NOTSHOCUZ

After Hanging in Bali, three Ausies I had gotten to know on the Coconut Adventure, invited me (and my video camera) on a trip off the beaten bath, Krui. Home of the longest left in Sumatra and the Sumatran Pipeline, who could resist. Two short flights to Bandar Lampun and a 5-8 hour drive landed us in Krui. With a population of over 12,000, it was by no means desolate. However in the week and a half I spent there, I saw no more than 20 westerners. It was a true Indonesian travel experience and refreshing to get away from the tourism of Bali and jungle of G-land. Every person made a point to use their one english phrase for any white visitor, “hello mister”. It didn’t matter who you were, man or woman, or how many times you had seen them before. We stayed at one of the two hotels in the town, who hadn’t quite realized what surf travel is. No western food and only two stores that even sold Bintang. This community was 95% muslim, but I couldn’t find any terrorists. The people were fun-loving and loved to joke around. Kids had no fear of walking up to a complete foreigner to practice the english they were learning in school. I was stoked to meet the english teacher of the town, who would talk to me for hours, answering every question I had and eager to hear new words and the context to use them. This place was awesome, the surf was uncrowded, accept when small, and we had a great time. At least until the day we left. About 2 minutes after we decided to leave Krui, my stomach started to talk to me, it requested the bathroom about every 15 minute for over an hour. My travel back to Bali included food poisoning, 5 hours of driving on bumpy dirt roads, 3 hours in lampun airport with no western toilet or toilet paper and 2 flights. I survived, and was glad that it was only food poisoning. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t eat for 24 hours. Once back in Bali, we treated ourselves to first class accommodations, the Bounty Hotel, $35 a night.

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