K2K, Bali, Week 2

K2K, Bali, Week 2

18-01-17

Amed to Tejukuling

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564206

We farewelled the wonderful people at Kirana Homestay, especially Potu, who is just lovely and a wonderful asset to this place. It seems there is nothing she doesn’t know. So we saddled up and headed out of the laneway, turning left at the now huge puddle/lake on the main road. It was a nice morning’s ride, initially some small hills. As the road was following the North Coast of Bali, you get the usual creek and river crossings, as well as the occasional headland to get up and over.

As the morning went on, the going got flatter and easier. We stopped under the shade of a nice cool tree for a short rest and a drink of water.  An elderly Balinese man crossed the road to meet us, he explained that he didn’t speak much English (that’s ok, we speak no Indonesian) but he still wanted to try to communicate with us and learn about our story. He was a really nice guy and so friendly. Despite the language barrier, we were soon having lots of laughs together. We find that if we are patient and willing to take the time, all sorts of people want to know us, yes, some want to sell us something, but we understand that. Most just want to make sure that we are ok and that we know the way to our next destination. Balinese people are fantastic, we just love them.

We arrived at the village of Tejakuling, with instructions to turn right down a little laneway towards the beach about two kilometres away. This laneway quickly became only one bike wide and turned around this little warung, Warung Seni, that was just tiny, but looked so cool just nestled in its own little jungle setting. It didn’t look open, so we decided to find our homestay and come back later to check it out. We wandered on down the lane, a lady on a motorbike was coming the opposite way to show us the way in. We were there early, it was only 12 noon, how she knew we were on our way down the lane I don’t know. Some kind of bush telegraph perhaps? When we book, we do let the hosts know that we are travelling by bicycle, so maybe word gets out as people see us go by.

It was lucky she did come out to meet us, as we never would have found the place, down a little track through a banana plantation. There was a little confusion over which room was ours, but once sorted out, we had a quick shower and headed for the beach. This was a nice setting, the beach a bit rocky and narrow, but a beautiful coast line, if you could try hard to not see the rubbish. Not the worst we had seen.

We had a fresh juice at a beach bar at the resort next door. We sat and enjoyed the breeze off the South China Sea for a while. As we sat here enjoying our cool drinks we noticed something quite large in the water about 80m out from the shore. It was a large dolphin, rising to the surface, taking a breath and then slowly submersing again. From the size, shape and colour we were pretty sure it was a False Killer Whale. How lucky were we to have spotted him slowly cruising by. The food here was a bit expensive at the resort bar, so we were just deciding to walk up and see if the little warung was open when we got a message from our host that she had just gone past it, and it was open, so we headed that way.

Another really nice guy, Ngurah runs this place, he has an art shop there, with his own work, as well as his brother who does really cool wood carving. He also does all the cooking in the tiniest kitchen you have ever seen. His food is amazing. We just wanted something light as it was by now, mid afternoon, and we really wanted to enjoy dinner here. So he recommended sharing his fresh vegetable spring rolls, which were amazing and presented very well.

Later that evening, we went back and despite being in Bali, it would seem that Ngurah’s specialty is his pizza. He has no oven. He just does them in a pan. So we ordered a vegetable pizza to share and a cold drink. Now we have had some good pizzas in our time, but this completely blew us away. It was so good, so much flavour, but also very fresh. The base is made with rice flour believe it or not, but it works.

We wandered back to our room through the dark jungle, dodging toads and other unseen wildlife.

19-01-17

Tejakuling to Lovina Beach

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564210

We couldn’t help but have breakfast at our favourite little warrung on the way out in the morning. We dithered, we dallied, we had another coffee. We talked at length with Ngurah’s German partner, Julia. Finally, we had to leave. It wasn’t a big day ahead, only about forty ks, but the longer we leave it, the hotter, and possibly wetter it would get. So we dragged ourselves away and hit the road.

Despite the shorter distance, we knew the traffic would be heavy later as we had to go through Singaraja, the North Coast’s largest city. It was pretty hectic, but ok. We kept having this guy in a blue minivan trying to stop us and get us to pay for a ride. He initially drove past and called out to us, “Where you going?” I’m not sure how he expected us to communicate with the pedalling, noise and smoke of his van and the traffic, but we kept going. A bit later he was on the side of the road, just around a corner waiting to ambush us. We didn’t want to be rude, but there was nowhere we could pull over. So we just yelled out Lovina, and that we didn’t need a ride thank you, and kept going. He passed us again, pointing at the sky, “Big Rain Coming, you want taxi?”. No thank you. Keep riding.

We were now, right in the heart of Singaraja, the road twists and turns a bit, but we were now experts at Balinese roundabouts and we flowed through with the slow moving traffic without any problems, to the blaring sounds of Azan, the Muslim call to prayer. Then, just around a roundabout, parked in the middle of the Singaraja main street traffic, was Mr Blue Fucking Mini Van Guy again. “Taxi Sir? Where You Going?”  FFS, “No Thank You, we have bikes.” He must have finally got the message as that was the last we saw of him.

Google maps wasn’t our friend today and gave us a few bum steers looking for our stay at Lovina Beach. But once again a friendly lady helped us to find the right street (Jalan). Sartaya 2 homestay was nice, they were doing lots of work there. The room was large and air-conditioned, but somehow not quite right. It was comfortable, no problems there, but it sort of felt like we were sleeping in an empty swimming pool with a roof on.

We wandered down to the beach. Lovina’s specialty is Dolphin tours, so there was a lot of pressure on the streets from people trying to sell tours. It was a bit over the top. We had a nice lunch in a little Warrung, where Mary finally got a nice fresh Avocado salad, something she had been craving.

The owner was horrified at the thought that we wanted to bring our bikes to the room and said that she guaranteed that they would be safe in the motorbike park. I think she had someone guard them all night. They were fine, but of course I didn’t sleep well worrying.

Over all, we didn’t like Lovina Beach much. It’s one of those things that is hard to explain why, “It’s just the vibe of it.”

