Motor Bikes, Ubud and Leaving

In the Tokyo Airport after just walking around the beautiful city of Narita with a Delta stewerdess I found. This after just taking a shower in the Airport, and　spending the night on my plane in Business class!! I guess every body in Indonesia really is corruptible. Situation: Nick standing at the counter after drinking a few beers on the way for my 11:55 pm flight, hair of the dog that bit me the night before till 6 in the morning. Nick "any exit row seats available?", guy,"No", Nick "what about for 50,000 rupiah?" (5dollars), guy "maybe..." after checking me in, says "meet me upstairs." He then finds me upstairs, I buy him a bottle of Johnny Walker Red and get on the flight and my ticket says business class! Sooo nice, tons of legroom, all the food and drinks I could get my hands on. And for the next leg, 12 hrs in the Exit row! Not all bad for an 800 dollar ticket.

Back to Bali. I didnt say anything bc I didnt want to worry my parents, but I have been riding a Moterized death trap, also known as a scooter around Bali for the past few weeks. It was unavoidable. Traffic is so bad if you have a car you cannot go anywhere, and the scooters come with nice surfboard racks. So I let my Argentinean friend convince me that was the best way to get around, everybody does it and all that, so I did...　 Ughhhhh I abhor, abhor maybe isnt even strong enough to describe the extent of my hate of the traffic and the smog, and the near death experiences that everybody else seems to just wave off. I despise riding that fing scooter. But it did get me around, and despite being lost most of the time, and desperately avoiding trucks that drive in the middle of the road, huge buses that just HAVE to pass on a tiny two lane (I use the word lane loosely here) road, and potholes/ plain uncovered sewers that can swallow buses whole, I survived. Never will it happen again, my neck and back will never recover, but I did ride across two islands, and surf to my hearts content, so thanks scooter, but you will die an oiless death in desert point before I ride you again.

More adventures. After waking for the second day to a flat ocean, I decided to leave Lombok. I was having a great time, but I could not rationalize another day of laying by the pool with no surf, so I left for Bali and more adventures. I arrived in the beautiful mountain town of Ubud after a tense 3 hrs of scootering across Lombok, 4.5 hrs on a ferry, and another 1.5 hrs of scootering with backback+surfboard abd close toed shoes/ pants in 95+ degree weather. So basically after being lost for 20 mins finding 3 places full, I got a room and REALLY needed a beer. Easier said than done. Not a place was open, so I asked a nice white looking guy, a dutch fellow named Christian, where the nearest pub was, and pointed me in a general direction. After 15 mins of fruitless searching I again came upon him and he asked if I had found a beer yet, I said no, and he said we would go together as he had told his girlfriend that if they saw me again we had to get a beer with me, not to leave me walking all alone as he is also normally a solo traveller.

Ended up being the beginning of a great friendship. The next day was his last with his girlie (Australians call their girlfriends girlies) so I went hiking and shopping, not mutually exclusive as some would lead you to believe. I walked about 20-25 km over many hours. Walked in deserted terraced rice paddies, swam below the Sanoy Terrace hotel in a refreshing mountain stream, bought masks and oil paintings, and came across a cool artists retreat complete with crazy cool artists who told me about my star signs in the mayan calender (I am a spectral star) and gave me a sweet sarong that displays that to all. Needless to say I was quite tired, but after dinner christian and I went for a beer before bed, ended up meeting three delightful Dutch girls, also from Amsterdam and the five of us stayed up till the wee hours hanging out listening to music from a nearby bar that charged almost 4 dollars per beer. Imagine our outrage, a bar at a market is barely 1 dollar. But the next day, the real shopping commenced and poor christian was dragged along for most of it.

Here is a description of bargining: "How much for that?" (usually some cool wood carving or mask, or cloth, or painting), them "300,000 rupiah" (almost 30 dollars). Me "no, no, no! Ill give you 10,000" them, shocked "me bancrupt! okok 250,000" me "10,000", them "ok ok 100,000, final price!" me "10,000", them ok ok 30, 000" then they wait for a few minutes here, I start to walk away, they come down to 25,000, and I usually give it to them. so from 30 dollars to just over 2. I often ask, do you ever sell it for the first price, them smiling either say no, no, no or no, only for you good price. Not sure I completely understand but it is quite fun. I alsio bought some really nice stuff, one mask for (gasp) 700,000 rupiah, it is actually really nice, with gold leaf and lots of details, I think I will have it for some time.

So, after this, Christian was a little upset, he wanted to leave, so we hopped on the miserable scooter and I took him to rice paddies and then the four seasons where we snuck in (if youre white it doesnt matter if you have flip-flops and board shorts on, you can get in anywhere. We then went to the pool, sauna, and then the bar where we ordered a 10 dollar drink to some rich persons room. All in all amazing fun. Then on the way back found the best bar in all of Bali, complete with pool tables, free golf arcade games, and a free jukebox that only played the coolest music! It was run by a really cool American guy (not many Americans in Bali) who hung with us till we went back to Ubud after a great day.

The next day was my next to last, so I headed to Kuta Bali (Australias Mexico) played beach vollyball, surfed, and then after meeting up with my german and argintinean friends went to a club that had an hour of Free Flow, all drinks free! The germans then proceeded to take me to every single club and/or bar in Kuta, for a last whirlwind night. Fun until the Indo prostitutes came out and we headed back home for some sleep. Then after waking up bright and early at 12, went to Uluwatu to surf the epic wave, thank goodness with not a huge swell and on a high tide so I didnt end up like freddie crueger, a 50,000 basket of crab, red snapper, and shrimp and one last Bintang before flying to Tokyo, and now to LA! Ok gotta get on that flight, see everybody soon!!!!!