A Bowl of Stupid

(Yep, I’m starting to handle those perfect Indo lefts okay enuf…)

So, after 5 towns, 4 airports, 3 plane rides, 3 bemo rides, 3 taxi rides, and 1 ferry ride, I’m back from Rote and in Bangkok again. And while the surf was less than I expected it was still a very, VERY enjoyable trip.

I was in Rote for about a month, and while I did get several days (about 6-7 total) of some really great, single to triple overhead surf … I pretty much got skunked (in terms of big waves). Oh well, not much to do about that.

Regardless, like I said, I still had a really good time there … again. I’m may be starting to enjoy that area just a bit too much. I enjoy learning Indonesian, I enjoy the local peeps (just such great folks), and even when the surf is small, if there are no (like ‘NONE’) people out in the water, it’s still a fun little wave to dick around on in between naps.

As usual, I’m also now sans the extra 2-3 kilos I tend to put on living in civilization (i.e., Bangkok, Singapore, Miami … wherever). The food is soooo good, and sooo healthy — rice and veggies and fish (all locally and naturally grown stuff, too), that it’s hard NOT to get healthy there. Also, I was spending anywhere between 1.5 — 6 hours in the water and practicing yoga almost every day — damn it feels good to feel this healthy!!

And my surfing has also improved tremendously — my new(ish) single-fin retro board doesn’t do much in smaller waves (I just bought a 6’8″ super-fish in Bali to handle anything less than head high waves), but in anything 1.5 overhead and bigger … man, that thing fucking FLIES!! And it’s so, so, sooooo much fun.

I never really knew what was achievable on bigger waves with the right equiptment!! Now I’m starting to find out … and I LOVE it!! Even now, after getting almost ‘complacent’ with surfing the near-perfect conditions of Indonesia for the past year, it’s like getting that ‘first time surfing bug’ all over again. Damn, now it just feels so good to go surfing again!!!

Anyway …. and then there’s Bangkok…

After almost another month sans electricity and internet, I got back to Bali yesterday to hear word of riots and another potential coup here in Bangkok. Strange days.

As usual, the mainstream media is doing it’s best to overstate the situation simply to scare the world’s population. As it turns out, however, it doesn’t seem to be all that bad here. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty much ‘business as usual’ around here, except that the entire town is kinda subdued right now. It’s sort of like everyone is just staying quiet and keeping their heads down until all the political bullshit blows over.

Noneteless, it does reminds you that regardless of all the western influences it IS still Asia and they do things a bit differently over here. I head to Krabi this weekend for a friend’s birthday retreat, but I’ll keep everyone posted.

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