be quite nice, but man, nighttime and early morning are absolutely frigid! (for me at least; someone who gets cold just opening a fridge.) it's quite tough to manage to get out of bed in the early morning before the sun has had a chance to come up over the hills yet and the offshore winds are howling. but i manage sometimes. can't say i've scored any great waves yet though. mostly just taken a few wipeouts and frozen half to death walking down the beach at 7am.

but i'm degressing from the car, which you can see from the pics. nice little mazda 626 wagon. many of you will no doubt remember my sweet yellow, 1988 ford falcon station wagon from last time. well, now i have a '93 mazda that, while running well, is a tad smaller than the ole ford. as you can see from the pic of the trunk ('boot' in australian.) the first week or so, i would just sleep next to my boards and have about 2 feet of space in which to fit. now, i just take them out and put them behind the car. since i have a nice little hiding spot in the bush, i know they're safe. so i'm now 'stylin and profilin' as they say. and yes, it's a manual. i do know how to drive those. they're a bit more fun to drive as well, but i have trouble drinking my morning coffee while heading to the beach. up there in the passanger seat, kinda hard to see, is my gas cooker that came with the car, as well as my box of food. that's the 'kitchen area' i suppose. whilst the trunk is the living room/bedroom area. i even have an ipod jack attached to the radio so i have my tunes. gotta tape the passenger side window up a bit, but it works. also, i'm having a spot of trouble tranfering it into my name. the german couple that i bought it off of failed to pay their transfer fee when they bought it about 6 weeks ago, and therefore it was never put into their name. so selling it to me was techincally illegal on their part, but i'm since made steps to rectify this. i just have to wait 3 weeks now, i'm told, until my new paperwork, submitted yesterday, can all be read through and cleared. they have to believe that i'm the owner before i can actually be the owner. but it's legal to drive and my insurance is still good. i checked that first thing. so i guess i'm here for at least 3 more weeks.

ok, so, back to margs. cold. yea. but i'll manage for a bit. might only last through may, but that's ok. hoping for some good waves since everyone says that this is the good time. after the summer crowds leave, but before the nasty winter weather sets in. had no luck getting my old job back at the kebab shop. oh well. my boss, shivan, is home in kurdistan until june, and the guys running it don't know me, so i'm unemployed. not sure how much people will want me if i'm only around a month anyways. whatever. maybe later, we'll see. to fill the days, i've started going to yoga and pilates. since i have such a terrible back, i thought it might help since all the docs have never done anything to help out. so far so good. only had one session of each, but with good results i'd say. they even have a pilates for surfers class here on wed nights. also, there is a soup kitchen on monday and wed nights that is soooo good. $5 all you can eat! you can even get take away after you've eaten. went to that for the first time the other night. i'm hooked. and it's all vegan food, so it's really healthy. good salads too. lots of hippies attend.

other than that though, i gotta say that i've been incredibly bored. i can surf in the mornings on occassion, but once that wind comes up from the southwest at 11:00 or so, i'm stuck with nothing to do. been reading a bit. hanging out at the library or at the beach with some friends also living in their cars. nothing big. that's another reason i may only last here through may. just so bored! and i'm not too excited to wear that wetsuit and be so cold when surfing. i prefer just the boardshorts. so we'll see what happens here. it's also a little more expensive here than i remember. i go the the supermarket and my eyes are bulging at the prices. luckily, i can eat simply and somewhat cheaply.

i think that's all there is to report at the moment. had a little surf this morning. pretty average, but at least i got something. gonna go hang out and read a bit i spose. take care!

Being Idle

2010-04-18T21:31:00.001-07:00

One of the things that you have to deal with when travelling is idle time. Now I know you're gonna say, 'but kyle, all I want is some more time for myself to read a book and hang out on the beach.' Ok, fair argument. But I gotta tell you, when you don't get to do much activity besides walk around town every day and you have to wait for things like visas, and in this instance, for a vehicle to get fixed up, you tend to get quite bored and antsy. as for me; I'm running up that walls and have been for about 2 weeks now. Having left Indo over a month ago, I haven't done anything physical. and it's driving me crazy. not having an outlet for all this energy. and there's no way i'm going for a run. those days are behind me!
So here I am in Fremantle, Western Australia (just south of Perth) at the moment. My aussie buddy Dion came to pick me up at the airport last week at 5:30am and I've been at his place since. I spent most of my days wandering the hostels and internet cafes looking at ads for used backpacker cars. Finally found one on a website, had it checked out, and argued the price down a bit. Now, i'm idle again. i gotta take it to the mechanic tomorrow early, and im hoping they can fix it up in one day and i can head south to margaret river. Only a few things to do to her (apparently the car's name is 'Lily,' so it's a female....i may change this soon. maybe something like 'T-rex eater', or 'man-mobile', or 'chuck,' like the steak) and i can be on my way. replace some hoses, flush something out, give it a pat on the butt and off i go. it even came with a nice foam mattress in the back, a camper stove with gas bottles, and lots of pots, pans and cutlery. I'll be drinking Nescafe in the carpark overlooking a beach in no time.
Unfortunately, time is one thing that i'm running out of. I was planning on being here with a car in the first week of april. as time goes on, winter is only getting closer down here. so i hope May is still nice out, and June could start to turn colder, windier and rainier. But I may head up the coast a few hours if that happens. We'll just have to see what happens.
I think margaret river may have changed in my 2 or 3 year absence, meaning there are more restaurants and whatnot, but i'm sure the waves are unchanged. hoping it's just not too crowded!
As for whatever sickness I had in indo, well it seems to be lingering a bit. I still wake up with sore knees, ankles and toes for some reason. not disabling pain, just nagging and annoying.
Going to the store for food is an eye opener as well. The prices are ridiculous here! my eyes are bugging out of my head. and i'm only buying rice and oats for the most part! $20 here lasts me a few days, where $20 in indo would last me over a week i bet! and the conversion rate isn't exactly top notch either. i think one US dollar buys $AUS1.09. so not too great. but at least i'm not losing money on the deal. i think last time i was here the rate was about $US1 to $AUS1.30. quite nice. whatever, i have a work visa this time around, so if im in a pinch or just bored, i can find some work i'm sure. might be good to work some each week just to pay for petrol and food.
think i'm gonna go wander town a bit. i'm running low on books.