20-01-17

Lovina Beach to Pemuteran

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564221

We got ourselves organised early, had an early breakfast and headed off on the bikes just before 8am. It wasn’t a really long ride today but we did want to take a small detour and visit the Buddhist Moastery/Temple, Brahmavihara Arama along the way. The riding was quite easy and flat, as we followed the coast until we got to our short detour.

Of course, according to our limited experience, most Buddhist temples are built in high places, this one was built up on top of a large hill overlooking the coast. The road went straight up with an easy grade at first then slowly but surely getting steeper as we climbed. Then a nasty little pinch right at the top saw me pushing Priscilla up. Soaked to the skin in sweat as there was no breeze. When we reached the car park to the temple we were greeted by a lovely young guy, who was most helpful and organised sarongs for us and explained where to go. There was a lot of interest in our bikes and our adventure here, so it was nice to chat for a while and get our sweating under control before we put our sarongs on to head inside.

This temple is built over several levels, high on a ridge overlooking the North Bali Coast. It is a very open design, with lots of small buildings with interesting artworks, culminating at the top level with an orange Pagoda on one side and a volcanic stone Stupa on the other. It was a great experience. We always ask each other afterwards why it is that we both connect so much more with Buddhist places than others. Interesting.

For every good climb, there is a great descent. This one had us whipping through small laneways, past Warungs and small shops, and it was like having the air-conditioning on full blast, it was so cool.

Back to the main road, we put in some solid k’s and with about fifteen to go, we were getting hungry and in need of a cool drink. We were struggling to find somewhere attractive, so in the end we just stopped at a dingy warung and tried to get across that we needed one vegetarian lunch and two cold soft drinks. We didn’t do too bad, but the nice lady brought out two massive lunches, a bit like a Nasi Campur, that we tried to struggle through. Some parts were a bit spicy, which wasn’t to Mary’s taste, but there was plenty for her to eat regardless. The tricky part was the drinks. First, a light coloured drink that looked a bit like fanta, this was in a recycled Corona bottle with a new label, the other looked like a cola. Anyway, they were nice and cold. Then, the taste test. Ummmmmm. As we couldn’t interpret the labels, we don’t know what they were, we just nicknamed them Unleaded and High Octane Premium, because they sure tasted like something you really shouldn’t drink.

The last ten k’s into Pemuteran is quite beautiful, with the beach on our right and jungle clad mountains on our left, who needs the Great Ocean Road. We rolled into town, past the monkey temple, with monkeys all around the place, and then under an ornately carved stone arch with dragons protecting us on both sides.

We turned up a little laneway to our left and a short way up we found our accommodation, Adisya Homestay. Our hosts, Wayan, Iloh and their lovely family are so great. They just couldn’t do enough for us. A nice cold watermelon juice that was so welcome, a nice simple room and a great spot to sit outside on the veranda overlooking the garden. We had decided that this would be a good place to catch up on our laundry etc. and to plan our first few days in Java, so we extended our stay.  We went for a walk to the beach. The town of Pemuteran is very clean and tidy, and we spotted many good standard Warungs as potential places to eat along the way. The beach had a bit of rubbish on it but didn’t look too bad. We sat at a nice bar under a shady tree and had another cold drink while enjoying the ocean breeze. On our walk back we saw a lovely family all washing their dogs in the ocean. These little dogs including a young puppy were all in really good condition and had great clean shiny coats. After their dunk and swim in the ocean it was time for a sand rub all over and then a shampoo and back into the water to rinse off. How great to see these dogs being so well looked after.

Wayan and Iloh had offered to cook for us that night, which we had graciously accepted. Mary just felt like something really simple and light and had a nice plate of fresh fruit and I had Gado Gado, which was also very good.

21- 01-17

Day off in Pemuteran.

We both had a really good solid night sleep in our very comfortable home away from home. We were however awoken at 4.50am with the sound of the local Muslim Azan and its call for prayer. For some reason it was extremely loud this morning, I suppose it is something we will have to get used to when travelling through Muslim countries. We were able to fall back to sleep after and didn’t wake till after 7.30am. It was nice to have a sleep in. We enjoyed a very relaxed morning with breakfast on the veranda and then a stroll down the main street. We came to an interesting café/bakery so popped in and had a look. It was morning tea time and here we were able to order espresso coffee and a croissant. We sat on a large relaxing lounge and with a nice cool breeze blowing through the open walled café. We had a view of a large open paddock of green grass lined with tall trees that went right down to the ocean. Such a lovely view and cool place to chill for a while.

We thought a stroll along the beach and maybe a swim would be next on the agenda but when we walked to the water’s edge we were horrified with the amount of rubbish that had accumulated on the foreshore and in the water over night.  Plastic rubbish was everywhere, all down the beach and all floating in the water. The more you looked the more rubbish there was. It really did not look inviting for a swim, not even a paddle. We really don’t know how you could snorkel in such terrible water. Such a sad and heart breaking sight to see.

We wandered back to our accommodation and decided it was time to do a decent walk and climb the large hill behind us that Wayan had mentioned, as it was the best place to get a great view of the village. We took a back lane that led us through a handful of small farming properties with tethered cows and pigs and lots of chickens and newly hatched chicks all running around. We met lots of lovely friendly people along the way all happy to say hello, and a couple of young girls with their dear young dog jumping for joy as he followed them along. Think he was one happy pup to be loved and who had a caring home. The dogs here in Pemuteran didn’t seem that bad. Most were in pretty good condition and not many showing signs of itchy skin problems which was really good to see.

We found the narrow path that led us up the hill and as we followed it up the steepness of the hill became quite pronounced. It was a really good workout climbing this baby, and when we reached the flag marker we were literally soaked to the skin with sweat. The view up there was breath taking. So beautiful and so surreal. We could see 360 degrees all around with the ocean, the village and the mountainous range behind us. Not only was the sight amazing but the sound up there was incredible. We had climbed the hill on a day where there was a ceremony in progress in the Hindu Temple that sat neatly on the side of the next hill. We noticed beautifully dressed men and women following a concrete path all the way up to the temple. We decided that we would take the time and follow as well, but thought that we would stop outside the temple as we were not wearing appropriate clothing. Once we got closer an elderly man invited us up into the temple and said it was ok for us to enter and stay. We quietly walked inside the open roofed building and sat on the floor and watched part of the ceremony. With lots of beautiful music playing and six young people sitting in front receiving offerings of rice on their foreheads and hair, and all receiving a blessing with holy water. As we looked around we noticed two very skinny dogs, one went and hid but the other just hung around having a little bark at Dave on and off. She was looking very poorly, a lactating bitch with four of her puppies spread around in the shade all sleeping peacefully. She obviously is a good mum feeding these puppies as they all looked well, but it certainly was taking everything out of her.

