Jason Lunn.com/ Surfing and life in Indonesia

Lombok has many wild monkeys and if a road passes through a forest area with lots of them the tourist maps label them a monkey forest, this is one on the way to the waterfalls,..

Whilst waiting for the green light from my layers we were staying in Sengiggi Lombok. Well one day when the waves were small Johnny Rad , May and myself headed to some waterfalls in north Lombok about 2 hrs moped through the mountains and this is what we discovered…About 5 different waterfalls, caves bamboo bridges and natural infinity pools overlooking mountains, jungle and rice terraces..

Nearly there just a few more days and I think all the stress I have endured from a whole bunch of locals all trying their best to extract money from me will end. When my land deeds and legal stuff is fully safe and secure( I think 3 days time) I will write a big section on buying land here, what to expect and the pitfalls to avoid. I have some great photos of my land and the surrounding areas which contribute to the reasons I have decided to invest here. I want to share these on my blog.

However basically this has been my last few weeks, many local people know that my certificates are ready and that I will be paying the final balance on my land soon. I have been getting sms messages and phone calls daily from many different people telling me that I need to pay this balance as my certificates are ready.

1. I have been waiting patiently for 8 months fro this day and as they were delivered to my solicitor I was the first to know. Also international money transfers take about two weeks and have to be done in small amounts due to money laundering regulations.

2.Locals think white people walk around with a million dollars in their wallets this is very draining some days

3. Of all the people contacting me daily It is none on these peoples business.

well it has been tiresome, really draining and annoying and I have had bad sleeping patterns during this time. I got pretty angry with a few people and send some replies to state this.

Well this is the reason, Well it seems that they all want to borrow money off the farmer who I am paying and have bypassed him and put pressure on me to pay him quickly. This basically is how Indonesian locals in Lombok behave. They take close to 10 months to do something they promise to do in 2 months and have been paid for, but expect everyone else to work and deliver quicker than the latest technology and systems available.

4. During this period 1 corrupt individual has been uncovered also a whol;e bunch of lies I was told  by him have surfaced and cost me an extra 1000 pounds which I have paid to save any aggro. This could have been close to 3  but I have a great Lawyer  which is worth her weight in Gold anyway more in detail later, it is all part of this journey…

I do not get many shots of me surfing but Johnny took this with my small water camera at Pantai Segar Lombok, me going right,..

Back in Lombok having surfed in Bali with my English friend John Morgan aka Jonny Rad. We surfed at Balian for a week on brown mud filled waves as a result from heavy rain and overflow from Balian river. If you want toget ill surfing this is the place..

After staying a week here at Ayu’s accomodation we then took the ferry back to Lombok and have been surfing here the last 10 days. Good clean powerful Righthanded reef breaks every day. J Rad is good fun, today he let me shave off all his hair and give him a Mohawk! He is still a 10 year old inside a mans body.

Still feeling the pain from the exchange rate crash off the pound and to make it worse it has started going back up again today!! Life..

Just my luck when I have to pay final balance on my land the pound drops against the Rupiah to an all time low in History! Had no choice but to change up my cash to pay outstanding balance on my land as 2 certificates of 3 are now ready. This was agreed as the time to settle the balance. Rate dropped to 13000 / 1GBP. Ouch about 8Grand GBP less compared to the rate of 16500 to a pound when I paid my deposit. That was enough to build a house here or 5 years of work visas!! Looks like I need to get back to work asap!

Thanks to all that came, have had lots of fun recently, healthy again returned to Lombok surfed a week then a few days on Gili T and back in Bali again. have what seems to be maybe a new girlfriend call May. Have been hanging out we met on my birthday. Snapped a surfboard yesterday, hit the reef hard but all healing ok, waiting for land titles still and planning a surf trip with Jonny Rad from the UK who is back in Indo again…

Strong , healthy, malaria completely gone and I have decided to stay in Bali for two more days to celebrate my birthday with the friends I have that are here. I have been surfing most days the weather is highly changeable and eratic. It has been monsoon rains on and off for the last few days. Back to Lombok on Wednesday, Kuta is getting busier everyday and more expensive as well, the sea is crowded as usual. Sarangan has been offshore so I have been surfing there. Life is good but I am missing some things about the UK as it is springtime there right now..

Surfed all day yesterday at Sarangan Bali, felt super weak for first 2 hrs, strength has come back for now, really felt like I needed to get back in the sea it has such a healing effect on me. Caught some firing waves and surfed until sunset. Started trying to organise some work back in the uk for when I return, my spirit feels ready to return for a while at least. Clari and Katy from the Uk are here, my friend Johan is back in town. It seems there is never a shortage of great people to spend time with and when they are here I can spend days on end with them. However back in the UK every body was always so busy and the odd evening or coffee was about all most people could squeeze into their busy schedules..

