HTs Resort & Martin Kalajzich
As far as i heard Rick might have deserved an arse kicking for a few things but that could be all rumours. You get a lot of loose units in those parts and Rick was slandering a few operators all over the internet a while back such as Martin Daly. Pretty sure thats why he got beaten up but who knows. Indo dreaming might know the full story. Not sure if he wants to get involved though it was a serious situation.
In saying that i dont agree with physical violence for that sort of thing.
There are other nice places to stay near HT's and also telescopes but for telescopes area you'd want a boat to get to the waves.
What about maceronis resort?
Id recomend buying the latest lonely planet indo guide and have a browse.
Don't know Martin(maybe he was one of those guys from Sydney the brays from memeory if he is I did met one of them briefly on the ferry and he seemed like a arrogant dick) anyway there was a big dispute between the original owners of the resort and rick, basically the indo owners leased or sold the land twice to both party's, one built the resort then rick came along and said thank you it's now my resort i own this land hence the resort, I met rick once and heard 100 stories about him, surprised the guy is still alive.
Anyway I believe it all went to court and I think the indo land owners went to jail, the Sydney guys got the resort and maybe rick got a pay out.
I guess ht,a would suit your needs just don't expect I crowded waves.
You know pushing 58 has some draw backs - for one thing I wonder if I will be able to handle the looming east coast swell event - but getting the old 7'2" dusted off for maybe another big charge. On the other I am glad I got to surf all the spots you talk about from a boat in the early nineties - before the resorts and other boats and crowds. Hello to Captain Matt Cruden if you read this stuff - RIP Katika. Violence and ownership does not quite sit with my 70's Morning of The Earth point of view. Shame it comes to that. Aaaaahhhh HTs - what a wave!
Awera Island or botik are good options
I'm looking at somewhere for 2 weeks later this year (Sept) for my (non-surfing) wife. Done the G-Land thing a few times, but she would like somewhere a bit more fancy this time. Snorkelling in walking distance (not boat) for her, a reasonable wave in walking distance (not boat) for me.
We were looking at Aloita (I've been wanting to go there for years, when it was unknown and not promoted), but had a look at the high-season prices now and forget it! Might try to get there off-season some time coz it looks nice.
Looking at Rote - might end up there.
But the main contender at the moment is HTs Resort. Looks good, but their website is crap - looks pretty but no substance, no info, useless. I can't find many reviews of the place, just 2 on TripAdvisor and otherwise not much. Then I found that the owner is a Martin Kalajzich, so I did a bit of searching and found an article in Swellnet by Stu Nettle in Dec 2008 about Martin arrested in Padang for assault on Rick Cameron. Hmm, interesting. Couldn't find any more details about the case do dunno what the outcome was. I know that was 7+ years ago, but still relevant.
I don't want to support dodgy characters, but if all that is now water under the bridge and Martin is actually a decent bloke then that's ok.
Anyone got any thoughts about the place or the owner they'd care to share?