Who said it was the end of the wet season, was it me?
All that sunny got weather made me complacent and man did we get a reminder this morning of what torrential rain can be like.
I was laying in bed in the middle if the night and I heard a ‘whoosing’ sound and it was the rain lashing down. My roof is secure and no moisture managed to sneak though to the bedroom. As dawn broke I looked outside and saw a solid slate grey sky dumping rain and it didn’t look like budging.
I walked to Cafe Moka thinking ’safety first’ and there was only one other customer, the road outside had a foot of water giving the feeling of being on the edge of a river.
I got into some photo editing at the house waiting for the weather to calm down then donned my weather gear again for a trip to Monkey Planet, the hair salon on Jl. Seminyak opposite Cafe Moka. A shampoo and haircut was 65,000rp including head massage. I say haircut and not ‘trim’ because I got a pretty good scalping. Getting older I notice where my hair is fading and was thinking ’steady on mate, I don’t want to look like a 20 year British soccer player.’
I ran into Josh Grillo here at Internet Outpost who had just returned from a trip to Medewi on the SW coast. There’s not a lot out there but it has surfing and a few hotels. Josh seemed quite positive on it although the swell has been slow in coming.
Josh told me that he and his friends all stayed out at Bingin on the Bukit overnight and surfed at Impossibles today. Josh said it was crazy, almost double overhead, plenty of tubes and he saw at least 2 people get mashed on the reef, one guy face first which made a bit of a mess of him.
I take my hat off to these characters, the last place I want to be in a storm is in 12 ft crashing waves.
For a first timer to Bali who wants to go solo, get around and check out the surfing its really easy. You can rent a motorbike in about 20 minutes from a multitude of places in the Kuta, Legian and Seminyk area. I pay 400,000rp per month which is a good rate. By the day they might ask for 30,000 - 40,000rp.
You’ll need an international licence although this is just to appease the cops shold you get pulled over, the renter actually doesn’t care. If you get pulled over without a licence have 20,000rp ready and don’t argue.
Motorbikes are often fitted with detachable racks for boards so make sure you tell the renter that’s what you want. The racks make the bike about a foot wider on the left side that’s all. Once set up with your motorbike, rack and helmet you have a 40 minute ride to the beaches on the Bukit, 2 hours to Jasri out east and 3 to Medewi out west. There are abundant other locations in between meaning you find a spot that suits you and go for it. Lastly don’t forget the warm water, nobody enjoys an early morning dunk in freezing water and in Bali you won’t get one.
Josh and company leave on Monday so I’ll have one last hurrah with them probably on Saturday night.
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