Monday, September 14, 2009

The Rooster


Day 35: Padang Padang, bali, Indonesia
Greetings again from the majestic Padang padang Surf camp in Bali, Indonesia. I can't believe a whole week has come and gone since i have got here, it looks like logistics will mean I will have to extend my stay slightly which I am not going to lose to much sleep over.
On Saturday a massive swell came through which put all of the local breaks (Padang Padang, Impossibles, Ulawatu) well off limits to anyone but experienced big wave surfers forcing any intermediate or beginner surfers onto one break, Jimayan Beach. When you take into account the number of people that is, it makes for one really busy beach, I'm talking hundreds of surfers, all fighting for a wave in the same small stretch of ocean. The swell is dying down now and it looks like the local breaks will be surfable tomorrow, looking forward to getting back into the water at my favourite places and hopefully getting some nice waves over the next few days. As I mentioned my original plan was to stay at the camp for a week and then head north into Jakarta and Sumatra, I then changed my mind to fly to Cambodia instead to stay at a guest house where you work with the orphans around Angkor Wat for a week before the Grand Final party in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). I got a reply from the guest house today which says they can't take my booking at the moment due to a religious holiday which means the place is closed for a week, which leaves me a bit up in the air as to where I'm going at the moment....
With the waves being a bit inconsistent now we've spent a bit of time with the local guides around the place as well as the other guests who are staying. Lauren and Renie have moved on to the Gilli Islands, sophia has moved to kuta, Peter has gone back to Singapore, Andy back to Uni in the UK which leaves just four of us in the camp. Laurent, the French guy, recently left after his wife arrived in town so they are going travelling around the country for a bit, he checked out of the camp a week ago but was still participating in the twice daily surf sessions, staying at a villa around the corner. The interesting thing about this villa is that in the courtyard, about a metere from the guests window, there lives a rooster in a cage. Anyone who has ever stayed in Thailand or rural indo will know that these things start to crow at 4:30am sharp, every single day, at the top of their lungs, which is near impossible to sleep through, even if you had earplugs in.
Which Laurent didn't.
So each day in the camp you can hear this rooster crowing, no big deal because we are staying about a kilometre away so it's no big disruption but this poor guy has this thing right next to his window when he is trying to sleep. After 4 days of this the poor guy was at his wits end.
So why, you might ask would the owners keep a rooster right next to the guest bedrooms when they are trying to attract customers to their business, after all, no matter how nice the place is it's a dealbreaker to potential guests to know that they will be woken up at 4:30am every morning by a noisy animal just inches from their ear.
The reason is that this rooster is still around and not in a chicken stew is that he is being bred for the cockfights which take place every weekday at Ulawatu, around he corner. Every day the locals gather around to bet on which rooster will win, many locals raise their animals for this sport and this rooster is the pride and joy of it's camp and needs to be reared in a safe place where he will not get 'rooster-napped' by an overzealous neighbour and thrown into the ring before his time. On a side note, Simon, the other Australian has become quite obsessed with this roosted now and made an attempt to steal the rooster after a night on the margaritas, he can confirm that security is very tight around this bird.
Tonight we are off to watch the cockfighting once we can determine the location of the event (which is guarded in secrecy), we have a good lead from one of the instructors on where it's being held so will post again on how the evening played out.


In late breaking news, Simon has just purchased a fighting rooster that he brought back to the camp.



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