KL

2010-04-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's the Petronas Towers on the left there. Just thought you all might like to see. Yay, whoopeee, there they are. I can see the tops from my hostel hang-out room. but it's at such an angle that it looks like there's only one tower. and on the right we have KL tower. i can't say that i'm struck with awe by these 2 things. and i hear that the world's largest tower is actually in Canada. did i already write this? oh well. if not, good for canada!
I was looking at a list of banned movies in Malaysia. apparently Zoolander is among them. if you haven't seen Zoolander, the basic plot is that ben stiller is being brainwashed to kill the malaysian prime minister so that he won't ban underaged workers in sweatshops and clothing designers can still make big profits. and hilarity ensues. also on the list, i believe, was Blood Diamond. not sure why that was on there really, but case in point, both of these movies are on my ipod, so i'm hoping that the cops don't find out and deport me. of course, i guess they could deport me to back indo. worse fates could be had.
still waiting on the ole visa. turns out that the embassy was closed for 5 days over easter. thanks for telling me, immigration people. maybe an email that says' thanks for your application, but we're not gonna respond for a week. enjoy your time in asia!' is that too much to ask? hopefully they can pull their thumbs out and get to work on it now. i'll keep ya posted.

Kuala Lumpur

2010-04-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

Moustache quotes from friends and family :

- You look like a minister in training who goes door to door talking about his church (that was grandma!!)

- Kyle will take 'the rapist' for $200

- You look like the spitting image of dad

- Ron Burgundy's brother? (Anchorman reference for those not in the know)

- What grade does he teach...or is it the protrait of a serial killer?

- Where you auditioning for Dragnet when this was taken?

- You selling bibles?

- We've named your moustache for you - Manuel -

Oh you all are so funny. Anyways, it's been shaved off since I left indonesia. Couldn't walk around the civilized world looking like that. now in kuala lumpur for over 2 weeks. Only wanted to be here like 4 days!! stuck. came in, kinda siick from whatever some mosquito gave me in indo. i think it was chikungunya, which is a cousin of dengue. I had all the symptoms, so that's what im thinking it was. blood test in indo said it wasn't malaria, so that's good. got another blood test here in KL, and they said it wasnt dengue or gunya. not sure abuot that. i think it was a relapse of gunya. hit me hard for about 10 days in indo, then went away for a couple weeks, then hit me again when i went back to padang and came here. kinda dying off now, but i still feel a bit sore in my knees, ankles, and toes, which is strange. according to wikipedia, it can hang around for 2.5 months. and according to the doc here, it can keep hitting me for up to 6 months. not cool. but i can deal with it i think.
I also had a twisted knee from indo as well. so i've been resting that here. feeling better now, and i'm ready to get back in the water. been waiting for my australian visa to be accepted for over a week now though. getting tired of waiting for these idiots to look at my app and say yay or nay. i dont care if it gets rejected, just give me an answer!! let me move on from KL. Was gonna head up the coast a bit and see Thailand, but i only wanted to be around this area for a couple weeks, and then head to Australia. This is the prime time to be down there for some waves, so i don't wanna miss out by hanging out up here eating rice. Just wanna get going, get a van to live in, and get some waves!
Let's see, what does KL have to offer? Well, besides better food than indo, and some creature comforts, not much! i've been loving the food here. getting well fed. been walking around a lot. walking around some modern malls they have just to get into some a/c, and seeing a lot of movies at the cinemas. so cheap. i went to see the Petronas Twin Towers one day with a dutch fella. nice, but we got there too late to go up to the bridge that crosses between them half way up. no worries, they had pictures in the lobby of the view, so i felt that sufficed. no need to walk all the way back there now. the KL Tower is in view as well. pretty tall. no need to go see more in my opinion. as for the rest of KL, well, no one really seems too enthralled by this place. Not many fun places to go, and nowhere to even drink a bit. expensive beers here for some reason. oh well. touristy too. lots of people selling crap on the street. i should be able to get some cheap sunglasses at least, i guess.
Been eating a lot of chinese food. they have it all sitting out in trays, and you get a plate of rice, then spoon on whatever you want to eat, and they tally it up for you at the register. not sure what the hell i've been eating, but it's all been pretty good. Malay food has been pretty good too. i usually get that every night. not been paying more that $1-2 per meal....amazing. Mcdonald's, 7-11, and starbucks are all over the place here. i've been drinking Slurpees like my life depends on it. and in this heat, i think it might. they're keeping me alive. i try to avoid the mcdonalds and starbucks though. too pricey for me.
Another exciting day in KL. gonna go wander.

indo

2010-03-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, i havent written much in a while. did a quick visa run since we were in the midst of a flat spell,and ran back to the island. had a bit more flatness, then a few fun days. finally got a really good swell about a week ago. 2 charter boats and a speed boat all came and sat in the channel. no one wanted to paddle out the back and tackle the waves except some of us land campers. we'd been waiting 2 months for this day! days have been slow as usual though. wake up, coffee, wave check, hammoc, book, etc. was making some really good pasta every day for lunch with francis. our buddy Ian was having problems eating the slop we were fed every day, so i think francis and i were keeping him alive with pasta.
this pic here is what 3 weeks of no waves does to a guy. he grows a goofy moustache and decides top walk to the other side of the island looking for something to surf. interesting note: i didnt find any waves that day. i got that sweet hat on my visa run to padang though. i cut it up a bit to make a neck protector. smart.
getting a little crowded out on the island now. the season is kicking in i guess. 14 guys on land or so, and a lot of charter boats annoying us. we sit and sweat for weeks on end to get good waves, and these guys just turn up when they know its gonna be good. not cool. so maybe off to other spots now. not sure.
Ian, Francis, and australian Richard, and I got a local boat up to the ferry the other day. we broke down not even half way there and we (the white guys) paddled the boat to shore where there was a little village. francis hopped on a motorbike with a local (yes, they actually have motorbikes out there. i was surprised too) and rode to the nearset town with boats. had to hire a new boat to take us the rest of the way. big hooplah over the payment of the first boat. the captain wanted too much money, and complained and even took the gasoline off the new boat until we agreed on a price. immature, i'd say. oh well. we got there with about 45 minutes to spare before the ferry took off. had the worst sleep of my life on it though. sleeping in the hallway amongst a hundred other indos and vying for floor space.

