Balicamp (say that with a German accent)

In my travels to tropical places there has been a constant need to “fight” the local climate for survival and social class status. Hop in the AC, ward off scorpions, put on loads of sun block. It feels very different here at Balicamp- everything is open air and smells like frangipani.

My friend Patricia recommended this particular surf camp because her friend Alex runs it- and warned that there’d be a whole lotta Deutsch goin’ on. Every other guest is from Germany, Switzerland or Austria- I'm brushing up a bit on my HS skills.

The camp is a surfer boy’s dream: DJ table, 2 pool tables, fussball, huge DVD collection, pool, open bar, lounging tents, and open bungalows. It truly is a camp- shared baths, toothbrushing outside, not a speck of AC to be found.

My room is on the top floor, There are a pair of cute birds who have made a nest next to my stairs- I scare the bejeezus out of them each time I come & go (sorry!) And I sleep in a ginormous mosquito net Check out my fave reading spot. I feel like royalty from another era stretched out on the pillows.

Inauspicious arrival in Bali

Remember this post?

http://emilkastravels.blogspot.com/2008/10/is-this-minor-point-or-showstopper.html

Well, it does rain like it does in the movie Forest Gump- but it’s only for about 3-5 hours at a time.

My arrival in Bali was “meh.” I stayed in a hotel with a non-descript room, with the exception of this incredibly eco-friendly soap bottles filled with the most non-eco friendly soap on earth:
I walked to the beach at low tide and had a huge shock - it was filthy. The water to the top of the beach down to the water was full of wrappers, bottles, debris, absolutely the dirtiest beach I’d ever seen. I found out later this was because of the heavy rains and the overflow from the rivers, but it made me never want to go into the water in Kuta, which is the tourist trap part of Bali.

Somewhere between the hair dryer in Korea and now my hair morphed from being hip, flattering and chic to looking like someone threw dollops of foamy cool whip all over the place. It’s unruly and puffy a la Fred Savage Bed Head circa the Wonder Years.

Don’t fret gentle readers, things get better at surfcamp.

1st time in Asia, 1st stop Korea

I was dreading the 15 hour economy flight- but surprisingly I slept through most of it (or maybe not so surprisingly as I avoided sleep my last 2 days in NYC and ellipticized like a hamster at the gym.)

The best surprise of all, though was the FOOD. Korean Air served Bibimbap, and even better, they served a little instruction card along with it. If only they ripped these puppies off for East 32nd St in NYC. The kimchee was the cucumber variety- not the cabbage kind (for those of you who knew about my fear of a plane full of passengers who recently ate cabbage.) Breakfast was green tea porridge, which tasted nothing like green tea ice cream- it has little flecks of seaweed and was quite savory.

The plane landed at 5:15am local time, greeted by 25 degrees and darkness. There was wispy snow swirling around on the tarmac- probably my last glimpse of 2009. The frosty reception was continued when an official tourguide lady told me that city tours were only for 2 or more people, so I decided to go to back to "my people"- aka to the Korean Air counter. They slapped a sticker on me and packed me off for the Hotel June in a nearby suburb. The thing that struck me most about the 10 minute trip between the airport and my complimentary hotel room was the complete lack of garbage- do Koreans have incredible road side crews, or do they not chuck wrappers in the first place?

I was planning on figuring out how to take a solo tour of Seoul, but as it happens Korean Air spoiled me by plopping me into a somewhat entertaining hotel. The elevator had the same "sparkly sky" theme that the limo had at my friend Julie's wedding. I was in room 212 (yes my favorite NYC area code, yes it was a sign) and there were mirrors on the ceiling above the bed. I couldn't get the bathtub jets to work, but it was delicious to plunge in mid-voyage with pink foamy bubble bath.

I've heard about the fancy toilets in Asia- and this was my 1st experience with one. I'm not a fan of heated car seats, but heated toilet seats? This I can live with. Bummer about the massage function not being an option, but maybe that keeps every one's minds out of the gutter.
All the mugging in mirrors, yoga-ing on the heated floors, trying on of all the varieties of slippers and the free lunch worked like Ambien, so I never made it into the city. Kind of embarrassing, but I can arrange a tour on the way back when it's not arctic outside. My fleece and scarf were not cutting it when I ran across the street to the convenience store.

At the store I scored with some items- such as tangerines (hard to go wrong there) and some sort of creamy breakfast sandwich. Unfortunately, in spite of this item looking like string cheese, and the lady having a block of cheese in her hair, it was not string cheese.
It was something unpleasantly fishy- only downside of the day, and easily remedied with a piece of gum.

Off to Denpasar!

Schvitz in Brooklyn

My good friend Cindy's farewell present to me was a trip to a Russian Baths/Spa. We love to schvitz and catch up- having done so all over New York and once in Budapest.

She did the legwork to find one we hadn't visited before- the Royal Palace Spa in Brooklyn. The place must have been owned by a big game hunter because they had a stuffed lion, black bear, and many a deer/elk/other horned animal head in the eating area. Oh, and the piece de resistance- the shark suspended over the pool. Check out the photos below:
http://www.russian-bath.com/gallery/RoyalPalace/

We got a pseudo vocabulary lesson when we chose from English version of the menu. There was a section called "Farinaceous" which I assumed had something to do with flour- but the connection wasn't quite there as listed beneath were all kinds of small plates such as eggplant caviar, cold cuts, and cucumber salad. Something must have gotten lost with an electronic translator of sorts:

far⋅i⋅na⋅ceous
adjective
1. consisting or made of flour or meal, as food.
2. containing or yielding starch, as seeds; starchy.
3. mealy in appearance or nature

Laird Hamilton Book Signing

Went to the Laird Hamilton book signing today. He wore flipflops even though it was 36 degrees outside and raining:






It was kind of anti-climactic- he was very good looking, you could say he had pleasant demeanor, but he so obviously did not want to be there- not rude, but just not into it. When I got to the front of the line I told him that I was happy to meet him and glad that he was the kickoff to my 2009 adventure surfing in Indonesia for a few months. We bantered a bit, he smiled and wrote “Enjoy Indo. Travel Safe.” in my recently acquired book. Not “Discover new frontiers! Be a force of nature!” Ach- maybe my expectations were in the wrong place.

Or maybe his chilly feet and all the hyped up pale New Yorkers just reminded him how far he was from home and his family.

Why do certain purchases make me feel so good?

My new hard core skiboots will (eventually) make me ski like a rockstar. But these in the meantime make me feel like a rockstar- they’re like a combo between a Tiki Hut Cup and the Transformers Logo- super soft and the ugliest color scheme on earth. Sweeet!

New Year's at Alta

Last day of skiing in 2008, and there was finally the right combo of soft snow and enough sun in Catherine's at Alta to capture my tracks in a photo:















At around 5 we lined up for the New Year's Parade. Here the snowcats are creating a smooth path for all the skiiers to come down the mountain in the dark (wooo!)









The moon and (Venus? not sure which planet) came out to greet us.










Each year Alta staff hands out at mid-mountain flares to adults and flashlights to kids. Unfortunately my road flare was a dud- this year they must have had a bad batch because almost everyone was trying to re-light theirs at the top- created some hiccups. But it didn't seem to mar the result of how it looked at the end of the trail.






These two videos give a sense of what it feels like to ski down with the crowd:


Eventually I'll get adept enough to edit into one single sequence... maybe a resolution for 2009?