Kuta - the Bali trip begins

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My flight from Seoul to Bali was delightful. I got a fair amount of actual sleep and awoke pretty much as we arrived in Bali. It was around 11pm so the lines weren't too bad. I got a "visa on arrival" for 30 days for $25 dollars, then went through passport control and customs and out to the waiting heat. I took a fixed price cab to my hostel which we found after driving up and down the street it was on multiple times due to the lack of lights. When I got there everyone was out in the garden drinking as it was someone's going away party who had been staying there for two months. I grabbed a drink and hung out until it was time to go out. We started at Apache, a reggae bar, with dancing and Arak (the local whiskey) mixed with Coke. Then it was on to the SkyGarden Bar where we stayed until around 5am. We had been a pretty big group so I hadn't met everyone we were with yet and so my favorite part of the night was when this English guy from the hostel asked if I was traveling by myself and I said yes and he told me I was really brave for going out dancing alone and I was like ummm no, I'm actually staying at your hostel, I've been with this group of people all night...but I'm guessing you feel kindddd of like an asshole right now? Hahahaha. The night was a ton of fun but getting back to the hostel was not. We had taken taxis to the place but everyone had split up and off and I didn't really know how far we were from the hostel or how much was reasonable for us to pay to get back. I just pretty much tagged along with this one guy who bargained for us to get a ride back on motorbikes, including helmets but it took three or four tries to find ones willing to take a price we were willing to pay.

The next day I had all these grand plans about going to figure out how to extend my visa which needs to be 60 days not 30 days. I has asked at the airport the night before but they told me I had to go to the immigration office. I was also considering packing up my stuff and finding a cheaper place to stay so I could say a few bucks a night. But I woke up late, lazed around and decided against doing any of those things. I found myself joining the group from the hostel for a day at the pool instead. There is a super nice hotel with a pool/lounge and if you buy a drink or whatever you can hang around the pool as long as you want, which is also located directly across from the beach. I bought myself a tablespoon of bottled water for THREE DOLLARS (for perspective, 30,000rupiah for the tablespoon and it's normally 2500 and no I didn't forget a zero for 1500ml) and then spent some time in the pool, some time reading and eventually some time thinking about surfing. I went with two of the boys to the beach to find surfboards. Our first mistake was leaving our shoes behind at the pool because the sand was ON FIRE. Or more accurately our feet were on fire. We found ourselves running, sprinting really, from spot of shade to spot of shade. The nearest surf rental guy wanted 50,000 rupiah (~$5) to rent a board for an hour and wouldn't rent for two more hours until the tide started to come back up. The next rental guy we wind-sprinted to offered me one for 30,000 for the hour but also wanted me to wait. One of the guys grabbed a body board and went out and Dave (a northern Englishman) stayed with me and we got some delicious fruit and rested our feet before making our way back to the pool. An hour or so later I was back for my board, this big pink foam beast that I was warned not to attempt taking on a close out wave. What I wasn't warned about was that the foam was actually made of what felt like sharkskin in that it removed my skin whereever I was touching the board. It took skin from my forearms as they brushed by it and skin from my stomach as I paddled and skin from my thighs and bum as I sat on it and skin from my calfs as I moved my legs around it. It was SO PAINFUL. I couldn't even stay out for the full hour. I did catch a few waves but nothing to write home about. It was choppy and bumpy and ill-formed with the exception of the close out outside sets that weren't really rideable. What was even more disappointing was that on my first wave it became quite clear that the son-of-a-bitch podiatrist who diagnosed me with capsulitis in the joint capsule in front of my big toe on my right foot, shot my foot full of cortisone and made me swear not to use it for a week and made me buy really really expensive shoes so that I could walk around without moving the joint, was a quack. The week had more than passed and the pain was just as bad as ever. I caught a few anyways and if I'm careful I can avoid the pain but I had been told I would be 100% and that was clearly a lie.

