Bali

Arriving in Bali was quite a shock after living in the mountains in New Zealand. Constant hassle immediately, 'Taxi, Taxi, Taxi', porters grabbed my bags and wouldn't let go (so you have to pay). Kuta is a crazy place, a maze of narrow windy streets where every building is a shop or accommodation or something and everybody trying to sell you something twenty-four-seven. Prices can be really cheap but you have to bargain for everything which takes a bit of getting used to so I got ripped of in my first few days - I guess some things you have to learn the hard way.
I got a lift on the back of a scooter into Depasar police station where I got a temporary motorcycle licence. It was quite amusing queuing with all the Balanis, it was chaos and took a while. Then when I had my license he gave me a lift with all my stuff to the new place I was staying and then I hired a bike for the week. I then joined the chaos on the roads heading off down to the infamous Uluwatu to surf. So picture me on a 125cc scooter, surfboard strapped to my side dodging in and out of traffic, beeping my horn as I go. The dual carriage ways are crazy. Here there are way more bikes than cars so they rule the road. Not that there are many rules, basically if your on a bike and something is in front of you that isn't going as fast as you want then you overtake or undertake it - no matter what. I found my way to Uluwatu about 20km away (getting back was a bit harder, once you get to the edge of Kuta its easy to get lost and not actually go into Kuta, I had to ask a billion people for directions and constantly turn around, beeping my horn). The surf was small but there was a wave so had my first tast of Balinese surf (I was quite cold actually, the waters warm but its often cloudy at this time of the year so the chill in a rash vest was quite bad). Leaving the sea the next day I started talking to this Brazilian guy called Renato and ended up hooking up with him an a place down there the next day. We both drove down with surfboards at our side and our huge backpacks on our back - more crazyness! Caught some great waves at Uluwatus but next up was a trip to Desert Point - Lombok. When its on, Deserts is rumored to be one of the best lefts in the world. It turned out to be quite an adventure. We hired a car and got the ferry to Lombok (paying police 60,000 for no license) Then drove towards our destination, Desert Point. We go half way and stay in a hotel for the night (it was midnight by now) The next morning we continued and the road became progressivley worse with big pot holes and in the end turned into a dirt track. We arrived and it was like something out of a surf movie from the sixty's - living on huts on the beach in front of amazing surf. The bamboo huts had chickens living under them and on them and water was hauled by bucket from a well, toilet a hole in the ground. Really living like the poor locals do (who would move out of their house to rent it to you). The surf was amazing the best I've ever seen. I surfed massive hollow waves above a very shallow reef - at low tide at the end of the ride it was breaking in only a few feet of water! It reached over double over head so we had some big waves and I caught the best waves of my life. On the final day however it turned into a bit of a nightmare for me. I'd had very mild diarrhea over the past few days but felt fine and was eating OK, on the last day I was very tired and by lunch not hungry, then I started to feel cold and that tell tale ache in the muscles - the fever was starting. We left early evening and drove for 1 1/2 hours down the dirt track - really really uncomfortable with the constant jarring, me feeling as I was. The Renato realised he had forgotten his surfboard so we had to go all the way back for it! When we finally got to the ferry 6 hours later I was bad and had gone from feeling cold to very hot and would break into sweats! While this was going on Rennato was getting more hassel from the police - no international drivers licience and the registration of the car appeared to have expired. We had to pay 300,000. They totally conned us since the registration was fine when we looked later, they had a copy and held it in front when they said to Renato it was expired - bastards). Anyway we did finally get on the ferry much to my relief and I then had to endure a 5 hour ferry journey with a fever sharing a very thin matteress out on open deck with Renato! On arriving at 5:30 am it was the final leg of the journey - 1 1/2 hours to Kuta - we were supposed to go to Ubud but I was to ill. We arrived in Kuta and I went straight to bed - that was definitely the hardest journey I've ever done. I spent the day in bed with fever and stomach cramps and continued to get worse, not better. By now I was quite worried so I went to the doctor. She thought it was a stomach infection getting into my blood and causing fever along with mild dehydration - I had a temperature of 39 which is quite high. So I now have antibiotics, antispasmodics and antipiuretics and received an injection for the fever. The drugs seemed to be doing their stuff and when Renato left to go home on Sunday I thought I was on the mend but I got worse again, had to go back to the doctors for more drugs and the long and short of it is that I've been ill for a week and just recovering now. Being ill without anyone to look after you in a foreign country is not much fun. I fly out for Thailand today and having been ill and stuck in Kuta for a week I'm glad to leave, its all gone a bit sour here. But I may never ever see waves as good as those at Desert Point ever again. I really felt that for a short while I lived the surfers dream :-)