6/9-6/11– On the day I was supposed to leave my nerves where all over the map. I was excited, I was anxious, I felt like I was forgetting everything, and I was going on my next grand adventure. I used ADA Pro and the service was great! Alex picked me up and took me to the airport without what issue and I checked in to ANA and took my bag to the oversized baggage. I made a mistake by going to the closer checkpoint and was directed to go to the other side of the building which was about schlep. I went through security and waited until my flight. Overall the first flight was uneventful and I landed in Haneda Tokyo. From there I went to my next gate, waited for a bit, and then caught a flight to Jakarta which was another 7+ hours. Luckily I was able to sleep a bit, but by that time my back was killing me. I had a layover in Jakarta where I spoke with one of these other guys (Alex) and found it that he was a pretty nice guy. We checked our bags together, grabbed a bite to eat, then relaxed for a bit before boarding our flight. The last leg of the fight wasn’t bad – only 1.5 guys or so. We were picked up by Nanik, taken to our hotel, and I checked in. I downloaded some offline maps, got my tips in order, and a coupler other small things and decided to grab a bite to eat. Doing some searches I found a place called Sawah Duck’s Restaurant that had 4.5 starts on Google and 4,540 ratings on Google. When I got to the restaurant I realized that I should have downloaded the Indonesian language which I quickly did. This allowed me to use Google lens to read the menu and decide what I was going to have. I decided on Bebek Betutu which was duck in a spicy Balinese sauce along with a side of rice and a melon drink that was pretty good. I called to take a picture before I ate but I took one afterwards

6/12 (Monday)– I got up around 12, stayed up for a bit, then went to sleep until 4. I started packing then went downstairs to wait for my shuttle. Luckily I had enough time that I could eat some nasi goreng, some noodles, and some coffee. We took off to pick up Elias and Bekki and went to the mentawais fast ferry. We left pretty close to 7am and at first I thought I’d be ok, but there was a lot of movement. As a result I felt nauseated and almost threw up but I was able to hold it in with the help of an antiemetic!! Almost three hours from the time we departed we arrived in Tua Peijat.

There we got off the ferry, grabbed our stuff, and we took a smaller boat to aloita. It was only about 10-15 minutes but it was very nice and we were greeted by two guests Jess and Kerry. We were given a bowl of fruits, a coconut to drink, and they went over things with us. I thought the whole thing sounded great!! They were very organized and they had a lot of small touches that were nice. Like having soap/shampoo in the room, having mosquito repellent readily available in the common areas and room, water/beverages/towels on the boat, and complimentary washing of your clothes. All small touches but things that other places don’t do.

The first meal was good (guess I’m forgetting to take pictures of the food) but for lunch I had fried chicken, rice, quinoa, falafel, pumpkin, salad, along with some hummus and tzatziki sauce. After that I had a little bit of time so I studied for a bit then we went surfing. We went to ombak tidur which is one of the rights and it was really good! Maybe about 3-5′ with occasional 6′ and mostly clean. We surfed for a bit then went home, had a shower, then had dinner

6/13 (Tuesday)– Today we started by looking at Seven Palms which was flat. We ended up surfing scarecrows which was a left. It was a lot of fun there!! Right after our first session we did a second session at ombak tidur – which I decided to rest because I was tired. After that we went back to Aloita, we had some lunch, I used my kieba balls to roll out my back and shoulders, then I studied a bit before the second session. Initially we went to ombak tidur to take a look, we went somewhere else (can’t remember where we went), then we went back to ombak tidur. The session was fun but I might have injured my MCL on my right knee. I did the splits and felt my knee pop a bit.

6/14 (Wednesday)– Met Tika (female chef) at breakfast this morning. Because of my injury I was up in the air about surfing today. When it got to that time I decided to go. We went to the playground area today. Stopped at rifles, another spot I wasn’t sure of the name, went to bank vaults, and surfed there which was awesome!! Must have been around 3-5′ occasional 6′ sets and fairly clean. No one was in the water at least for a little bit then the boats started to show up. After our session we went to Nipussi where Felix and Elias surfed a second session while we took a break. When they finished we went to a spot and had some lunch while Peter surfed and Ron took some pictures. Antoine wanted to check out ebay which was no good so we went back to pickup Peter and Ron and went back to bank vaults and finally surfed Nipussi which was more fun than expected even with the wind.

After that session we came back, I took a shower, and studied a bit until dinner which was Mexican

6/15 (Thursday)– Had to ask Susana’s name (one of the female waitresses) as I had forgotten and grabbed some coffee before going to yoga with Kerry. I had a quick breakfast, got ready, and went with a large group to icelands for the first time. Some of the sets coming through were 5-6′ with most waves in the 2-4′ range. It was a really good time!! We came back to the camp at about 12:30 and had a little bit of time before lunch. After lunch I relaxed for a bit, tried to take a nap, and just got ready to surf. It got really windy and rainy and the boat captain cancelled our afternoon surf. I decided to play some switch, study some more, then we had a nice pasta dinner with gnocchi!!

