Leaving the highlands

A fully loaded tourer enjoying his 30 kms of down hills

Mrs :  ”Wow, 2 guys on touring bikes and rolling downhill at that ! Aren’t you jealous ??”

Me :    ”Do you have to rub it in ??”

Mrs :  ”What happened to your plan of cycling down hill while I drive ?”

Me :    ”You didn’t offer to drive?”

Mrs :   “You didn’t ask enough”

Me  :    ”I thought I did !”

Mrs :   “Yes but you said that the clutch was ‘low or loose’ and the hand brake’s broken and………that I navigate well since  you can’t read the small small prints on the map”

Me :     “Don’t really need a map yeh, it’s all in here (points to head)

Mrs :     “Don’t trust my driving??”

Me  :      (very softly) “Uh huh”

In retrospect we’ve done all the down hills we’ve cared to do on other trips, but as I wonder now, with a tinge of regret, how fast would a Bike Friday tikit roll before I am reminded of my mortality ? I guess we will never know…..

Lazy mammals

Not too shabby a view from our porch. Pity the sunshine was in short supply, then again it was just 7.30 am

My new big toy. The place does not have fans or air conditioning, as the sea breezes always blow in once the sun is up, our host reassured us. Boy was he right, we checked out at a very late 1.00 pm after my kite felt tired. In the next bungalow, there's a Japanese tourist sweeping the floor with a broom that comes with each room. Wonder if she'll do ours ?

Far off the beaten track lies a little gem, best reached with your own transport or much nicer on a touring bicycle, http://www.geriasemalung.com/english/index.html

We wanted to stay 2 nights, but alas, our room was booked for the second day and we had to scoot ;-( (we did stay 2 nights back in 2008)  They have a constant flow of Japanese clientele to fill their 4 rooms, as the Balinese owner’s wife is Japanese. That explains the Zen like touches in the lush garden and a black volcanic stone hot tub in a corner, and a large manga collection in their library.  GS is in Desa (village) Ababi and we passed through Desa Budakeling (an as the crow flies short cut across a few semi dry river beds)  In Malay, those names are quite funny.

Next stop. Amed by the Straits of Lombok, and a scenic and shady down hill section that goes on forever…..sigh…

The line's maxed out at 800 metres (and my camera's zoom at 210 mm)

Tirtagangga's endless rice fields

The straits of Lombok in bad weather

Turn on your speakers, courtesy of the Geria Semalung folks, http://www.geriasemalung.com/page/s_gal/cnddsa.html

So much better light in the afternoon

Heading for the highlands (prequel)

This day is before the big bridge adventure. We drove into some very familiar hills, clove, cocoa, coffee and nutmeg country. It was only 60 plus kms and that made for a very slow drive. Before that, a very late start, meaning more cycling time, a dip in the sea, then pool and an almost 2 hour lunch in the quaint town of Seririt. Every small Indonesian town must surely have a small Chinese population. Meaning the possibility of getting Chinese food. Seririt is no exception. Small mom and pop shops, a goldsmith or two, and yes a restaurant down a small lane.

My co driver (who didn’t drive at all) was a bit apprehensive at the cleanliness or lack there of, for such an establishment. Never fear I said. I think I dined here in 1991, and have already spotted at least one renovation. There’s a new signboard by the entrance. ‘Such and such a resto, since 1955′ It was here or some other street side stall with cold food and flies for company. As it turned out simple noodles and rice and some veggies were quite good and one quarter the price of eating in touristy Ubud. And yes, the grainy, unfiltered Kopi Bali was spectacular, I had seconds.

An open concept kitchen, great for seeing hands being used for everything, including tasting !

Our newish old Dutch style house in the hills of Munduk. The room was cosy (@ 980 m asl) and the garden, very lush.

