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.....