We quietly stood up and started to walk down the stairs, this time following the concrete path all the way down to the bottom of the hill that then led to the main road. We walked along the main road heading back into the village and back to our accommodation.

Later, heading out for dinner, we stopped to look at the menu at Warung Ganesh. It looked nice, but westernised. A young lady came out to explain to us that they were just opening up an area out the front called “The Canteen”. This was a local food place at local prices, a very limited menu, but we were welcome to try it out, which we decided we would. We were their first customers, ever, and I think they were a bit worried that we wouldn’t like the real Bali food. They made a nice vegetable soup with rice for me, that we couldn’t remember the name of. Dave had a Nasi Kucing, which is rice and noodles with a spicy sambal and a small amount of protein that can vary. In this case it was octopus, all wrapped up in a banana leaf.

The staff were all waiting around to see if it was too hot for Dave, ready for a good laugh, but he really enjoyed it. All in all, it was great, two meals, two beers for Dave and a soft drink for me was only 69000 IRP, about seven aussie dollars. Wow such great value and so much fun.

22-01-17

Day off in Pemuteran.

Today we went for a walk up to the Eastern end of the beach, we planned to make it to the monkey temple that we had seen on the way into town.  By the time we got to the end of the beach we were so disheartened by the amount of rubbish in the water and on the beach, we decided to not go any further. The monkeys were on the beach, picking over the rubbish for scraps. The rubbish is all household rubbish, mostly single use plastics. Shopping bags, drinking straws, yoghurt containers, tooth brushes, you name it, it was there. We have noticed while riding around Bali, that many people dump their rubbish, sometimes by the truck load, into creeks and rivers. Then, as soon as it rains, out it goes, into the ocean, some of it gets washed back up onto the beaches. Where the rest goes, well we’ll just have to imagine it.  We love Bali, and we love the Balinese people. But this problem has real potential to turn Bali into “Paradise Lost” if the problem can’t be managed. People will, and are starting to not come here because of it. We are not on our High Western Horses here, we acknowledge that we have our environmental problems in Australia too. This is a disaster.

We had heard stories of the monkeys in Bali jumping on you and stealing your belongings but these monkeys all seemed to mind their own business and were just too busy sorting through the rubbish and running away with fallen coconuts, that they really didn’t care too much about us walking past. Well behaved monkeys in this part of Bali. We walked along the main road back to our accommodation where Illuh made us fresh coffee and delicious fried banana. I crashed out early without any dinner, where Dave ventured out and grabbed a strange bag of chips and a beer. We really enjoyed our stay in Pemuteran, as we found the village to be very friendly, the streets and gardens to be clean and tidy and we had lots of fun here.

24-01-17

Pemuteran to Banyuwangi

Today we rode our last leg of Bali, to the ferry port where we caught the ferry to Java. It was a sad feeling leaving Bali as we loved our time here, loved the people, the food and the coffee. We enjoyed our morning breakfast of banana pancake, fresh fruit and coffee, and then said our fond good byes to Iluh, unfortunately we were unable to say goodbye to Wayan as he had already left for the day. The ride to the ferry was really good with the last 20km’s being amazing as we rode through quiet farming villages and the National Park that sat on our right hand side. It felt so peaceful riding along through this farming area and a much needed ride through nature.

We thought that once we hit Gilimanuk it would become busy, but it was really quiet on the roadside all the way to the ferry port. To catch the ferry was a piece of cake. We just followed the motorbikes into a queue and lined up and bought our 7000 IRP ticket each and rode our bikes onto the ferry. Java was so close, and the ferry ride only took about 20 minutes plus about 20 minutes waiting for a berth and then we just rode our bikes off and here we were in Java.

We had about 11km’s to ride to get to our next homestay Didu’s Homestay in Banyuwangi. Here we found ourselves on a very busy road with lots of motorbikes, cars and trucks, who were very aware of us cycling and never gave us a problem as they overtook us. We were getting close to our homestay and starting to feel really hungry when we saw a sign ‘Country Café, so we stopped for a bite to eat. Everything on the menu was ‘jamur’ meaning mushroom. You could have steak jamur, satay jamur, fried jamur, hot and spicy jamur, so many choices of jamur and they also had fries. We ordered a serve of fries (oh yummy) and a serve of satay jamur. The fries were so welcoming and the satay jamur was really amazing, covered in a delicious peanut sauce. As we ate our lunch, down came the rain. The guys in the café let us bring our bikes inside the café so they didn’t get wet. And here we sat, finished our lunch and it was still raining. With another serve of fries eaten, it again was still raining. We sat for over an hour waiting for the rain to stop but there was no sign of it stopping. Finally, it lightened off, so we decided to make a break for it.

We thought we would be fine riding in the light rain without our jackets on, as our homestay was only a couple of k’s down the road. How wrong we were, the rain got heavy once again and we were soaked in minutes. The rain wasn’t cold so we just continued on our way riding through puddles, past fast flowing creeks and over raging river bridges. Poor old google maps got a little confused and told us to turn right instead of left and literally led us down a garden path. This turned into a very wet and muddy path. We came to a home on the right and asked a dear old man for directions. He didn’t understand English, so he went and got his wife. She didn’t understand English but did invite us to stand out of the rain under their shelter. Their grandson then appeared and he ran inside and grabbed his mum. We were then all standing under the shelter laughing. Dave got out the name of our homestay and showed them and they all nodded and knew where it was. The young grandson who was only about 6 or 7 grabbed an umbrella and showed us the way. The poor little kid had to walk through all the puddles and the mud on the track, looking back at us all the time pushing our bikes just to make sure we were still following. Our homestay was only 50m away from the point of our wrong turn. We thanked the sweet boy so very much and he so very kindly waited at the driveway until we were seen by our hosts.