Packing cloves for export in Munduk. It's a prime ingredient in some Indo cigarettes

Sunset was a non event for the camera because of a heavy downpour

Sunrise was much better

This morning will be etched in my memory forever, as it was about this time or so 7 am on Saturday 30th April that Paul Lim passed away, and I was up and about looking the the skies trying to capture a crimson sunrise. It was about 18 deg C, the mountain air crisp and refreshing. Paul and I and some friends were mountain bike touring in this very same village way back in 1995, and had to cool of our rims and brakes by dunking the wheels in a rushing stream.

Open the room door and this awaits, the Balinese Pyrenees

Hidden hamlets of north Bali

An old timer's house and car in Munduk

Looking at the scenery and potential for long walks and climbs through the rice fields, one would need at least 3 days in these hills, enjoying the cool rarefied air, but we had done that on previous trips, so a single night with the sounds of a heavy down pour (definitely a first for us) was quite adequate to get reaquainted with Munduk. We had invitations to a village wedding that was going to last 5 days, but politely declined, as we were leaving on the 1st day when only the decorations were being put up. It would have been quite spectacular if we had arrived on the 4th or 5th day.

Coffee cherries

Tanah Barak (red rock) waterfalls after heavy rains. 5 minutes in this water and hypothermia is a given

Lake Tamblingan overflowing, it's temple and surrounding villages inundated. I was knee deep in the icy waters on the village road and made those ripples

Lake Buyan at 1200 m. According to some Balinese friends, it has been raining for the past year !

Heading for the highlands

Next to Bali’s famed beaches, the hills and mountains in the centre of the island are a visual treat if one really goes of the beaten track. The usual tourist spots and view points may be amazing for the first timers but we’ve seen better on our bikes, and this time I really wanted to travel on the road that Lonely Planet 2011 plainly proclaims ‘The Road That’s Never Travelled’ (RTNT) In fact if you have a driver it’ll take some persuasion to get him to try 30 kms of mountain roads that straddles 2 big mountain ranges.

Steep and potholed

Might as well get a map and DIY, although I had second thoughts when exiting a nice smooth main road and  into deep, dark and steep potholed roller coaster country roads that threatened to wreck the car’s ageing suspension, but we had a full tank, our bikes are strapped tight and we prayed a lot. Seeing that the odd old mud splattered Honda Civic that passed by occasionally, that boosted my confidence somewhat. Some inclines were so steep, it was 1st gear all the way, slipping and sliding. sending bits of rock and debris to anyone silly enough to be too close behind us. After half a dozen or so deep ravines, we got to the village of Petang and smooth roads. I recognised the junction to the bridge and only in Bali would a bridge of such proportions be a venue for kids on motorcycles on a Saturday. Cars and bike parked by the side and hawkers selling snacks and corn on the cob.

The 'bridge'

The RTNT comes in handy as a shortcut too as I didn’t want to drive south for 40 kms and then head north another 30 kms just to get to our destination, Lake Batur. Part of the RTNT is Bali’s highest road bridge that was completed in 2007. It connects two mountain villages of no particular significance save for those wanting to drive from the Bedugul and Lake Bratan highlands to the Kintamani and Lake Batur area, and vice versa. Before that, in 2006, I remember cycling into the deepest ravine ever on the island and that took 2 hours to ride out off on the other side.  The bridge was still under construction, it’s massive foundations rising out of the jungle floor. I had started from Ubud at 7 am and did not get back till 6 pm. Another fun recce 110 kms by bicycle first, before attempting a drive through.

A sight to behold, just halfway in to Bali's deepest ravine. Sept. 2006

There's a broken road and a small concrete bridge down there, somewhere

Past Pelaga and Catur, a region of endless coffee plantations, the road joins up with the north south Kintamani route with it’s views of Mt Batur’s 3 volcanic cones and Lake Batur. It started to rain and our views were at best, cloudy and foggy. Down by the crater lake shore there’s a myriad of off road trails into the lava fields. My mission for the next morning was to rediscover one that led to the Bali Aga village of Trunyan, nestled deep under the vertical mountain walls of the crater.

Kedisan village 0700 hrs

Ooops, Can the 16 inch wheels make it ?

