Odyssey

od·ys·sey (d-s)
n. pl. od·ys·seys
1. An extended adventurous voyage or trip.
2. An intellectual or spiritual quest: an odyssey of discovery.

I guess this is what I'm about to embark on. An Odyssey. A few friends and I had hooked up with this humanitarian group to go to Baja to do some building of houses and stuff and a little surf as well. a few weeks before the trip it was cancelled due to the drug wars and violence there. The question then was... What now?..... Since we couldn't go there I wanted to go somewhere cool where I would be completely out of my comfort zone and be surrounded by a totally different and deep culture. After debating a few places.... Indonesia was the winner. Located below thailand and above australia. I know that sounds funny to say where it's located but I have had a million questions where it is and why we chose that place. Indo is made up of 17,000 stunning and jaw-dropping islands and beaches and has incredibly rich culture. Bali is mostly hindu and Java is mostly Islamic. I have had a few friends from Indonesia when i was at school in hawaii tell me to come visit them. One of those friends had past away two years ago due to a sudden illness. Her brothers ended up coming out to hawaii for school as well and I became good friends with them. The day we were buying tickets to Indo happened to be two years since their sisters passing. So I wrote them on face book and let them know i was thinking about them and their sister and had just bought tickets to Indonesia. Within 30 minutes I got a call from their aunt who lives in SLC and she was in the process of arranging places to stay for us and stuff to do. I was blown away by their generosity and how fast the word had traveled. We are fortunate enough to stay with my friends family for most of the time. These people are ridiculously kind. They have completely gone out of there way for us because we were good friends with their daughter and two sons and also since i had organized a memorial in hawaii in her honor while the funeral was in Indo.
There are three of us going on this epic trip and we are stoked out of our minds and humbled at the same time. Here are some things we expect to experience on this trip:

Splendid Beauty Indo has to offer













The culture














The People













The Waves




We feel extremely lucky and are 100% grateful for this rare opportunity to visit such a unique and pristine place in the company of locals and humble people. This is gonna be a huge learning opportunity and a spiritual quest. I almost forgot to mention the lengthy travel time but it will be well worth it. I take off wednesday the 23rd for two and a half weeks. Feel free to leave me any good tips or thoughts or qoutes to take with me. Aloha