Around The World In 80 Waves

I have landed in Bali which is another location for one of the events on the ASP’s world tour. However the first thing I noticed here was the standard of Indonesian driving. It is a serious contender for Guatemala’s current crown of being the worst in the world.

Whilst being ferried from the airport to hotels I actually decided it was probably best not to look. Given how well documented my own lead feet are, that is certainly saying something.

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world, but unlike most of its parent nation Bali almost entirely adheres to Balinese Hinduism, and you can see that impact in the architecture everywhere on the island

I think after all the good press I had heard I was expecting too much here, but have to admit to being quite disappointed by my first impression. Kuta, where I am staying overnight before going on to Lombok, is awful. There are hawkers everywhere, massive shiny new hotels that don’t appear at all bothered about the broken streets and pavements in front of them, grotty shops and more ink work on display than at a motorcycle exhibition. Maybe I have got too used to the western trappings of Australia.

On that by the way I have a new phone number once more. Ring or text me on +62-821-4746-4858 if you need me urgently.

Indonesia has a population of more than 250 million people, who are spread across more than 17,000 islands.

A visit here on my travels was mandatory because since I started surfing people have been telling me to get myself to ‘Indo’ because I would love it.

Warm water, great waves and friendly locals. What more can you ask for?

There are truly epic waves that break along a significant part of the archipelago’s coastline.

I will be doing everything I can to add plenty of breaks to my tally here.

I have been in Sydney for about 10 days and am delighted to hear from one of my old neighbours in the flats I used to live in back in London. Rick is a Kiwi who works in the oil business and is now based in Singapore.

However he is in town for a couple of nights on business and we take the opportunity to catch up over a few beers.

We meet up in a rugby club that is located right in the heart of the city. There is not a rugby pitch in sight, but the atmosphere there for the game between the Lions and the Melbourne Rebels is like any rugby club in the world.

We are joined by one of Rick’s colleagues James and have a great laugh watching the game, whilst reminiscing about motorcycle trips across Europe to Austria with the rest of our ‘chapter’ Dom and Adam, who join in the fun back in London via the internet. A great night.

All I need is one look at the road map of North Island to know that Highway 45 is the road I should be heading for next. It is called the Surf Highway.

My drive from Raglan through Hamilton and back onto the coast road is the first time I have seen the scenery in New Zealand in the daytime when it hasn’t been chucking it down with rain. The country is about the same size as the UK but only has a population equivalent to that of Wales.

All of that means that driving today is an absolute joy even if I am in a van which is over 7 metres long.

You simply don’t see anything else on the road. When I do find that somebody has caught me up because I am in a big van I slow down and wave people past whenever I can. It is a lovely day and I get a real feel for driving The Beast. 

Once I have reached the Surf Highway the road takes me to New Plymouth and a circular tour around the dormant volcano of Mount Taranki, which attracts your eyes no matter where you are in this area.

The volcano’s cone is capped in snow almost all year road, and amusingly pretended to be Mount Fuji in Japan when Tom Cruise filmed ‘The Last Samurai’ here.

The big industry around here is dairy and it would have been hard for me to get a picture of the mountain outside of the town without any cows in the shot.

Amongst Israelis, Brazilians, Canadians, Americans and Germans there are a couple of Vietnamese guys staying in my hostel.

I have made a point of saying hello and trying to have some fun with everybody here so they were no different.

However to say there was a language barrier is a bit of an understatement. Neither side can pronounce the others vocabulary, there isn’t a great deal of similarity between the different dialects and none of the three of us can speak a common language.

Once I discovered they were from Vietnam however, I refused to give up because I am going there later this year.

I came up with the idea of drawing a few things Pictionary style which was just the catalyst we needed to get a ‘conversation’ going. One set of Olympic rings, London 2012, and a couple of family trees later we were off.

I spent most of last night doing this but towards the end of the evening Tuyen who was the most ‘talkative’ suggested we try Google translate on my laptop. For the next two hours we typed into the screen a question or response to the other and just waited for the internet to work its magic for us. It wasn’t always perfect e.g. I still have no idea what he meant based on Google’s translation of ‘Wish intention bees Viet nam’ but it was a surprisingly effective means of building bridges as well as being quite a lot of fun too.