Boycotting Sleep right now.

Hola. It is about 1:30am right now in the old Singapore Airport. I got here about 3 hours ago now and have about 6 more hours until my flight to Vietnam. They have this neat little hotel thing in the Singapore airport that you can crash in for like 6 hours or so. Full little hotel rooms with bathrooms and whatnot, I tried to get one but they were full... so I decided that I would post up at the 24hr Starbucks in the airport, drink some caffeinated drink and stay awake all night being weird. Thus far, I wish I was sleeping, but my stomach hurts from the drink and I'm in a weird state of awareness and delusion. Anyway, I will catch you all up to speed on where I have been this past week. After my last bitter little post about that theft mumbo jumbo, I went for a surf and a man approached me and asked if I wanted to go to G Land, a world famous surf spot. He proceeded to show me pamphlets and whatnot about the surf camp and I had pretty much already decided Yes as soon as he asked, but tried to play hard to get to see if I could get a deal. The prices where fixed but I got a guy to give me a free ride from my hotel to the boat, I ended up giving him 50,000 Rp. anyway cause I liked the guy. 50,000 Rp. is $5 USD by the way, so I am not that good of a guy. So the guy picks me up the following night at 7pm and drives me to the Kuta G-Land office and I get all dialed in there. At that point I was kind of questioning what the heck I was doing. I had no idea about G Land, or what swells where coming or anything. I was wandering into battle blind, with pea shooters. Most every person where was bringing 6'6's and massive boards. I was strapped with a 5'9 and 6'1. Very Under-gunned to say the least, or so I thought. Anyway, so this bus driver shows up at the office at like 10pm to pick me up and the guy knows like 4 english phrases and everything has to do with the #1. I had no idea what he was talking about and he kept getting mad at me for not understanding what the heck he was talking about. Kind of a putz, but oh well, he cared more about his creepy little dread locks then my safety. He would say things to every girl we passed in the bus, but under his breath or after they were too far away to hear. I was tripping out on the guy. We drive around Kuta for about an hour before picking up the next guy who was a blond, white kid, about 25, very drunk, very loud and at first glance, a total tool. I tried to play the quiet game for a while but caved into his chat storm after a bit. Turns out the guy was from Hawaii, which he made very clear from the pidgin he laid on extra thick from the point he entered the vehicle. He made sure to mention all the professional surfers he was friends with, I tried to play the quiet game again. The bus ride ends up being about 7 hours or so. We got to the port at Java at about 630am I think then had to wait for the boat to pick us up and drive us across to G Land. I was still just so out of it and clueless as to where I was, and what I was doing. I bought some shifty Circle K sleeping pills for the ride and slept through about 90% of the ride as well, so that actually helped. But yes, we get to G Land and walk to the place and at first I was just like where am I? They we walked into the breakfast area and met some people and talked to some guys that worked there and quickly got a feel for the place. The Hawaiian guy was still with me, talking, but I was in my own little world. I wandered off some where and got back and I guess everyone had been taken to get bunks. They were these neat little 2 person bungalows, nothing more than a bed and mosquito net. Theo, the Hawaiian, threw my stuff in the bunk with him. I didn't really care, I figured screw it. In all truth, the guy turned out to be a super sincere, very nice, down to earth guy. Not a mean or bad bone in his body. He had lost his father to a rare infection and was getting away to reflect and cruise on his own. It was his 7th time to G Land and knew it was a place that he could be at peace. I really respected that, and he showed me how cool of a place G Land really was. He knew more about the waves there then the surf guide. He showed me the ropes there and we had some really fun surfs together. So anywho, the first day there was a bit of a blur, big night in the bus sleeping and being bounced, but that first surf was magic. G Land wasn't 'on' that day, but it was on for me. My first wave was one of the longest waves I have ever had and one of the most fun. Also, there's one thing about G land, you need booties to surf there. To get out you have to walk across this reef that is like daggers and ninja stars. Sharpest reef I have ever been on, it made Ulu's look like cotton candy. Needless to say I didn't have any booties, I ended up buying a pair off the chef for $35. I gave them back to him at the end as well cause I am such a nice guy. Throughout the week the surf improved, the barrels got bigger and longer, it got more consistent and though most of the guys there, who had been there many other times, said it wasn't quite doing it's thing fully, I was blown away. The most perfect waves I have ever surfed. It became almost spiritual. I had so much fun it was addicting. Such a blessing. Hours would fly by, 4 hour surfs felt like 30 minutes. But besides the surfing, the people I met in that tiny surf camp in the middle of no where really made the trip. Theo was one that was a treat to have around, but there was also a whole team of life guards from Aus there at the time, a few ex-rugby players that were all buddies from Aus as well, some American guys that where cousins and truly characters, a south African, a Dutch guy, a few Peruvians, and a few Brazilians. I spent a lot of time with the Australians, they took me in as one of their own. They really dug my travel plans, and I loved sitting back with some man sodas after a long day of surfing and talking story with all of them. They all had amazing stories and life advice. I can't remember a time when I wasn't laughing or smiling the whole time. At one point one of the Aussie guys asked how it was possible for