Joey and I were off to Kuta beach against the recommendations of pretty much every travel we had ever met. When we arrived, I could see why no one liked it here. The beach was infested with garbage and "rastafarian" Indo guys. No thanks. Accomodation was ridiculously high, and the restaurants were crap! It is one of those places you have to check out to experience the sheer craziness of it all. If Khao San road was on a beach and was a bazillion times bigger, this would be it.
We were there for the surfing. There were lots of surf schools who had reasonable rates. We spent our first day trying to find a good place to dive with. We settled with a place called Big Kahuna. Our class was to start at 7am the next day.
That morning Joey and I got up early to scrounge up some breakfast at the Circle K. We found some processed banana bread. The breakfast of champions. Joey and I met up with our teacher and we were off to the beach across the street.
The waves were decent size first thing in the morning and both Joey and I were standing up pretty much right away. I was slightly annoyed with our instructor because if you fell over he never had any feedback as to why you fell off or couldn't stand. I know surfing is not necessarily something someone can 'teach' but you can give useful feedback to the student. That's not too hard to ask? The waves started to get really big and started coming front on and from the side. I was getting tossed around everywhere and drifted into the swimming area. I was getting frustrated because our instructor clearly saw we were having difficulty battling the waves and didn't make an effort to help us out, or move somewhere else along the beach.
After getting our asses handed to us by the waves, both Joey and I needed a break. We sat on the beach with some water and watched our 'instructor' (might I add we paid this guy a lot of money) take our board out to ride some waves. He wasn't the most talkative guy that was for sure. We attempted the waves again, and they kicked our butts again. So it was time to take a break.
That afternoon we went surfing again with the same company. This time it was with a big group of people, which I thought would be great cuz it's always fun to meet new people. We met 3 really cool Scottish people and had a great time until the waves started filling up with other surfers. I would try to catch a wave but someone else would already be on it, or there would be someone directly in my way. It was still a good time but we cut our surfing short because it was too hard to get through the crowds.
That night we met up with our newly found Scottish friends for dinner and some drinks. Jodie and Pam both teach at International schools in Taiwan and Malaysia. Teaching english abroad is something that really interests both Joey and I. We have met a lot of people who have done it that find it very rewarding. Not too mention a lot of schools will pay for your return flight, your accomodation and give you plenty of vacation time! This is something we may consider doing in the future.
The next morning we heading off to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Our friend's Tim and Hayley would be there waiting for us. It was going to be nice to check up with eachother again!
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