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.