Scribbles Abroad

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Chichi helped us find a reliable driver to take us to Ujung Gentang.  We had to pay a little more but it was a faster and more comfortable ride than if we hired a bimo,  not to mention safer too.  We began our three hour journey up a windy mountain road.

I really wanted to try some of the local fruit, so we stopped at a roadside fruit market.  They had all sorts of fruit, some that I’ve never seen and others that were quite common.  We bought some tangerines, these purple berry things that were about the size of large cherries, some things we thought were kiwis, and mountain apple look a likes called jambu air.

The tangerines were very sweet and not tart at all.  The purple berry things were sweet and sour with a big seed in the middle, it kind of taste like a guava.  I have no idea what the kiwi things were, but it definitely wasn’t a kiwi.  It had dark segmented brown flesh that taste like burnt sugar, not a favorite.  The jambu air was pretty good, they were a little sweet and had the crisp texture of celery.

We asked our driver Adi to take us to Kiwi Nick’s, the losmen (a basic accommodation, usually cheaper than hotels and often family-run) that Kerry recommended.  Adi turned of the main road and drove down a narrow sandy rocky road along the beach.  The road went through a small village and eventually lead us to Kiwi Nick’s which was right next to a large crescent white sand beach called Turtle Beach.  The losmen was right in front of the surf break Turtles, a hollow left-hand reef break.

The first day we got there the swell was too big, about 8’+ hawaiian, and the waves were closing out.  There we’re about 6 Auzzies staying at the losmen when we arrived, but they had plans to go to Panaitan Island and caught a ride from Adi.  This was perfect!!!  We had the whole place to ourselves.  Kahi and I got the best room and we took over the second floor, a lanai with a front row view of the line up.

Turtles was exactly what we had been looking for.  A quiet, comfortable spot with nothing to do but surf and relax.  The only other surfers around were two guys from Kauai, Joe and Grant.  They were staying at Cowboy’s the losmen right behind ours.  There we were out in the middle of no where and we run into two other Hawaiians.

The next day the waves were about 6-8′ and were rideable.  Shaun and Kahi paddled out and I practiced filming.  The wave was fast, hollow and broke along a shelf of reef.  They would drop in grab rail and hope for the best.  After getting tubed they need to get off the wave or you’d get smashed into the reef.  The best thing about this wave besides the barrel was the crowd.  Maybe 3 people out at a time at the most, but usually they were out by themselves.  Joe and Grant were amazing surfers who knew the wave quite well.  It was nice to sit back and watch them surf.

Kiwi Nick’s was run by a Indonesian family and all meals were included for 150,000 IDR ($15) a night.  I thought the food was really good.  We always had rice with one or two veggie dishes and some sort of protein whether it be fish, eggs, or chicken.  Sometimes the chicken was pretty dry and it was like eating chicken jerky.  Breakfast was pretty good too.  You had a choice of jaffles with bananas or eggs and toast.  Jaffles are similar to creeps and were really tasty when you smothered them with chocolate condensed milk.

The beach is called Turtles because almost every night turtles would make their way up the beach to lay eggs.  One night we walked along the beach saw a group of people surrounding a turtle taking pictures while she was laying her eggs.  We walked over to check it out.  You couldn’t help feeling sorry for the turtle who looked exhausted and annoyed.  Then on our way back to the losmen we saw a local who was taking the eggs from another turtle.

We spent a day exploring more of the town in search of some other waves.  Joe and Grant came along with us and we all headed into town.  We stopped at Mama’s but swell wasn’t catching there so we continued on.  We ended up at the boat harbor where there were two waves, harbor rights and harbor lefts.  The direction of the swell wasn’t working and there were huge close out sets.  We walked around the town and stopped at the fish market.  Shaun bought some lobster for dinner and we headed back to Turtles.

Turtles has been my favorite place so far, so relaxing and beautiful.  The locals were funny and we had a great time hanging out with them.  We’re ready to move on to the next leg of our journey and will head to Sumatra next.