A lovely rest in Singapore

Keith, Bruce, and Germaine at the botanical gardens.

"These aunties know what they are doing" says Regine, the youngest daughter in the family that we are staying with in regards to my marvel at how every cup of coffee I had to drink in Singapore had a perfect amount of milk and sugar. I love the term auntie, which Regine and Rachel explain to me is a sign of respect for people older than them.  

We had been stationed at the home of the Lim family in their lovely home near the center of Singapore for five days and four nights, double our original plan of only spending 1-2  nights.  We had met Keith Lim, the patriarch, during our tour of Taiwan.  As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, "The Food, the Friends and the Father", we crossed paths with Keith (not his given Chinese name but one he uses when he meeting Westerners) around the small town of Yuli where we subequently embarked on a Tour de Food before settling into (or onto) the 3rd floor of a catholic church for the night.  Keith, as discussed, was/is a much more diciplined cycle tourer that yours truly so the next morning he popped out of bed at his 5 o'clock alarm and sped off 20 minutes later.  For this reason he had easily doubled the amount of mileage that we had done, and through the mountains in Taiwan, a daunting task that we couldn't justify on our stop-and-enjoy type of touring.  However, we did have time to exchange information, in hopes that we might cross paths in the future.  But at that time we had very little interest or thought that we would visit him in Singapore.

One evening, when we were trying to decide what we would do with our cheap ticket we had been forced to buy to Singapore before entering Indonesia, we found Keith on the Warmshowers website and were very excited when he wrote saying that we should come to stay with him and meet his family.  Bali, and the rest of our time in Indonesia, had taken a lot out of us.  Though beautiful and filled with lovely people, we were tired of the days of endless heat, crazy busy roads, and seeming lack of knowledge of the existence of the "switch-back turn" whilst climbing a steep grade.  It had felt like it was taking a toll on our relationhip, with Bruce and I either fighting more or just feeling burnt out on riding altogether.  It was the first place where we had voiced the option of bailing on our trip early and if so, what we would do for the next 6 months (Bruce's relapsed fevers and illness made us seriously consider this).  In short, we were road-weary and ready for a bit more home-style respite that Singapore and staying with Keith's family could provide us.

A rooftop park with a view of some of Singapore's crazy architecture.

Singapore ended up being so much more pleasurable and refreshing than we could have imagined.  We had heard certain things about it: "It is very clean and orderly", "It is a BIG city", "It is very expensive to visit", "They are have very strict laws and enforce them with impunity".  In the end much of this was only partially true and even those truths had exceptions, as we discovered when we walked into a tunnel under a busy roadway where we came upon a flock of youths skateboarding, listening to loud music and sitting around smoking all the while be surrounded by signs reading "No skating" and "No loitering".  (I begged Chiara to take a picture of this but she refused, sorry readers).  The constant signs and reminders of what was expected of Singapore residents felt a little 1984 though, and I could imagine that I would get tired of the oversight if I lived there. 

A table full of food from the hawker stalls.

We found the food to be an amazing amalgamation of Chinese, Indian, and Malay, readily available at all hours at the myriad of "Hawker Stalls" and rather inexpensive to be honest.  Truly a nice treat as we were getting tired of the dishes that made up most of meals in Indonesia.  

There was an surprising amount of green space created by the proper planning and use of the limited lands.  Space to run, hike, cycle, boat, fly a kite, golf, and picnic was all available for residents to enjoy.  Like any city of the world it was not the mot personable place we vistied but it also was not rude and people were more than happy to help us when we needed directions.  

   

Some beautiful old neighborhoods.

Anyway, our time spent with Keith and his family was a joy.  They took us around to all their favorite eating spots, a deserved Unesco-rewarded botanical garden, a treetop hike in a monkey-filled forest, and took us to their Sunday night family dinner where we were fed like royalty and we left with a belly full of amazing homemade local foods and invites to stay with family members in our subsequent tour of Malaysia.  Also during our time in Singapore Chiara and I found a bit of time apart, a rarity these days and something than we think any touring couple would tell you is a must in order to ensure sanity and an ability to continue.

Bali would...?

