Let's Go Surfing Now, Everybody's Learn'n How....

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The day started two days ago at the Bounty - a backpacker bar/club in Kuta. No, actually, it started at the memorial (Bali Bomb II) just down the street from the Bounty. Having been here several times in the last two months I have seen the Memorial several times. In fact, it is where I met Jack Augusto, the man who would later go on to steal my van and abandon me in Yogya -- see earlier article).

When I had seen the memorial before -- and the empty lot where Paddy's used to be -- I had read the names of the dead with a kind of remote sadness and a renewed anger at organized extremist religion. Anyway, this time something happened: I was really moved. There I was, tough world traveler with battle (okay, accident) scars, standing on the steps, reading the names of the people that died in the blast (mostly Australian, but the world including Canada was well represented) and through blurry tear-filled eyes. One of the names, I will not reprint it here out of respect, caught me eye and really got to me. I did not know the person, it just sort of stood out as someone I ‘could’ have known. I became really upset. I don't know why this time was different -- maybe the time I spent in Yogya?? I don't know.

Anyway, from there, I shook it off, and decided to head to M-BAR-GO, and the BOUNTY, two of the nightclubs in Kuta. I don't really like nightclubs generally, much less on my own. But I was, for some reason, in the mood. And so I went out onto the dance floor and danced... for hours. And met cool people.... Aga, Mart (not Marten!), Dan (not Daniel), Holly and many others (sorry if I did not mention you!)

Anyway, suddenly.. sometime after the Bodyrockers " I like the Way You Move " the lights came up! The Bounty was closing! Four AM already? Aga: Where can we go now. Consensus: Double 6 (another club that is open until 6.) Off we went.

At around 7, when they kicked us out of Double Six, we headed back to Kuta for a few hours kip (sleep) in our respective hotels. It was then up and at’em and surfing after two hours sleep. Surfing has really caught my attention. It is so... what? I don't know. A strange combination of frustrating and exciting -- and, that's it: freedom. You. The board. The waves. Come what may.

Surfing wore out my arms, my legs were already done in from four hours of seriously intense dancing. So two more hours kip were needed before heading out to Ku De Ta with the gang... (sans Holly and co., as they had to leave) for dinner. Ku De Ta is a posh club/restaurant here in Bali -- very different than the Bounty and other backpacker joints around Kuta. Food was good, the company was better. And then, tummies full and a few preparatory drinks (pas pour moi, of course) consumed, we headed to The Bounty, entirely overdressed. (Ku De Ta is a dress nicely kind of place, the Bounty is a damn near 'clothing optional' kind of place.) So there we were in a sea of BINTANG (local beer), Bilabong and Rip Curl t-shirts, boardies and beachwear in our posh shirts and... Aganishka, that dress! Damn!

The dancing felt like a continuation of the night before, like it was still the same day. At fist my legs were so sore from all the dancing, swimming, walking... but soon they warmed up and off we went.

This time we only lasted until 4am because Aga(nishka) had to leave the next day. But somehow a last minute drink by the pool kept us all up until, well, roosters crowing and sun rising. It was no longer late, it was early.

Four hours sleep: Surfing time. But stop at Aga, Mart and Dan's to say goodbye to Aga and do what we could to get her to miss her flight ... no go, she is gone. Mart, Dan and I head to Kuta to drown our sorrows (bye Aga) in a sea of waves! Lets go surfing now, everybody’s learning how!

Standing on my board, riding a wave… life is different from up there. It is so “now.”

And now, completely shattered, legs so stiff and sore, arms aching from paddling my surfboard, I find myself at the end of a 48 hour day. No, wait, I am going to get two hours kip at my hotel cause Mart and Dan (both from Holland -- the Holland that was ROBBED by Fifa) are coming by to pick me up for another night at the Bounty... so, it seems, I am really two thirds the way through a 36 hour day! Oh well, I can sleep when I am dead.

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