Mornings

My mornings have a pretty standard routine- I wake up, make coffee & breakfast, and hit the road in the dark in order to get at least a half an hour of waves to myself before the rest of the world wakes up. Well, not really to myself, usually “Pommy Pete” (who would be called “Limey Pete” back in the states, i.e. he’s from the UK) beats me by 5 minutes, and oftentimes Marcy & Melinda, my surf instructors, are in the water at that time too.

The drive over is the only time of the day where I have to bundle up with a long underwear shirt in order to keep warm. It’s so chilly that many dogs are asleep in the middle of the road where the pavement retains the sun warmth. If I see locals on their mopeds they’re ordinarily wearing what I would consider to be a ski jacket.

The most beautiful part of the drive is when I cross over two valleys of rice fields. Due to the planting cycles, the moon & stars right now are reflected in the flooded terraces, and luckily very few lights are on in the houses to detract from the effect. It's impossible to capture during the pre-dawn, but I got a good shot of what it looks like at sunset
In Bali it takes about 2-3 tries to pave a smooth road through rice fields, the first go results in massive potholes where the road sinks on the sides into the mud. It’s a double disaster when the road is on a hill, as the mud underneath is quite unstable. Therefore, the hairiest part of my drive is the incline up the 1st valley wall. It’s quite a steep hill (see how graded the rice terraces are in the photo?) and you would need to keep your speed to get up it if it didn’t have any massive potholes: But as you can (sort of) see from the picture above, it does have massive potholes. The contrast on my camera doesn’t capture it, but a few of them are about a foot deep. So this is the path you must take up it, in the dark:
I consider it my warmup for surfing…

Doktor Gigi

The majority of people Bali have one of four names: Wayan (first born) Made (second born) Nyoman (third born) Ketut (fourth born). If there’s a fifth child, he or she is named Wayan and the naming cycle starts all over again.

There is some variation on this, with different names depending on Hindu social class. i.e. Wayan could be I Wayan, Putu or Gede, Made could also be Ketut or Nengah, Nyoman could also be Komang.

I'm not capturing all of the subtleties in naming, but in short, there AREN'T that many different names to choose from. And if people have a name that strays dramatically from the above list, it’s usually a nickname- i.e. there’s a surfer guy named Spider whose real name is Putu, the guy who owns my corner store is called Rama even though he’s truly the 2nd Wayan in his family (i.e. kiddo #5), and my landlord’s son Wayan is called Neo, after the hero in Matrix and also because it means 1st born in Greek.

So when I first got to Bali, I thought it was funny that so many doctors had the same nickname: Doctor Gigi. There were signs everywhere for these Doctors Gigi whom I thought had been influenced somehow by French Film Noir or whatnot. Gigi’s a pretty cool nickname! Well, the jokes on me, because “Doktor Gigi” means “tooth doctor”- i.e. a dentist.

Kite Season

It’s the start of kite season in Bali, and throughout the countryside you can see homemade kites soaring high above the houses. So far I haven’t seen anything like the Kite Runner where there are competitions- it’s mostly kites that people tease up into the air, I’d say about 100 feet up, and then secure there for days at a time. The other day I was cameraless, and I saw two boys running through a field trying to get theirs aloft. I’ve been feeling down that my piddly camera isn’t advanced enough to capture the dozen or so kites I see soaring en route to my surf break (they look like insect blobs on the screen because they are so high up). Luckily today I saw a kid riding on the pegs on the back of his friend’s bike. They must have been en route to relaunch/launch the stripey kite in the neighborhood.

Taronga Zoo

I went to the zoo, all excited to see creatures from Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin’s shows and all those Animal Planet documentaries. Most of the animals I was interested in seeing, though, were sleepy. Seems I should have registered for the “Zoosnooz,” aka the zoo sleepover where one can see the animals do, well, more vigorous stuff at dawn & dusk. Unfortunately it’s for kids, and I didn’t know any in Sydney that I could drag along pretending it was for them when it would really be for me.