Bruce was starting to feel a bit sick the evening before we started our short ride to the ferry that crosses over to Bali.  By the end of the ferry it became apparent that he was really not feeling well.  He was cycling slowly, and the hot, humid air sapped any and all extra energy.  I had booked us the stereotypically adorable bungalow that one is supposed to stay in on the Bali coast with somee gift certifcate airbnb money.  The bungalow was not much more than a comfortable bed, a small balcony, an outdoor shower, and the ocean and surrounding national park were just steps away.  By the first evening we were in Bali Bruce had a full-blown fever and we realized he was having another episode of tick-borne reoccuring fever, something he had suffered from prior after being bit by a tick about one year ago in Oregon.  There wasn't much we could do at that point except wait out for the fever to break, which it did after a few days.  While Bruce recuperated we spent time on the beach and snorkeled around the ocean, as we were staying at a beautiful coral reef area that was full of pretty fish.

  

Bruce on the beach and our sweet little bungalow.

We decided that we needed some cool mountain air after spending so much time in the heat and headed toward the volcanoes in the center of the island.  On the way we were super excited to see monkey all over the roads!  We had seen some similar monkeys of a different species in Taiwan, but not nearly as up close and personal as these monkeys.  The climb to the Wanagiri area, 1500 meters above the ocean we left behind, was pretty brutal, another shouderless steep climb where we were forced to push the bikes through multiple sections. But oh, was that cool mountain air ever worth the effort! It is such a treat to wear layered clothes and to need covers on the bed at night! The area had three lakes in the volcanic caldera and the slopes around the volcano housed beautiful waterfalls, coffee plantations, and fields of hydrangeas.  We stayed at a nice, quiet little guesthouse run by an interesting Balinese family with a pre-school aged daughter who, being raised around constant attention from foreign travellers, left you hardly a minute of time where you were not required to do some activity of her choice.  One of thoes things that, when you first arrive, is very cute and feels special but once you spend a day or two around and talk to the other travellers, you do everything you can to avoid and duck into your room when you hear her coming.  

  

Little crazy-pants girl and sunset at one of the volcanic lakes.

My 39th birthday fell on the last day in the volcanoe area.  Bruce was on the mend since starting antibiotic therapy for his illness.  We got up early and hiked down to one of the lakes and there was no one else around.   The area was so peaceful and tranquil with small temples scattered over the area.  As we started ascending again we were passed by a group of around 50 Balinese, young and old, dressed traditionally with women in wrap around saris with lace tops and thick belts around them, men in white buttondown shirts and plaid saris with thier traditional headdress.  They were taking offerings down to the temple. It was a very beautiful image to witness and we felt lucky to experience a special part of the lives of these people.

These were huge vampire bats.

Eventually we got back to riding our bikes both feeling refreshed after our mountain respite.   We bombed the 60km (about 35 miles) dowen the volcano to the all-to-well-known town of Ubud, where I had reserved a super sweet cabin in the back of a house very central in Ubud.  The riding was great until we started closing in on the Ubud area.  The air had become hot and sticky again the lower we got, and we found ourselve stuck in a large amount of impatient traffic as we tried to find our hotel location.  This was a very different place than the traffic that we had experienced thus far in Bali, not in a good way.  That evening we splurged for my birthday, after almost three weeks of eating mostly rice, veggies, tempe, tofu, and occaional satay or gado-gado at the roadside warungs (and only one other really western-style meal in 4 months save pastries and occasional convenience store sandwiches) we splurged on burgers that were absolutely amazing and I even drank my first glass of wine in months!  I guess not everything in the tourist trap spots is bad...;)

  Our really lovely little room, there were lovely rice fields all over the Ubud area.

We stopped by a beautiful botanic garden on the way to Ubud.

Ubud itelf was a mixed bag for us.  We had been both recommended and advised against going to Ubud, and we could understand why on both counts. There were beautiful walks through terraced rice fields (not that we needed to see anymore of these), and all the pampering one could want in Ubud.  However it felt like a fantasy land built on a western idea of eastern spirituality, and the sheer amount of other tourists and touts was in stark contrast with all the other parts of Indonesia we had experienced thus far.  However after nearly 4 months on our bikes with only rare moments of western comforts we welcomed the serene quiet, fast wifi, and delicious breakfasts that our host Madé prepared.  Though more than ready to get back on the road after two nights we felt truly refreshed and ready to finish our tour in Indonesia. 