Quick Trip

2010-02-12T00:32:00.000-08:00

Well, the first couple weeks out on the island we pretty nice. lots of good swell, lots of waves, lots of barrels! had one nice, big day out there too last week or so. and the past week has gone flaaaaat! looks like it's gonna be flat all week too, but i'd rather be out there than in padang. an argetinian couple was leaving this last thursday, so i hopped in with them up to the town where the ferry left from, spent about 7 hours in said town being bored, then hopped on the ferry. didnt manage to get a cabin, so i had to sleep on the floor. not a good night's rest. got to padang this morning, and did some shopping for more food (lots of oatmeal and pasta and tuna) and got a visa extension so i can stay out there an extra month now. quick padang trip. only about 12 hours here this time. ferry leaves tonight back to sioban. then a little boat ride back to the tip of the island and back in a hammock. everyone is getting sick out there though. some new thing. think i might have gotten it too. but they have an injection for it out there in one of the towns. we'll see what happens. should be ok though. everyone comes around after a week or so. got a nice pillow in padang here, so i dont haveto sleep on a the rock hard one back in my losmen. yipee. gonna get some dinner for the boat ride and head over to the ferry i think. only 10 short hours to the island. should be back in padang in 6 weeks or so to figure out the next move.

francis and ian are doing well by the way. we're eating lots of oatmeal, honey, pasta, veggies and rice. andi get about 4 kilos of passionfruit a week from market. so good.

take care!

A Long Trip Back to Indo

2010-01-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

Well, getting out of Phoenix was pretty straight forward. Chris dropped me off at the airport, and I checked in and flew away to LAX. But LA was a different story. It's a good thing that i got in 3 hours before my next flight. I had to collect all my bags and bus to the international terminal. I got there, and proceeded to wait in line forever. it took a little while at the check in line, but the big wait was the one where we took our bags to TSA for security screening. the line was out the door and hardly moving. it was incredible. some idiot tries to blow up a plane over detroit and we're stuck paying for it...nice. so i made it to my flight 15 minutes before we loaded up. but TSA delayed even more, and we loaded about 45 minutes later. then TSA delayed us even more and we didnt take off for an hour! smooth sailing once we got in the air though. i put on a movie on the head rest in front of me (Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, in case you were curious. and yes....it was awesome!) and conked out before it ended. woke up in time for dinner and another movie. conked out, watched movies, ate...the ride's a blur. i dont even know how long it took. 12 hours? 14? whatever. made it to taipei where i had to sit around for almost 3 hours picking my nose. fell asleep on the chairs waiting and got woken up when someone told me that we were boarding. then another 4 hours and 25 minutes flying to kuala lumpur. made it there, collected my bags, and had 18 hours to kill in the airport...awesome. so i found a comfy chair that i could lie down on and did some crosswords. after a bit, around 5pm, i fell asleep. woke up at 9pm, sat up, still groggy, lay back down and passed out some more until 3am or so. woke up, and was surrounded by indians! very discombobulating. i was literally hemmed in on all sides by indians and their stuff on trolleys. no idea where they came from. after and hour or 2 though, they all lined up where they were flying from and i had space again. started talking to a malaysian guy who told me that i was in the wrong terminal for my Air Asia flight. so, about 2 hours before my flight, i had to find the bus to the LLC terminal, the ride took about 20 minutes (kinda far for a terminal in the same airport!) then waited a bit until i checked in yet again to another flight. my last one. air asia was pretty nice too. comfy leather seats, babes for flight attendants, funky popular tunes of the day. conked out in that flight too.
so i made it to padang, sumatra finally. managed to fit everything in the bus outside the airport so i didnt have to pay for a taxi. paid like 2 bucks for the bus or something. time to get into "indo money mode."
i knew of a place to stay because my buddy francis told me about it. our favorite place was destroyed in the earthquake from september, and our other place's prices had gone up. so he found another spot to stay. not too bad. basic indo accomodation. smallish, dirty, kinda gross, bad fan....awesome after 2 days travel! so i wandered for a bit looking for supplies to take with me to the island. tough since the 2 main supermarkets were nearly demolished too. i managed to walk around the market and find a few things; oatmeal, honey, pasta, ketchup....the staples. Mama should take care of the rest of the food out there. and rumor has it that there is some other lady doing some good cooking in the town out there. i'll have to inquire more.
so, i got to indo around 8am, got to the hotel at 10, took a 2 hour nap, then went out for lunch and supplies. got back and sat around reading in front of the fan and conked out, yet again, around 5:30pm or so. didnt wake up til the next day. my body has no idea what day or time it is. i barely know what year im in now.
i got up and read a bit, then i heard, "kyle, wake up!" who could that be, i thought? turned out to be Davi, the brazilian guy that i met out at HTs last march '09. i couldn't believe it. he was staying in the room right next to mine. and our other aussie buddy that we met in bali, rodney, was coming in that day to go to HTs too. unbelievable. davi got a little busted up on the reef, so he's stuck in padang for a couple weeks, but rod will be going with me tonight to the island. also, there is another aussie guy staying at the same hotel going out tonight, along with the guys i met at HTs last winter who are building a resort on the other side of the island at another wave. i was sitting in my bad this morning (early, like5am, since i dont know what time it is yet) thinking, 'i hope this was a good idea. i hope im not alone out there for 2 weeks. i hope there are waves.' blah blah blah. then i meet everyone else! i was pretty happy. on top of that, francis will be back from thailand in 2 weeks to come out, and out buddy ian will be here too in 2 weeks i thnik. should be an interesting trip. hope we get some waves!! and that's the funny thing about indo...you never know who you're going to meet, but every time i've come baack, i've met guys from previous trips. it's pretty amazing.
so i've got my ticket for tonight. lucked out and got a cabin on the 10 hour ferry ride there. soon to be around sparkling blue water and a lot of rice. wondering when my first bout with the dreaded squirts will be upon me. let's cross our fingers that it isnt a bad episode. i need to get accustomed to the food here again. had a few meals thus far. gooooood food. a bit warm out. nice in the morning, but gets stinking hot later on. glad that it's rainy season and there are some could around. otherwise, it's too damn hot to even move. forgot my sunscreen yesterday while walking around. i am officially a redneck now. through and through.
hoping to be out on the island for 6-7 weeks. so i'll be out of contact during that time. might try exploring a few other breaks during that time too, we'll see. no pics at the moment. but maybe when i get back. got one of davi....he looks like i looked after 6 1/2 months here. and he's been here 10 months now!!! loooong time in indo. hair gets blond, you look malnurished, but youre happy.
i love you all lots, family!!!