I managed to repair my macbook so I am really happy about that. When it was running really well a made an exact mirror copy of the harddrive and put it in storage. When this drive crashed I replaced the crashed drive with then  one I mirrored and it rebooted up fine. That means the operating system has got corrupted somewhere and it is a software not a hardware problem. I can back up reinstall that and hopefully I will not have lost any info and all will run smoothly. The thought of my laptap going down really gave me a sinking feeling in my gut, unbelieveable how much we vluable information we have invested in these machines, music, photos, memories etc…

I thought I was 100% but my health and strength has crashed again, Malaria seems to come in waves.. having strange thoughts in my head about the world life and my future, everything feels weird and I am having lots of cold sweats… I have been stayin a posh Villa in Seminyak with Clari and Katie from the Uk,. The Villa has Air con and today my macbook crashed going from the air con bedroom to the living area, I can not get it to restart reload or reboot….!!! Now I am in an internet cafe trying to troubleshoot it and hopefully self repair this situation.

Said goodbye to Eugene last night and my friend Toby they are returning back to the UK now, my friend from Lombok Kevin is also back to California today. I am not feeling well and my emotions seem to permanently exist in a constant state of arrival and departure all at the same time.

I want to surf again the sea has such a healing energy, but today I have missed the spring time in the UK I have always enjoyed this time in the UK

Resting a lot feel almost healthy again, I have two friends from thr Uk that have travelled over from Goa India, Clarissa and her friend Katie are now both in town so I spent the day showing them a few local sights and sounds yesterday.

strength has been coming and going needed to lie down on the floor most of the day, felt awful weak and aches throughout my body, sweated all through my sleep. This morning however I feel strong enough to surf except there is no waves and its raining. Spending lots of time thinking what I am going to do after I get the certificates on my land, the wait is difficult as I need to get back to the UK or somewhere and start getting some cash in the bank. Exchange rate is still bad so Indonesia is not the cheap place to relax and surf like it was last year.

yesterday was hell, my strength kept coming in and out like waves, one minute I would feel alert and ok then in an hour I could hardly move. Every piece of flat pavement or grass looked like a bed, at one point in the afternoon I lay down on one piece of grass for a brief moment and woke up 3 hours later in the recovery position with a dog licking me. Perked up a bit early evening and met up with my friends Val and Craig who are returning to Australia in a few days. It will be the end of their 18 month travels through Indonesia. I have a few pics of craig surfing which I will post here soon. I stayed in Sumatra with them both for a month and have since spent lots of time in Lombok and Bali as our paths crossed over the last 18 months.  I will be sad to see them go. Craig said he is coming back to surf again in a few months so we shall see.

My Friend from Lakey Peak “Reddog” is back in town having travelled a big chunk of the world surfing hopefully I will be strong enough to surf again soon. English boys Reubyn and Joss Ash are still in town and so are Toby and Dan so I will try and get surfing with them again when I am strong enough..

Bali is very hot right now..

The Malaria antidote/ medication I took was a 2 day course 18 tablets first day 15 second day and I cannot believe the rapid improvement to my health,. still not 100% and not ready to surf but definitely on the mend just a few aches and pains. Exchange rate has crept up to 13800 IDR to 1GBP which hopefully will continue. I have missed all my friends back in the UK these last few days, I do not have any have problems dealing with physical pain but suffering is a differnt situation. It seems to be prolonged pain without your old friends around to take your mind off things.

My hearing has been hyper sensitive to every frequency that I normally would never notice which is making some places and some people unbearable. I hope that goes soon, “Ignorance is Bliss” Its good to have agood internet connection again I will be uploading a whole heap of new photos this week if I can,..

Had the worst no sleep nights of my life, super powerful medication aimed at knocking malaria out kept me up shivering all night long aches and pains not so bad though. I watched about 15 episodes of “My name is Earl” that I had on  bootleg DVD.. Anyway felt better this morning so I loaded up my moped, with surfboard and rucksack and rode about and 1hr and half hours to Lembar ferry port and then just had the most hellish 5 hr ferry ride to Padang Bai Bali. (Indonesians are the noisiest people I have ever met on my travels, when you combine the competing frequencies with a headach and aches and pains it makes me wonder what I am doing here anyhow Its a cheap option about £7 and takes a few hrs longer than the plane. Which only takes 35mins transport time but once you include all the messing around at the airports booking the tickets in advance and taxis too and fro there really is not much time difference. The ferry means that I can use my own moped in Bali and saves me from having to hire one.