So, Kangaroos in summer sleep in the shade during the day, and now in autumn they snooze in the sun during the day. This little lady found a sweet little warm spot:
This dove looks like a healthy NY Pigeon whose wings were dipped in emerald dust:



Most koalas were sleeping, But some were fiddling around in the leaves, munching away. I love the idea that their bellies can keep them cool:

For the most part I saw Australian/New Zealand-native animals, i.e. Tasmanian devils, snake necked turtles, but I did swing by where there was a photo op with the giraffes- they built a platform for humans at giraffe head height, which I thought was pretty clever. I was also amazed at how the giraffes ate- it was as if they had too much peanut butter smeared around the roofs of their mouths- their tongue flickers were off the hook!

Blue Mountains

I took a packaged tour to the Blue Mountains, and though they told us to bring cash, they did not tell us to dress warmly. And I wasn’t smart enough to put together the logical equation “Autumn temperatures in Sydney + trip to mountains = put on extra layers.” Other than freezing most of the trip, I enjoyed it.

The Blue Mountains are a small range about an hour from Sydney. The mountains look blue at certain times because of the eucalyptus trees. In summer there are frequent forest fires, evidently eucalyptus burn quite easily, but our guide emphasized that the vegetation regenerates incredibly quickly compared to the average forest. Here is a view of Katoomba Falls from inside a (mostly) toasty gondola at Scenic World. One of the most famous rock formations are the Three Sisters, here seen from inside the temperate rain forest. We took the funicular which WAS incredibly steep from the bottom of the valley. When you first sit you’re practically angled on your back, and then when you end you’re sitting straight up: As usual, I became obsessed with anything that reminded me of surfing, and this large rock for some reason has what looks to be peaking waves all over it. And here is a gorgeous view of the Jamison Valley. What struck me was the undulating forest underneath the cliffs.

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Botanical Gardens, Bridge Climb

Matthew & I breezed through the Art Gallery of New South Wales this morning. Even 100 years ago artists were capturing the “perfect left”- okay maybe not perfect because this left looks like it’s about to run onto the rocks, but waves captured the imagination back then too. One of Australia’s most famous artists is Sidney Nolan, and here is one of his series on the folk hero Ned Kelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Nolan I loved how at the Royal Botanic Gardens they asked us to Please Walk on the Grass. Unfortunately Flying Foxes, which are huge fruit bats, have overtaken many parts of the gardens killing the trees. Signs indicated that they’re useful animals because they cross pollinate the trees all over the Sydney area, but they trying to find ways to “discourage” the animals from nesting there in the future http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome_to_bgt/royal_botanic_gardens/garden_features/wildlife/flying-foxes In 1994 a ranger discovered in a still-undisclosed location a Wollemi Pine, which is “the sole living member of its genus” i.e. it’s a very rare tree that was once thought to be extinct. They’re not propagating more for commercial use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollemi_pine Before we attempted The Bridge Climb, we fortified ourselves with kangaroo (top) and emu (bottom) pizza: And then we put on crazy onesie suits, and got strapped to the bridge where we were led to the apex in 35MPH winds. Beautiful view all the way to the Blue Mountains. (No cameras were allowed up top, & the professional pics were more of a ripoff than movie popcorn- so here’s how big it is)

ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day (Australian New Zealand Army Corps Day) which is a bit like Memorial Day back home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_day But there are some differences from how we celebrate Memorial Day back home- for starters many more people seem to actually go to memorial services & parades: Then it’s traditional for service people to get together afterwards, often times in pubs. And this pretty much translates into many people cramming into the pubs afterwards: In Australia it’s the only day that it’s legal to “gamble” in pubs, so people play a game called “Two Up” which is betting with flipping coins heads or tails. We didn’t see it at our pub, but evidently it’s a great way to meet strangers/play something where your chances are 50/50.