When I finished up my 45 minutes or so of surfing, i.e. when I couldn't physically sit on the board anymore I returned to the pool where everyone was packing up. We got a late late lunch/early dinner and then returned to the hostel where I managed to stay conscious long enough to shower but not much more after that. I must have been asleep by 7 or 8pm and stayed that way for 12 hours, despite the mosquitoes feasting on my flesh.

My second full day in Bali I really meant it when I said I would get things done. I had my breakfast and then asked the girl at the hostel how to get to Kuta beach area, which is the main drag. Her directions were "walk down the road, cross the big road, continue straight then when it ends, turn left." I didn't believe it could possibly be that simple so I kept pressing and pressing her for more details but she was insistent that was really really how you get there even if, like me, you get lost a lot. Turns out she was right. It really was just, walking straight, then turning left at the street end. I did just that, basking and sweating in the hot sun as I walked. When I got to Legian street, the main road that runs down through the shopping area I turned and headed into Kuta proper. I saw some money changing signs that were advertising significantly better rates than what I had received at the airport, where I had changed only $50 to start. I had just read that morning in the guidebook that places where you see rates so much higher usually either charge a commission or try to steal from you so I was a bit on my guard but I went into the third place I saw with a 9990/1 US dollar rate, figuring if that many places claimed it, maybe it was legit. I asked about commission and was told there was none. I said I want $100 US worth. It immediately got sketchy when he started taking out 20,000 rupiah notes to count out 1,000,000 rupiah for me. Wouldn't this be much easier with 100,000 notes? So he's counting them out in sets of 200,000 which is also weird. He counts it, then I take it and count it and then he always immediately takes the pile back and puts it down again SO OBVIOUSLY SKETCHY. When he finishes counting out what "appears" to have been 1,000,000 rupiah I'm like well the rate was 999,900 so I owe you 1000? And he's all "yea 1000" and I'm like "you mean, 100?" "yea 100" "well I don't have 100" "oh that's fine then even 1,000,000" So I take "my" money and start to count again. And he keeps trying to touch the money as I count it and I keep swatting his hand away and being all "NO! You don't get to touch this." I count out a total of 620,000 rupiah. The guy was trying to STEAL $40 from me!!! And sooooo blatantly. When I finished counting we just stood there staying at each other and I took my US dollars back and he muttered something in Indonesian and I left. It was so foolish. Lesson here to everyone, always always be the last person to touch your money before you leave the changing place. I was annoyed at the guy for trying to steal from me and also annoyed because it made me really mistrustful of all the other money changers. I decided to focus on finding a surfboard instead and asked for directions to the Poppies lanes (known for surf shops). The first person I asked told me it was 100m down the road. After 100m or so I asked another person who told me it was 150m down the road. 250m or so from where I had started I found the Poppies I lane and started my search. Sadly, I found nothing. I was looking for a rental longboard of some quality and all I was finding were really nice new boards and shitty shitty rental boards that they were asking too much for. I walked all the way down to the beach where I made a deal with a rental guy there that if I didn't find anything on Poppies II I would come back and rent long term from him even though it would be more costly.

