Christmas in Balian

This Christmas day will have to go down as the most unusual in my life. My Australian friend, Phil and I headed out to his friends small hotel in Balian on the west coast of Bali. I wanted to go there for the Christmas party, but also got some of the best waves of my trip at the river mouth at the Balian River. Balian means "river of healing" and that is exactly what it did for me, as I caught some of the fastest right handers of the trip. It was a short walk over the river in very cold water running down from the mountain range in the distance and once I reached the other side (about 50 yards across) I paddled out to a beautiful right, with only myself, 2 guys from Western Australia (WA) and one local. There is a big left hand reef about 200 yards north of where we were surfing, but I liked the right since I am regular foot and it was fast has hell.

I surfed for approximately 3 hours and then walked back up the hill to the hotel and jumped into the pool to rinse off. Phil and Michael, the owner of the hotel were pool side chatting and I joined them for a chat about the festivities of the night before.

Michael has just built this small hotel and invited all the locals that helped him build this place. They slaughtered a suckling pig right beside the pool and cooked it for the party. There was also western world fare, such as chicken, turkey, veggies, etc, but the little pig was slaughtered, cooked and was also on the table with everything else. Later that night, Christmas night we were entertained by traditional Balinese music with music instruments made from bamboo, reeds and leather. There was also 2 traditional Balinese dancers and as the evening grew on, and the locals got their fill of Arak, a local alcohol drink similar to a rum moonshine and became wild and crazy with the Arak Attack.....

Bali continues to grow on me, and it would really be great to return someday with my daughters, Kelly and Caroline. They would love the place as it is full of smiles and the magic of Bali. It has taken me a month to really get this place wired and I have approximately 23 days left to be here and hope to travel after the first of the year to several islands off the coast. There is an Australian girl and her friend from Jacksonville, Florida who own another small hotel on the island of Nusa Ceningan which I plan to visit after the first of the year. There is a wave right in front of the hotel, and I hope its on while I am there. You have to take a ferry over and it takes about an hour to get to the island.

Anyway, boys and girls I am still alive and well on the other side of the earth and wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2010.

More later...check out the pics of Balian.

Robert