Maui Day Mission

Maui Day mission Crew. Poppy, Grub, Mel, Mia, Talon and wee a sam down the front
Nick and Papa look on as the catch cooks away Sasak Style. The locals on Maui were so stoked on the catch, they helped us set up a grilling spot, took me to get some banana leaves to eat from, took all the guts of the fish and kebabed them, a delicacy they declined to share, and generally were really good people. Maui is about an hour away from Kuta, on some very sketchy roads and some say crosses the boarder into lawlessness, but the reception and welcoming we and our catch received was second to none. I love Maui. Tiger sharks,
killer rip currents and all (alhough i havent seen a tiger shark yet!)
The cheek of this little beauty was the best fish i have ever tasted, without doubt. Cooked sask style, with sambal (chilli paste) Nicks Red snapper had a fair set of gnashers on him
A proud grub shows off his catch. good work young man.


we set off at sunrise, motored along a 'road', and i use the term loosely, until it ends at serene beach called Maui, fished, swam, surfed, ate and thoroughly enjoyed. a great day

Wooo! Our first pay day! such a good feeling, even though they paid us in Yen!
Jurri, Our wee Calipa (coconut) harvester, hard at work. 12p a coconut

some new visual treats, along with some that got away....

Natasha and her son Baby Tona. We eat with this family every night, in return we keep them in a fresh supply of Ikan (fish)
Our wee Caching (cat) comes to visit daily, if he's lucky he gets a wee treat on this occasion a rather smelly Jummi Jummi squid.
Ha, where to start....Garcia the one man sex machine. We met him in Bali, where he works as a tour guide stroke Jigolo....words cannot begin to describe this man...'your pushy is shweety'. 11 times in one day....needless to say he was forthcoming with the details of his day at work!!

Misty Barrel from the netherworld

nick spraying me with his fishy tail juice...(ref. he was surfing a 'fish' surfboard, and the spray came from the tail of the board.
Ducky duck dive
'here we see a lesser surfed grub looking for a tube as the sun goes down on Outside Gerupuk'

Kuta and Kuta. A million miles apart.

we got up on a frying pan of a tin roof of the ferry to watch ourselves Leaving Pandangbai, Bali bound for Kuta Lombok. Goreng Orang....
Good morning....this is the view from our window, out into our nice community - onto lombok orang-
Herman one of our orphan nieghbours fancies cat for dinner...meow!
Well its been a while since our last post, and things have certainly changed alot. We managed a safe but slow ferry crossing from Padangbai on the East coast of Bali, to Lembar, a port on the South West of Lombok. Then we began a pretty hairy drive to Kuta, Me and alex on oe bike and Nick on another we guessed our way to Kuta. My bike has only a very dim headlight which makes driving at night particularly difficult, combined with a flying insect to air ratio that would not seem physically possible you can imagine how fun the drive was. We did eventually find our destination after being helped out be a local who thought we were going in the wrong direction, which we were. The local however turned out to be Nicks good friend Tona. a guy who nick and jen ate with every day when they were here two /three years ago. really crazy. so needless to say Tona and natasha have treated me and nick to some unprecedented hospitality, and some great food.

Kuta is along way off it's namesake in Bali. From branded surf shops and raging nightclubs, to quiet warungs, and distant sounds of the ocean, the differences are imeasurable. Kuta Lombok is beautiful place, with friendly locals and a real villiage atmosphere. brilliant.


We have found some cheap accomodation, a little out of the main villiage, a small collection of room/apartments where alot of the local families live. It works out at about £23 each for a month, a lot cheaper than the hotels and bungalows built for the tourists, which are about £23
a week! In another incredible stroke of luck, we moved in next door to a really close friend of nicks, Ueda. Nick can tell you more about how they became so close, but they have a real connection, and after being told in Bali that he may in prison, or moved back to Java, it was amazing to see the two friends reunited. So tea and coffee a plenty and many late evening discussions makes for great indonesian lessons. Everybody needs good neighbours....sorry, i couldn't resist.. It's great not having the usual trappings of a life at home, TV etc, although i do feel a bit out of the loop as far as the the news goes...but i'll live.

Checked out the local market, and got our bearings, met up with mataeus and the rest of the sweedish neeps, and finally got our luggage back.

