Week 17 & 18: Bali, Indonesia

There is nothing worse than waking up to a dead phone after being plugged into charge overnight… especially when you have a super busy day and expected a fully charged phone. 

That is what happened to me during the last week I spent in Thailand. Both Nick and I started our international travels at about 75%. We had a busy last few months in San Diego before our big move. We told ourselves we’d rest when we got to where we were going… but where we were going? We baked in some small moments of recovery over the last few months, recharging over a few days when we could. The thing is though, the more you use your phone, the quicker your battery drains. We’d take turns toggling onto airplane mode to save battery, but ultimately our battery was getting used up faster than our portable battery could recharge. There were moments where we thought we paused long enough somewhere to properly recharge, like our week in Koh Tao and 10 days in Sri Lanka. In reality, we had one of those old frayed wired chargers that had us leaving those destinations thinking we hard charged enough, when in fact, the battery was never fully back in the green. We’d try using low power mode when we could, but without the new speedy charger, we found ourselves constantly bouncing between the red and yellow. 

I went into a busy week of extraordinarily fun activities with my friends at 20% battery. I came out on the other end with a dead phone that was left out in the midday sun. I overheated, died, and required some time to recover and turn back on. 

That’s what our two weeks in Indonesia was, a time to recharge. 

So, we got some recharging in.

Don Draper, Mad Men finale. Yoga & relaxation on a cliff over the ocean. That was shot like 10 minutes from where we were, and that is what was needed.

We got a place that had a kitchen, very nice. We got a place that had a couch, also a luxury we had been without for months. And, we had a sauna + cold plunge, in unit, to really get the re-charge going. You all know us, and naturally, we couldn’t just take the re-charge in a chill manner. We were doing 1-3 sauna + cold plunge cycles a day. But, we did take some time to sit on the couch, watch two seasons of Friends, got 5 Balinese massages, make our own coffee, cook some of our staple dinners, and just relax.

A few of our friends have done long term travel, and understand deeply, what it feels like to be completely travel fatigued. This rest was necessary, and we are excited to carry-on our travels.

But, we shouldn’t breeze over Bali.

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Bali & I are in an abusive relationship.

I just want to spend quality time with the waves. Prove to the waves that I can surf them. I am just looking for Bali’s approval.

Yet, all it does is beat me down.

First – it wrecks my stomach. Cutting, what was supposed to be a 10 day trip to 48 hours.

You know, some might have taken that & decided they should just move on.

My craving for the love that the waves of Bali could show me was too great.

So, I decided to make a return visit.

Things started out great. I surfed for three hours on the first day. Got some epic waves. Even gained the confidence to hit a few grinders at low tide.

But, the good times faded quickly.

After a few days of great waves, I paddled out on my birthday. After what was an up & down morning, more on that later, I paddled out. It was the smallest the waves had been over the last three days. I was surfing pretty well, and had found a nice zone to pick off some waves at Temples. Tide was dropping, but there was still plenty of water covering the reef.

I took a steep drop, didn’t make it, bailed, and got sucked over the falls. As a kook, it was a wipeout that I had experienced many times.

But the ferocity of Uluwatu was a bit different. I was getting flipped underwater & pop. My ear hit the reef.

I came up, the ocean was spinning. Equilibrium was shot. I was pretty panicked. Made the paddle into a small beach, and had a fellow surfer look at my ear. It was cut, but nothing major he said.

I came up to my lovely nurse wife, and told her what happened.

After consulting with medical professionals, I likely perforated my eardrum.

Not the worst thing in the world. I am already getting better.

But, what is the worst thing in the world?

Sitting on top of the Uluwatu cliffs, watching people get barreled in perfect 4-6 foot surf for a week straight, while I had to sit on the sidelines because I can’t get my ear wet.

To help Mary Kate understand, I told her. Look at that deck hang out spot there. You traveled across the world to hang out with all of your best friends down at that spot. But, you have to stand up here, and all you can do is watch them have fun together.

So yea, physically, I am getting better. Mentally, I am solid. Spiritually, I am down bad (as referenced by this series of photos of me looking off into the ocean). But, this is not the last Uluwatu will see of me. In spite of it physically & emotionally abusing me, I am sure I will crawl back to it looking for the affection of its waves.

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Once cleared to surf, I will be hunting waves wherever we are.

On the topic of waves. A shoutout is deserved. I got the best birthday gift ever.

The birthday morning started out at a bar, watching the US national team put up an absolute joke of a performance against Belgium. To make matters worse, I was not only outnumbered 10 to 1, but the other Americans near us were the kind of Americans who know nothing about soccer, like to yell stuff like they actually care, but they don’t. I had to clarify to the Europeans, that I was an American who actually cared about soccer, so this

was true pain.

