Saturday, June 26, 2010

And the winner is...

On Wednesday, I participated in Rollan’s jujitsu class - a big step outside of my comfort zone to voluntarily experience pain. Despite that, it was a lot of fun learning a few techniques and beating up on huge, 250lb men! Ok, maybe they beat me up too but at least I got a few licks in. I definitely was feeling the pain Thursday though. It was a complete write-off for me as all these muscles in my neck and shoulder decided to seize up in protest of the previous night’s activities. It also probably didn't help that I had a heavy MSG laden dim sum lunch... nap time was great!

Watching the Karate class @ Dojo Aora

Saturday night was pretty epic. We started off our adventure at Bali Brawl 2 – Indo’s 2nd ever MMA event. Rollan had a few people from his gym fighting so it was pretty cool to have that personal connection (well, only Rol had the personal connection but still lol). The fighting was great! Lots of big hits, slams and kicks. There was even a girl fight (the Aussie was scary). 2 out of the 3 fighters from Rol’s gym won – one hurt his opponent so badly that he couldn’t stand for the rest of the night (probably won’t be able to stand for the rest of the week!). We sat with Allen (another guy from Rol’s gym) and his lady-boy friend Michelle. Michelle sneaked in arak (Balinese moonshine) so fun was had by all.

We actually had a pretty lucky/random night at Bali Brawl 2 – we won a door prize (XL thong that I gave to Michelle) and the grand prize (surfboard that was promptly sold for $300 USD!). We even ran into a client at the fight! I was collecting the thong when the announcer asked for my name and where I was from. As I was leaving the ring, a guy sitting ringside started talking to me saying that he was from Vancouver too! Long story short, he and Rol have actually known each other for years and I’ve even recently (within the last week) exchanged emails with him! What a small, small world.

After the fight, we headed to a small bar on Jl. Benesari for a couple rounds of bintang with Allen and Stewart (yet another guy from the gym). We then headed to Panterai, a Greek restaurant on Legian to meet up with the Noko and Kendall (the 2 winners), Nico (Rol’s jujitsu teacher) and their entourage. It wasn’t until we headed to the next bar (Eikon) for more shenanigans that I learned one that of the ‘entourage’ members was actually an Indo actor (Andrew White). I jokily asked him if he was an A-list celeb or a C-list celeb and he said A-list of course. I didn't believe him until we moved from Eikon to Sky Garden to dance. There at Sky Garden, girl after girl would point at him, take his picture, come up to him and generally harass him. Later, I discovered from one of Rol’s Jakarta friends that he’s more B-list than A-list but it sure didn't seem that way at the club! From Sky Garden, Kendall, Maria (his awesome gf), Andrew, Rol and I headed to KFC for some early morning eats. Did I mention at this point the sky was getting light? It was 5:30 in the freaking morning! I finally got home around 6:15am and went promptly to sleep. An MMA fight + winning things + closing down 4 bars + great company made for a epic adventure!

At the beginning of the night


Noko (in the green camo shorts) besting his opponent. 5 rounds


The girl fight. Scary Aussie is on the bottom. She won.

I also have a few good videos of the fight - unfortunately it's taking forever to load so perhaps I'll try again when I have a faster connection.