We received a grand welcome from Maya, Djoko and their staff who were very friendly, and showed us to our timber hut. It was really quaint, lots of airflow, outdoor bathroom and two single beds with mossie nets over them. This made us feel like old people, haha, oh well. The whole set up was fantastic though. They had a communal kitchen, where you could make a coffee, or have a cold drink on an honesty system. Also an amazing communal lounge area, which was an excellent place to chill out. We decided that we would use these guys to arrange our Ijen Crater trek for that night, which would give us a full day and night to recover afterwards. The rain was still coming down, so luckily, they had an order in service, so we arranged an early dinner, before trying to get some sleep before having to get up at midnight for our trek.

K2K, Bali, The Adventure Continues

K2K Bali

11-1-17

Flight In

 After a long break at home, the day had finally arrived to leave for Bali, the start of the next stage of our ride from Kangarilla to Kathmandu. We did our final packing, closed the bike boxes up and then thought that we should get going early and have lunch with our daughter Lauren, at Brighton to kill some time on the way. So we loaded the bike boxes into Ash and Lauren’s van for the trip to the airport. We are so lucky that they still have the van, as it is now the only vehicle in the family that can transport three people and our bikes. Thanks heaps again Ash and Lauren.

A quick farewell to Mary’s Mum, Annette, alias Grandma, was had on the way.

After our lunch at Cream in Brighton we said our goodbyes to Lauren and loaded all our stuff onto two trollies. It was hard work navigating two bike boxes through the doorway of the airport and the lift to departures. We had the usual check in and pass on the bike boxes to the oversize luggage handlers. We then had some time to kill so we headed off for a last Coopers pint before heading through immigration. With a bit more time to kill before boarding we decided to grab another drink. Here we met a yoga friend Kirsty Lee and her husband Danny. They were flying to Bali also and we worked out that they were seated in the row just in front of us. We really enjoyed catching up with these guys and hope they enjoy their week of RnR.

The cabin staff were just getting ready to call the flight when an announcement came through for me to go to the counter urgently. Oh Oh. I went up and introduced myself and the lovely lady from Jetstar said that my bike box had been sent back from being loaded as there was a strange buzzing noise coming from it. She had to escort me back through immigration and then I had to go to the Jetstar enquiry counter which is right at the far end of the check in counter, the furthest part of the building, and they were boarding the flight. Poor Mary had no idea where I went or what was going on. I couldn’t imagine what could be buzzing in Larry’s box. Was this the end of our trip, before it had even started?

I arrived at the counter and was informed to go and see the staff at the oversize baggage, they had the box there waiting for me. When I arrived the box had been opened, and we all looked inside to the amazing sounds of, wait for it, nothing at all. No noise. There was nothing in there but Larry, my cycling boots and helmet. Once the guys were satisfied that there was nothing dangerous in there, (obviously they don’t know Larry very well) they taped the box back up and sent me on my way. So a nice guy escorted me back through the security check, then another rushed me through immigration, where some bored dude decided that this would be a great moment to put me through the body scanner. My escort was furious. So I arrived at the gate to find Mary anxiously waiting for me. As we went down the boarding ramp, we saw Larry going up the luggage conveyor, into the luggage hold, Phew, we could relax. We were last onto the plane, where we found that the only spare seat in the plane was in our row which meant that we could spread out over three seats. How lucky are we again?

I have to say that the Jetstar’s staff were fantastic and calm through the whole process. I am all for airline safety and I am glad that someone asked questions when in doubt. Great work guys.

But then of course, we had to solve the mystery of what the buzzing noise was. As far as we’re concerned, it must have been Larry getting excited, and jumping around in his box. He was on tour again, Yeeww.

Arrival

The plane trip to Bali from Adelaide was only about 5 hours. We had bought a vegan roll from Cream at Brighton, to eat for dinner so we could happily avoid the airplane food. With the extra room in our row, I was able to stretch out and actually lie down and have a little snooze (one benefit from being small). As the plane neared the north coast of Australia, awesome cloud formations began to develop. Nearing our destination we were given a spectacular lightning show which lit up the whole sky above the clouds.

With a safe landing we proceeded to our parking bay and exited by the good old fashion stairs. We breezed through immigration and then onto the next step, our luggage collection. Our bag came out early but we had an extremely long and worrying wait for the most important luggage of all, our bike boxes. Finally, finally they appeared and then off through to customs we went. I went straight through with the luggage but Dave got sent through to the scanning area with the bikes. I wasn’t allowed to follow to help him so he had to man handle the bike boxes onto the conveyor rollers by himself with no officials willing to help him. With that all done and sorted we ventured out to find our organised ride to our accommodation.

We had arranged an Airbnb stay in Denpasar for the first two nights. Rudy, the owner had offered to send two cars to pick us and the bikes up from the airport at a very reasonable rate. It took a while to find our driver, but once we had, we were quickly whisked out to find a little truck for the bikes and a car for us. Even though it was nearly midnight by this time, the traffic in Denpasar was heavy and with motorbikes whipping past us on both sides in all directions, we looked at each other, neither of us quite prepared to say the words, “Shit, how are we going to ride in this.” Luckily we had booked a place that was on the North side of Denpasar, which meant it wasn’t going to be too far to get out of town once we were on the bikes. It turns out this was an awesome decision.  The last ten minutes to our accommodation, “Joglo guest house”, was through tiny laneways with barely enough room for two motorbikes to pass each other. We were shown quickly to our nice little room, and everything was brought in, so we turned the aircon on and crashed into bed exhausted.

12/01/17

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

We planned today as a rest day, time to get our bikes together and organise some local cash etc.

The Joglo guest house is like a private little enclave. Completely walled off, twelve guest rooms/bungalows in a very traditional style. When we emerged from our room onto the porch, we had no idea where we were, a total loss of direction. So a quick explore turned out that we had a little restaurant (warung) in the complex, so we could at least settle the caffeine headache and had a nice breakfast of pancakes and fruit.

We needed to get our bearings, so when Wayan, one of Rudy’s employees offered to take us on a local tour for ten bucks we thought that was a good idea, but we left it until midday so that we could get the bikes assembled before we left.

