Our next and final stop on our BaD Journey was Medewi – a key stop for surfers in the area – with the plan to try to learn (or relearn) to surf.

Both Brandon and I had taken a class or two in the past. But the biggest story to come out of my last class – which was in Portugal – was when a random dog bit me on the beach. In fact I would link to the old blog post about that day if I had not taken over that site for this very blog. Anyway — the point is that we had both tried surfing before, and were excited to give it another try.

We booked our stay at Medewi Secret Surf Camp which is a homestay run by a guy named Muklis and his family. The whole family is great, and within an hour of arriving, we were in the water for our first lesson. Truthfully, we both did pretty ok! We both stood up enough to move from what they call white water (below) to what they call the green waves. To me, that meant “real” surfing.

I was a bit nervous about the green waves, but gave it a shot. And after one attempted ride, I was done. I knew it would take a try or two before actually standing in the green waves, but I was not prepared for how rough the water was going to be. My first go ended very quickly with me in the water, which was expected, but I the water was too rough for me to get back on my board. After trying to get on it three or four times and being knocked immediately back in the water, I was out of breath, tired, and scared. (I never remember a time I was really scared of being in the water, so I knew I  needed to go back to what I called “kinder-surf.”)

Brandon however did great! He caught a few waves and battled his way back out every time! After about an hour though, he was wiped out. (Pun intended.)

I did get a chance to try again in the white water that afternoon, and ended up pretty pleased with my efforts.

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And I hate to say it, but after about an hour or so each day for two days in a row, we were exhausted. We wanted to keep surfing, but just did not have the energy. It takes a lot out of you.

Since we had one day left, and had done a cooking class in every country except Singapore, we set up a class with Muklis’ wife Yantee. She led us through the process to make Indonesian fish curry, and it was delicious!

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The next day was our last, and were very sad to go. But one cool tradition Muklis is starting with his guests is a rock garden guest book. So we chose a big rock from the beach to bring back to the house, and wrote a thank you note/review on it. Ours is the one on the left with tons of text. I may have gone a bit overboard, but after just a few days there we had so many great things to say that I couldn’t help myself! In fact we likely would have stayed at least a week with them, continuing to work on our surfing, if we didn’t have to get home for two different family events.

Muklis and a friend drove us to the airport not long after this, and we were very sad to close the Southeast Asian chapter of our BaD Journey. What’s next? Well, first the Dominican Republic, then LA, then… who knows! But this isn’t the end yet.