6/16 (Friday)– Meet waitress Linda today. She is very pleasant and had known my name previous to us meeting. For breakfast I had the standard avocado toast with tomatoes and a bowl of fruit with yogurt. After that we went surfing at Icelands which was ok. It was probably 2-4′ with occasional 5-6′ sets. I didn’t surf that long because there were a lot of people in the water and it started to get dangerous. We came back for lunch which was fried fish which was pretty good. We meet some new guests by the name of Josie and Matt. I was going to study after lunch but my laptop was dead which was odd. Instead I took a nap, got up and studied a bit, played some video games, then got ready for the 15:30 session which was at ombak tidur. Matt along with Charlie and Tim joined us. We surfed for a while then a storm rolled in and it started to rain. We saw a rainbow while there which was really nice! I didn’t realize they was lightning and I was looking for the others to see if we should get out of the water. For a while no one was moving then Flo came over and said it was time to go. We went to the camp, I packed my HPS, took a shower, and by the time I finished it was about 18:20 or so. I was going to study but decided against it and just played some video games. I thought dinner was going to be at 7, but found out it would be at 7:30 which was a bummer. We ate with Kerry and Aaron along with Bekki and Elias and we had couscous, garbanzo bean tagine, with some rice, salad, and what they called naan

6/17 (Saturday)– Today I woke up, grabbed coffee, went to stretch and went to breakfast. I met two new waitress named Fuji and also Dita, and a little bit later on I spoke with Katherine at the front desk. Today was a lay day because there was a storm in the morning and one in the afternoon right at 15:00 when we were supposed to go surf. I watched Netflix for the remainder of the afternoon, then had dinner. After that Shiraz wanted to watch a movie so I went with her and Becky and we started to watch Fubar which was entertaining.

6/18 (Sunday)– Woke up and it was windy today. I got some coffee, went to yoga for a bit, then had breakfast. At 8am on the dot we went to icelands. I wasn’t sure if I’d surf, but I did and got some reef cuts on my right foot and my board flew up and hit me in the chin. While I got maybe one good one – I didn’t think it was worth it. We came back, I studied for a bit, then we had lunch which was ok today. I went back and watched Netflix for a while then we did a sup tour of the mangroves which was nice and relaxing. After that we came back to the camp, I took a shower, and we had dinner which was ok

6/19 (Monday)– I started the day just like any other. I woke up and meditated, had some coffee, then went and stretched before breakfast. At 8 we went to look at Seven Palms which was flat so we surfed at Icelands and for a change I sat deep, but missed many good waves. When we got back I had some coffee, spoke with Watis (slender Indonesian with mustache) and we had some lunch. Today there was no afternoon session so I just studied for a bit. For dinner we had a great I had been waiting for the entire trip…Pizza!! Along with cesar salad, vegetarian eggplant that was made into a lasagne which was really good, and pumpkin soup

6/20 (Tuesday)– Today I made a point of meeting the boat captain whose name is Yus. He took us to the playground area and we surfed rifles which I think was around 4-6′ with occasional 7′ sets. After our session we went to a-frames to take a look, then went back to rifles and surfed there again. With the lowering tide it got a lot more sketchy and on one wave I was washed right over the reef – thank god I was not injured!! After we all got back in the boat we hit a-frames so Tim, Charlie, Scott, Nick, Elias, and Ronnie could surf. They got back in the boat around 4 and we headed back to the camp for dinner.

6/21 (Wednesday)– I woke up this morning a little later than usual, had some coffee and read my articles, then had breakfast. I finished packing, paid my bill, had lunch, then Amanda, Florence, Adam, Shiraz, and I left Aloita. We had a nice send off from the staff. We then went to the fast ferry and it took over 3hr 40 minutes or so to get to padang. Once we got there and disembarked it was madness trying to get our board bags and get to the minivans. It took a lot longer than expected and as a result I needed to eat at the hotel and had Mie Goreng which wasn’t half bad!! I turned in for the night and started to mentally prepare myself for the long flights ahead

6/22 (Thursday)– Today the long flight home begins!! I woke up, checked out, and was picked up by the same driver who took me to my hotel last night. We proceeded to the airport and I arrived a little before 6am. At the time of arrival I wasn’t able to check in, but shortly after 6am I was able to check in, clear security, have a coffee and chocolate croissant, and rest all before 6:30am which seems amazing to me!! Flew to Jakarta, checked in my bag and grabbed my tickets, went to have lunch at around 10:30am at Marugame Udon and had Chicken Katsu Curry Udon with of ebi and a coke. Went to DJournal and got a Kopi Klepon iced coffee. The flight from Jakarta > Taipei was mostly uneventful. It took some time to board the plane and that had me a little worried. When we arrived in Taipei I wanted to find something to eat dinner I didn’t eat on the plane and I was hungry. There were not a lot of options so I went to homee kitchen and had a set meal which was ok. I have about two hours before my next 12 hour fight and I’ll be home!! There was a little wait, then I thought we were kidding into the plane, but we were actually going downstairs into another waiting area where we boarded around 11:40pm.