Snotsdale, Arizona

2009-12-23T07:01:00.000-08:00

Well, the past 4 months have come and gone. I took the long bus ride up to Arizona to see Chris yet again. I stayed at his roommates house for a month while the final ends were being tied up on Chris' new place...right down the street. I spent most of my days on craigslist looking for jobs as well as riding a bike around handing out applications and resumes. It took me about a month, but i finally got a call back and an interview. So when we finally moved into Chris' place, I had a job. Got one working at Jersey Mikes Sub Shop. Once again, putting my college degree to good use.
Chris was nice enough to lend me his car for the ensuing months that I was going to be around. The weather was cooling a little bit from summer, and he said it was good motorcycling temps. It really helped me out since work was almost 15 minutes away. And I didn't really want to walk and bus every day.
I also found a job through our other roomie Matty being a pedicab on weekends. For those not in the know, a pedicabbie is a bicycle taxi, or rickshaw. Basically, I was carting drunks from one bar to another for tips. And I was one of the few that wasn't on some kind of illegal drug. Seems like the cream of the crop does not choose to pedicab in Scottsdale.

Typical converation on the bike :
drunk chick : You're hot! i bet you're in great shape!
me : uh, yea i do ok i guess. it gets easier.
drunk chick : I'd be in SUCH great shape if i did this!
me : and i'd be a fat pig if i worked in an office like everyone else.
drunk chick : huh?
me : nothing. so where you going?
drunk chick : you don't look like the other bike people. you look normal.
me : clean living and a pure heart i spose. plus im not on meth.
drunk chick : huh?
me : nothing. where to?
drunk chick : i'm gonna take a picture of your butt!!!
me : lookings for free. pictures will cost you babe.
drunk chick : bike....man! hey bikerman! what's your name?!
me : man...biker man. you guessed it. how about that?
drunk chick : what?
me : ugh. it's kyle.
drunk chick : kyle! my name is bla bla bla. i wanna call you! you're HOT!
me : and you're DRUNK! hey don't lean over, you're gonna fall out of the cart! quit squirming!
drunk chick : hahahhahahah! wheeee!
me : can you tell me where i'm taking you now?
drunk chick : i wanna go to (insert trendy scottsdale bar here). i dont have any cash.
me : what?!
drunk chick : do you take debit card?? haha!
me : yea, you can swipe my butt crack with it.
drunk chick : you're funny! haha!
me : ok we're here, get out.
drunk chick : i feel bad. i don't have any cash.
me : coulda told me that before the ride started so i skipped over you, hun.
drunk chick : how about a hug? i'll give you a hug. and a kiss.
me : no. i bet those lips have been all over this town.
drunk chick : huh?
me : nothing. see ya!

Repeat this maybe 10 times a night, add in a few idiot guys with their brains in their biceps, and you have a relatively normal evening in the life of a pedicab. sometimes you get $20 for riding a block. other times you get stiffed for riding 5 blocks. Can't get too angry since we do advertise as 'free rides.'

Typical sales pitch :
me : You guys want a free ride?
drunk idiot : YEA! freeeee ride! ha! nothing's free! i'm gonna have to pay for it!
me : ok, see ya.

me : How about a free ride, ladies?
skinny drunk chicks : no! we have to walk there cuz we're fat!! we need to walk off the calories!
me : so you're going to a bar to drink beer?
sdc : YEA!
me : you, m'lady, are not smart.
(I should mention that most girls in scottsdale look like boobs on toothpicks)

me : Hey guys, how about a free ride tonight.
idiot : no, we're straight
me : good, cuz i don't give rides to queers!
idiot : nah, we're cool
me : no you're not. (and i ride away fast!)

drunk girl : hey!! rickshaw man! how much to take us to Dirty Pretty?!!?
me : whatever you want babycakes. just working on tips.
drunk girl : so, like, what if i wanted to pay only a dollar.
me : then you're walking there, hun. or tell you what, i'll even ride you in the opposite direction just to spite you.
drunk girl : i don't wanna go that way.
me : then fork over some cash! get your friends to chip in.
drunk girl : they don't have any cash.
me : got credit cards?
drunk girl : yea!
me : just give me the card then.
drunk girl : haha! i don't think so!

here's a pretty common one from both guys and girls :
me : here you guys guys, have a good night.
dude : bro! we don't got any cash. give me your number and i'll call you tomorrow and get you bro.
me : yea, sure you won't.
dude : nah bro. here give me your number.
me : ok, here you go. it's been nice never hearing from you again. later.
(we've recently had cards made up with our name and number on them so we don't have to waste time typing in our numbers on phones. however we might as well say, "here, you throw this little piece of paper away for me.")

Matty and I try to come up with fake jobs that we can tell people we have in addition to the bike gig. Our real jobs are boring, so we spice it up a bit.
Some of our ideas:
-Finnish baker (leaving someone open to grab a joke about 'nice buns')
-pinball machine creator and assembler (I invented the KISS pinball machine)
-The guy who stands up the penguins in the aquarium when they fall over (this joke courtesy of casey. funnier because there is no aquarium in the area)
-Pencil eraser repair man (courtesy of the owner of the company, Jordan)
-off duty bicycle cop, trying to stay in shape. (that town is littered with cops on weekends!)