Decided to get a BigMac its been a long time and it just happens they have free wi fi..

anyway below are a few pics of Lembar Harbour Lombok

Have been surfing Pantai Segar everyday most days twice a day until sunset. There are lots of mosquitoes on the way home at this time and for the first time in a year and a half I have been getting bitten. Body has gone into shut down, fever aches and pains all over that i cannot describe, thumping pounding, headache non stop and sweating and shivers all day and night. Feels like I am going to die if that had a feeling feel so weak I cannot reach out to lift up a bottle of water, I think i was bitten a while back because this weakness has been coming and going but my body has been fighting it off. Now I feel absolutely ruined and hyper sensitive, The sound of motorbike goblok and cockerels in the morning, dogs fighting and crying babies has been amplified by an increase in this sound sensitivity…making everything so more irritating.

I was going to try and ride it out with paracetemol but some expats said I need to go to the hospital for a blood test so I did but no blood test staff were there.. Doctor said it is most definitely malaria because I have all the symptoms that she sees on a regular basis. Dengue fever is similar but there is no dengue fever in Kuta Lombok at the moment but there has been a few outbreaks of malaria. Anyway she prescribed me the medication for malaria and hopefully it will go quickly, I have taken a whole heap today and feel better already, surfs pumping tomorrow and malaria or not I am trying to go in the sea..

My friend Clari from the uk is coming to Bali on 3rd April so I want to try and get there by then by ferry with my moped.

Solicitor emailed me all the contracts for my land today so i will be reading those and supposedly my certificate is only 2 to 3 weeks away! we shall see…… Hopefully one step closer

Exchange rate lowest it has been in 10years!!!!!!!!!!!

Still in Kuta Lombok, I am basically waiting for the certificates on my land to be completed and then I can pay the final fifty percent and go try and earn some extra cash.The exchange rate at the moment is going to hit me for about 6g GBP if I pay the balance at this rate AGHHHH!. England’s economy looks dreadfully unproductive at the moment and the pounds strength against every currency is bottoming out.

Ok a few feelings I would like to try and articulate just for my own sanity really, I absolutely love Indonesia, it is an amazing place, looks like paradise and can sometimes feel like paradise if you have your earplugs in. Eg the original cultures and traditions are so simple and extremely refreshing to be around. Holistic living and everything from the chickens, buffaloes and children are all free range just roaming around the place. The water is warm, the skies are blue, the women are beautiful and the waves unrivaled.

However I want to explain to you one word, and the word is GOBLOK!!! Goblok is Indonesian for “absolute complete fuxxing idiot” and in Lombok there is so much GOBLOK around! I will explain as I do not want to appear bigoted or prejudiced. Basically along the coastlines of the remote Island edges where all the best waves are the Indonesian rural way of life has not changed in thousands of years until  maybe the last 5 or 10. For approx 20 (Old Aussies surfers will say 40) years western surf travelers have been transporting their culture and influence  to these places and the effect on the males between 15 and 35 is so apparent. Most Indonesian males are not educated and have no idea how to integrate information from the western world into their lives in way that appears sane or intelligent by western standards.

Here are some examples, nowhere in the world have I seen and heard mobile phones being so irritating used in public. Having one here is a status symbol, having your conversation on loudspeaker in a public place is standard especially if it was a quiet place before they start their display of phonemanship, include the most annoying ringtones you have ever heard. Eg. Local men sit in restaurants, internet cafes, bars and warungs etc, some are surf guides most local hustlers looking for an opportunity to make some cash. I often witness them put their mobile phone on the table playing their music on loudspeaker for every one in the restaurant, internet cafe to have to listen too coming from the naff tin like sounding handheld device, This usually happens when the restaurant already has music or a wonderful tranquil ambience. This is unbelievable to witness at first and somewhat intriguing in an anthropological study kind of way, however after the fiftieth time you start losing respect for this goonlike behaviour..

Internet is a new phenomenen here, all the 5 internet cafes are used  by the staff/ men to watch porn after closing, As porn is illegal in Indonesia so most of the men have no idea how the rest of the world chooses to fXXk. This is so evident as they do not know how to clear the computer browsing  history and now  every public machine has viruses oozing from every press of every button so performance is slower than snail pace, the use of the internet here is almost impossible as it is frustrating..and the price 2.5 times that of Bali which is lightning fast by comparison.

Another example of Goblok here, Nearly every one takes the baffles out of their mopeds to make them twice as loud and half as fast. This place looks like paradise and sounds like a race track final.

The same men also pray in the mosques as though itb is their chance to become famous like a pop idol contest, they all compete with each other and turn the volume of the loudspeakers on absolute maximum so their prayers can be heard further away accross the palm tree tops than the other mosques. They love noise here, and fill every quiet moment with the most irritating noise frequencies all competing at once with the volume on full and maximum distortion. (think 4am every morning!!!)

