Indonesia

Indonesia is a wonderful place. So far one of our favorite in Southeast Asia. The food is delicious, plentiful, and inexpensive. The sun shines on a beautiful blue ocean. The people a the friendliest we have met throughout our travels.  It is as close to paradise as one could imagine.

We stayed two days in Bali; one of many Islands of Indonesia. It was crowded, hot, and hard to get around. We rented scooters on of the days and ran into the most traffic we have driven in yet. A huge tourist population is crowded on to Bali with many hotels and resorts to accommodate. We stayed for two days and moved on to an island further east of Bali called Lombok.

Lombok is what we have been searching for. The island is small. It is mainly agricultural with rice fields growing all over. It also has a number of beaches which attracts many surfers and not many partiers or tourists at present. I am sure the island will become more developed as time passes but for now it is an uncrowded gem.

We have been surfing once in three days and hopefully tomorrow will make a second time. It is much different than Canoa. There are few places with beginner waves that break on beaches. We visit a beach called Maui today and saw waves that would have crushed me; a brother to a brother and a cousin high. On account of this when we surfed we took a boat to a spot off shore that had smaller waves. 

The waves were larger than anyone had expected for that day and I can say they were larger than what I saw in Canoa. I sort of accidentally caught the first wave I tried for perfectly and was very proud of myself but it was short lived as it was my best performance of the day. At about the mid way point in our trip there was a particularly large group of waves that snuck in and crushed most of the surfers in the water. Surf borders went flying. Surfers tumbled through the churning white wash. I got water in my ears. It was glorious.

We have also been enjoying scooter rides on this island. There is one main highway and there are few vehicles on it. We have been exploring more and more finding beaches and small villages. Today Ashley gave high fives to four children while sitting on the back of the scooter; they were pumped. We met a group of sixty children all in uniforms walking in a line on the side of the rode. When we rode by they started waving and continued to do so all the way down the line. The price of fame? Everywhere we go we are greeted by exuberant half clothed or non clothed children. Ashley's dream come true.