And then there's Matty's favorite line to say to chicks:
"You wanna come back to my place for some chicken and sex? What, you don't like chicken? Wakka wakka wakka!" (ala Fozzy Bear)

I had one guy say to me one night:
guy : dude, this town sucks. there's no hot chicks out!
me : are you blind. you must be blind. it's scottsdale. this is where the beautiful people, better than us, live.
guy : i havent seen any hot chicks tonight.
me : there's some. there's some more. see? i'm not even trying and i can spot them.
guy : dude, im going to Salty Senorita.
me : well that's like 10 minutes outside of town. you're not gonna see any chicks out there man.
guy : i gotta meet a friend.
me : lousy friend to take you there. tell you what, why not let me just take you to where the girls are?
guy : nah man. i'm going to salty.
me : that's stupid!! let me take you to where girls are!
guy : which way is salty?
And so on and so on. why would anyone listen to the guy who rides around downtown on a weekly basis as to where girls hang out? I have no idea!

And then i get the same questions at the sub shop daily too:
me : would you like your sub Mike's Waytm
dumb customer : what's mike's way?
me : the way that's written on the menu!!!!
ok, i don't say that. what i have to say in order to avoid my sub creation termination is, "mikes way is onion, lettuce, tomato, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano and salt." i've said it so many times now, that i can spit it out in less than 3 seconds.

or :
me : would you like this mikes way?
customer : yea sure. just lettuce and mayo.
me : that's not mikes way man.
customer : what's mikes way?
me : you said you wanted it mikes way without first knowing what mikes way was? am i getting this right?
ok, i don't say that either. these are the things that run through my head to keep me amused during work.

However, I must say that I feel quite fortunate to have found any work at all while back in the states. Apparently, Arizona is #3 on the unemployment list which didn't make my odds of finding employment too good. So I was lucky to find 2 jobs to help pay rent as well as save a couple bucks for my next trip. I'll be heading back to indonesia on january 4th, so keep your fingers crossed for waves! and im hoping to meet up with francis (the french canadien) and ian (from jersey, england) while i'm out there.

USA

2009-08-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-08T12:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T10:41:00.002-07:00

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.

2009-07-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

2009-07-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-04T06:08:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-07-04T06:04:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

VROOOOOMMMM!

The Visit

2009-07-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-01-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T04:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-14T03:01:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!

2009-01-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-22T11:51:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T12:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-30T06:49:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-05T09:20:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-29T09:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-29T09:23:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-20T21:00:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-01-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

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!

Quick update

2007-12-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

In typical fashion, i havent written anything in a while, and i am lacking in pictures. oh well. the newest news is that mom and pete came for a visit, which was quite nice. i met them over in sydney and we hung out around there for a few days seeing the sights and checking out a few pubs. it's not too bad for being a big city. pretty clean and it's nice to be on the water there. then, after that we took a flight down to Hobart in Tasmania. not too bad either. more mountains and a bit cooler. took a bike ride, saw some pubs, and the highlight was visiting the Cadbury chocolate factory and taking a tour. it's like a big tease because you can't touch or eat anything until the tour is over. so you're prettty hungry after about an hour of walking around melted chocolate. then we flew back up to sydney, rented a car, and drove east to the blue mountains. not bad there either. took a nature hike that seemed neverending, but it was nice. then we took off the next day and drove south to a small town called Berry, and we visited Ulladulla for the day as well. not a bad area down there south of sydney. and then we finally got to come over west so i could show them my turf. had a few car problems on the way from the airport, but we let'er cool down and headed off and made it ok. in margaret river, we took a winery tour, i got some surfing in, we had thanksgiving dinner, met some of my friends, and just saw the sights. then we had to say goodbye, and i took them up to perth to fly out. i got to spend the weekend in fremantle and go to a few parties which wasnt too bad. time to get back to margaret river i think, and try to sell the car since she's not doing too well, and then figure out my next step. sorry this update hasnt been too exciting. just updating for anyone who wants to read it. see ya!

Pictures!!

2007-10-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, i thought this somputer was gonna be difficult andnnot allow and pictures to upload, but it seems to be cooperating now. here was have a few work shots for your enjoyment. one is me and one of my bosses. he's basically a midget compared to me. this is us in front of te oven where all the baking goes down (suprise surprise) and where we handle all those "hot Kurdish buns," as i say almost daily. and the next is a picture of me after just taking an order. amazing. in the background you can see one of the little japanese girls whom i work with every day. this on in particular is the one that has been stealing food from the kitchen almost every day. i said fire her, but the boss says we need workers. so whatever...it's not my money that's being thrown down the drain to feed her stupid fruit picking friends. ( i should explain that many japanes come to margs for the reason of farm work to extend theire visas. fruit picking being the main source of work) anywyas, this girl was caught giving her friend free food, as in not charging them everything she should have on the cash register, in her first week working here!!! what do you call that?! gall?? balls? stupidity??? and it seems that she still does this, but she just gets more sneaky about it. and now we've found her putting extra food in her bag before leaving work. the nerve!!!! and last wek she was overpaid by 4 hours, and i said ok, tell the boss. i don't think i even have to mention that she failed to do so at the end of the night. hard to believe, but true. anwyas, that's ewnough ranting on that subject.

Let's talk about the ridiculous tan line on my neck. nah let's not. i feel dumb enough with that already. if there's any way i can redeem myself, it's that it's one of the telltale signs that i'm a surfer. and that's something i can be proud about.

i must say that the internet cafe isn't what you would call "inspirational material" when trying to write about your life, but i've tried to think of a few things since my last post. i recently got a message on myspace wondering what a kebab tastes like. well, how can one explain a kebab. first, from an ealier picture, you know that a kebab is not meat on a stick, such as the american mind might think of. it's more of a 'gyro' really i guess. meat and salad wrapped up in a hand made pita bread. man, i wish i could give everyone a kebab so they could taste it themselves. all i can say is that if heaven had a taste, it would be kebab. so there. imagine that if you will!

Anyways, life in the caravan park is moving along swimmingly i suppose. i must say that i have an almost nightly pleasure when i walk out and get to pee under the stars into the bush. there's nothin like it and if you haven't tried it at least once, then get out somewhere and let'er rip. and my little $2 radio is still going strong. i've recently found another station to go along with my Radiowest station....amazing. i now have the ABC news station. i have taken a liking to this, not so much for the news and current events, but more for the relaxing sound of the reporters voices. it's always some soft australian man or woman with quite a calming way of reporting how much devastation there is in the world. i managed to doze off to itlast night. but it doens't really take much to make me doze off i must say.