Been to a few different breaks, i have not been surfing, arm is still tender, but starting to get some god photos from the water. Maui, Segar and Gerupuk are the breaks checked so far, all look sooooo good, maybe a little crowded at times. More about them later. Starting to settle now, been to the nearest town Praya, about 40mins away, bought a kettle, and some noodles etc.

Oh yeah.... on the work front we have made a great breakthrough. We met another two swedes (i will refer to them as neeps from now on, "y'can tak e' boy oot o'scotland but nae scotland oot o' the boy") Who run a surfcamp in near by Gerupuk. they have built an incredible building out there, and are really clued up on life out here...anyway they have asked us to work with them as photographers selling the photos to their customers, on a no comission basis. Stoker! Also they have a tri-maran (spelling?) coming down from Thailand which they use to run week and month long surf safaris all over Indonesia. They have asked us if we want to go with them to document it all and sell some photos...wow. But its happening in June, and money is looking tight at the moment...so we need to make some money quick snap so we can last until then....but what a trip. The Neeps certainly know what they are up to, they are keen spear fishermen, like nick, but when we say their kit and a photo of a 70kg Giant travali they caught last year, we soon realised we have alot to learn....Ollie, (one of the neeps said it took him down twenty meters straight away, he put two barrels on her and she still went, and almost took the outrigger with her! woooo! Exciting times lie ahead.

right i'm drivelling now, so i will say cheeerio. Oh in typical sam style i went in to pounding waves at Maui with my bike and house key in my pocket....needless to say they are now swimming with he fishes...as a result i discovered that any key will start my bike....a bit worrying.....Oh and one more 'Oh'...Nick friend Ueda looks after three orphans, Ucien, Harry and Herman, all about 8 years old, and are so much fun, so whenever we are on our porch we never have a dull moment....really great wee dudes, and good indonesian teachers too!

right see you folks later.....

Bye Bye Bali

Night falls at Segara, Kutuh, near Bali Cliff
Ketut's wee boy. What a dude.

nick and Alex Relax after we lost all our money betting on the cock fights which were fervently going on 10 ft to their left. what a day


3/3/09



WOW! yesterday we were taken by our balinese friend alex, to the other side of bali, where his sister knew someone selling a Trail Bike, not only in good condition, but they were selling for only 4million Rf! thats £230! So know we are the proud owners of this little beaut. 4 stroke, 125 cc Suzuki Trail Motorbike. Woooo!


Been slack on keeping this up to date recently, so things might be a little out of sync. eh.....We now have two ikes which has proved a fun but stressfull task, oth are pretty old so are thirsty little dudes, but thats what you get for being cheap.

We had an incredible day yesterday. A real experience. Alex, who's balinese name is actually
Alit Ketut, has become a really good friend, took us to his village kutuh, near bali cliff, about an hour and a half away by bike, over some of the most gnarly 'roads' i have seen in recent memory. so as you can imagine, it was an interesting sight watching me try to navigate my way down a 40 degree slope, that was rocky to say the least. anyway, we made in to Segara. Segara was the name of the temple we were going to, translates as temple on the beach, and it literally was. It was one of the mlost stunning sights i have seen on the trip so far. We were invited to go o day 3 of an annual 5 day full moon ceremony. I am really struggling to say all that we saw, but from 3 hours of very real cock fighting, to some of the most incredible music and dancing i have ever seen. To be honest i found being a tourist was at first a little awkward, but our friend had given us balinese dress, so we weren't totally different. The people who we met were incredible. So friendly, and welcoming, i was really overwhelmed......a very special experience to say the least. I still cant quite believe i was there.....anyway thats about all i ccan write about it here.... So know looking to finally get to lombok by the end of the week, everythings coming together, and our main luggage is safe and sound over there. We met Mattaeus, when we arrived completely by accident. Nick spent two months surfing on Lombok with him about two years ago, and he was also heading to Kuta Lombok, so he agreed to take our boards, and big bags, just leaving us with our cameras, on the bikes. Alex is coming with us to Lombok, i think he feels responsible for us, and wants to make sure we get there safely. So a three hour drive, followed by a five hour ferry followed by a three hour drive, is what lies ahead tomorrow. Yeehah. should be fun(ish). So aye....thats about it for now. May not have the net for a while in lombok, so might be a while till our next update.

Bali is a great place, as are the people. Get out and go see it!

