New Year, new island

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A new year, a new island. Tomorrow I leave for Sumbawa, the next island to the east. If things go as planned (which they usually don’t) I’ll pass through here (Kuta, Lombok) again in a month or two and enjoy some of these waves in less stormy conditions.
It wasn’t easy leaving Areguling. Ibu Rahim, my adopted mother, didn’t say much but cried a lot. They were obviously genuinely worried about me leaving for Sumbawa by mountain bike.
Sumbawa is larger than Bali and Lombok combined but only two small areas have recognized surf strongholds, Western Sumbawa where you can find spots with names like Supersuck, Scar Reef, and Yo-yo’s, and the Lakey Peak area much further to the east. Between the two is a very long stretch of wild and nearly inaccessible coast…isolated animist tribes, wild pigs and 30ft pythons…could be interesting.

I don't think I made this clear before but I was staying with a family there in Air Guleng. There's no hotel or restaurant or any tourist infrastructure in the village (nor is there electricity, running water or garbage collection). There's a little gazebo-like structure in the beach in front of their house and that's where I set up my hammock everynight, it seems that even after some week and a half of this going on, everynight someone new has heard about it and comes by to watch the spectacle and ask the only white guy who lives in Are Guleng the usual line of questioning.
I ate all my meals with the family. We sat together on the cement floor and ate with our hands; usually rice and fresh fish or octopus, always spicy, delicious and healthy.
It was an incredibly rewarding experience and even got me respect from the other surfers who come through on a daily basis usually by motorcycle. I've come to be a sort of local character. It seems the locals in Kuta (where most tourists stay) all know about the American living in Are Guleng and direct tourists planning to go there to him for information about best surf conditions at the local break. On top of all that I just shaved last week for the first time in two months so the long beard was just another distinguishing feature basically making keeping a low profile next to impossible.

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