Here are a few photos of a demonstration of surfing by Reef International pro surfers, they were being towed into clean peeling waves on Kuta Beach with the aid of a jet ski. It added a whole new range of possibilities having instant speed and being able to hit the waves that normally would never enable you to generate this much momentum,..

lighting conditions bad and I only have a small Canon G10 at the moment so these are more to show what went down,.rather than premium surf shots enjoy,..

3 days in Singapore, well that was enough, I would have liked to check out the concrete bowls but hey maybe another time,..Staying in a dorm room was ok for 3 nights but I am glad to be getting back to my own room, snoring and scratching sounds and no ear plugs not so great for sleeping, however great internet here at Fernloft Hostel so I managed to go through and insert pics in my blog and update it. I have a new visa and am a few Singapore dollars lighter, all good.. forgotten how good a hot shower is!

Singapore is known for being exceptionally modern, clean and well presented,.. the district known as Little India in Singapore reminds me of Easton in Bristol and Sparkhill in Birmingham, Indian culture seems to always do a pretty good job thriving in a run down area or maybe running an area down? I am not so sure which perspective I have so far, well taking a walk through here and the place is definitely full of all the character, sights and most definitely smells that I have encountered in other Indian districts worldwide,..There are no Indians in Bali that I know, andy its only coming here that I have realised that fact, but there is no shortage of them here, felt like being back in Bristol..Moustaches and curry smells, omnipresent.

Dropped in a new Visa application at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore yesterday, compared to Bangkok the Embassy is a lot bigger and a lot cleaner and the process is two days instead of 3. PS you need to wear long trousers I wasnot allowed in wearing shorts so I had to rent some for a dollar.  However before that  I took some great photos from the plane window of some Indonesian Volcanoes, will try and post some photos soon have so many now I want to share of the last 4 months or so.

I have had lots on my mind recently with land titles and business dealings with locals I have not been in the headspace for blog updates. Singapore is super clean and expensive however I have just discovered it has a brand new skatepark so I think I will check that out later and maybe borrow a bike or a board for a roll around. Put my old knees through their paces.. staying in a hostel for three nights called Fernloft in little India heres their site if you need cheap clean accomodation in Singapore  http://www.fernloft.com/ about 10 GBpounds a night in a dorm room which is good in this super expensive city…

Back in Kuta Bali, flying to Singapore tomorrow for a new visa, never been to Singapore before only 3 days there and back to Bali again. Still surfing with my friend Johnny but I think he is going back to England soon.

photos from the lawyers office when the balance on my land was paid, still not completed yet legally but a few steps closer, farmer and wife fingerprinting their land over,, They blew the meeting out twice on two previous occasions and after waiting for 4 hours today they finally turned up, they kept pulling over on the road and started arguing amongst themselves over the money. Well this is what 30k pound sterling in Indonesia Rupiah looks like..

We stayed for 4 days, it has been said that when all the correct wind direction, swell dirextion, swell size and tide conditions come together it is the bext left handed barrelling wave in the world. Well me and Johnny Rad went on the 2 hr trip from Mataram Lombok on our mopeds and spent 4 days here. It is a moped ride with beautiful views of beaches, islands palm trees and mountains, local cultures and new mosques in the process of construction. Situated in Bangko Bangko, the wave is remote and it is a pretty boring and desolate place when the wave is not working, we surfed about 3 hrs each day and had it good for 4 hours one morning with only 6 of us in the sea. The wave goes from mush to barelling perfection as the tide drops from high to mid then back to mush again, however this can all be different the following day. The ride is long and fast and we knew we had scored it at about 70% of its full glory. When its on there can be a hundred people in the water. Groups of Hawaiians, Brazilians and Australian barell hungry Alpha males all fight over this one between June July and August when it can be on most days.. We scored it with no aggro but there are frequent fights here over waves and drop ins galore, I will be coming back and try and get it on again between seasons… Pics below are an assortment of 4 days there. You ban see how the break tuns from mush to barrel and back to mush again as the tide turns, So then it is nasi goreng (fried rice) and sunset time until the tides turn again, Johnny Rad surfing…

Johnny Rad under the lip

Intenet here is slow,… business is slow,.. time keeps ticking and feels like nothing is moving on..

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,..

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 to get 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..

If you want to travel here or get more info check this link Kuta Lombok More Info

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!!!!!!!!!!!