Learning to surf

---

After coming back from the Gili's I intended to only stay in Kuta for 1 day to organise myself and then head off to Java. One thing led to another and I have now been here for something like 6days! I was due to arrive in Yogyakarta the day of the earthquake but made a last minute decision to stay an extra day so I could do a rafting trip. Thank god I did because last time I checked there were 200,000 people homeless and the number of dead was around 5400 with 20,000 injured! So I've now stayed until the 31st and I'll be flying direct to Jakarta where I'll just connect with a flight to KL.

The rafting trip turned out to be much less than promised but was still good fun and there were two big drop offs at least. We were given a buffet lunch at the end and so, to get my money's worth, I gorged myself until I was bursting - hah! that showed them!..

With all the extra time I've had in Bali I could and should have got out to see some of it but for lots of reasons, laziness one of them, I've decided to teach myself to surf for 5 days instead. Having had a one off lesson three years ago in Peru I was convinced that I could get on with teaching myself so rented a board for a day and went out early in the morning to catch the good waves. The first thing I learnt was that I had a lot to learn. My body after 5 days of constant abuse is now severely battered and bruised and, from too much sun, feels like I've been slowly spit roasted over a large BBQ for several hours.

My biggest initial mistake was picking up a board which, although wasn't a midget pro board, was far too short for me. Definately get a big fat long board if you are considering learning. It's about a million times easier. Every now and then a real surfer would give me some advice and I would instantly find life about a million times easier.

After five days of surfing as much as my out of shape body can take it's now been beaten into shape, as well as just generally beaten. I've improved immensely and you may as well just call me Kelly slater (famous surfer)... Well not quite but I can stand up and even turn the board a little.

Highlights of my time over all in Kuta now have included watching DVD's in the bars and restaurants in the evenings, smoking a sheesha one night, shopping and the usual touristy crap.

One thing I will never forget is Bounty nightclub which is held inside a giant model of a boat. Drinks are served in fish bowls and the place only really gets going after about 1am. It attracts a truly technicolor range of people from the young to the old. One night I saw a bloke who looked around 70 giving it everything his body would take. Sweat was pouring down him everywhere and it looked like his body might give in and kill him from a sudden heart attack any moment. This didn't seem to bother him though because he was dancing with three girls who looked not much older than 20 and the broad grin on his face clearly showed that he was more than prepared to take on any health risks from this kind of energetic behaviour at his age. One of my favourite evenings in there was when we discovered a foam party going on downstairs. The show was mostly over by the time we discovered it so along with 3/4 local girls who were messing around in it when we arrived we turned the paddling pool of foam into a giant wrestling and acrobatics arena, the aim being to slide around as much as possible.

---

Photos

Daytime hangout
Note my oh so cool surfboard design far left...

Beach fun
These kids would launch this kite miles into the air every day. This day though it crashed into the sea and got obliterated by the waves. Poor guys looked devastated

wohoo!
One of the waterfalls on our rafting trip. Check out the cool pose.

Clean up time
Taking a shower after the rafting in some cool showers. I've included this photo for the comedy value of my camp pose alone.

Surf
That's me cutting across the wave honest