Lembongan Round 3

 

So third time's a charm right? 

Wrong.

I bucked up and got a fast boat to Lembongan this time. I came by myself after checking the swell chart and hoping to get some rights. The last week or so was spent in Kuta surfing crowded Airports and actually, crowded everywhere.

I got in around 10 am and the tide was too low, I grabbed a book from the restaurant out front, took it back and fell asleep reading it in my room. I woke up a couple hours later and checked out front, the tide had risen, and there was a small but rippable wave. I counted 45 dudes out, they must have all thought the same..

Back to my book and my bed, which is where I stayed until I went for dinner. Took the short walk off the main beach path to the best restaurant on the island. I may even claim the country. 

Here is the menu:

This place is owned by a couple, Ketut and Ketut. They have been in the same location for years but due to the steady beachfront development their place is easily missed or overlooked. Those who do happen to find it won't go anywhere else though. You walk in to smiles, handshakes, and Jenga. The friendliest staff, and most welcoming environment. I ate here for dinner on my first night, and lunch the next day before I left. And this is what I had every time:

Chicken and Cashew, DAMN!!

After dinner I took a couple photos, then again in the morning when I looked out and saw even smaller waves with the same crowd. I had accepted that the trip was a failure, for surf at least. Here's some of the shots I got:

Explains why the locals all rip.

Balian Again

So I've been home back in Canada now for a while, and back in Alberta working. After the 12 hour days I really don't feel like doing anything which is why I am 4 months behind, 

I'll try to catch up.

After returning from Lombok, Kuta had definitely lost it's touch.  My friend Kent and I went out for a night at Sky Garden, so a 4am bender, and then slept well into the next day. 

  We met up with our pals from Lombok who were staying in the hotel a couple doors down from us, and made a plan to all cruise out to Balian together, the hectic-ness of the 'vortex' was deterring after such a chill time in Lombok. Kent, another Aussie buddy Christain, and myself rode our bikes, and Anja, Julie, Tanya, Martin and another Canadian dude they had met, David, drove in a car they had rented. 

  We spent a total of 3 nights there, surfing 2 times a day, super fun small waves, chilling by the pool and going to bed early. Christian had left the night before the rest of us, and I left on the 3rd day before Kent to try and get some photos. The rest of the crew continued north to loop the island. 

  Turns out it was harvesting season or something and all the rice paddies were brown, except for this one:

 

  Other that that I didn't really do much photography-wise, so I'll have to hit Tanya up for the photos of the crew. I did do one early morning photo mission but didn't really get anything good. Although while surfing I did get a couple foot cuts, which is weird due to the fact that this was the only non-reef wave I surfed...

Here are a few other shots I got from the only green rice field around..

Uluwatu Temple Extras

Here are some more shots from the day at the temple:

Uluwatu Temple

 Nevermind the fact that I'm months behind on my posts, I came across these photos the other day and decided they were funner to work with. 

If you haven't noticed yet, I LOVE MONKEYS!!

One afternoon Lars, Keri and myself took a cruise out to the Uluwatu temple to hang with some monkeys, here's the day in pictures:

We both told Keri to take his hat off when we got there, he said, "Nah, I'll be alright." This was about 4 minutes later...

The monkey stole his hat, chewed the button off, then wore it around for a while. 

Luckily this lady was here to offer the monkey a treat and retrieve the hat, for a fee...

This guy here was the Alpha Male of the crew. There was a local guy hanging around teasing him hard, covering the monkeys face with his hat, taunting him with food, and pushing him away. He got some pretty great reactions.

We made our way to a little swimming pool where the monkeys were having a hell of a time...

 The next couple days we spent surfing Mawi. It was only about 16 km's away but the drive took just under an hour. I thought I'd seen bad roads before, nothing like this. I honestly don't think you could have taken a car on this route. Kent and I cruised out one day with Anja and Courtney, and the next just Courtney. Here they are stopped at a local gas station:

 

 Although the road itself sucked, there was some pretty awesome scenery, and the kids from the villages were awesome, yelling "Hi, Hello Mister," or running out to give you a high five. 

Mawi is located in a pretty beautiful area, there's a crystal clear lagoon you paddle through at high tide to get out, or if you're waiting for waves you can hike 5 minutes over a tiny headland and have a massive beach to yourself. 

Here's a shot of Courtney and one of Kent. 

We would usually leave early morning and be back early afternoon, either have a nap or hang out with Thomas and Pablo, then get out for an evening surf in Grupuk. Followed by dinner and then peanuts, garlic peanuts. At least one bag per day. One evening Ajna, Courtney and I had a sunset beer from a pretty cool lookout point. The sunset wasn't too amazing, the beer was good though. 

All of the girls left the day before us except Courtney, our last day there we all surfed Mawi, then cruised to Grupuk for a skate in the surf camp's bowl. I'm bringing my shoes next time! We had a nice dinner, said good-bye to our local friends and hit the sheets. 

Kent and I left at 6am, this time we took the right roads and made it to the ferry in an hour. The lack of traffic helped with that. We caught a pretty nice sunrise on our ride. 

 We ended up having to wait a while for the ferry, so we were forced into buying nasi campur by the local sellers, then we drove a bit out of the way for a coffee. It wasn't until we were done that Kent started laughing and pointed across the parking lot. There were some guys working out, just using what they had available for weights. We joined in on the workout sesh:

Ah just kidding. 

I guess they just overloaded the truck a little...

 

We both stopped and took this same picture right before we boarded. Kent had mentioned how priceless it would have been if the horse flipped up at this moment, hahaha.