But, after that, I got a great surprise.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/24cfbc_f22aaa75678c4c6fb501058616e47d41/720p/mp4/file.mp4

I had been stalked for three weeks.

Without my knowledge, a series of Sri Lankan, Italian, & Indonesian men had been following me around. They had been meeting up with my wife at odd hours, while I worked & she said she was going to “do laundry”. They were watching my every move. They were in the water with me. Following me with drones. Taking photos of me. Videotaping me.

I was oblivious to it all.

Well, these men were employed by my wife to take a bunch of surf videos & photos of me.

It is epic.

If you surf, you know that good photos & videos are really tough to come by. When the camera is out, you tend to lose the ability to surf.

The surprise was broken to me with a video. The video started with photos that she had taken, and then I started to see a few photos taken from in the water, and then some crazy videos from Arugam Bay. I was as expressive as I get and was like “What is this?!”, “How did you get these?”, and “These are some of the best shots ever.”

She scheduled videographers, tracked down drone operators, and employed photographers to get shots of me across both Sri Lanka & Indonesia. It is epic. To quote one of the drone guys “this is a rad gift, you win wife of the year.”

All I can say is thank you to Mary Kate, and to my mom, brother, Kath & Wilson, and Ben, for contributing cash & time to make this gift happen.

I made this video combining some of the best clips, check it out:

https://youtu.be/8E_iM-oVpDw

MK Slo-Mo, rail grab:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/24cfbc_87c3e3ce4aa8482fafe8f0dcbe4aa969/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

More great surf photos:

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A few other things:

We 2-day motorbike tripped to Ubud. Really cool area. Much more cultural than Uluwatu. Saw a waterfall, rice paddies, temples, and ate some great food. Shoutout Melanie.

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In Ubud we did a really cool garden tour, coffee tasting, and Luwak experience. What is a Luwak, you might ask? Well, a Luwak is like a cross between a ferret & a cat. It eats chickens, bananas, and coffee beans. It is a pretty chill animal. It climbed on my shoulders. This guy's name was Diego.

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I forgot I had cuts on my ear. It licked my ear. I will either become a superhuman from the Luwak lick, or due to the amount of antibiotics I have been taking & the lick, I will be returning to the US with a mega-virus, courtesy of an Indonesian Luwak. Maybe that's whats been going around the Midwest. Whatever anyone says, know it was from a Chinese lab & not the Luwak market in Wuhan, I mean Ubud. (karma got me for this joke with a 7 hour delay in Hong Kong)

Anyways, Luwak coffee is a delicacy. To make Luwak coffee, you feed a Luwak coffee beans. It poops out the coffee beans. You take the beans & roast them. Then you make coffee. It is solid. Pun intended.

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Uluwatu is cool. It is like Pacific Beach, but on steroids. You must be confident on a motorbike. Watch out for the monkeys.

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Bali traffic is horrible. The roads can't keep up with the popularity.

We played some Padel. It was fun.

I started my 6 week sabbatical, and am enjoying some time off from work.

Lifestyle by BodyFitness in Uluwatu is an awesome place to stay.

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We did a bunch of meals & adventuring without our phones. It was great to leave the phone at home & have uninterrupted time together.

Indonesian Food: 8.1

• Nasi Goreng: 8.1

  • Fried rice, with egg, fried chicken, some veggies

• Mie Goreng: 8.1

  • Fried noodles, with egg, fried chicken, some veggies

• Luwak Coffee: 8.4

  • Cat-poo-chino. Luwak pooped beans. The coffee is sooo smooth, like no acidity. It is solid.

• Nusantara: 9.2

  • An awesome restaurant in Ubud serving dishes from all across Indonesia. I don’t really know what we were eating, but all of it was great.

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HLULs

Nick

• High: my surprise surf photos and videos.

• Low: ear injury limiting my surf.

• Unexpected: Ubud is really cool and a good way to mix it up if staying in Uluwatu.

• Learned: Indonesia is has the fourth largest population in the world with over 240 million people.

Mary Kate

• High: Giving Nick his birthday gift! No more secrets finally!

• Low: Nick’s injury. I think he was more bummed for this surf injury, than when he required staples and couldn’t surf during his last couple of weeks in San Diego.

• Unexpected: How beautiful and cool Ubud is. I loved the jungle, culture, and overall vibes.

• Learned: Indonesia has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, influenced by the Arab sea trading between China and India, Islam is the primary religion in Indonesia. However, Bali is mostly Hindu and Buddhist.

So, that was Bali. We are off to Peru, with a lot more in our tanks. See you next week.