Old Bali isn’t dead. It’s just buried.

A sleepless night before a brutally early departure for Denpasar. Fortunately, we’d done the smart thing and checked in online, so we swanned passed the grumpy queue at the check-in counters.

Checking the boards in with Air Asia was also a breeze, especially as they’d recently revised their system and now charge a flat $25 for a 20kg boardbag. Seems like most airlines are now getting the message that surfers travel a lot and now treat us like they actually want our business! Air Asia has always been onto this, especially with their Australia – Indonesia traffic playing such a big role in their business.

It was a new plane and the smart one in our party (me) scored an empty row so I could lift up the seat-arms and catch up on missed sleep. I woke up on the way down, just in time to note the absence of even a hint of swell on either side of the runway. Bali was flat as.

Hitting the road with Jack.

As we headed Northeast from the airport, past Sanur and the better-known lower-Eastcoast spots, the road eventually narrowed, the traffic thinned and the years seemed to slide away in our slipstream as we drove into the past. We were heading for Old Bali.

Navigating the Tardis was Jack Chisholm, who runs Tropicsurf in Bali. Specialising in luxury surf travel, he’s been basing his guests at the Four Seasons in Jimbaran and various villas around Seminyak.

Despite the consistent lashings of excellent surf that keeps his customers satisfied, Jack was restless, itching for that earlier Bali experience of empty lineups in serene settings. If finding it meant settling for mellower, less challenging waves, Jack considered it could actually be a bonus. Many of his guests were slowing down from their charging days to cruising speed, and were no longer that keen to spend their Bali holidays hassling with hungry packs for their share of the sumptuous wave feast.

Our lips are sealed. Sort of.

The real hunt for new waves began on the other side of the pretty tourist village of Candi Dasa. Most of the waves in this zone are semi-secret or never-heard-of, and we have to be careful about how much we disclose. Longbreak has never been shy about giving full details of well-known breaks, but we also respect the right of locals and pioneers to keep their secrets. Jack is happy to take small groups to the spots he’s found himself, but he asks you to keep things quiet so those who make the trek after you will still find relatively uncrowded waves.

That said, the main reason these spots are so quiet is that they require a long trip and rare conditions to deliver - and a bit of voodoo to work it all out. Along with studying swell charts, tides, moon phases and barometric pressures, Jack also seemed to have the required knack of chatting to Zombies and reading chook entrails. We put our faith in him and were duly rewarded

Our first stop was probably the only reasonably well-known spot up there. (Without saying too much, when you get to the concrete cow you’ve gone too far.) It’s a long, right pointbreak with an outside section and inside bowl that link up on the right swell and tide. A bunch of local kids have the inside bowl wired, so we left them to it and took some longboards out to the back. After a couple of hours of fun, trimming and noseriding along the smallish but zippy outside section, the tide hit the magic level and the set waves started linking up with the inside bowl. Clearly not used to surfing with many visitors, the kids were refreshingly happy to share. In turn, we made sure to leave plenty of waves to them - cutting out on most waves before we hit the bowl – but screaming through on a few of them for some of the longest rides on the island. There’s something special about stepping off a wave onto the beach – even if it’s covered in ankle-snapping stones.

We found several more promising setups further North, simply by pulling over whenever Jack felt ‘The Vibe’, and trekking across ricepaddies and around rocky headlands, to find perfect little waves dredging across reefs and reeling along points.

Again, we were there during a really flat spell, but the potential of what could happen with just a bit more swell and a kinder tide was enough to make us consider camping out and keeping an eye on things. (Camping?! Jack doesn’t roll that way: five stars are barely enough.)

The magic of discovering unexpected delights is what draws so many of us back to Bali year after year, and a Full Moon Trip to the relatively unexplored Northeast Coast yields its fair share of them.

This was just one of them:

Returning from one surf session, we saw a crudely painted sign nailed to a tree along the road that pointed down a track to a ‘Virgin Beach.’ We were a bit short of them, so we decided to see what we would find. We followed the winding track as far as we could, getting lost several times before finding more signs pointing to the ‘Virgin Beach.’ Eventually the meagre track petered out and we walked the rest of the way, emerging onto the most beautiful white sand beach, fronting a bay of clear water protected from the swell by soaring cliffs.

