Odds and ends in Kuta Bali

I am sitting in a very crowded Internet Outpost in Kuta Bali after a visiting the Prana Spa today in Seminyak.

I have a few odds and ends to clear up including a few unrelated news items.

Firstly I had dinner with Palu and the crew (Dave and Stewart ) from Palu surfboards at their new house in Legian. Palu and his his new wife Wiwin are back from Australia and were filling me in on latest developments. Wiwin and her sister cooked fried chicken, rice, greens and spicy noodles.

An hour before heading over there I was sitting on Jl. Pantai Kuta ( the beach road) in between Jl. Benesari and Jl. Melasti watching Patroli Polici pulling over ‘bules’ (foreigners) on motorbikes. I was sitting only 20 yards across the street from them and pretended to be smsing. The whole time I was there the cop was looking out for foreigners only. Packs of locals sped past without a second look and after a while I saw exactly who his targets were…2 bules on one bike. I did see solo riders ride by but every time he had a chance to grab a couple he did, the rationale probably being that most expats ride solo and have a licence, whereas many newcomers hire a bike for a male / female pair and probably don’t have an International licence.

I visited with Ebong who works for Magic Wave Magazine. Ebong is a surfer and is now doing the Surf Report. Check it out because it will rock!

This morning I got an email from Josh Grillo who is back in San Diego dreaming about coming back out here. Josh sent me some great photos from his surf trip to Lombok and Sumbawa. As luck would have it Greg and Camille were standing right behind me when I opened the email and we checked ther pics out together.

Here’s Greg at Nusa Lembongan.

They were on the same trip and told me they saw great scenery and enjoyed it. The negatives were small surf, poor food and refridgeration equipment that stopped working. I asked them what piece of equipment a surf tour operator could provide to make the trip better and Greg said chairs on deck, as sitting on the deck wasn’t too comfortable. This shot was of the sunrise over Sumbawa.

Greg and Camille are heading up to Java and Sumatra intending to get to the Mentawai’s. They could take a surf boat again but they are not cheap. I have been to Lagundi Bay, Nias and Siberut back in 1993 and its a 25 hours bus ride from Java, plus an overnight ferry ride on one of those famous ‘leaky buckets’.

Read about the Prana Spa tomorrow.