We decided to make a little foray up into the east coast of Bali with our last few days before our flight off the island.  We decided on a route to  the Amed area that was reported to be more natural and less touristy.  Initially the riding was beautiful with little traffic and some gradual rolling climbs.  Soon this devolved as the sun pounded down on us and we started climbing more of the ridiculously steep grades that we came to expect in Indonesia.  First up... then down...then back up...then back down! On and on, the grade never dropping below nine or ten percent, with locals looking at us like we were the stupidest people on earth, which  maybe we were?  During that climb I reflected on the fact that we had only walked our bikes once the entire 3 months prior on a steeply graded  road in South Korea.  Now, in Indonesia, walking our bikes uphill had become a regular feature of our riding in this country.  

 

One of many super steep graded roads. You can barely see Bruce climbing. 

The view from the side of the mountain.

We failed to find a place to camp, as was usual in Indonesia.  Locals told us at the start of our tour that you can camp anywhere in Indonesia, but unlike previous countries we felt for many reasons that the camping portion of our tour should wait.  To simplify our experience there is a people here that lives without much. Any decent land plot is used, either to live on or to farm, just trying to make enough to get through from one year to the next.  If the land isn't used there is a good reason...and you probably want to avoid it as well.  The few places that people camp are in the mountains.  Maybe being a local, speaking the language and knowiing the culture, you might have no problem camping throughout Indonesia, but the low cost of accomodation and food makes it more challenging than it is worth to DIY.  

  

Bali had a lot of cool sculptures such as this one entering the Kuta area.

Me hanging in front of our hotel, biding our time until we flew out. 

We finished our tour of Indonesia heading to the south of Bali.  We expected very little heading into the city of Denpasar.  After a mixed reaction from the people of Bali we felt at times like "dollar bills with legs" (as we heard someone describe tourists).  However, we were presently surprised by the realativley moderate traffic, locals that were genuinely interested in us and our tour, great local variety of warungs (food stalls), and perfect vantage points from which to have a laugh at the ubiquitous Aussies.  We made our way early on the morning of our flight to the centrally located airport.  People seemed to be looking at us oddly as we made our way into the terminal area and started breaking down the bikes and packaging, as we have become accustomed.  We plan an extra 1+ hours into flight prep now in order to properly breakdown and stow the bikes in an attempt to limit more damage like we experienced on previous flights.  After completing our ritualistic air travel process we made our way into the terminal only to find the doors shut and signs reading "Flights cancelled due to VOLCANO"!!  Completely dumbfounded by our dicovery we made our way to the info booths and were informed that apparently a volcano on the adjacent island was spewing ash into the air and air travel had been limited for a few days.  The surreal parts of bike touring...forgetting the day/date, starting to ride in a new country and wondering why the cars are on the "wrong" side of the road, and being completely out of contact with world/local news.  It turned out to be little more than a minor inconveniece, however, as we were rescheduled on a flight for the following day ("pending volcanic activity").  Luck on our side, the air cleared enough and the next morning we departed for Singapore, and a major change in our situation.  We had mixed feelings leaving Indonesia.  

Escape from Pacitan

It is easy to see why people stay in Pacitan their entire stays in indonesia.  The cost is minimal, the crowds are non-existant, the environment is beautiful and it is a logistical nightmare to go anywhere else, as we discovered.  After 3 lovely days spent lounging and trying to surf we decided that instead of retracing our route in we would take a bus part of the way and then continue our tour a few km east.  This trip started harmlesly enough on a minibus but soon devolved into a chicken bus ala Guatemala as we continued to pack in locals with produce, bags and yes live chickens.  Everyone was in good spirits even though us with our bikes and bags were by far the most obtrusive of all the travelers.  We then switched buses at the local terminal but instead of taking a direct bus the 100km oor so to our next destination we found ourelves whisked to a departing bus.  This turned out to be an epic 6 hr bus ride in a ridiculous, but somehow sensical route too those that run the buses, through half of East Java.  It was ass-numbing and hectic as we saw from the inside what it is like when the buses tear down the narrow, busy country roads.  Believe it or not we actually prefer to be the bikes on thoe roads becaue we at leat feel like we have some control of our fates that way.  