On Poppies II my luck finally changed all for the better. The first surf shop I passed was closed but the second was just opening. He had a rental board that I liked but he wanted me to buy the same board brand new for 2.5m (~$250) and he was offering to buy it back for 60% or so. I did the math though, and for me to rent a board for two month from him for 30,000 a day, the rate he quoted me for the used board, would still be less money than to buy a new board and have him buy it back. I told him I would take the used board for a month. He told me he would rent me the new board for 600,000 for the month. I realized later that was a brand new board for 20,000 a day, even cheaper than he had quoted me for the used one! He promised to have my board all set up for me with new fins, a new leash and fresh wax when I came back later for it. He also hooked me up with his friend who promised to rent me a scooter with a board rack when I came back for the board! I went and printed out a couple copies of my passport, stopped at the money changer recommended by the board guy to change my money and then signed the rental agreements and made plans to return. Then with a lighter step I walked back down Legian street, stopped for a 30 minute foot "reflexology" that was actually just a foot massage and then all the way back to the hostel. A few hours later I walked part of the way back to Kuta then hopped in a taxi for the rest, picked up my board and hit the beach. The waves were about the same as the day before, maybe a little cleaner. On the way to the water a couple of tourists stopped to take pictures with me and my board, so I guess even here surfer girls are a bit rare. Then it was in the water where I fought with what looked like an entire school of little groms, who appeared out of nowhere and totally ripped. I think at least one of these kids was no older than four, no taller than 2'6" and on a board not much bigger than a skateboard. They were all WAY better surfers than I was. What really made my day was that while I was in the ocean a festival was happening down on the beach. Apparently Bali is poulated mostly by a weird animist subset of Hinduism. So there are just always these festivals and festivities going down that is a key part of what it's like to visit Bali. There was a whole lot of people all dressed smartly in yellow and carrying big flags and a marching band and shines on wheels and everything! Sadly no pictures because I was surfing at the time. When it was time to pick up the scooter I got out of the water, stopped for a few photo ops with tourists, passed right by the marching and the band and the flags and the shrine and was back out onto Poppies II lane where I got what was pretty much a brand new scooter to go with my brand new board. The thing had 754 kilometers on it when I got it. I don't know why but everyone was being SO NICE to me that afternoon. The guy renting me the scooter even gave me directions back to my hostel. They were very specific and I didn't understand them at all and I kept asking him to repeat it and then getting it wrong when I repeated it back. I sent him a silent apology as I was driving back because he made it so easy for me even though I made it so difficult for him to give me the directions.

With all that accomplishment I was done for the day right around 8pm again and passed out in my bed for another 12 hour deep sleep as the mosquitoes once more made mincemeat out of every exposed inch of skin. I had been using hydrocortisone cream on them and spraying myself with 100% deet and clipping my mosquito netting closed at night but nothing was really working.

The third morning I was in Bali I was also convinced was my last in Kuta. I woke up early and packed all my things. Then I looked at my reservation for the hostel in Canggu (pronounced Changu) and realized that I wasn't due to arrive there for another day. So I went shopping. I had seen all these surf brand outlets on my way from the airport to the hostel and I set out to find them by daylight this time. I lucked into finding the outlets but wasn't too impressed with their offerings. I went to TONS of these stores but for the most part the things on sale are just surf "branded" wear and anything useful for surfing itself is either full price, which is as much as American prices, or they only have size for kids or sizes for giants. Eventually I picked up some really expensive but I think worthwhile waterproof spray sunscreen to use on the back of my body and a 50% off billabong long-sleeved rash guard to protect myself from the sun while I'm in the water and to protect the front of my body from board rash. Then, since I wasn't in any hurry to leave, I got myself some breakfast at the hostel and eventually joined everyone else when they went to the beach. We sorted ourselves out and I tried to go out surfing but where we were was just GIGANTIC nasty closeouts and further down the beach really wasn't much better. I caught maybe a couple of inside reforms before calling it quits and joining everyone on the sand. The day was partially cloudy so it wasn't roastingly hot on the sand the way it had been when the sun was having it's way with us. A couple of friends of the woman who runs (and maybe part owns?) the hostel came over to say hi and inspected my board inch by inch and pronounced that it was both really brand new and a good looking board so I felt pretty vindicated. Then everyone was hungry so I asked the guys on the beach who knew the hostel owner to guard my board while we looked for food. Everyone else got distracted by a tour agency and trying to set up a volcano hike so I went to the convenience store for some snacks and then back to the beach to have a beer and watch the surfer and take blurry pictures of people getting barreled. That night I hung out at the hostel, drank some beers and listened to some of the locals play guitar and made promises about going surfing at 8 in the morning that I had every intention of keeping.

Instead, on my 4th day in Bali, I woke up with a GIGANTIC sty in my right eye. Like my eyelid was swollen to maybe five times what it would normally be. Hopes of surfing that morning in Kuta dashed because I couldn't put in a contact in my right eye and surfing with one contact is near impossible because of the lack of depth perception and surfing with no contacts seemed like a bad idea. I decided to eat a quick breakfast and make my way to Canggu where a new hostel awaited me.

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