After 11 bone jarring kms, Trunyan village with it's new water front promenade

Trunyan is one of many Bali Aga villages spread out over Bali. Most are in remote and hard to reach spots like this, and any outsider can be spotted miles away, even other Balinese,  and especially one with a small green folding bike. The Bali Aga are the island’s original people, distinct from the modern Balinese who came over from Java centuries ago. One of their burial rites and rituals is to leave their dead corpses exposed under a holy banyan tree. Apparently there’s no smell of rotting flesh and kids play with the skulls and bones. Jungle animals aren’t even interested, This is totally abhorrent to other Balinese who have elaborate cremation and sending off ceremonies. Needless to say, Trunyan’s cemetery has been milked dry for it’s tourism ‘potential’ ie $$$.

Mention Trunyan to other Balinese folk and you get 30 minutes of negative comments.

With the new access road, many of the village boatmen who used to charge tourists exhorbitant fees, are not a happy bunch.  The tourists still arrive, as the marketing and publicity for the place can be found in many a hotel lobby. I spent a whole 15 minutes there, snapping away, and the tikit was great for quick getaways each time a villager sized me up, “Where are you from, where are you going, I bring you to see cemetery, have fresh dead body”

Another steep one. 20 years ago this was a rocky foot path, where even our mountain bikes had trouble inching forward. Gradients remain the same.

The 11 km ride back was just as strenuos, but felt a bit faster like all out and back rides do. My ageing tikit does not have a front derailluer but with a smaller 42 T front chainring, I managed to ride up most of the tops of this roller coaster lakeside road.

During many moments of quiet contemplation (I was so early many villagers were not quite up yet) I still could not believe that Paul was gone. We decided on lunch back in Ubud,  just 30 downhill kms away, where we could get wifi and catch up on any news. There were many and after 2 hours nursing a latte in AC comfort, we drove off with heavy hearts to the extreme east of Bali to Tirtagangga, a romantic name for Water of the Ganges. India was continents away, but the Balinese Hindus know how to glorify their ‘water palaces’

Mt Batur 1717 m, rarely seen from the opposite shore

0930 hrs. It's time to wake someone up and get breakfast, I am starved

Mythical pools of clear mountain water, with ornate fountains and statues where the kings harem would bathe, while the king would ponder and decide on which one would be his company for the night. Today it costs Rp 5000 a pop, to gawk at the maiden-less pools. Pay a little more and you can even swim in the ‘tourist pool’ where freshwater crabs will nibble at your feet. It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon in the boondocks of Bali contemplating a life without wifi, cellphone coverage and being a sardine in a subway train.

The tourist pool at Tirtagangga Water Palace

A Bali road trip, almost

Having done five bike tours of Bali together, we knew which roads were a joy to ride and which were best avoided. The gravity defying potholed  ones. How would we get around then ? We paid a visit to Nyoman Merta Jaya. CEO and sole proprietor of Three Brothers Car Rental along Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. Renting a car in Bali is more like having tea with a long lost friend. Chit chat with  coffee and cake first (abt 30 mimutes) and signing on the dotted line, 1/2 minute.

Insurance you ask ? There’s none. Well the first US$500 of damage is on the renter/tourist. Anything more serious/fatal ? At all costs, do not go to the police if possible. Call Three Brothers ASAP, they have their own ‘police team’ Ha ha. So in Bali, I never drive more than 60 kmp/h not that the traffic or terrain will allow anything more.

The car is delivered the next day by Mr CEO himself, as he collects a cool million rupiah, or all of SG$145 for 7 days rental, ie. cheaper than cheap. After all we do go way back to 1990. It’s a 6 year old  Toyota ‘Avanza’  It is old for a rental car. Scratches and small dings at all four corners. It rattles now and then, but the tyres are new, and traction and braking is more vital than speed.

The spring catch for the hand brake pops out at first touch. During the next week of driving, or rather parking, a can of Coke propped up under the hand brake works too, and our jalopy doesn’t roll off any mountains. The rear door/hatch creaks to high heaven. Dogs will howl when I open it to get to our folded bikes at 6.45 am, but what a good but irritating alarm the creaking door is too.

