i got my new passport!! what a relief!! last week, i was checking when it expires because i knew it was coming up. i’m going to indo this sept. and if i didn’t check it, i would have been stopped at dempasar airport for sure. why? because you need it to be valid 6 months after date of entry. well, i only had 5 months. being stopped in indo and then turned around would have sucked. so i had only 10 days to get a new passport before my journey starts. i was stressing out. then i found out that i could make an interview with a customs agent and get a passport in 2 days. and in 2 days i got my new electronic passport…. now i can travel around the world again for the next 10 years….
* i was checking out my old passport to check out the countries i’ve been in the last 9 years. australia, micronesia, south africa, singapore, philippines, korea, hong kong, fiji, samoa, tahiti, mexico, indonesia 6 times, and japan about 40 times. i guess i did my fair share of traveling. can’t wait to see where i’m going in the next 10 years. the journey continues. and now that i’m going to buy a new video camera, you’ll be able to join me. stay tuned….
***it was 8 years ago back in 2000 when i was invited on a boat trip to the mentawai islands, north sumatra, indonesia. surfing world photographer yoshiro nakayama, bali legend wayan ganti, and all the JPSA judges were on the boat. we had a freaking blast. i was the youngest one on the boat so i was kind of nervous being surrounded by these guys. but after a few bintangs, age didn’t mean anything. we all got along and had such a great time. surfing perfect waves with nobody around for miles and miles, eating fresh sashimi every night, the jokes, the sea snakes, and tons of ever lasting memories. back in 2000, there were only a few boats operating in the mentawai’s so we had the top spots pretty much to ourselves. it sure ain’t like that anymore so i’m glad i had my video camera and documented uncrowded mentawai’s…… this is part 1 of 4 so stay tuned for the rest…..
