Road trippin in Bali. Where do you put 2 longboards when you don't have a surf rack? We tried down the center of the car but that didn't work. Luckily they fit, barely, over my head as long as I didn't sit up to straight. Packed and ready to go we head out for the legendary Medewi Beach, about 2 1/2 hours from Kuta, so they said. Of course we got a little lost in Denpasar and it took us closer to 4 hours. But we eventually made it - John driving on the left from the right-side - all mixed up - and it was a stick-shift to complicate things just a little more. Getting out of Kuta was the first challenge. The roads are more like alleys, motorscooters in both directions and lined with shops and wandering tourists. Once out of the tourist district the next issue is first trying to find signs which are typically buried by overgrown tropical plants. If you find the sign the next hurdle is finding one of the names on the map we have, which I am convinced must be several years old. I guess this is similar to California where in places the 10 freeway says north or south, in other places it just lists towns - Santa Monica or Pomona - if you don't know the cities and their location ... Good luck! So after many twists and turns which gave us a lengthy tour of the city of Denpasar (we think we might have circled the city) we found the main road up the coast. Funny thing about this tropical paradise, you never go very far along the road before passing through another town. The island seems much more populated than we would have imagined.
Once out of Denpasar the scenery was spectacular; vibrant green rice paddies filled the hillsides and sometimes lead right down to the ocean.
This is an offering to the gods in the middle of a rice paddy.
The Medewi area doesn't seem to be very big. In fact you could easily blow right by it but for the one big sign pointing to the surf break. We head down that street and at its end there is a small palapa type stand and several people watching the surf as well as several surfers in the water. The waves were overhead (a little too big for me) and perfectly peeling lefts - long rides, really long rides if you can ride them. Of course if you eat it you could get stuck in the impact zone, which depending on the tide is over some pretty shallow rocks. In fact we learn the way out to the point break is through the rocks to the left where you will be sucked into the current. If you time it right, you will catch the current and make it out before the next set comes in. If your timing is bad, well just keep holding your breathe and paddle strong. Its a little late today for a surf session so we just sit back and watch the show. 
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