The aroma of barbecued seafood drifted towards us from a small string of warungs, while Swedish backpackers frolicked in the sea with topless dolphins. (Okay, I made that last bit up. They may have been Danish.) We spent the afternoon feasting on barbecued lobster and prawns, sipping icy Bintangs and getting absolutely nowhere with the Scandinavians. But we did get change from a dollar – just about.

Living in the past.

The closer we got to the village of Manggis, named after the strange looking but deliciously juicy mangosteen, the more traditional or ‘older’ the scene became. The road rolled through striking terrain between the foothills of brooding Mount Agung and the coast, past water palaces, rice paddies, a bat temple and fat buffaloes rolling in mud as crates of ducks flew by on trucks … we weren’t in Kansas any more.

Beyond the village, we turned off into the grounds of the Alila Manggis. The elegantly maturing hotel is from a time and place when virtues like room to ramble and endless views from every room, were considered basic essentials in a good hotel.

A collection of 4 two-storey buildings that house the 53 rooms and suites, as well as the restaurant and spa, overlook the grassed coconut grove that slopes gently past the pool to the beach. The buildings and rooms have a timelessly modern design, somehow accommodating both efficiency and slothful comfort. All have balconies or verandahs with day beds and the ground floor rooms open directly onto the grove.

The restaurant is open on three sides, exposed to the views and every breath of breeze. Yet if you should somehow feel a bit confined in such open surroundings, the staff will set up a table for you right on the edge of the lawn, close enough to the sea to toss your chicken bones in. (Behave. This is not your average surf camp.)

The Alila Manggis has a reputation for serving excellent, traditional East Bali cuisine and they’ll even teach you how to do it all yourself on one of their cooking courses. We left it to the pros, and got happily fat without the effort.

www.alilahotels.com/manggis

Going back in the future?

Is a trip to the Northeast coast worth the time and effort - and the risk of getting skunked? If you’re after a luxury Bali trip with a small crew, one that your wife will enjoy (almost) as much as you, you couldn’t do better than a Full Moon Trip with Jack Chisholm and Tropicsurf.

If you have the time, you should consider spending your fist few days with Jack at Jimbaran or Seminyak, to get the frothing for surf out of the system and the shopping-till-your-wife-drops out of the way. By then, you’ll have slowed down enough to enjoy the cruise up the coast and the old-school pace that awaits.

Jack ensures than non-surfing spouses are as happy as Larry.
Apart from the luxury accommodation, he lays on shopping excursions, cultural tours, spa indulgences and other ‘aaaah’ activities. He also arranges for surfers travelling with their wives to get their fill of surf in early, leaving a big chunk of the day free for couples-time.

As for getting skunked, the risk really isn’t that great. We were there during a very flat spell, yet still surfed at least once every day - mostly with nobody else out. And if it’s really flat up there even during the full moon, it’s not that far to cut back to the more reliable swell magnets for a session. Just part of the magic of Bali …

www.alilahotels.com/manggis
www.tropicsurf.net

Destination Details

Where to Stay
Alila Manggis
www.alilahotels.com/manggis

Getting There.
Air Asia has regular flights from Australia to Bail.
www.airasia.com

A Tropicsurf package includes airport greetings and farewells, two themed cultural dinners, two bottles of wine, VIP customs clearance, airpoprt transfers, 1 spa treatment, 1 signature alila experience (from a wide range of options), 1 cooking class with lunch for non-surfing partners and access to a range of rarely surfed waves on "Old Bali"
www.tropicsurf.net/index.php?page=Alila-Full-Moon

Health
Suncreen, small medical kit, mosquito repellent. Comprehensive travel insurance is mandatory.

Surf Gear
Your favorite board.Board shorts and rash vests are all you’ll need in the surf. A surf hat is useful for the sun.

Communication
Mobile network is good - costs of global roaming calls are expensive.
Tropicsurf can pre- arrange local sim cards for you.  

When to Go
The East Coast is a good December-March destination. Full moon full tides are optimum time slots.