The Indo Dream

It all started three years ago. One year away from graduation, no career-path in mind, and the audacity to dream outside of the box.

Neither my best friend, Blake nor I wanted to jump into the rat race head first like many of our young and motivated college mates. Blake and I much preferred diving head first into dreams of waves bigger than we can handle in places far enough away to only be known as pictures on maps. And that's precisely what Bali, Indonesia was to us - just a picture on a map, half a world away.

And that only made the dream more enticing for us. We contemplated the possibility of moving to Indonesia, picking up any easy job (maybe waiting tables) and surfing as much as possible. It was a true surfers dream, and sounded a thousand times more exciting than trading e-mails in a light-blue office cubicle somewhere in a big city not too far from home. So, how do we make this happen?

Research is the first step, and the internet has become the primary source for all things knowledge. From my light blue cubicle I happened to be working in at the time, one random Thursday in August 2004, I Googled "surfing in Indonesia" and found my way to another world: a community of surfers scattered about the globe. This parallel universe is known as GlobalSurfers.com where visitors "share information about surfing holiday / travel stuff." I decided to ask this world of soul surfers for any advice related to living, working and surfing in Indonesia. It may have been my first post to an Internet forum ever, but it proved a significant one.

The topic line was simple: "Living in Indo"

"Hey, me and couple of my buddies are thinking about trying to live in Indo and surf for a year or so once we graduate college. Is it plausible for a couple of Americans getting chill jobs (bartending, waiting, something easy etc) and being able to live and surf all the time? We're not bums, but we were thinking about living the life for a while. ;) Let me know if housing, food, lifestyle is worth living there. Thanks."

The response was unexpected. Immediately, people started shooting down our idea.

"mate no offence but you americans have NO IDEA"

"Forget about it, what

Rash Guard
I don't consider myself a surfer. I just surf.

you guys make in a 2 weeks is a years salary over there. I don't think you'd even be able to get a visa for more than 1 month stay.
Find another location."

I was disheartened by the negativity, but then a couple people came to my defense.

"he was asking an honest question, ausie jack-ass.
it has nothing to do with being american, he's just a kid."

However, I think this set off a giant Aussie/Kiwi vs. American battle. I found myself having to sift through the derogatory jabs to find legitimate advice. Advice I found though. I learned about the cost of living, the visa situation, and most importantly how awesome Indonesia is from people who apparently travel there regularly. Though the injection of reality was sobering, I still found glimmers of dream-chasing inspiration like this comment from "Slim" -

"Hey Bro,

What ya HAVE TO DO is just DO IT ! thats the secret of life if anyone has ever wondered.

JUST GO FOR YOUR GOALS, IF THEY DON'T PAN OUT, AT LEAST YOUR NOT A "STAY AT HOME AND DO AS DAD DID TYPE PERSON".

GOOD LUCK"

Well, needless to say, Blake and I didn't graduate with tickets to Indonesia in our pockets. He went off to teach History outside of London with the UK Fellows program, and I still ended up waiting tables and bartending, just not in Indonesia where I hoped, but in our college town.

Opportunities arose, and I ended up teaching English in Korea. The Indo dream had long been forgotten as a "stupid American dream." Well, as fate would have it, I'm two months from finishing up my contract in Korea and started tossing around the idea of traveling to Indonesia before I return to the States.

This time, while researching "surfing in Indonesia," I stumbled across that forum message on GlobalSurfers that I posted three years ago. It has since become the highest viewed post on the Indonesia forum with over 10,000 hits and 98 replies!

After three years, I decided to post one more reply:


"I can't believe it has been 3 years since I made that first post.

I have to be honest with you - I appreciate all of the responses, even the negative ones (about idiot Americans). Truth or not, the comments helped me get the proper perspective and inspired me to pursue the dream regardless of the obstacles.

I learned: On the one hand, you have to be realistic about your dreams (working in indo is not very realistic, from an American perspective at least). On the other hand, you can't let the seeming negatives of reality prevent you from pursuing your dreams. Like some of you said - Just Do It.

Three years later, I bartended and waited tables, (not in Indo, but in the US) saving up every penny I earned. I quit my job, looked for an opportunity and ended up teaching English in Korea for the past 10 months (one step closer to Indo).

Now, I've worked, saved, and I'm quitting my job in 2 months to visit Bali for at least a week, Australia for two, and New Zealand for about a month. I'm still a beginner and only want to ride for fun. I have no expectations of ripping the superior waves of Indo, Aussy, and NZ, but at least I'm accomplishing the goal I set out to achieve three years ago -

I'm going surfing in Indo.

Thanks to all,
Shawn"


That's right - I just bought my tickets this week. I'm heading to Indonesia at the end of October. Who said dreams don't come true?

Not I. Life may or may not be...

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