Where is Pacitan?

Pronounced "Pacheetan", it' s located in south west East Java.

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Its a really interesting little town, but we didn't stay in the town proper. We stayed on "Teleng Ria" the beach part of the town....

View from where we stayed out to the water at Teleng Ria

The journey -
We (David my roommate/the other intern and I) left promptly at 4pm from school and headed home to gather our things before heading to the bus station (Purabaya). We took a taxi there and arrived in plenty of time to find the bus that would take us directly to Pacitan...
David had got some intel from the internet that the journey would be about 4 hours long. No problem, really at 40,000 Rupiah ($4.50 CAD) that is quiet a deal for an air-conditioned bus. Anyways it actually took us about 6 hours, getting in to the town somewhere just after midnight aboard a bus that was jammed packed with people riding and other people selling things to you and other people playing music. Such is traveling in Indonesia though. We got there in once piece, but I was feeling pretty green around the gills after the last section of road.
At the bus station we were greeted by guys on motor bikes who took us to the hotels. Our first attempt was to Happy Bay Bungalows. Sorry Mom, I did something I thought I would never do.... ride a motor bike (well it was more of a scooter actually) without a helmet. Just goes to show you that even the favorite child can make poor decisions her mother would not approve of when feeling hungry, sleep deprived and car sick. After HHB we went to Harry's surf hostel. It was full, this was really to bad because it looked awesome. Then we ended up at "Grand Pacitan", the more resort-y place in the area. By this time it was around 1am and we decided to share an "economy room" for about 150,000 rupiah (16$) which might be exspensive in Indonesian standards but I really just wanted to sleep.

Day 1 -
Breakfast was delievered to our room at 8:00 am dull. (more like 8.15. I think I had ordered breakfast for 8am the night before, but I am not really sure.) Anyways after that we wandered towards the beach with the broken English/Bahasa directions given to us by the hotel staff. We made it eventually, encountering a young marching band playing in the streets and a midget who was collecting the fees for entry to the beach.

Happy Happy Bungalows Main building.

We found HHB again and found a room with a couple of beds and an actual shower. Bonus when you are planning on being all salty and sandy. Then we went to look for boards from Harry's. Ended up getting some old timers for 30,000 rupiah ($3.30) per day. nice. Take notes Tofino surf shops. And no need for wetsuits here. The water was a balmy 29'C.
After I insisted we have some food (which was darn good) we headed out to the breaks. What a great afternoon. It felt awesome to be in the water and splashing and paddling around and catching the occasional wave. The surf wasn't big but it was good enough for me. Felt really strong in the water (thanks Tony & the p90x gang for that).
We headed down the beach in the afternoon (about 2km) to check out the elusive "corner" waves by the alleged "river". After about 30 minds of waling we found it and I decided to have some beach time to relax while David went out into the water to rub elbows with the locals and try for some sick waves.

Room at HHB

After a while we headed back into "town"/where our bungalow was and had a refreshing shower and I downed a full "air minum besar" (1.5L of water). For dinner we went to this chill place next to our bungalows that had gazebo style tables. They were all like little huts with tables underneath. The sea breeze and 27'C evening made for a great atmosphere. Too bad we were like the only people there in a place that could easily hold at least 50. We had some grilled tuna and rice and veggies and juice. Good night.

Day 2 -
Got up early, had a great HHB breakfast of juice, eggs, toast, banana crepes and headed out to catch some early surf. Another great day in the water :) Caught some really fun waves and felt strong (once again thanks Tony). Also brought the camera out this day to take some photos. And of course had people request to take their photo with us.... Seriously. Do not want to be famous. It would be really annoying having people come up to you and want a picture with you all of the time. But maybe then you would be rich enough to have a private beach or island somewhere with no cameras and eager fans.... I digress.
After a great lunch, a shower and a hurried return of our boards we negotiated a helmeted motorbike ride back to the bus station. There we used the 1,000 rupiah bathroom, grabbed some snacks from the stalls and made our way onto the bus.
This bus was even better. Not. It was a 7 hour epic. At least the first bit with the really windy roads was in daylight so I didn't feel as sick, but maybe not as I got to see the craziness of the roads. We ended up getting home around 9.45 pm.

Got some sun this weekend. And really improved upon my watch tan. Something I have been working on for years. Hopefully bu August I will have perfected it.

Sunburnt and Squinty On the beach in Pacitan, Teleng Ria.