Eating, the men could not make any more noise when eating their food even if they were competing for a prize, masticating with their mouths open shouting into their phone on loudspeaker as they suck their teeth and clear the back of their throats whilst spitting inbetween. There is little or no individual thinking and no thinking about other people around,  they all copy each other in every way in every behavior, every restaurant for example has the same menu cooked the same way. Every bad piece of plumbing and bad building practice is the industry standard..

After a while some of this stuff grates on you and I have to count my blessings and have a good surf, I am here for the waves and the warm air. There is a reason Indonesia has 200million people combined with some of the most abundant natural resources on earth and is still poverty stricken. I am beginning to be so thankful for my education in the uk and all the media and information we are subject to really does develop and sharpen our minds. You do not find that here.

The language has no past tense or future tense, everything is present tense. The locals think the same, do not care about or have any interest in the past, no photos, no memories, and do not plan for the future apart from planting their rice fields. Their main concerns are am I hungry? tired, do I need  a cigarette, have to answer my phone, or put petrol in my motorbike. This is the extent of most of the local peoples lives and concerns, a really simple charming existence.

However they have been watching  cable TV now at work in the restaurants, many want to race a motorbike  GP like Valentino Rossi, they have been setting up facebook accounts and watching porn online, they know who ripcurl, billabong and quicksilver are but it was only 5 years ago and even maybe this morning they were climbing coconut trees and riding around in horses and carts,

Unfortunately they interprete the negative aspects of western culture by impersonating the elements to the extreme so that they will appear more westernised, this is where you see GOBLOK in full effect, they are also thinking that every white person is a personal bank on two legs and if they behave the same they may become rich one day..

This is GOBLOK and Kuta Lombok is full of Goblok!

My local worker Ruka who really is a wonderful guy was who helped me understand what Goblok was and is, he most definitely is not..So I have been surfing everyday getting some work done on my land with him and passing time whilst I wait for the legal stuff on my land. Nothing happens fast here, so it is relax, eat and surf in the sun which Indonesia is so wonderfully suited for, the culture and some of the local men on the other hand are another part of the experience often an aspect to be endured some days whilst in search of perfect waves to surf.

But the Goblok culture here is most definitely not the reason you would visit the place…

Back in Kuta Lombok,.. flew from Bali to Mataram internal flights are cheap, approx  230,000 IDR about 20 pounds.. takes 35 mins, then another 1hr on a bike from Mataram to Kuta. It has been good to see Ruka my main worker, I left them to do some work on the retaining walls when I was in Bali and they have done a good job. Also all the boundary trees we planted about 1 month ago have all taken root and sprouted leaves so the view into my plot from the road should be hidden pretty soon.

I have bumped into two friends of mine Val and Craig that I spent 1 month in Krui Sumatra with, they are in Lombok now. Me and Craig who is about 50 and funny as they come have been surfing Segar Beach each morning about 7.30am Waves as clean as glass small and hollow. Good fun and sunset surf each night. I surfed Grupuk Bay today.. more on Grupuk later..

Exchange rate is still not good and I have been losing a bit of sleep over money. I do not want to return to the Uk until I have all the legal paperwork in place.. The dilema I have is, It  will cost a lot of money to stay here waiting and not earn money working. However if the certificates arrive soon and I pay the outstanding balance I will be 5 thousand pounds down compared to the rate I had when I paid the 50% deposit which I had budgeted around for the cost of the land and some earth works. I know from past experience I cannot save 5 thousand pounds in a year working in the UK once I have paid all my living expenses. Finally if the certificate takes much longer and the exchange rate gets even worse I lose on both accounts,… AGHHHHH!!!! money sucks..

However the water is warm and the waves are good and I will have to be patient and see what happens…

Pound not doing so well right now against Indonesian Rupiah, all time low of 10 years,… will have to consider various work options if this continues. Australian dollar on the other hand is going through the roof..

Some Info and charts for the last few days and years for Indonesian Rupiah and GBP exchange rates,.

http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/gbp_to_idr_exchange_rates_british_pound_indonesian_rupiah.htm

Here is a bit of sterling news if you are interested from the bbc website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/2010/03/sterling_takes_a_pounding.html

Money is such a nightmare when it feels like you are spending more than you have coming in, makes you sweat in your bed when you are trying to sleep!! I have some cash but I will need to make somm again real soon. Not sure where or how? I am still waiting for thr land department to process the certificates on the land I am buying in Lombok, they should be ready soon but the exchange rate is sooo low right now I will make a big loss on the outstanding balance if they are ready whilst the exchange rate is this low. Problem is, it actually sounds like the pound is going to slide a lot further!!!!

A few shots from my small CanonD10 in the sea at Sarangan….Johan and Toby surfing