They had “Australian Rules Football” on TV, not to be confused with Rugby or Soccer or American Football, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football Evidently the physique of the players is slightly different than in rugby (taller?) and, well, I admit most of the rules explanations didn’t actually make it any clearer what the rules are. All I know is that half the table was happy with the outcome of one of the matches, the other half not.

Matthew & I hopped a ferry home, and the boat made a stop at Luna Park, and then cruised past the opera house before docking.

Opera House, Fish Market, MCA

This morning I discovered Luxe Coffee at Bondi Junction tucked into the tiniest storefront ever. The coffee is out of this world, my croque monsieur was an indulgent treat, and the service is so friendly that they refused my tip. After caffeinating I made my way to the Opera House for the backstage tour. The view on the harbor is so famous, but perhaps the interior shots will be new to you.





The architect Jorn Utzon http://jornutzon.sydneyoperahouse.com/househistory.htm gave his sort of “design credo” to be upheld for perpetuity before he passed away, so they recently redesigned the bathrooms recently taking into account his credo- they are beautiful:

After the tour I took the bus tour of the entire city in order to get a better feel of what I’d like to see for the rest of the week. Main observations: Sydney names a lot of their public pools after famous swimmers, the landscape & architecture have hints of what I’ve seen of San Francisco, Toronto & Chicago, there has been a lot of turning port/warehouse buildings into high end housing, the parks are well used and maintained, and people refer to the thing that road crew workers hold as a “lollipop” i.e. the bus driver said to me “See that guy with the lollipop up there?” and I was looking for a guy with a Tootsie Pop rather than the sign that flips to say “slow/stop.” Very confusing.

I hopped off at the fish market and discovered that a crustacean closely related to lobsters is sold under the name “Bugs.” Agh! They looked like a cross between a hammerhead shark and a lobster:



At the end of the tour I went to the Museum of Contemporary art where I really got into the drawing exhibition. http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=10&content_id=4764 This one was a paper sculpture, with minute ink marks all over it.

Cronulla, Bellevue Hill & Bondi Beach

I took the redeye from Denpasar to Sydney this morning. My friend/host with the most Matthew picked me up at the airport, and deposited me at Cronulla Beach for a few hours so he could make a meeting. We had breakfast facing these rollicking messy waves where shortboarders got tossed around and made a few 3 second rides (the surfers were too far out for my point & shoot to capture): Along the coast near Sydney there are lots of natural swimming pools, called “rock pools,” having been hammered out of the rocks 50-100 years ago. Here’s the one at Cronulla, currently looking a little uninviting given the cold temperatures & high tide: Fortunately I was able to get all shopping needed done within a few hours of arrival: Mrs. Palmers cold water wax for my board back home (I’ve fallen in love with the Australian brand), a few new rash guards that were designed for women instead of men, and toiletries for my Melbourne-bred friend back in Bali. I got a good laugh at this real estate listing touting “water glimpses” at the property. This sign has a very similar logo to the one on my own site, perhaps I should rename my site the same? Matthew picked me up post-successful meeting, and dropped me at his place in Bellevue Hill, which is a 25 minute walk from Bondi Beach. I set out, and was struck by the number of split houses where the owners could not agree on the same color scheme: I saw my first advertisement for Kangaroo & Crocodile meat: Many houses have pretty “New Orleans Style” wrought iron balconies: Somehow this house got 3 different colored blooms from what looks to be the same plant: Katzy’s unfortunately has nothing to do with Katz’s on the LES: I loved this mural with preggers women nestled in the tree: Compared to back home, there are tons of independent shops, i.e. rather than chain shops. And as I got closer to Bondi, the surf culture got more & more prevalent: And Bondi was a beautiful vista. So strange to see such a great break in the middle of an urban setting. I didn’t get in the water, not wanting to go through the agida of renting a board AND wetsuit given that there were hundreds of people already trying to catch waves. Perhaps I’ll make it to Manly this week...