some one to keep a smile on for a week straight. I really didn't realize I was doing it till he said something, and kind of reflected and realized how happy I was there. Having breakfast lunch and dinner with those guys, talking about funny things at every moment, and surfing your brains out with basically total strangers who you stuck on this little remote point on the earth with is a truly life changing experience. I was looking at a few of them and it seemed like they really had things figured out. They all had very good life advice. And the more man sodas we had, the advice got funnier. One guy's advice was to marry a girl that understands you need your man-time and you need your yearly surf trips with the boys. I liked that. Some were more serious, but equally engaging. I loved the laughing, but hearing some of these guys stories was pretty cool. As it turns out as well the South African man was Mark Whittmore, decedent of John Whittmore who was featured in Bruce Brown's Endless Summers, and showed everyone around South Africa. He was a J- Bay local and a total ripper at age 51. He was a true hero to me, and I have never seen a man more into Balinese dance than that man. One night they had these Balinese dancers come for a big ceremony and they had music and dancing and man sodas flowing and the two oldest guys stayed awake the longest and where so into it. I was crying laughing with the rest of the boys. Most everyone got up and danced like twice or so, the two older fellows went up about 10. Every time I looked, there was Mark and Kimbo. Kimbo was a head lifeguard from Aus who was a real man's man. A real awesome guy though. I traded him a surfboard bag for some medical stuff for my trip at the end, and he was stoked. He told me he would have just set me up for free but I was stoked to hook him up. My last day there I sold a few things to guys there and gave a lot of it away to the local guys. I gave away most of my trunks and ding repair stuff, sunscreen and leashes. I actually started bartering surf supplies for man sodas my last night because I was too cheap to buy beers, so I was trading leashes and solar-rez for brewski. There is so much I want to say about all the other people, each person was awesome to hang with in their own way. Joel and Dave the cousins where classic. Played some scrabble, with them one night with Emile the Dutch man. I was helping Emile out most the time cause his english wasn't as strong. But I slaughtered everyone else. It felt good to know that I have some brain cells left. Overall though, a life changing, beautiful trip. I feel so blessed from that trip and I am so stoked that everything came together and brought me there, and that I was safe and injury free. The days the surf was throwing I said some prayers. I took a few beatings dropping into 6-8 ft (they measure from the back, 12-16ft faces for those who don't know) on a 6'1 shortboard, but I also had some gems. The gems made up for those beatings and hold downs. Very happy I came out injury free. though. Anyway I made it back from there safely, obviously. I had the same driver on the way back as well, with the dreads, he didn't remember me, and the ride back was just as frustrating. Took us 12 hours to get back for some reason. He got lost in Kuta again some how. He kept asking me questions that made no sense and got mad at me for not knowing what he was saying. I was the only one in the bus on the way back, everyone else paid extra to take the 'fast boat.' I was the smart one that time, fast boats aren't fast in big choppy storm surf. Everyone ended up feeling really sick from the ride I guess, I ran into a guy this morning in Kuta who took the boat. He said it was hectic. But yup, all is well now, I sold my boards this morning and made a few bucks back, caught my flight into Singapore safely and now it is 230am and I am still wide awake. I know this blog is long, but there is still so much more I want to talk about. I wish I could just discuss all the cool times I got to spend with these characters, but I wont. I guess it isn't as interesting for you readers as it is for me. But I am stoked on it, I miss it. But it was a great end to that chapter of the trip. It will be a while before I get to surf again, but I am going to make it a point to get into the ocean as much as I can everywhere in the world. The fountain of youth as I saw through those men. I am sure in their work elements they are completely different, but alone with their buddy's in amazing surf, they were all groms and we all connected. Theo told me G Land is a magic place, and he was right on, I am in love with Indonesia. Oh yea, that's one thing I wanted to make sure to mention! There is crazy wildlife on Java in the jungles near G Land. I saw my first Komodo dragon. The biggest, gnarliest lizard I have ever seen. The chefs would throw the excess food scraps out the back in this trough for the wild animals. And if the monkeys weren't going nuts on the food then it was the massive wild boars, or the Komodo dragons. The biggest one was about 7 feet head to tail. The chefs were telling me about it but I thought the were exaggerating, they weren't. It was a beast. I watched it devour something so violently it was hypnotizing. I don't know if it was a monkey or food from humans, but it was going to town. Every day you would see some wild animal. I saw my first fire fly too. It made up for not seeing any wild life in Aus that I was expecting. I miss that place but I will be back. I hope you all enjoyed my ranting. I know its long, but I was into it. I want to type more, I shouldn't have had that coffee drink. I might have another just for kicks. Probably blog again about people watching at 3am in Singapore airport. I don't know if anyone is even reading this far. I wouldn't and it's my blog. I am just wasting time now, I have 2 an half hours till I can check in for my flight. Cool thing is there is a camera place right down the way that opens at 6! So I am going to buy a new camera. I took some Iphone photos of G Land and I will make an album soon with my Singapore and Indo pics. Promised. Anyway, byeeeee