some more ramble 6-24-08

June 24, 2008
Body boards are ‘lids’ in Aussie speak! I was talking to this Aussie surfer and asked if he rode bikes and he said yea mate! I ask what kind and got the reply of a road bike that does 250 kph down the straight-aways! This guy is in his 50’s too. So much for finding another cyclist. We are not in any area that got hit by the tsunami a couple of years ago as Ginger asked. Surfing at Gland required some kid of wetsuit as the water was a little chilly and a breeze cooled it right down. Some people wore short johns. As far as drinking water it is mainly bottled we consume. Some of you ask about the food and all I say is it is good. Same bkfast as in the states cereal, eggs, toast, juice and fruit. Lunch is sandwiches or pasta. Dinner is Asian usually curry for me, fish, chicken or pizza once! My triathlon training is not going very well unless you count paddling my surfboard numerous miles. I will use this as swimming training. The boat ride back from Java to Bali was fairly smooth and pleasant but it could have been very rough but we lucked out as the trade winds did not pick up in the morning. Shopped the tourist central Kuta all afternoon which was fun. Haggling over the price of anything is the normal. Sometimes I ask the price of something and I get an answer of ‘how much you pay’ and it goes from there. The driving is really totally nuts! Every available square foot of pavement in town not taken by cars is jammed packed with thousands of motor scooters. It is normal to see a whole family on the same scooter mixing it up with the rest of everyone else. There are very few cyclists. Gas is $6.00 a gallon so we should be happy back in the US. On the 26th we are getting on a boat for 4 nites with a captain from NC of all places way over here. I probably will not have any internet access during this time. The service we experienced at Bobby’s G-land surf camp was fantastic. Just an unbelievable encounter. Above most service received at home and these people don’t make much. Just truly genuine employees that love their job and are there for the guests. I can not say enough about this! Time for bed , more later. Thanks. jim