Indonesia - The First Part

No post for a while in these parts but then if I waited until I get home I'd probably still have posted before the Dubs Down Under or the Little Leprechauns on where they actually are now! I have skipped the stop off in Kuala Lumpur & Malaysia in this post, namely because it was a pretty tame few days where both Joe & I got some details sorted before heading for Indonesia. We did meet up with Stu from Portsmouth in KL that we'd bumped into in Auckland & Queenstown, New Zealand. We had a blast of a night but my goodness KL is expensive for the beer. More to come on KL because we have to fly to Sri Lanka from there later.

We arrived in Indonesia 4 weeks ago. We landed in Jakarta, which is on the island of Java and is the capital of Indonesia, to wait for the arrival of Paddy & Ian, but also Nal, Paddy's bother, & Ross, Paddy's friend. Indonesia is an absolute shock to the system. At first impressions Jakarta is the usual South-East Asian large city with smog, overpopulation and hustle, bustle lifestyle. The shock in Indonesia is the warmth of the people. Most places within South-East Asia travelers generally take a cautious approach, expecting most locals to exploit and hassle them but the Indo people are a class above even the nicest nations we've visited.

We stayed in the Jalan Jaksa area where most Westerns gravitate to in JKT. The lads arrived a few days later, unfortunately Ross & Nal were only staying for 2 days before heading back to Ireland. We partied for a few days to say goodbye to the boys before then heading for Batukaras for 2 weeks of surfing. We grabbed a 10 hour journey in economy class of a train to Banjar and then a 2 hour bus to Pangandaran before hitching a ride to Batukaras for another hour & a half. The train was great fun with locals flocking to our area of the the train to stare & paw four white people on a local train!

Batukaras is located on the south coast fo Java and is perfect for anyone learning to surf. The surf is a point break over a beach break which means consistent waves with none of the dangers associated with learning on reef breaks. There is little to do except surf, relax and sleep. Most days it's up at 5.30 for a sunrise surf, followed by a siesta and breakfast then more surf and some sunning ourselves. The end of the day is capped with a sunset surf until around 6 o' clock. After dinner it's hit the hay from anywhere between 8 and 10 depending on how much pain you were in after the 7 hours of surfing.

We left Batukaras 2 days ago with Ramadhan just having started. As most Indonesians are muslim they celebrate Ramadhan. This means for one month there is no eating, drinking or smoking from 3 in the morning until 6 in the evening. Most locals won't even surf because that would mean drinking. Although this sounds like it would have little impact for a few Westerns surfing away in Batukaras, it actually meant that no restaurants or shops are open anywhere all day. Pot noodles and biscuit sales spiked in Batukaras for the few days we were there during Ramadhan!

We are now back in JKT before a visa run through KL and onto Sumatra, which is an island of Indonesia close to Singapore. There they are even more muslim and remote so we fattening up in JKT before being back on the fasting. Meanwhile enjoy the pics. The pictures came at a price of lots of blood, some stitches and painful nights sleep.

Iano learming to say "lots of ice cream please" in Indonesian on the train

One of the many ladies to get their hands on Joe on the train... Oh those milky thighs!

Paddy, Jonny and the Extra Joss, car salesman, Japanese speaking, engineer

Batukaras by night

Jonny looks for some green

Iano gets in on some action

Jonny hits the brakes

Go Jonny go!

We finish 2 weeks of surfing... Bodies broken but faces smiling

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