More snaps fae the Highlands

A cup of tea with a view, the Boh tea plantation, CH
Nick shooting a blow dart at a Local ORang Asli Villiage near Tanah Rata, cameron highlands

Francis, Sam and the White Horse - a Malaysian style, custom made, Landrover/Toyota hybrid.
You'd have an expression like that too if you were sitting behind the wheel that monster.

Two months earlier this tree had been used as a tigers scratch post. Ten days earlier a Malaysian tourist without a guide didn't return from a hike on the same path, It is thought that a tiger took him.

Rafflesia arnoldii- The biggest flower in the world.

Sam takes a snap of the rare ''corpse lily" (Rafflesia arnoldii), the world's largest flower. This remarkable Malaysian/Indonesian endoparasite lives completely within its host vine, and occasionally breaks through the bark as a football sized bud that expands into an enormous blossom 3 feet across.

''you can really smell that odor from the Rafelicia now, eh dude?''...''haha, sorry bro, thats not the plant'' Snap.

Sa lesser spotted grub goes barefoot in the scrub

From Cairngorms to Camerons the highlands are the best.

We went for an action packed two day adventure to the Cameron Highlands. WOW! What a place. A really welcome change of pace from the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur. A four hour bus ride took us 200 miles up through the countryside to around 2000m above sea level to the town of Tanah Rata. We got a good tip off from a departing traveller as to where to stay, and we ended up staying in a relly nice guest house. Staying in wee Nissen Huts, basic, but super clean. It was weird for the first time in two weeks feeling the cold and needing to use a blanket at night. Met some really nice argentinians, who were more than happy to have some scottish loons tag along.

Nick and I decided to hire a local to give us a tour of the area, as we were only going to be there for a couple of days, and get to see the the best bits. Well, what a guide he turned out to be. Francis, was born and raised in the Highlands, and was really passionate about his local area. I dont know if he had studied biology, or his knowledge was self taught, but he knew ALOT about plants. To the point where he is the expert on a rare form of parasitic fungus, (which needs to be pollenated...yeah i didnt understand either) which only grows in a few spots in the
of japanese scientists who were interested in it as a potential cure for Cancer! So He took them to where it grows, they took 6 kilos away, and he is now waiting for the email with the results of their tests. Crazy.

So we went for a day of walking with him ( nick in bare feet! ), the morning in the jungle, and Gunung Brinchang in the afternoon. Gunung meaning mountain and brinchang being the local area, i think it's peak was like 3000m. We saw everything from fresh tiger scratch posts, (there is only around 360 left in the cameron highlands, maybe even malaysia), roasting pits where the local Orang Isli tribe recently caught killed and cooked a sun bear. Really rare, and apparently very aggressive, so a case of kill or be killed. We ate loads of plant life, cinamon, ginger, tea and loads others along with special flower the locals use as an anaesthetic for toothache, so w were wandering around with numb tongues for a while, it was really effective.

We spoke to francis about going with him on a 2/3 day trek, when we go back in 2 months to renew our visas, and he mentioned that he was going to borneo that month on a week long research mission, on mount kinabalu, on a trail that has been close since 1978. Bird experts, plant experts, insect experts and some guides. We had already talked about our photography plans/mission, and he said he would ask the expedition organiser if there might be space for two photographers on the trip! Its a long shot, but would be so rad. so who knows.

really needed more time up in the highlands...it was so beautiful. So back for one more night in KL, then we flew to Denpassar in Bali, where we are now.

Mancuso- Avery brave Brazillian dude, who knows very very little english is cycling round south east asia on his own. We had a good time hanging out with him in KL. Good luck my friend.

One of KL's more radical street signs

Petronas towers loom over the Rum jungle in KL

Gammy Sammy took a slammy now he's awa fa home and missing his mammy.

Some snaps from KL

this took ages to get believe it or not, and its still out of focus!  hahaha definately in the wrong job

Petronas Towers

Snaps from within a sandwich bag - images that stay fresher for longer.

Tourist traps and soggy baps.
A bear footed scuttle in the flooded streets of Kuala Lumpur.

gav

Heres us sitting on our first night in KL, with Asian man of mystery  Gavin.  Cheers Gav!

the new street fashion - 'trandals'

Honestly someone in a shoe shop in KL actually asked me if these were a new design, think i'm in the wrong  job.