Once this unnecesarily long journey (after some investigating we found out that we were put onto this bus because though it went about 200km out of the way, it ultimately arrived us in our destination faster than if we waited for the direct bus that would have had us sitting in a dirty, out-of-the-way bus station for 6 hours for the next bus to depart) had ended we were more than compensated for our patience when we met our warmshowers host in Malang.  Yaneur, a true jack-of-all-business, had a great place near downtown which he turned into a part-time bikeshop and cafe.  We were taken out and treated like visiting royalty.   Live music, pitchers of beer, friends, and Beer Pong.  With the hangover to prove it neither Chiara or I had spent a night like this in a LONG time...though Chiara did prove to be a bit of a sandbagger.  Maybe those college loans were worth it after all.  The next few days in Malang were great, we met a load of local cycle enthusiasts, drank amazing coffees, pedaled around a beautiful city and were able to give the bikes a little tune-up.  

    

At Yanuar's. He basically rents a cafe/bike shop for himself and his friends.  He does a lot and build bikes n his spare time.  We rode around withs some great folks from Malang, including Ali in the blue sleeves and Tegu, lastly, lots of people ask us if we will take a picture with them.  This is one group that did that.

Malang turned out to be a small oasis for us as we left we were in some busy, hot riding.  Other than a few bright moments of great local hopitality (which is ubiquitous in Java) and a gradual climb with some nice views, we had our heads down and bee-lines it to Banguwangi.  Touted as 'the end of the line' in Java beacuse it is the closest place to where you take the ferry for Bali, it is actually a nice little city that we enjoyed for 2 days.  On the second we performed our ritualistic "One tourist thing" and hired a car and guide to take us up to hike Mt Ijen and what is called "the blue flame".  Apparently one of just two places in the world where volcanic activity results in a natural burning torch of blue flame sourced from gases from deep in the earth.  Though insanely busy with tourists both foreign and domestic as well as being over-priced (as all tourist destinations) we found the challenging predawn hike to the truly other-worldy volcanic caldera a true experience that is hard to replicate and should be on anyone's list of "must-do's" if they end up in this region.

  

The blue fire.  It's hard to photograph but amazing in person. 

Very short on sleep we arrived back in town, caught a few hours of shut-eye and packed up to head the 10km pedal north to the little port where our ferry to Bali awaited.

 

Loud, gritty and wonderful

With some cute kids at the preschool

After just three day of riding in Java, Indonesia we have decided that a 30 day visa is entirely not enough time to see all Indonesia has to offer.  It takes half that time just reading up on figuring out which of the nearly 17,000 islands you want to visit, then the rest of the time biking between the places on the narrow roads or via the patchwork of trains, buses, and ferries with barely enough time to enjoy what you are seeing.  Anyway we are soldering on with this knowledge that the clock is ticking on our time in this very unique landscape.  

With that being said let's get into the ride- Leaving Jgoja we headed east toward Surakarta or Solo as it is known locally.  We arrived pretty early and met our WS (Warmshowers) host,  Annissa and her family.  Once again we were immediately welcomed into their home.  The uniqueness of this situation was that unlike most WS hosts she nor anyone else in her family or friends were cyclists.  It seems that in Indonesia Couchsurfing is the way many people get into hosting on Warmshowers.  Like many others she just likes too meet people and hear their stories, the means of transit being irrelevant. This hosting was slightly different this time as we were introduced to a friend of hers that visits elementary school classrooms to help teach English and we were invited to join him on his work morning.  Rasta, an endearing, friendly, and boisterous fellow made us feel so welcome and the Headmaster and teacher at the school could not have been nicer.  We were treated like visiting royalty being served tea, coffeee, cakes, and lunch along with visiting 4 classes where Chiara had some time to spend interacting with the kids singing songs and teaching colors while I just sat in a small chair amongst the students fielding amazed stares as the odd bearded man.  We also got to enjoy some play time on the jungle gym.  As anyone who knows me might agree, this was my opportunity to shine.  I chased them around, teetered, tottered, slid and climbed while the "adults" looked on and laughed and Chiara scolded me for doing thing that were probably frowned upon most days at the school.   Phewy I say, as this wasn't an usual day and both Chiara and I left feeling so happy and fulfilled by our short time spent with these smiling, happy monsters and having been made to promise to return one day to the school to visit if/when we are again visiting Indonesia.