Also, a little something about the culture around here in Marg's. it seems that through their hippie and surfer heydays, some still retain the barefoot look as they cruise through town. i must say that i think it's pretty cool. and a lot of times i think it's the hippie's kids who go around barefoot. some little 7 year old tacker with mussed up hair and two dirty feet soles. we even had a more older (like 32 or somehing) fella come into the shop the other night in bare feet for a kebab. i knew him to be a surfer, and no matter that the weather was a little chilly for bare feet, he was still proudly presenting them to the world. and although i'm a supporter of barefootednedd, i still can't believe that some people gop around without shoes on in cold weather and rain. i'm in my sandals today ('thongs' they're called here) and my feet are cold enough seeing as how it's raining out there. i guess some people are just living in the moment or soemthing. or maybe they're rebelling against the man. whatever it is, it's pretty cool to be in a little town where shoes aren't mandatory. i think that's who it should be everywhere.

Also, have i mentioned how much they like AC/DC here??? nary a day goes by that one doesn't hear Acca Dacca belting out one of their classic tunes on the radio. which, i must say, is quite fine by me. they also have an ACDC-ish band that recently came out called Airbourne. i'm not sure if they've hit stateside of not yet, but their first single was a rockin tune for one and all to enjoy.

Anywyas, i hope the sated your thirst for more juicy tales from down under. maybe i can give you some good dangerous ones later on if we get some good swell and i can take you through one of the horrific wipeouts that occur here quite a lot. often too many times for me! see ya.

Is Kyle still alive?!

2007-10-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am. Haven't really written in a while. mostly because i've been in margaret's still not really doing a whole lot! had some inclimate weather a while back which gave me a case of cabin fever...or in my case, caravan fever, and then lately it's been clearing up nicely. had some nice surfs lately and just been kebabin'. big news though: mom and pete are coming for a visit soon, so that'll be pretty cool. gonna go see sydney and tasmania and then they can check out my little life here over west, and once they're gone i think i';m gonna head outta here and try to find some waves over east. so we'll see how that all goes. other big news, i've gotten a mobile phone...finally! i'm like an old man who's taken kicking and screaming into a new age. it only took my about a year to get a phone. whoopee!
well i'm hitting a wall here trying to think of stuff to write, so i'll take a break here and think up some good stories of down under to tell you all later on. take care and remember, "he who keeps feet firmly on ground, have trouble putting on trousers." i'm pretty sure that was confuscious...

Update

2007-09-16T22:32:00.001-07:00

".....so the guy says, 'i'll go if dingoes!'" (wait for laughter....begin blog)
Hey there everyone. hanging out in margaret river and what else is new. bad weather lately and no chance of surfing! i think it's been onshore winds for the last week or so with a week more in the forecast. in summary, i'm becoming a lazy blob who works in a kebab shop. yippee. i had a gym membership for a month, but i think that ran out the other day. but let's see what i can inform you all about. well, it's officially ramadan for all the muslims. that means that they're all fasting, and therefore, whinging! well, they were for the first couple days. my bosses seem to be handling the change pretty well. Shivan just keeps his mind busy by trying to work round the clock, and arkam just ambles along as he usually does. a nice little outcome of this is that i've been having some great dinners at the shop with shivan after the day shift. (they can only eat and drink and smoke before sunrise and after sunset.) so he makes a cracker of a meal after 6pm. he's been on a pancake kick, so i'm trying to give him some advice from a true pancake conossieur...like many americans are. and i think they ahve to keep this up for a whole month. not a day goes by that i don't tell them that i'm glad i'm not a muslim. i've also had a chance to watch the news in the kitchen whilst eating, which is nice. i never get a chance to do that, and the only news i get is via radio. which is ok, but not really the full picture. i cant' really remember anything significant going on right now, but i'm sure there was something or other that i saw. and have i mentioned that i'm trying to pick up a bit of kurdish? so that's cool. i can count to 10 and i have a few words and saying down now. i've learned 1-5 in japanese as well. so my head is a veritable library of information at the moment. my real reason for learning kurdish is mainly to decifer what they guys are saying to each other and to their wives. not sure iif i'll ever get that far or not, but i'll try.
in international news, mom is coming for a visit with pete in late november. which is gonna be cool i reckon! i hope to have a little more in my next post as this is just a lot of rambling. anyways, until next time.

the home

2007-09-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

here it is folks; the home. unfortunately, it's in the shop at the moment for some work. so i was homeless yet again last night and in the car. no big deal though. i can handle one night. and i think i'll get'er back today sometime. i certainly hope so since it's been raining all day so far! quite a cozy little nook if i do say so myself!

Just Kebabin'

2007-08-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

This is how you ATTACK a kebab! Here's me enjoying a little apre work meal. I've had so many of these things that I'm gonna get sick of'em. Plus i dont think that they're classified as a health food, so i'm gonna be a big and rotund as my bosses if i don't kick the habit soon. Ill be sure to get on that. I haven't had much of my staple; rice, lately, so i better get back to it. As for the kebab shop, i've been dealing with the same idiots that i dealt with before. The typical conversation:

customer : "what's doner?"

me (already frustrated with the way things are going with this one" : "it's lamb" (it's on the menu)

c : "i'll have one of those. what's it come with?"

me : "lettuce, onion, tomato." (also on the menu)

c : "no onion please. how much?"

me : "what kind of sauce do you want?"

c : "small"

me : "huh? sauce. Sauce!"

c : "oh, i thought you said what size." (at this point i'm at bursting level...then the ubiquitous question comes out. the one that they ALL ask....) "what kind of sauce do you have"

me : "it's on the freakin menu you moron!!" ok, i dont say that, but i think it every time. i laconically point to the section on the menu that has the sauces and then stare at them and await their response with feigned eagerness.

c : "i don't know. what's the best one?"

me : "did you eat paint as a child?" ok i don't say that either, but everyone comes in and i have the same conversation with them all! it's enough to drive a saint crazy. And imagine doing this on a busy weekend when we cook well over a hundred kebabs. That's over 100 idiots that i have to deal with! So i try to plant myself in front of the grill and not deal with the customers at all. just cook'em, sauce'em, and send'em out.

