Sampa Jumpa Nanti Lombok!

See you soon Lombok!
That's the best of my Indonesian, aside from hello, goodbye, thank you, good morning, good night, and "two please" We are leaving Lombok Monday morning to head to Yogyakarta, not Jakarta, as the travel agent seemed to think. After a day or so of negotiating, he booked us on to Yogya, as I will now say, to avoid confusion.

Lombok was great, the swell slowed down and I have had some really nice sun-up and sunset sessions on waves too small for the hotshots to bother with, and we've become familiar faces in this small town. Local specialties of seafood curries, chili sauces and fried noodles have fed us well, and the Bintang beer is icy. But we're ready to move on to explore a new city and the ancient temple sites of Borobudor and Prambanan.

Some random thoughts and memories from here...I did NOT report earlier that we've rented a scooter and have been driving around on roads that are more like mountain biking than open highways, past incredible rural scenery and sweeping ocean views. The kids get very excited and come running out the give high fives or shout "what is your name!" or "where are you from!" Sort of terrifying at first but after you give a high five and get by and haven't caused an accident, very fun. The indonesians have possibly the biggest smiles I've seen anywhere, and love to discuss the US, Particulrily Barack Obama "He live in Jakarta!" and for the under 15 female set, Justin Beber...who is that anyway? I'm assuming a pop star by his swooning local fans. I was climbing out of the water with my board the other day and was swarmed by a crew of 10-15 pre-adolescent girls who were at the water for the day on Sunday from their village. They laughed and giggled at me a lot, and took their pictures with me. Many people who do not live on the coast near the surf or diving areas have seen few tourists. They asked where I was from and then shrieked about Justin Beber and swooned. Cute.

Also, a brief note on Ants. We have seen many varieties of Ants on our travels. Alone and I have a whole new appreciation for thier role in our world. They are very industrious and responsible for dealing with large amounts of waste. Sadly, not plastic waste, which is everywhere. Really, everywhere. We are learning that the globe is MUCH lager than we could previously conceive, (a ferry from Bali to Lombok took 4 hours!) and MUCH more populated than we had thought, and everyone, on a daily basis, generates plastic garbage of frightening proportions. The governments, of course, do trash management in frighteningly low proportion, and burning, piling or ignoring trash is common. We are trying to minimize our impact by refilling water bottles at the guest house and declining straws and plastic bags.

That's all for now! One more day of surf, and a big surf competition with people from all over Indonesia tomorrow.