     

 Anissa, Rasta, Bruce and myself, with the preschool teachers at the school (and a cheeky little girl on those monkey bars), Bruce probably breaking every playground rule

That night we also got a taste of some of the local foods that we had not yet been introduced.  Chiaradiscovered for   instance that she loves chicken "butt" sate (Sate- items skewered and grilled over coals) and I enjoyed a whole baby bird (I was told it was not chicken, and it tasted like turkey) including the head-beak, brains and all.  During our visit we also learned a few more details about the customs of this primarlily Muslim country.  The fact that there is call to prayer multiple times a day but most importantly at sunrise (lately around 4:30 am) and sunset (around 6:20 pm).  The latter not being a problem but the former being an interesting wake-up call when over the local loud-speaker the prayers are loudly bellowed for all to hear, not that getting back to sleep has ever been a problem for me (just ask my mother) but Chiara is then usually up for a bit of time reading until she can doze off for another hour of rest.  The other big difference for us being a recent law being passed in Indonesia forbidding the sale of alcohol (more importantly for us- beer) in any place other than bars or licensed etablishments, of which there are far too few.  And when you can find it, the beer is disproportionately expensive in this otherwise budget travelers paradise.  Oh well, this can be a bit of a "drying-out" period for us after almost daily Taiwan Beer, the cheap, ready availability Taiwanese standby that was hard to pass up.  

  We struck out the next morning without a hitch and made good time at the start toward our next goal, a mountain pass area famous for trekking that we were recommended, called Cemoro Sewu.  The roads, however were choked with traffic as this was, as a matter of course for us, one of the biggest holidays of the whole year, the Muslim New Year.  To add to the difficulty the road began to climb, winding at first at a comfortable grade but then quickly devolving into grades that made riding all but impossible.  Though no marking on the roadsigns I would not be surpried if they reached  >20% at times (As discussed in earlier posts this is not a simple 20 degree angle but 20ft vertical gain per 100ft horizontal, or in other words "unrideable").  Even the motorized vehicles at times had trouble surmountiing a few of the sections and we found ourselve pushing our loads at times over the steepest sections.  No worries as this just gave the locals an opportunity to come walking over to us to get photos.  "Mister" we would hear shouted (often used to get the attention a man or woman) and 3-4 people would crowd around us photos were snapped off and invariably uploaded to some social media platform.  When you get a moment check Facebook Indonesia for "dumb western foreigners pushing heavy-ass bikes" and you may just find our sweaty, sun-burnt faces smiling on screen.  The longest and most difficult 60km day we have recorded thus far ended at a lovely pass where we found all sorts of food stalls and a campground.  The environment was starkly different from that we left a few hour earlier and the air was cool and crisp without a hint of humidity.  A lovely change and a promise of a great night camping.

  

Amazing terraced vegetable and rice fields on the way up to  Cemara Sewu and we ran into people we met in Solo at the top!

In thhe morning we both felt a bit nostaligic for home as the weather was more like a fall day in Oregon then anything else we had encountered in Asia to this point.  Taking more time then should have been necesary too break camp we made our way down the opposite side of the pass with equally insanly steep roads and reached speeds easily around 70km/hr (about 40mph!).  This, by far has been the fastest we have traveled on these little 20" machines. Our enjoyable coasting down the mountain was all too short lived and we were soon back to the hot, busy roads leading into the next small city.  We decided to stop for the day, though we had only travelled a short distance, as our propects for accomodation further on were looking bleak.  This turned out to be a good choice as, though we spent one of the least enjoyable nights stay to date, a result of heat, noise, and terrible beds,  it only cost 110,000 RPE (about $8 USD) and we learned about a place, Pacitan, off our radar to this point.  An early start riding, precluded by a street breakfast of rice and 'meat parts' (as we have come to call the unknown protein substances sometimes found floating in dark gravy at the roadside food stalls), found us climbing an appropriately graded road toward the coast.  We read Pacitan was a small town known as a spot to surf and ignored by most tourists.  Sounded great and it turned out to be fairly true to form.  Other than at the small surfer friendly lodging point at which we stayed, Harry's Ocean House, which was almost all western travellers, the town was all locals and the roads were quiet, the thing that we really appreciated most of all after days of inhaling desiel exhaust and having painfully loud engine noise blasting our eardrums.  The neat, clean, comfortable room cost us a budget friendly 90,000 RPE ($6 USD) and was light years better than any other place we had stayed thus far in Java.  