But that was good to blow off a little steam. some customers can tell i'm about to lose it at times, but that's just the restaurant biz i guess. at least i know that i don't want to do with the rest of my life. not if i can just work out what i do wanna do.

As for news, it's been unseasonably warm and sunny here lately (see bottom pic). I've had about 5 surfs in the past 2 weeks....which rocks! Today was a turning point though as it is again rainy and windy. But that's ok cuz i could use a breather. As for work....it usually kinda sucks. I was working 7 days a week but only from 6-10 at night. easy. not since we've lost one of the japanese girls who did all days, i'm on from 12-3 then back again from 6-10...what a bugger. there's a guy coming back to work here in a couple weeks, so i can get the night shift back then i hope. until then i try not to complain too much cuz i can use the extra bucks i'm earning to go towards a board maybe. I managed to sell the 6'9" epoxy that i've hated for so long. More on that as details emerge.

Also, I have been informed that a one, Christopher Trumpower (aka Log Hogan) also does not wear underwear in the summer time. Good to know log! Also i should announce to the world that he is an engaged man. It had to happen to one of us OC crew sooner or later i guess. at least i know that i;m in the 'later' category. possibly even in the 'later to never' category. But as the aussies say, "Good on ya mate!" which just doesn't sound with an american accent, but oh well.

I wish I could say that i remembered to get some pics of the mobile home, but alas, i have neglected my duty. It will happen soon, i promise. However i can tell you that i went to the Margaret River Lions Club bi-weekly garage sale this past weekend. for the super-low price of $5, i managed to get a radio, t-shirt, coffee mug, and jigsaw puzzle to take care of rainy day boredom. Thanks Lions! i'm about 100 pieces into the puzzle which apparently has a total number of 8 million. so i'll have that finished by xmas i reckon. And the radio i got is from circa 1981. It picks up one station, but it's got some rockin' tunes, so don't complain.

Also, even though they're past now, i'd like to give a happy birthday to mom, and a happy birthday to dad. if you havent wished them one yourself, then shame on you! call them now! And that's all for me for now. I'll have more great stories of kebabs and surf later on!

Back in Marg's

2007-08-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

I guess the addition of the traveller post (below) could also be skewed to other things. things like the rat race....
CAN : you wake up at 6am every day and put on a neck tie while drinking a cup of coffee and shaving at the same time?

CAN : you get dressed up for 80 interviews in 2 weeks and impress the boss in 20 minutes or less with your first impression?

CAN : you make it through rush hour traffic and bustling people and get to your cubicle safely?

CAN : you make the decision to by the 16" tv screen or the 21"???

So everyone has their own crap to go through. I'm kinda glad that i can get stranded on the road and sleep in the car because i have no real reason to "get a move on things." where do i have to be??

In other news,I have moved out of the car and into a mobile home. more to come on that once i get some nice pics of that fly ride. Also, there was an unseasonable couple of days this weekend, that allowed me to get a couple surfs in. Not too shabby. And i think you all know, that i am now back in the kebab shop doing my thing there. it's nice and slow at the moment, due to the winter weather, so it's pretty cruisy. weekends can get busy, but i can handle it. it's just a question if wether or not the japanese, korean, and chinese girls we have working there as well can handle it. Working with asians and kurds, i have to slow down my english and say everything 2 or 3 times to get my point across...not always fun in the dinner rush. anyways, more later....see ya.

Do you have what it takes to me a traveller???

2007-08-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

So you think that you wanna drop the job you hate, sell all your worldly possessions that you worked to hard to buy, find a sturdy backpack and hit the road to see what's out there in the wide world?!! Well, I'm here to tell you what it can be like at times. Come along with the budget traveller and see what life can be like for a while.

CAN:

- you live for at least a month without a proper, warm shower?

CAN:

- you opt for a surf or a dip in the ocean to say that you are clean for the next week?

CAN:

- you live in a cramped, old station wagon (or van) for the period of 6 months?

CAN"

- you develop a strong (and i mean stroooong) liking for dishes that all contain your one staple ingredient; rice?

CAN:

- you wear the same pair of socks for about 3 days just because you only have 3 pairs and it's quite a while until laundry day?

CAN:

- you put up with situations like the one above....falling in puddle, getting towed out from puddle, living next to puddle for a night since the car won't start?

CAN:

- you wander the streets of a city for hours looking for a place to stay where you can do a little work every day so you don't have to pay the ridiculous rent they charge? and doing so, can you manage to do the stupid, mindless work they didnt' want to do themselves, that they put you up to every morning?

CAN:

- you live with about 3 t-shirts, 2 shorts and a pair of pants in your wardrobe? (and that's a big wardrobe at the moment)

and here's a big one.....CAN:

- you survive....for almost 2 years....mostly in summer time or tropical heat....on beaches....with only one stick of deodorant????*

* you dont;' have to do this one, i just thought it was funny that i have the original stick that i started travelling with. i mean, hey, i live on beaches and don't wear a shirt most the time, what do i need it for? and for that matter, you dont' really need undies in that weater either. just ask 2 buddies of mine Owen and Casey...they live to freeball it in the summer.

Anyways, hope that was informative. i hope to post some more awe inspiring, slightly gross, and interesting things that i do more often in the future. in the meantime, potential traveller, go on back to that job you just sorta like and your nice big house and easy living. do i envy you? i don't know...

until next time!

