On a two week chill-out tour in Bali and Kuala Lumpur with my family. I had some great surfing sessions in Bali and saw the site in KL. My in-laws were with us in Bali and went on to Bangkok for a few days. All I have to say is there has never been a better time to take a vacation in one of these spots. Bali is heartbreaking- such a beautiful island with wonderful people and culture, but with a tourism economy decimated by terrorism. I'll post a few pictures so everyone can see how great it is.
We landed on the one year anniversary of the last Bali bombings. We marked the occasion by eating a R.aja's, one of the restaurants that was bombed. It has been re-opened in a new location in Seminyak, a few miles from its original location in Kuta. I got a R.aja's t-shirt as a reminder that there are other people in the world who refuse to give in to terrorists. BTW, clothing is extremely inexpensive in Bali, so if you go, don't bother to pack more than one extra change of clothes. Buy everything you need there. It will be cheap for you, and it means everything to them. Surfing ---------- I mainly went to Bali to surf. I didn't carry a surfboard with me- my wife was totally opposed to it on ease of travel principles. Instead, I bought a board there- a brand new 7'-6" Tuff-Lite board by McTavish, an Aussie shaper of some reknown. It's a big board meant for big waves, and there were big waves in Bali. Everyday but one was triple overhead and no joke. I surfed Seminyak beach break the first day- not much fun at that size, but a good warm-up to dial in my board. The second day, I surfed Kuta reef, a spot offshore about 1/2 mile that you get to by fishing boat. The locals charge about $5 per ride to take you out and back- not a bad little gig for them and I was only too happy to pay. The first break is a big left that barrels on the outside and has a killer finish. It was really corwded but I still managed to get a bunch of waves. I dropped in on one outsider, a 15' wave that set up beautifully. Some guy dropped in behind me, way too deep to make the corner, and I bailed mid-way through the wave to avoid a collision. The best (and worst) thing about bailing on a big barreling wave like that is that you know you are going to get pancaked. I picked a spot at the base of the wave and just hopped off my board butt-first into the water. In about a tenth of a second I was lifted up and thrown into space about twenty feet up and out, then the whole wave fell on me. As a bonus, when I surfaced there was another wave coming and I took that one right on the head. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team. Woo-hoo!!! The third day my driver, a Balinese guy, was dying to take me down to the Bukit peninsula, a little mountainous outcropping south of the main tourists spots that has some of the best reef-breaks in the world. He doesn't surf, but he has taken surfers before and wanted to get me to the best spots. First, we went all the way to Uluwatu, the most famous spot on the island. The break sits at the bottom of a cliff below a Hindu temple in the very southwest corner of the island. The only way in and out of the break is via a cave that is partially submerged at high tide. I made my way down the steps into the cave and paddled out at 9 am, just past high tide. Right out of the cave mouth were pumping 15' swells in the first peak. I paddled out and realized I was the only guy in the lineup in a place I had never been. I caught one inside wave and got washed way to the right- the inside current is very strong and took my 100 yards north toward Padang, the next break, two miles away. I got washed to the rocks insid and decided I would be better off surfing somewhere with other folks around. We made our way to Dreamland, a little inlet that has a great sharp right-hander and a slightly barreling left and has plenty of folks around. I spent the rest of the day there and had a great time. From the lineup, I checked out Padanag and Impossibles, two spots between Ulu and Dreamland. Padang was 15' and barreling, looking very gnarly and nasty for all but the best surfers. I thought about taking it on, but I have the family to think about, so I passed it up. The fourth day I surfed Seminyak beach-break again. It was smaller that day, only 6-10 feet, and great fun at that size. I packed my board and sent it ahead via air freight. All-in-all, a great surf trip combined with a family vacation. KL ----- Kuala Lumpur is a cool city. It isn't very big, but it has lots of great stuff to do. Shopping is excellent, but pricier than Bali. Some of the malls cater to wealthy Arab and Japanese tourists and have the best of the best from around the world. Fun to see if not to buy. The KL Menara is a spire ona hill in the city center that ives you excellent views of everything around it. You can only go up the first few floors of the Petronas Towers, Asia's twin towers (and home to one of the high-end malls, the Suria KLCC), but it is a beautiful piece of architecture to see. We did a bunch of other stuff, most of which you can see in any tourist book. All in all a great place to hang out if you like city life. There are lots of clubs and bars, mostly catering to the Chinese minority and foreign tourists. The weather is funky right now. Famrers on Sumatra light huge jungle fires to clear land this time of year, and the resulting haze makes poor air quality at times in Malaysia. That part sucked, but the regional governments have made a pact to fight the problem. See if it gets better next year. KL is worth 3-4 days, more than that is too much time. Spend a couple of days in Singapore, just a quick 45 minute plane ride away. I'll have to do that next time. Flying to Asia, BTW, is no fun from North America. Expect 24 hours total travel time from leaving your door to arriving at your hotel- and that's from the West Coast. Take at least ten days there if you can spare it- turning around after a week is brutal. Malaysian Airlines is a great way to get to Bali and KL. The airport in KL is maybe the best airport in the world, no joke. -- --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:217492 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