Larry came out of his box quite easily, despite his airport shenanigans. He was quickly ready to go. Priscilla however, had thrown a shoe in her box. Letting the tyres down for flight, had allowed the rear tyre to unseat the bead. As we always run the fatbikes tubeless, this can be a problem. I couldn’t get the tyre to re-seat the bead with our hand pump. Luckily Wayan had been walking past quite often, very interested to see the fatbikes come together. I explained the problem to him, and he quickly offered to take me to a motorbike repair shop, where they would have a compressor. Turns out, that the transport was to be his motorbike. Holy Crap. So we went, me on the back of Wayan’s motorbike holding Mary’s back wheel with sealant dripping out all over my leg through the back lanes of Denpasar. We arrived at a tiny motorbike repair shop where their little compressor was fired up and the wheel removed from my grasp. I wasn’t allowed to help. They tried everything but really, the little compressor just wasn’t up to the job. So back on the motorbike and out onto the main highway looking for a bigger compressor. We went to a really fancy wheel shop, but it was still no good. I resigned myself that we were going to have to have a tube in this tyre for the meantime, which of course we had a couple with us. I was kicking myself for putting the VeeTire tyre on Mary’s rear, the maxxis mammoth I had put on the front had gone onto the rim much tighter and I could have seated the bead with a hand pump. Another lesson learned perhaps? Thanks again to Wayan for all your help, and your amazing motorbike handling skills.

Later in the day, Wayan took us out to see a few sights, as well as organise some money exchange. We went to some craft galleries, Silver, Batik and Wood Carving. They were really good, but much too touristy for us. We like to see the art of the craftsmen though. Probably the highlight of the day however, was the Luwak coffee tasting.  We are not big fans of how these animals, Civet Cats, are kept in captivity to produce the “Luwak Coffee”, but we did taste the whole range of other teas and coffees that they produce which was done really well in a really nice garden setting. The Luwak coffee was very good and we also really enjoyed a tea that is made from the outer husk of the mangosteen fruit. A stop at the ……......... Temple was next and this was an awesome treat. We wore a supplied sarong and proceeded to walk in through the open gates. The beauty and the history in the buildings within the temple walls were breathtaking. Beautifully preserved stone work and immaculately kept gardens made for a very special spiritual wonder. We were able to lay an offering at any of the statues or buildings and decided to lay ours at the foot of an elephant statue with a personal prayer for freedom and wellness to these magnificent animals. We went to a large waterfall where we grabbed a charcoal grilled sweetcorn on the way down. It was a lot of steps down into the gorge and we worked up quite a sweat getting back up, so we enjoyed a nice cold drink when we got back to the top, Mary a fresh juice and me my first Bintang.

After this we needed to kill some time before dinner, so Wayan took us to a wood carving gallery on the way back. This place had awesome works, but the really funny thing was this sales guy who followed us around, burping the whole time. A few times we really had to work hard to not crack up laughing. But this guy would not give up. Everything ten percent of for you today sir. Anything we looked at that we might have said to each other that we liked, he immediately jumped in to point out the price and was left totally bamboozled as to why we didn’t buy it if we liked it. We enjoyed it, but it was good to leave.

Wayan dropped us off at a nice little restaurant to have an early dinner. It was a nice spot, overlooking a rice paddy. But by this time we were starting to hit the wall, so we ate quickly and headed back to our Airbnb for a good night’s sleep. Great day.

13/1/17

Denpasar to Ubud

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564130

After a good night’s sleep we were up early to complete the setting up and packing of the bikes and then wandered over for another delicious breakfast and Bali coffee. We met Rudy’s wife Meva and had a lovely chat with her. We then caught up with Rudy again as he was once again very helpful and organised an Indonesian sim card for our phone so we could use google maps to help us navigate our way forward.

With goodbyes to Rudy, Meva, Wayan and other staff we pushed our bikes out of the yard and into the laneway. Here was the beginning of our journey by bike. We travelled only a short distance of 500m turning right, turning left a few times before finding the main road. Ok what to do next? This road was crazy, cars, trucks and motorbikes going in all directions. With confidence at this stage -zero, all I could say to Dave was “oh shit”. Next thing help appeared. A security guard from a local business must have seen our dismay and stepped out and stopped all the traffic to allow us to cross. Thankyou kind sir!! Yay hopefully no more crazy crossings ahead. It didn’t take us long to really settle on the bikes, get used to the traffic and blend in as one. The rules are, just go forward and don’t hit anyone. The rules for motorbikes are, wear a helmet if you want to, carry a family of 4 if you want to, stick the kids in front of you while they are still little and it doesn’t matter if they have a helmet on or not and its ok to smoke while riding a motorbike with thongs, singlet top, and no helmet. Basically there are no rules.

Here we were riding along like the crazy motor bike riders, but just a bit slower, when we came across three young kids riding their push bikes to school. They laughed and smiled as we rode past and all saying hello in very friendly voices. We were only about 50 metres ahead when they decided to put the pedals down and overtake us laughing and waving as they passed. They couldn’t keep the pace up for too long, so instead of overtaking them again we decided to just sit quietly behind them and let them enjoy being the leaders of the pack. After a couple of k’s they turned off to their school and we were able to pick up a little more speed and continue at our pace.

The heat and humidity started to ramp up and short steep climbs started to appear. I think with the thick dense air from the humidity and the smog I found myself short of breath at the top of the climbs. A rest was required at the top before venturing on. With the knowledge of only 5 or so k’s to go, it wasn’t too hard to keep moving forward. We hit the outer part of Ubud, and rode with the traffic heading in the direction of our accommodation. We found the correct street and turned at the correct spot, Anila Lane and came to our accommodation. We were greeted by Novika, our host, who immediately made us feel welcome. She showed us to our beautiful luxurious room and organised a welcoming drink of red dragon fruit and watermelon for us. This was very welcomed as we were feeling very hot and sweaty.