Red Bluff

2007-08-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well, after unsuccesfully trying to sell the car in Perth, I decided to just load up up supplies and take'er up north to the bluff on my own. Here we have a nice little pic of what was waiting for me when i got there. it took about a day and a half of driving, but i made it there safe and sound. about 900 km on sealed road, then the last 60 km on a nasty dirt track. had a great surf once i got there....didn't even set up camp, just grabbed the board and headed out. thought i had it made that night as i made my dinner, and went to bed. however, as i woke up, the rain started. then it didn't stop. then my tent was about to fold in half from the wind and leak all over me. i opted to move back into the car and wait out the storm. so after sitting in the car for the entire day, i made some dinner and had to go to bed. woke up the next day to a bit better weather and got up to dry out all my stuff and reset up camp. had a few showers after that, but nothing like the big one that day. i only stayed there about a week because i was going absolutely stir crazy from sitting around all day. there is absolutely nothing to do there. and since the waves were only good about every other day, i had about 35 hours to fill between surfs. now, that being said, there are people who actually live out ther year round. i'm not too sure how they cope. i mean, you can only fish, dive and surf so much. and once you've walked down the beach once, why do it again? It's basically in the desert, but they'd been getting so much rain that i overheard that it was the greenest one guy ever saw it there.

Even though it really is a beautiful area and it's like nothing you've ever seen in your life before, i just had to get out. now, strangely enough, i was worried about going further north on the dirt track beacuse of all the big puddles (or lakes) in the middle of the track. so i decided to just head back south again. and of course, i get stuck in a big puddle....that sucked. and it was getting close to sun set, and i was just hoping that someone would drive by with a rope to get me out with. well,after about an hour waiting, and 3 cars going by with no rope, someone was finally able to get me out. and since the car didn't want to start up, i was stranded there for the night. lucklily, i had bought supplies to last me about a month up there, so i was set for the night. and when day came and i talked to a few more passers by, the car dried out enough to start up and get me outta there. for being a lonely dirt track, there were a suprising amount of cars going through it every day.

Anyways, after i got going again, every puddle i came to i got out and walked through for a bit to find the best spot to cross. now, i hadn't showered in over a week, was living in the desert, and now i had muddy feet and legs. i looked goooooooood.

So i continued on down the road with thoughts of getting back to margarets and starting at the keba shop again. what else to do? might as well make some bucks. so i got back on the main road, travelled til i got tired and then pulled off in a 24 hour parking area for weary travellers such as myself. i was pretty surprised to see that it was packed with 4x4s pulling campers (which is the aussie dream i'm told...add a tinny, which is a small boat on the roof, and you're one happy aussie). anywyas, i nestled in for the night and woke up to do some more driving. I made it to a small town called Kalbarri, which has a nice wave that can get pretty intense i hear. i just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and it wasn't really to far out of the way for me. but as i was about to leave, lo and behold, the car conks out. there are things here in australia called "immobilizers." dad knows, he's been here. well, these things are on every car as a requirement from the law, and they're to prevent auto theft. everyone gets a little clicker on their keychain to demobilize the immobilizer, as it were. the trouble is, if the immobilizer craps out, it leaves the car owner...yup, immobilized. so i was stuck. no problem. i just hitched back to town (cuz i was at the beach a few kms down the road) and asked the guy to drop me at a mechanic. drove out there with him, bypasses the immobilizer (which is illegal apparently) and tried to start'er up. well i'm sure you're guessed by now that my car can be a piece of crap, so it didnt' start again. had to tow it in and get a new starter motor put in. so $370 later, i'm finally back on the road.

So after spending heaps of cash in petrol, buying a new rego for the car (registration...to be paid every 6 or 12 months) and fixing the car, i got a good 4 surfs in pretty perfect waves. i'm still unsure if it was an even trade, but at least i got up there and got to see the place. and now i'm back in margarets, i have my job back at the kebab shop, and i'm looking for a place to live for a while. i actually got an offer to use a friend's caravan since he isnt using it and i can just check into the caravan park for pretty cheap...could be a good deal. but i digress. that's about the last week or 2 for this guy. and of course, i'll let you all know when more earth-shattering news appears out here.

Big News

2007-07-21T02:52:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all know that it's finally here. It's been a long time waiting. I fininshed the 6th one way before I even began travelling. And I've been antsy with anticipation ever since. Of course, I am referring to the newest, and last, installment of the Harry Potter series!! DUH! It's finally here! however, i think that i have to wait to read it since it may not exactly be in he budget just now, and it is also a rather bulky thing to be carrying around when one is trying his utmost to "travel light." But this won't stop me from scowering all the second hand book shops that i come across in the future! and of course i'm gonna make a visit to the nearest cinema to see the latest movie of the Order of the Phoenix. Come in before 5:00 and it's only AU$9....what a deal! Im there on monday! so go out there and get a good read in while it's still hot off the printers all you harry potter fans. (I know there's more that just one reading this right now!) and enjoy!

Perth, WA

2007-07-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well cybernerds and nerdettes, I see you've stopped looking at online porn long enough to check out what I've been doing lately. Good on ya! I've gotten back from Indo safely and gotten the car back from Maragret River. Spent about a week down there hanging out and eating kebabs. Even got put to work one night. Had to put some work(and money) into the car to get'er running again, and i took her up to perth to try and sell it. hopefuly will sell soon and i can move on up north a bit to some good waves and weather. I'm hoping to get to a spot called the Bluff at the edge of the desert where there are some good waves and a nice campground. Apparently, you have to take all your supplies in and it's pretty isolated, so i think it'll be nice for a while. As for now, i have to spend time in the....(pause to shudder)...city! not my kinda place really, but I found a nice hostel to hang out in and do some work to pay for accomodation while i wait for the car to sell. nice people around here too. either asian or irish in this hostel. not sure why it's only those 2, but it is. and since it's a big drinking area of perth, i guess that could explain the irish. my roommate last night told me that it was because of all the job opportunities around here....i think that, and the pubs as well. As for me, so far I've built a shelving unit, done little tasks around the place, and powerwashed all the bathrooms. So the next time you imagine me in some tropical area basking in the sun and not working, remember that this is also part of my travels. being the go-to-guy when there's menial tasks to be completed around the place. but at least i'm not paying rent! being used to spending about $3-6 per night in places like indo and mexico, i just can't stand to spend $AU 25 a night here! No way!

As for future plans, I don't really have anything set in concrete just yet. I was told that my visa renewed itself when I left for indo and came back,so that means i now have another 12 months here in australia....nice! not sure exactly what i'll be doing, but i hope it will involve surfing, relaxing, and the occassional kebab. Having thoughts of hawaii for the winter season...or just margaret's again....not sure. hope all's going well back in the ole U S and A (ala Borat). see ya.