Indo Week #1

Lekker, just finished our first week in Indo and it's been pretty darn fun. Waves have been on the small side, but there's always still something to get wet on. 

Can't say the holiday got off to a great start, as after landing in Singapore we found out Zuma-muppet had been up to his antics and the rand had tanked. Not exactly epic timing when you're about to be spending 5 weeks overseas! Had to clobber the free Happy Hour in the hotel seeing as beers cost R90 a pop.

Singapore is such a kiff possie (once you stop converting everything into Rands....). Had to laugh at the self-checkout option in the supermarket tho - imagine that working in SA. Not. 

​The rand's so kak against the dollar we had to resort to buying 3 packs instead of 6 packs, haha!

After a coupla days chilling in Singapore we headed over to Indo. New route this time. Caught the ferry over to an island called Batam, and then hooked a local flight over to Padang. So much cheaper than having to fly via Jakarta.

​Ferry was a decent speedy thing, not some dodgy Indo bum-boat, and the local airline is the equivalent of Mango, and only cost about R700 return ticket. Stayed in Padang overnight as our island hopper over tothe Telo's was early Sunday morning.

Gotto love it when your hotel has an Earthquake warning brochure....

Early start to Padang airport, and then cram into the lil plane for the hours flight over to the islands As usual we had a Saffa pilot - the ou's that train at the PA flight school seem to have a deal with the lil charter plane airline, and all seem to come over here to log hours. Gotto say feel safer with a Saffa at the stick.

Thankfully an uneventful trip over, as am not a fan of lil planes. Get chauffeur - driven by this dude on a bike towing you in a small trailer with seats down to the jetty, and then it's a 40 min speedboat ride to the resort. 

Super stoked cos they've just built some new bungalows and we were lucky enough to be the first guests to test-drive them. Flipping amazing to have your own lil possie right on the beach. Kick-ass spot with King size bed, big screen TV and all the things that make life comfy.

View from our deck

Eased into things the first week as waves were on the slow side, altho we did still get a surf in every day. Only had one half day surf the whole week, and spent that arvo playing golf. Set up a 6 hole hit n hope course around the resort, and each group had to share a club. Plenty Bintangs, plenty laughs and only a few missing balls. Some attributable to Larry the Labrador who thought it was great fun to pick em up n run off with them.

Days at the resort are all about getting surf. You get up early in the morning, as the boats leave at 7am. There are 2 speedboats, one heads south, the other north. Some spots are as close as 15 min away, others take an 1h20. Just depends on swell and winds. Always an option somewhere. Flat in Indo isn't like flat at home. Flat means you'll still find chest to shoulder high waves somewhere.

Here's some shots from the week....

It was mostly small, but picked up later in the week. Long lulls meant plenty time to chat in the line-up, but no worries when the waters as warm as a bath and the air temp hovering in the early 30's.

The boys punished the Bintangs on the slower days, managing to empty the esky (cooler box) one arvo on the way home, followed by plenty more in the resort pool. Hubby made the mistake of thinking he could keep pace with the Aussies....and was in bed by 7pm! 

Swell charts looking better for the week ahead...yeweeee!