Once unpacked and showered we ventured off on foot to find some lunch. Lauren had mentioned that the Yoga Barn was a great place to visit and with this being just down the road we made tracks in this direction. We had a lovely vegan lunch here and really enjoyed the peacefulness that this place offers. As we left we decided to drop into Zen, which was a spa next to the Yoga Barn and see if we could both get a massage. They were more than happy to offer us both a spot for an hour massage each which was just magical. After our massage we enjoyed a cup of ginger tea and a plate of fresh fruit. Luckily Novika sent us on our way with an umbrella each as while we were having our massages heavy thundery rain had set in. We walked out onto the main road with umbrellas in hand and headed off to find the Bali Rescue Dog Centre. Walking along the footpaths, especially while it’s raining is quite challenging. It wasn’t long before it didn’t matter about looking out for puddles as our shoes were soon soaked. You can’t walk along the sidewalks here without looking, otherwise you would be sure to fall into a large hole or trip up on the uneven pathway. We found Bali Dogs and ventured inside, to find a room full of puppies and a couple of large adult dogs. This organisation has at present over 200 dogs on premise, with another 100 dogs being cared for by foster families.
Here we met a lovely Australian family who have just moved to Bali for one year. The mum is a midwife and has volunteered for the whole year to teach midwifery here in Bali, her husband will be home schooling their four beautiful girls. As a family, they have decided to foster three puppies, where they will care for them, train them, and once they are healthy and looking good Bali Dogs will put them up for adoption. How lucky are these puppies. The kids didn’t choose the prettiest puppies either, they chose the ones they felt needed the most help and love. Two of which were the skinniest and mangiest pups of the lot. Here I spoke with Ebony, one of the girls that works tirelessly with the organisation and mentioned to her that we were cycle touring around Bali, Java and Sumatra. She suggested if we see any sick or injured dogs to take a photo of the animal, a screen shot of our location, and a photo of the nearest shop, send them to her and she will organise a rescue team to retrieve the animal. For Java she gave me two contacts, so hopefully we will be able to do the same thing if we happen to come across any animals in need. Unfortunately, there are no rescue organisations in Sumatra, so not sure what we will do there if the need arises. Once I had lots of cuddles, pats and plays with the dogs and puppies on the floor, it was time to leave and head back to our accommodation.

Once back at Anila Lane we had a little rest and then headed back out to the main road in search of some dinner. As we were walking along one of the back lanes we came across a friendly man who was making street food from his little cart. We stopped to see what he was making and it was tofu with peanut sauce for the cost of 1000 IRP. It looked good and fresh and smelt awesome so we ordered one serving and shared it while sitting on a brick wall chatting with a couple of local kids. We then wandered down to the main road and walked the pavement (carefully) while window shopping. All the shops were still open but not very busy so it was a great opportunity to have a look around. We came to one of Lauren’s favorite coffee shops ‘Freak Coffee’ and headed inside and ordered a wicked passionfruit tart to go with the promise that we would be back to try their coffee in the morning. The dessert was pretty awesome. Once back to our accommodation it was time for a mangosteen tea and then bed. What a great day we had.

14/1/17

Rest Day in Ubud

A little sleep in was the order of the day. We still hadn’t quite got our body clocks organised. So we had ordered breakfast for 8am to give us a chance to catch up. Naturally, I was awake at four. By eight, I was starving hungry. Luckily there were coffee making supplies in our room, and I quite like the simplicity of “Bali Coffee”. You use freshly ground coffee, 2 heaped teaspoons in a cup and pour in boiling water, stir, then leave to cool off a bit and let the sediment settle. Perhaps not as good as my favorite espresso, but it’s really so much better than instant.

The amazing Novika delivered a very nice breakfast, Banana Pancake for Mary and boiled eggs and toast for me, with a beautiful bowl of fresh fruit each to set us up for the day. Ok, well, maybe another coffee would be needed.

The morning plan was to just go out for a walk and explore. We had promised ourselves a good espresso at Freak, so we headed in that direction. The main street was very busy, and of course the footpaths are very narrow and broken, which probably makes it look busier than it really is. Not many people walk anyway, motorbikes and “Taxi Sir”?

We arrived at Freak Coffee and ordered Espresso and Macchiato. It was really very good. We then headed in the general direction of the Ubud Palace and the market. I’m not sure if we actually missed the Palace. We went in, to what we thought it was, but I think it was just the outer area. Not sure if the real Palace was open. Oh well. We crossed the road to the market, which was very busy and quite fun with all the noise. I might sound boring I know, but when you’ve seen one market? It was only a stuff market, no food. And we certainly don’t need any stuff. We do like to see good art and craft though, and there definitely were some interesting offerings there.

We carried on. We wanted to check out “The Elephant” for lunch, another of Lauren’s recommendations. After about five k’s walking and 300 “Taxi Sir’s”, we arrived at this quite flash place. As we sat down at the table with the best view, I was laughing with Mary about how they were playing Skyhooks music. Unusual, but cool.  We ordered a light lunch, and I have to say, I was getting quite annoyed at the Skyhooks music. It was destroying the serenity dude. It even seemed to be following me around. Then it dawned on me, and I reached into my pocket for my phone, yep, the Skyhooks was coming from my phone, and I’m sure everyone in the place was looking at that Aussie loser walking around with his Skyhooks pants on. Time to hide under the table.

After lunch, we headed back towards Ubud and down the Monkey Forest road. Lots of international chain stores down here, the usual culprits with the usual victims inside.

We hit the corner where the Monkey Forest entrance was. We had planned not to go in here as we are very against animals put on for human entertainment. We had already seen monkeys around the place. Our feelings were reinforced as we watched the few monkeys hanging around the entrance. A Japanese guy, (to be fair, there were no signs in Japanese) walked in the entrance with his plastic bag of takeaway food, contrary to the warning signs. He was immediately mugged by one of the monkeys. It jumped up on him and started trying to tear into the food bag. The guard ordered him back out and to leave his food at the ticket office. He did that, but it must have been good takeaway, as the monkey followed him, and then jumped into the ticket office still desperate to get the food. It was mayhem, and we decided that it was time to move on. Laughing.

