In the land of extortion, you have to watch your back, as word has it ...

couches, watching the crazy people in the street. We walked back,carefully dodging the billion and one motorcycles and avoiding eyecontact with the six year old girls selling bracelets on the street atthree in the morning. We all agreed that we’d had enough of thecity. The next day we headed south to a quiet little beach town.We stayed right above one of the most famous, and crowdedbreaks in Bali. Uluwatu. Will talked me into getting dressed andat least walking down, and he was out there in a second. I wasstanding in the cave at high tide and just about chickened out whenI turned around and saw a friend of mine from Oahu. Small worldwe live in! (We would later run into him and his buddies again, aswell as numerous other familiar people from Kauai). For the timebeing I thought it was crazy… Here is my good friend that I haven’tseen in forever and I’m standing in a cave wearing a rash guard,board shorts and booties.I didn’t want to look like a chicken (even though I just didin front of my boyfriend, but that doesn’t count), so I hadto paddle out. I dodged the huge boulder to get out at hightide and immediately lost my friend and never found my boyfriend.I think it doubled in size as the tide dropped over thenext hour and I paddled my butt off just to stay in the rightspot- which for me was not in the lineup, but instead on theshoulder, way out of the way.After about two hours of dodging set waves and trying to catch leftoverslop I was ready to go in, knowing there is only one way to getin and it’s through that small cave. Not an easy task as the currentat Ulu’s is so strong it’s hard to even stand in knee deep water.I thought I would make it, but nope, I missed the cave- TWICE!At one point I was so far away that had I known about the beacharound the corner I would have just floated to the next town, but Ididn’t know. So I paddled all the way back and this time was kind offreaked.Luckily, I met another girl out there and she gave me hope. Shesaid she was a beginner and didn’t know what she was doingout there. WHAT??? I’m not a beginner surfer and even Ididn’t know what I was doing out there. She was an Aussie(of course, you Aussies are fearless and crazy!) so wecollaborated on the best way to get in. Paddle as far overas possible, wait for most of the set to come in, then take the lastwave on the head and hold on like hell while it washed you in. Weboth made it. Ahhh... Sand.For the next week we stayed in the tiny town of Bingin. Nancystayed with us for two days and then cruised along by herself. Idon’t blame her… If you don’t surf, there is not much to do inBingin. Before she left I dragged her and Will to the Temple atUluwatu to see a Ketchak dance. The temple is one of the mostfamous in Bali and makes a great backdrop to see a dance, as it isset high on the cliff with the sun setting right over the stage.The dance was obviously geared towards tourists, but wasimpressive nonetheless. Traditionally, the dance is partof a ceremony that lasts all night long, but we anxioustourists can’t sit that long, so it was just about anhour. If you’ve ever seen the movie Baraka (if youhaven’t, you should), the part with the guys chanting,“tek tek tek tek”, and waving their handsin the air while sitting down- that is part of theKetchak dance. The dance is about a womanwho is tricked and must call on the help ofthe white monkey and his monkey buddiesto help her get back to the man she loves.The white monkey is honored in statuesall over Bali. Modern monkeys however,are not so noble. They cruise all over thetemple and are notorious for snatchingpurses, sunglasses andwallets.In the land of extortion, you have to watch your back, as word has it there’s an Aussie woman servingtime in Bali for a board bag full of drugs that she claims she was unaware of. Australia is fighting tohave her released and Bali is keeping her as an example of their strict opposition to drugs.The two sides have eased up a bit and apparently she’s not doing too badly; she was offered the choice toserve the rest of her sentence in Australia but declined. Her family comes over to visit and she’s often letout for weekend surf trips and has even been spotted in the downtown Kuta party scene. Can you imaginewaves so good that you don’t even want to go back to your own country? Bali is full of Aussie ex-pats.wSSm | womenssurfstyle.com | 33