Indonesia.... Part One

Sorry for the long break. It seems like awhile since I was in Indo but at the same time the memories are so fresh. So many different things happened while I was there. So many new experiences, insights and feelings. It was such an unreal experience. A much needed experience to be away from stuff and be isolated with a few friends and my thoughts. I kept a travel journal while I was there. I treasure it and am so glad I took that.

We really felt that we were completely out of our comfort zone about 95% of the time except when we were in the water. We experienced some pretty amazing things from surfing amazing waves to cruising through Bali on scooters (they drive on the opposite side) ha ; Drew getting pulled over by the police to no one speaking english; being on an airplane to the island Java and being the only white non-muslim people to a open wild life safari. It was non-stop action. We were even able to attend church in Bali at a members house which the whole island has about 6-10 members. Very humbling experience. 10% percent of Bali was Christian. All in all it was the people of Indonesia that made the experience complete. The nicest and most humble people I have ever met. Also the happiest people Ive met. I'll let the pictures tell the stories. Please comment on the pics you like and any questions you have. I will probably post more about my experience. Its one that was such a blessing and a learning experience in every way. No words to express it. SO BLESSED!

Bangen Beach









The Indo Crew with our local friend aleks eating at a Warung. No Utensils.


Streets of Bali


A Hindu ceremony


Uluwatu Hindu temple











Monkey in the temple about to take a bath


Uluwatu Surf Break


We chilled in this beach hut sitting above the ocean watching some good surf


Sunset at Uluwatu


The beautiful scenery on our scooter ride to Ubud













The Indo crew: Ryan Drew Poliman James Kristi eating at a Warung in Ubud and our view





















The People
















Scootering through the Rice Fields











Rice Fields and this super nice man. You could look in his eyes and see 100% happiness. I wanted to ask him what made him so happy about life but he spoke no english.
































Sunest in Ubud

Calmness of Mind

I am back from Indonesia and safe. Thanks to all the emails or posts on face book for your concern during the earthquakes there. FYI they have still had minor earthquakes every week since those big ones hit. Feel blessed to not have to worry about that on a weekly basis.

So for quite awhile now I have been on this reading kick and meditation stuff. Most of the books are self-help and inspirational type stuff but I have found amazing insights and solid meanings. This year for some reason has been a reflective one for me. I think part of it is at the stage of life Im at and part is due too my travels and experiences in general. This last trip especially was a pretty powerful and eye opening experience. Today I was reading this book and came across this deep insight that I thought I should share. "As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking. On the other hand, if you posses this inner quality, a calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life."

I was blown away when I read that. It totally put a finger on my whole experience in Indonesia. I thought I had seen poor conditions and people in Hawaii or Costa Rica which I did, but not to the extent of there. On the other hand, I have never met more loving, giving, warm and happy people as I did in Indo! They lead extremely simple lives and work very hard for what they have which is not much. You could see it in their eyes. Eyes can tell so much of a person. I will blog about the trip and my experiences later but this was another way I learned I have way too much and need to simplify more than I have, and we really don't need much to be content and happy. Truly happy. "The true antidote of greed is contentment".

In my journeys too Indo I decided to bring a friend back with me....

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

MAY-hem part 2

Back in the blogging world. Took a break for a bit after a crazy summer so far. So back in May/June some friends and I went on a road trip to Nor Cal for my cousins wedding in oakland. This was quite the reunion. My buddy drew flew into SLC and julie holland and a friend of mine here named jen all got in my element and went for a good old road trip to meet up with our good friend Tyler Ryan. The drive was crazy and long. Nevada is not fun to drive thru. We hit up some cool spots and i'll let the photos do the talking. Tell me your top three favorite photos and give me honest feedback negative/positive. It was a fun trip and we had some cool adventures. Some pics were just for fun. Everyone was good to let me photog and document the trip and be models when i found a cool shot.

MAY-hem

My apologies for being absent for quite some time. May was an insane month for me. It was one adventure to the next. A few months ago my brother-n-law and I had kinda started doing a little running to get in shape. He had ran a 10k in southern utah and after we came back from that he suggested we train for a half marathon. My first reaction was laughing. Neither of us were runners nor pretended to be. After some thought on it, I decided i needed to challenge my body and myself mentally in a new way and this would be a good opportunity. Something completely out of my element. We checked out the training schedule and we're already a week behind but we put in the time and worked our way up to it. One day during my longest run, I got that runners high. It was such a good experience. I felt unstoppable. I was in a different frame of mind. So as the race approached we were still nervous since we still felt like we didn't know what we got ourselves into. We drove down the night before and pulled up at 11:30 and had to be up by 4:30. And if anyone knows me Im a night person and at that I don't like running or doing anything that early. The alarm rang and in a short bit we found ourselves stretching to run a race. It was CRAZO. So many things were going through my mind but i knew i was gonna finish. We all got lined up to run and it was such a weird experience. We were a herd of people all just going to run a course. Here is a pic i found on the internet that shows the herd im talking about. It was just such a different thing to be in. Once the gun shot and everyone started running, I just looked around and all you could see is heads everywhere just bobbing up and down. I kinda felt like a bunch of animals in a herd and we were all just following each other. The race was a real intense and challenging experience but was such a good growing opportunity for me physically and mentally. I challenged myself in new ways. I finished the race in good time and had such a good feeling once i crossed the finish line. I took myself to a new level in life. Its important i realized to challenge ourselves mentally and physically. Push the limits. Try new things. I never considered myself a runner but it happened.

So the next week to reward myself for doing that, I went on a last minute random cruise with a couple of my friends. We booked a weekend cruise to ensenada mexico but due to the swine flu, we were rerouted to catalina island. We barely made it to the airport in time. And when i mean barely, They had been calling our names and we were the last people to sit on the plane. It was so nice once we got to san diego to take off. The ocean breeze and smell felt like home again. I missed being close to the ocean. We had such a good time on the cruise even though it was a quick one. Being out on the open water is such a good feeling and catalina was a cool little town. Here's some pics of the adventures..... More MAYhem events to come shortly