We scoped a couple of potential places for dinner, then headed back to the guesthouse for a couple of hours of chill. We had a great chat with Ketut, the co-owner, and shared some Airbnb hosting stories. It is amazing what Airbnb has brought to the Bali community, a so much better and more effective way to market their guesthouses, independent of the big hotel chains who totally hate Airbnb. Our experience so far, is that if there is ever a good Airbnb available, we would much rather take that option than the sterile hotel one.

We went back out for dinner, our daily budget a bit stretched. We spotted a place that we hadn’t noticed in the afternoon, Warung Semesta, a vegetarian and mostly organic restaurant and their prices were very good. Score. So we sat down and ordered a Nasi Campur to share, a fresh juice for Mary and of course a cold Bintang for me. They brought out a little plate of nibbles, which, included in it, were some lightly coated and deep fried green leaves. We later found that they were spinach leaves (derr) , but they were awesome. The staff were so happy that we liked them, that they brought us out a whole bowl of them. We don’t know what they were called, but a great snack.

On the way home I was walking behind Dave and as we approached the side of a Medical Centre I could hear a kitten. It was really loud and a very distressed sound of a kitten. I stopped and had a look around and found this poor baby in a dirty drain, scrambling to stay out of the water. I picked her up out of the drain and found that both her eyes were sealed shut from a terrible eye infection. She was so tiny and skinny and fitted in the palm of my hand. She lay there screaming and screaming with hunger. We went to ring Ebony from BARC whom we met yesterday but our dodgy sim card wasn’t allowing phone calls out so we were about to facebook message her when her colleague just happened to be passing and could hear the little distressed soul. Alanah come over and was more than happy to take the kitten to the shelter on the back of her motor bike for us. Just as she was about to climb on her bike this huge, bully, fat mean dog with a big thick black studded collar came boaring out of the gate next door. Alanah must know this dog as when she saw it coming she ran quickly into the medical centre and shut the door with the dog only just behind her. He wanted this kitten for a snack. His owner and a couple of other guys just stood there laughing and called the dog off and locked it up behind the gate once more. Alanah gently put the kitten into her should bag and rode off to the shelter that was just a minute or two down the road.

15-01-17

Ubud to Cegeng Lestari Guesthouse, south of Sideman.

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564168

We wanted to get a reasonably early start, so we had ordered breakfast for 7am. We were virtually ready to leave when breakfast arrived but then light rain started to fall. We ate slowly. And then we thought we would just wait it out. At 8:30 we decided that it was light enough that we could get going. By the time we finished loading the bikes and said our goodbyes, it was 9am when the first pedal turned.

Heading out onto the main road, we had to back track a couple of k’s to get on the road to Gianyar. The traffic was very light. We weren’t sure if it was the light rain or the fact that it was Sunday morning. Regardless, it was a bonus for us, and we made good time for the first 15k’s to Gianyar. Pretty cruisy.

The road took us through flat areas interrupted regularly by small river valleys, adding interest to the ride. We had a quick stop to check out some guys working in a wood carving workshop right on the edge of the road. They were carving some posts for what I presumed would be a pergola like structure. They were very ornate and the young craftsmen were very skilled. They also had a good laugh at us silly cyclists wanting to talk with them and admire their work. Even bigger laughs were had when I asked permission to take their photo, it made them quite happy, and I think a few jokes were shared at our expense. Lots of fun.

We then had a little dog leg to get us onto a bridge over the Agung River and through Klungkung before turning up the road to Sideman. Then the climbing started. A very pleasant road with a view straight ahead to Mount Agung, shrouded at times in the clouds. When we looked at the map of where our guesthouse was for tonight, we realised that it was a road that turned off the Sideman road and went back, almost to Klungkung, a dead end road with our guesthouse right at the end. But it was cheap, eighteen bucks including breakfast. The reviews for it were very good. This led to probably the best five kilometres of cycling ever. A very narrow, two bikes wide, bitumen road that took us on this rolling journey through rice terraces and jungle clad valleys, all with the Mount Agung backdrop. It was simply stunning. We stopped for a while just to watch some rice farmers working in the fields, soaking it all up. The final run was down this very friendly lane, losing most of our gained altitude, with lots of friendly Hellos, especially from the kids. We were early, our thirty k’s today had gone by in a flash.

We stopped at a very basic Warung, to buy some fresh fruit and buns for lunch. A very friendly older guy took a liking to us. We couldn’t convince him that we didn’t understand a word he was saying, but he was saying it with a smile on his face, so that’s ok. The lady running the store, smiled at us and made a sign across her forehead and pointed to the old fella, that we both interpreted as “Don’t worry, He’s nuts”. A young guy there looked at the address for us and confirmed that it was just a few hundred metres down the road.

We arrived at the guesthouse very early, but that was no problem and we were shown to our guest bungalow by Wayan and her beautiful newborn baby. It is beautiful, very open, mossies will be a problem I think, but the bed has a good net on it.  It doesn’t matter how far you ride, 5ks or 50, I am soaked in sweat as soon as we start turning the pedals, so it’s great to stay in a place every day that has a shower.

Once not so smelly, we headed out for a walk. The road we were on quickly became a dead end, so we went back up the way we came and walked through a group of kids playing soccer who all wanted to know our names. But I think this was only because they knew that we would then ask their names, which was always some pro football player from Manchester United or Liverpool, followed by much laughing and back slapping about how they were so clever to fool us once again.

Back at our room we met Komang, who got home from his hotel job in Sideman. A lovely guy who spoke great English. They offered to cook for us tonight, so we were up late waiting for Ayam Goreng for me and Papaya Curry for Mary.  We were starving by the time it arrived about 8pm, but I think that is just how the Balinese people’s day works out. They work very hard and long hours. The meal was great by the way.

We crashed out straight away after dinner and slept well.

16-01-17

South of Sideman to Amed Beach

https://www.strava.com/activities/855564191

We organised a 7am breakfast so that we could get going again while cooler, hopefully.

Wayan brought us a nice breakfast of toast, pancakes and fruit, which got us started well for what was going to be our biggest day yet for Bali. I know, fifty kilometres is pathetic right, why would we be intimidated by that? But we knew we had some climbing today, we just didn’t know how much.

