Dispatch 004: Apa Kabar from Java

Apa kabar.

The last two weeks have been the most chaotic since I started this newsletter.

I finished Sumba. Got a diagnosis I wasn't expecting. My nineteen-year-old son flew in to surf with me for the summer. Somewhere in the middle, I sat in an Indonesian clinic and watched the cost of American healthcare collapse in front of me.

A lot to unpack.

Let's start with the episode dropping tomorrow. I close out the circumnavigation of Sumba. Most of the film covers the Southwest Coast. Without giving too much away, it was exactly what I expected. That isn't a good thing.

Tourism has taken hold. Prices are absurd compared to the rest of the island. You notice a different feel among the locals inside an hour. I wasn't impressed. I got out sooner than planned.

You can probably guess which part of the island that is. I'll leave it at that.

The North Coast saved the series. Still desolate. Still untouched. Hundreds of wild horses were moving through the grass like the island had decided to put on one last show before letting me go. I couldn't have written a better ending to a three-part film.

Then one more thing. I went back to Waingapu, to the market from the first episode, where I bought the betel nut. What I bought had rotted. I was determined to try it properly before leaving Sumba. I did. I won't give it away. I'll just say it was a positive experience.

Now here's what happened when the cameras went off.

I rode back to that right-hand point break for a few more days in the water before flying to Bali to meet my son Donovan. While there, I aggravated a back injury I've been carrying for the past year. Decided to bail early and find a doctor in Bali.

The good news. I finally have a diagnosis.

The bad news. I need back surgery.

Bone spurs on my two lower vertebrae have fused them together. I had no idea this was even a thing until a Balinese doctor pointed at the X-ray and showed me. The procedure is called an endoscopic lumbar laminotomy. About $75,000 in the USA. About $5,000 in the right hospital overseas. Even with the health insurance I still carry in the States, the math isn't close.

The cost of waiting in America. The cost of living there while I recover and the part nobody puts a number on, dealing with insurance companies.

I'll keep you posted. There will be at least one medical tourism video in the near future.

Donovan arrived a few days later. He's on summer break from college. I've been dying to show him my Indonesia and the life I built after I left the one we used to share. Surgery can wait. It's going to take planning anyway.

After taking him around the popular breaks in Bali, we headed to Java. My favorite island in Indonesia. It was also my first stop after leaving the USA a year ago.

I'm stuck out of the water on doctor's orders. But standing in the same villages and warungs and surf towns with my son, telling him the stories I lived a year ago, more than makes up for it. Some trips you take for the road. Some you take so the people you love can see what the road did to you.

The biggest surprise is still the cost of healthcare here. My X-ray and doctor's consultation cost about $50.

I'll say it again. Fifty dollars.

No appointment required. A small wait. In and out in under three hours.

I won't rant about American healthcare. We all know. Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the country. Two thirds of personal bankruptcies trace back to them. And a Johns Hopkins study estimated medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer. The system that's supposed to keep you alive is one of the top three reasons you don't make it.

Let that sit for a minute.

The two eSIM setup. I've been running this for a year. It works.

The first eSIM is Red Pocket. Ten dollars a month. I keep it for one reason. To hold onto my US phone number. Texts come through. Calls come through. No data on that line. Once it's set up you forget it exists.

The second eSIM is Saily. Currently on their unlimited plan at $49 a month. That's my data. That's where the world lives.

The reason to split it. Flexibility. Plans change. Mine have changed numerous times this year. New country. New coverage need. New price point. Switching data providers without porting my number is the difference between a five-minute fix and a three-day headache.

A year of running two phone numbers on one phone. No dropped calls home. No data panic at a border crossing. No SIM card swaps in a warung parking lot.

If you're planning a long trip and you want one piece of infrastructure to get right, get this one right.

The 2027 Buffer Travels meetup is moving forward. I'm setting up the Facebook group this week. Full details in the next dispatch. Keep replying with where you'd want to go. I'm reading every one.

Kebebasan.

The road is in charge.

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