  

Beach scenes from Pacitan

Exit Taiwan...Enter jet lagged

  

Java is a BIG, very populated island

Once again the lure of utilizing the red eye flight to make our exit from one country and entering the next is too strong to ignore...and a usual we pay for our shortsighted ideas.  The connection flight from Taipei to Suryabaya, Indonesia through Kuala Lumpur was in itself, uneventful.  However the reoccuring lesson is the losses, of sleep and ability to make decisions or keep our patience with each other, is far greater than the gains of an extra day in one place or another.  Unfortunately due mainly to the cost difference, redeyes being quite a bit cheaper in most cases, we keep finding ourselves, like Alzheimer's patients, on the airline  website saying 'Oh, look at this flight!  It is on Air Rogant and saves us $25 AND there is only a 9 hour layover...Let's book it!'  (A small aside here.  If you will be in this part of the world and have to book one of these asinine flights of which I speak then try to get your ridiculously long layover to occur in Singapore.  Our information thus far about this airport is not first hand but apparently they have free massage chairs, movie theaters, reclining chair/beds, bus tours of the city, and a plethora of other amenities that can make your layover border on enjoyable).

Packing up, we have this pretty much down to a science

Let's have a talk about our welcome to Indonesia.  We landed in Suryabaya and once we made our repairs we headed out of the airport immediately noticing something just wasn't right.  It took our jetlagged brains a few extra tics before it registered.  Surprise... that the cars drive on the left in Indonesia.  Not only that but the gradual erosion of the traffic rules from nation to nation has reached a point where the vehicles on the road act more like schools of fish or herds of wild horses then traditional western traffic.  The new rules of the road are - no sudden movements and don't stop unless forced.  Follow these simple ideas and you should be fine...maybe.

A bleary-eyed picture of Surabaya

We eventually battled our way to the train station, getting our first meal bought for us by a friendly local bike enthusiast on the way and enjoying our new, and very friendly exchange rate of 14,000 rupiah (RPE) to $1 US.  We didn't arrive in our starting point of Yogyakarta, or Jogja as the locals call it, until near midnight.  24 hour of transit was plenty so we checked in too whatever hostel was open and clean and were asleep before we had a chance to fully appreciate our situation.  

Indoonsia is truly a unique place, further than we could have imagined from the East Asian world we left behind.  Some noted difference are the foods, the way people talk, dress and act, and the fact that we can finally recognize letters and words, even if we don't know what they all mean.  Turns out the Indonesian language draws from many cultures that until the past century were still major force in running this country.  Porrtugese and Dutch influemnmces primarily are seen in the language.  For instance, permisi -excuse me and keju - cheese both draw strongly from romance languages.  

We met our Warmshowers "host" the next day.  You may wonder why I put host in quotes?  Well if you meet Tadeus, the boy wonder, you would immediatley understand.  At the grizzled age of 14 and already hosting guests from all over the world through couchsurfing and warmshowers for 3+ years, Tadeeus was a force.  Backed by his parents, Tadeus is an experienced climber, inventor of electric devices for bikes, tour guide and some-time high-school student- but something tells us the latter isn't enough to fulfill this kid.  Being odd that we were closer in age to his parents but more in common with him made for a unique hosting but it didn't take long for us to settle in and start appeciating what awaited our next month.  We were lead around the historic city to see the touristy spots and the not-so-touristy ones (those that we enjoy more) such as a spring fed swimming area ued by locals where we received more than one odd stare when we arrived.  We spent 3 days learning the foods, the culture/habits and preparing for our ride.  After this start we began to see why other cycle tourers have named Indonesia as one of their top spot to tour and are very excited about what awaits.

    

Tadeus and his family, B. and Tadeu eating chicken intestines, and Bruce iin crazy-pants Yogya traffic.