Before we can turn the pedals, we first have to get the bikes out of the house yard. The traditional Balinese homes are completely walled off, with just a narrow gateway, raised on steps with usually only a very narrow ramp in the middle, which I think are only recent additions to allow them to get their little motorbikes in.  The tight turns mean it is sometimes easier to take the bikes out first and then load them, which is what we did today.

Straight into climbing today. With the exception of a few little rest grades along the way, the first sixteen k’s were up. Mostly around 2-3 percent with occasional pinches at up to 15. But, it was wonderful. First the road back to the main road that we had on the way in yesterday, then up and through Sideman, with rolling hills, occasional views of Agung and many rice terraces and other vegetable crops. We had a coffee (surprise) at a really nice Warung just before Sideman and that fueled us for the rest of the climb.

We passed lots of schools, with kids in the yards very keen to call out Hello and wave as we went past, we haven’t tired of this yet. A right turn towards Sibetan, had the road levelling out with just an occasional pinch up. Once we got through Sibetan, it became obvious that the switchbacks that had me worried on the map were actually going to be a descent for us, phew. And what a descent it was. A great, but narrow road surface had us rolling nicely through hairpin bend after hairpin bend, it was awesome and our sweat soaked shirts were finally providing some airconditioning.
About halfway down we spotted a little warung that had some ripe bananas, so we stopped and bought them. They were tiny, but so delicious and sweet. The lady had another fruit that we hadn’t tried before, and on asking what it was, she told us it was called Salak and gave us one to try. We found out later that the English name for them was snake fruit, and we realised that we had had them in juices before. We bought some of those too, and had a feed of Bananas and Salak.

The map took us around the large town of Karangesem, through more great back roads. We had a quick stop for a map check, when I looked over to our right to see a large group of lowlifes conducting a cockfight.  I really hate that crap, and if it wasn’t so dangerous, it would be nice to tell them so. Anyway, move on David.

We had another great descent from there, on the road that goes between Mount Agung and The headland behind Amed, and comes out towards the coast on the North East side of Bali. A last right turn and we are into Amed Beach. We missed the turn into our homestay and decided to go and get some lunch. We found a nice warung on the beach. and we had a light lunch and a cold drink.

As we rode back up the road a short distance, we dodged a large puddle that took over the complete width of the road and we turned down our lane to our homestay. Kirana Homestay, meaning Home was just stunning. The property consists of 4 separate bungalows, all with ensuites, and the main share house with 2 large bedrooms and 2 private bathrooms, shared kitchen and living area. We had booked a simple room in the house and were so delightfully surprised at our room. It was very simple but beautiful. We were made to feel so welcome by Robyn, the owner who is from Perth and all her friendly and helpful staff. Potu is the property manager and just the most delightful young girl who looks after all your needs. We met the head cook, and the gardener Wayan, all such lovely and welcoming people. It only took us a few minutes before we really did feel at home.
We just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and then Robyn ordered us in some dinner from one of her favourite eating places, as it had started to bucket down with rain and our tummies were starting to complain. Dinner was delicious.
We headed out for a little walk down to the main street (that puddle after the rain is now huge lol) after dinner, as the rain had stopped, and then back home along the beach. The beach sand is very dark nearly black, nothing like our pristine white beaches back home, and unfortunately plastic rubbish everywhere. Apparently there is a group in the Amed community who meet every Monday at 5pm and do a beach clean in a different location every week which is great to hear. 

17-01-17

Day off in Amed

We had a great sleep and woke up to the staff preparing breakfast, and the sounds of roosters, pigs and the occasional cow in the yards all around us. We had options for breakfast, banana pancakes, eggs and toast, and of course the fresh fruit, fruit juice and bali coffee. It was great as usual.

Today we wanted to get out snorkeling before the rain came. Robyn had suggested that we should go to the eastern end, vienna beach, where we could snorkel right off the beach, but we would need to ride there. There were a couple of quite punishing climbs, up over headlands. Despite not having any load on our bikes, they were hard. It was very hot and the humidity was climbing rapidly, we were really going to need that swim.
We found our way onto the beach, it was really a resort that we just picked our way through. But not to worry, the snorkel hire guys found us, fell in love with our bikes and promised to look after them while we snorkeled. The beach was nice and clean, the snorkel hire guys clean it every day, good on them, they were doing a great job.

I must say that we weren’t expecting much, but there was an amazing amount of fish life amongst the coral, right there, just ten metres off the beach. The coral had very little colour, but the fish certainly made up for it. We stayed out for about an hour, then went back to the beach for a rest. I started to feel sick, oh oh. But then I realised that the last two times I had been snorkelling had been from a boat, and if I go on a boat, I always take a Kwell as I get badly seasick. This felt like seasickness, not a stomach problem. So we just sat in the shade for a while. We decided that we had had enough of snorkelling, and I felt better as soon as we got back on the bikes. Lucky I don’t get bike sick.

It was lunch time, so we went to sunset point, a fairly large restaurant, but basic. Massive view however. Mount Agung was shrouded in cloud and the rain was imminent. We had just ordered a light lunch and a cold drink when down it came. We dashed for cover and ate our lunch while it smashed down. Thatched roofs work pretty well.

We had to sit and wait for about an hour for the rain to back off a bit. We went for it even though it was still raining lightly. This would mean that the traffic was lighter. We checked out the Griya resort on a recommendation for dinner and decided that we would lash out and have a good night out. They offered a pick up drop off service if you were having dinner, so we booked that.

Back to our homestay, we got some photo editing done and chilled, while the thunder roared all around us and the rain poured down. I have to say, that I just love tropical thunderstorms.

Our driver picked us up at five for happy hour in the high bar. Even though it was raining, the view from here is amazing, if you go to Amed, you have to check it out. You go down one level to the restaurant with their amazing infinity pool. They had a Tapas special on, so we just ordered some of those and had lots of tastes to share. They had a band setting up as we went down for dinner. They got fired up as our first course arrived. Despite the fact they just did covers, mostly Beatles, they were a lot of fun and really made for a great night.

And Then,,,,, There was desert, Mango anyway you liked it pretty much. I had Mango cheesecake and Mary had a Mango pudding. It was insanely good, and seriously, all you need after that is a good sleep, so we fixed the bill, organised our driver and off we went.