A Bowl of Stupid

(Mawi, Lombok, Indonesia — that's me on the far right)

Halo to all both of my loyal readers (yes, that includes you too, TK, ya' miserable fuckin' bastard).

I'm back in Singapore.

I've had a nice hot shower, I'm having my clothes properly cleaned and sandblasted, and I'm about to go out for a proper breakfast.

And but for the month-old beard, the 10 pounds I've lost, a possible broken rib, the last of the remaining reef scars on my feet, and the new tattoo on my chest (number 4 — sorry mom), I'm starting to feel like a real fucking person again.

I'll say this much … anyone who claims they can deal with any potential breakdown in modern infrastructure and live with no running water, no electricity, no phones, no lights, no internet, no etc. is either full of shit or just kidding themselves.

Yes, it obviously can be done. I did it for a couple weeks, at least.

But coming from where I do — the States — it's not something we're born and bred into. And it gets really old, really fast.

This coming from me, one of the biggest assholes who looks down very much on the overindulgence that typifies us Westerners and modern society.

As a result, despite my feelings in that regard, there is a certain perverse joy I have in returning to all the comforts of modern society.

God, I missed the internet. Good thing they have Clove Cigarettes and Coca-Cola over there — without them, I woulda gone nuts.

Anyhoo, I'm back in Sing. I'll have more pics and posts up in the next day or so. I plan on "time-releasing" them over the course of the weekend while I'm in Malaysia, and then more through next week before I head back up to Krabi, Thailand again next weekend.

Thanks all for checking in on me, thanks to everyone I traveled with in Indo the past month, thanks to the Indonesian government for letting me leave despite the ever-popular "international terrorist" look I'm now sporting, and thanks mostly to my friend Mike G., through whose help I was able to restore my at least some of my surfing "state-of-mind" and salvage the last several days of my trip by having a couple good days surfing during the last 2-3 meter high swell that hit while I was at Kuta Beach, Dreamland, and Bingin Reef on Bali.

Note: I had a couple "restorative" days surfing at Kuta and Dreamland (and Bingin, too, surprisingly). Kuta and Dreamland both have right-facing breaks, which — as a "regular footer" — I had a much easier time handling on the shortboard (I was also wearing my new reef booties, so my feet didn't hurt every time I went to stand up).

I'm well aware that I'm still a pretty shitty surfer. But it was one of the few times on the trip where I felt a little like myself again. For this reason, my next trip after Malaysia and Thailand will be to the Mentawais (off of the Sumatran mainland), where I plan on heading directly to "HT's" … better known as "Lances Right" — said to be the absolute best right-facing wave in the world. Even better, it's about a full days trip via plane, ferry, and dugout canoe and promises to be far less crowded than the rest of Indo. Let's hope I'm ready for it.

I guess I'll find out.

P.S. Here's a funny story that will echo the themes presented in later posts — the incredible crowding of Indo surf spots. Lances Right was discovered by this guy named, well … Lance. Apparently, he spent considerable time, money and effort traveling overland, via fishing boats and dugout canoes, into previously untapped and potentially hostile areas, in order to find this truly amazing break at HT's.

Well, Lance was there for a total of FOUR fuckin' days before some yacht full of rich asshole surfers searching for waves pulled up at the break and stole his thunder.

Yep, welcome to the wonderful world of Indo surf travel.

Oh how I hate those fuckers.

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