Bicycling in Bali

In our lonely planet guide is a suggested bicycle route around Bali,so with no planning or effort at all we set off on our bikes and headed north. We soon left behind us most of the traffic and were pedalling down lanes and through areas that tourists don't usually see. The traditional houses here almost aren't houses so much as enclosed gardens with rooms in them. buildings don't need to be weatherproof and warm and some of them are indoor outdoor rooms. In the surf hotel for example our bathroom didn't have a proper back wall but kind of had garden instead. It seems a lovely way to live, in fact the best thing about my garden shed was the prominence of the outside spaces at all times, lying in bed and looking at the trees. It is a shame that the UK weather doesn't allow for more outdoor living.
We have been setting off very early in the morning to enjoy the cool dry mornings which has been super. We have been following the guide book and Bali is very small so our mileages have been very low. The first day we cycled north to a town where we caught a minivan thing to the top of the mountain to Candikuning. It was well worth getting a ride as the road was very steep and the day had warmed up.

Christof with bikes in the mini van

Steep road

View back towards Candikuning

 Candikuning is at 1300 meters and turned out to be so cool I needed my jumper. The town is small but by a beautiful lake and tree covered hills. It felt like another world,we had left behind sunny warm South Bali and were in a rather bleak cloud,the people didn't seem to be as charming we were accosted by desperate and pushy street vendors. We were woken at five the next morning by the muezzin, a beautiful sound calling everyone to prayer. I lay in bed and listened, it was quite magical. Later that morning we climbed to the top of the mountain, there were monkeys in the trees,and the view were super, I really got a sense of how small the island is as we could see the north coast and it was only about 15km away. We zoomed down the mountainside all the way to the coast. It was an amazing ride past villages and rice fields and unfortunately we overshot the waterfall and couldn`t face returning the 2km back up the hill. We made it to the coast and enjoyed a hotel with lovely garden and swimming pool in Lavinia which is a bizarre place, seemingly completely tourist focused with hotels and restaurants everywhere but not tourists. We had the choice of any restaurant all open with half a dozens staff members and all empty of customers. On arrival we were chased by men on motorbikes offering us hotel rooms and on arrival at the hotel we were offered cockfights and mushrooms. Hotels here are costing us the equivalent of £10a night and meals if you eat Indonesian are about £3 for both of us although eating western food costs much more.

The following day we cycled along the coast and caught a van to the top of the next mountain. I could get used to this sort of touring but it seems very lazy! We now cycled along a narrow ridge at the top of a huge volcanic crater from Penulisan to Penelokan. The views were simply incredible. on either side of the road the mountain fell sharply away. on our left was a huge valley with a lake and then the volcano itself. It really did look like a proper volcano too with two huge craters at the top and small wisps of smoke and down its sides the ground had clearly been shaped by lava flows. It was super.

The Volcano

Breakfast: Putting off the climb back up to the main road.

The Lake

That night we cycled down to the lake to stay and the following morning cycled back to the top of the ridge, much to the amusement of the locals who all think we are mad. Cycling isn't a big thing here. It was I think the steepest hill I have done yet on my bike.
Then we whizzed south down the mountain to Ubud and suddenly we were back in the land of sunshine and smiling polite locals who don't harass you to buy things. In fact it was more magical than that as our road took us through orchards with oranges and lemons bananas and all sorts of other fruits, the road was shade by huge bamboo stands and palm trees laden with coconuts.

Fruit Stall

Rice Paddies

Cycling here is such a pleasure and although the traffic feels a bit chaotic sometimes and follows very different rules (basically ignore everything behind you but watch out in front) I think the roads here are actually the safest I have been on. The traffic is slow and although there aren`t many bikes there are so many other road users not in cars that you are accepted in a way unheard of in other countries. It has been a really fantastic few days. Christof has been marvellous and turns out to be very good at haggling whilst I`m still trying to do the maths!