A Day of My Life in Batu Karas

I spent the past month surfing. Learning to surf. I spent it in Batu Karas, a tiny surfing village in rural Indonesia. It had consistent beginner waves and lacked most modern amenities. My days were routine and relaxed. This is how they went:

~4-8am: Wake up. The internet was usable around this time of day, so I hit the big bandwidth waves.

~8am: Eat breakfast. The hostel I stayed at, Villa Monyet, has a cute breakfast that people from other hotels/hostels would visit for. I’d digest my daily news on Reddit and news.ycombinator.com.

Daily muffin, bread&jam, fruit, and coffee.

~8:30am: Get ready for morning surf. This mostly involved applying sun lotion. I also filled my water bottle.

Aside: Sun Lotion

I got badly burnt in my first few days surfing while wearing SPF 50-110 lotions. I didn’t realize where and how much lotion was needed for an hour of surfing in the West Java sun. This, combined with side effects from the malaria medicine I took for five days (I stopped because it wasn’t needed and sucked - caused fast sunburning and bloating for one torturous week), made me reconsider how to tackle the sun problem.

I had four types of sun lotion:

I needed to wear a shirt to prevent wax chafing. I wore a t-shirt for my morning surf and a hoodie for my early afternoon surf (when the sun is ridiculous). My torso was therefore covered. I’d layer my face with the sensitive skin lotion, wait a minute for it to dry, and put another layer of the thick, greasy SPF 50 on key locations: upper cheekbones, nose, forehead. Meanwhile, aerosol the top of my forearms and back of my calves - from ankle to behind the knee. Finally, thick stuff on my neck and ears. Even with this meticulous application of sun lotion, I managed to get burned a few more times!

~8:45 Bike to the surfing beach. My bike had a child seat. Everyone laughed at it.

My ride.

~9:00 Surf. I’d hand the surfboard rental guys 50k IDR (7 Euro). I started with a longboard for a week. I switched to a short board for a week, and upon returning to the longboard, I came to appreciate how much easier it was to catch waves.

That's the longboard I used. Some days, waves were taller than it.

~10:00 Bike home.** ~10:15 Shower and change. When salt water dries on you, it feels sticky. I can handle sand everywhere but there’s no reason to stay sticky. I also apply Aloe Vera and moisturizer to the places I put sun lotion.

~10:30 Study coursework. I’m taking two courses on Coursera: “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue” and “Web Intelligence and Big Data.” Because the internet isn’t, I had to read transcripts of the video lectures. Turns out it’s much more efficient and enjoyable for me to read the transcripts. Thank you, poor internet?

In a hammock. Pretty cliche.

~11:30 Read books, misc. web browsing. As in, I try and frustratingly, marginally fail to hit my email, facebook, etc.

~12:15 Get ready for afternoon surf. Same as morning preparation, just more sun lotion.

~12:30 Bike to surfing beachfront.

It's a fishing village too.

~12:30 Eat lunch at the beachfront. There’s a couple identical restaurants facing the surfing beach. I’d have vegetable soup, rice, a pancake, and a watery milkshake. 38.5k IDR (2.5 Euro). The food in Batu Karas was lackluster. I was unintentionally vegetarian for my stay - had a crappy chicken omelet once and fish for the three BBQ’s that Villa Monyet hosted (which were undoubtedly the highlights of eating in Batu Karas). Anything with noodles was ramen from one of those gross little stale bags. I subsisted off rice, eggs, vegetables, fruits, bread, and water. You also have to go exploring into the kitchen to get served.

From the restaurant.

~13:00 Early afternoon surf. It was busier in the afternoon because the local little kids (~10y/o) got off school and would hit the waves before the crowded late afternoon. On the weekend days, ten Indonesian people visiting the beach would approach me for a picture. That picture usually turned into ten permutations of their group with me. Most other foreigners refused photos for various reasons.

Getting up on a short board (week two of surfing).

~14:00 Bike home.

It was the kind of place where you leave your bag lying around and your bike unlocked.

~14:15 Shower and change. Same same and not much different.

~14:30 Study coursework/read books/mic. web browsing. Honestly, I’d be killing time waiting to eat. I’d feel hungry starting at 15:00. There aren’t any stores around to buy snacks and I didn’t feel that it was socially acceptable to order dinner before it started getting dark.

~17:00 Order dinner. The dudes at the hostel would order food from one of the surfing beachfront restaurants. I’d get rice, a cheese omelet, and assorted fruits. 39k IDR (2.5 Euro). Paying for things was painful. In retrospect, I suspect the onus is on the buyer to have exact change because seller never had any.

~17:30 Dinner arrives, watch a movie. Finally. I’m dying. An hour later, it’s unsatisfying. Whatever, breakfast will be good.

~20:00 Go to sleep. Yeah, it’s early, but the internet works early in the morning, not early at night. Hmm… that was a negative depiction of the village. Here are six reasons Batu Karas is awesome!

Life is simple. Eat. Sleep. Surf. Facebook.

Surfing is good. Relaxing, satisfying, and a workout

Beaches are nice. Constant waves crashing on the beach is relaxing and beautiful. Day or night, they’re there.

People are nice. It’s Asian middle of nowheredom. Everyone is smiles. Every kid screams out ‘hallo’, so I started saying it first. I can handle people wanting pictures if they’re that excited to meet me. Unconditional liking is sweet.

Religion? Screaming prayers over loudspeaker at 4am, noon, 3pm, 5pm, 8pm. When the kids do it, they’re just yelling words as loud as they can in a group. It can go on for an hour. I just realized Christmas caroling in public should be banned. Sorry, I’ll be positive:

Villa Monyet is the best hostel/hotel I’ve ever experienced. The staff anticipated needs and shared everything. “Hey, this bike has a flat tire, how can I-““No problem, I’ll make fixed.” “So when would you like me to pay for-“ “Don worry, you can do whenever you wan.”“Hey Doug, try some honeycomb/random fruit/dessert/dish.” The concept is awesome too. The owner, Nano, told me he came up with the idea when he was a kid - the design of the buildings, the BBQ’s of fish and rice on banana leaf, the chill community. He never planned on turning it from his home into a hostel, but people kept asking to stay there, so he added more buildings. He handpicks visitors to get the ones that aren’t needy. It’s his home and he’s sharing it.

25 Sep 2013