0645 hrs. 20 deg C. Bowels cleared. Time to ride !

A green corridor at Bali Barat (West) National Park

I’ve never driven the west coast roads once, through the major, nome too clean towns of Tabanan, Negara and Gilimanuk. so what better time than now (to check if it’s ridable) It’s not quite, in fact with heavy truck and bus traffic around some quiet, but very narrow winding stretches are down right dangerous. We witnessed a few close shaves, when even cars had to get off the road, as might is right here. The annual Tour of Indonesia does a stage from end to end along this inter island highway, but they do race on closed roads. Any cyclists heading to or coming from Java will have a better time riding the flatter northern coast road with much lesser traffic.

After reaching the western tip of the island and seeing the huge East Javan volcanoes of Merapi and Ijen, we headed back inland, east along the north coast and what a difference, through a National Park that was fresh and green. It had been a very wet, ‘dry’ season last year, and this was to be our wettest trip yet. It was only 125 kms, but that covered two thirds the length of Bali.

With the longest drive done on the 1st day, Pemuteran, a little known village, was our first pit stop. Little known because it’s too far from the southern tourist beaches, so only a 100 m stretch of guesthouses serving the diving community has blossomed here in recent years.  In the middle of relative nowhere, there’s also the Matahari resort with US$200 a night villas by the sea. Our new room came with a much saner price of $35 and an almost private pool.

All the tourists have gone snorkeling or diving, so I have it pretty much to myself

Lucky us, a spanking new month old room and the last available one at that

All needs covered except the cycling part http://jubawa-pemuteran.com/

Boat building at Pemuteran, north Bali and not a taxi tout in sight

The attraction here is all below water

Bali Bali Bali

The first of 14 Balinese sunrises, stunning !

You’d think that after 20 trips to this island that I’d have no trouble writing about, but I do. There are so many alluring facets to Bali that some visitors never leave. I am not one of them as I am discerning. Lately though, paradise is showing it’s pitfalls. I thought I had mastered the art of avoiding those. Many trips on all manner of bicycles, since (gasp) 1989, also meant that any maps I brought were rarely used. Peering into a map is a sure sign of being a tourist, and a lost one at that.

And the Balinese, any Balinese who has something to sell you can spot a tourist miles away. Heck they can even eavesdrop, from 20 feet away, and try to ‘help’ you with any ‘problem’ usually a destination you need to get to, in a flash. In Ubud, (with the beach 30 kms away and touts less persistent) while we were mentioning in passing the name of a certain cafe that we had read about, some guy runs from across the street, shouting the name of that cafe and ‘can help’ in driving us there !

Others flash nice laminated A4 sized notices proclaiming ‘taxi’ ‘transport’ with nary a word, less the visitor feels vexed, though having such cards flashed in your face 20 times a day and on every street corner is going to take it’s toll. We were flashed, even as we cycled by. So having a bicycle won’t stop some persistent career cab drivers (taxi is a real misnomer as all are privately registered cars or worse, borrowed. Insurance? What insurance?)

Grandmaster moonlighting as a taxi driver

Ubud is a Mood (also a book title)

We spent many an hour with the elevated views from our room at one of the rare guesthouses that still has a rice field view, http://www.warjibungalow.com and doesn’t gouge you with US$ rates. We knew that they had a new wing, meaning new rooms from our last visit in 2008. We also knew that the ‘new wing’ of 7 rooms took almost 10 years to build. First the foundations, a stairway and some (not all) walls and a very mossy tiled roof went up. Then some men came to dig up a huge hole 10 feet deep, presumably for the septic tank and human waste.

3 years later, ‘some’ rooms were ready, others nicely painted but empty, waiting for matresses and lamps. We were in time for the grand ‘completion’ ie, positioning of beds, mattresses/linen and connecting of the lamps. Boy they do take their time on this island. As yet 3 rooms remained unfurnished. Their reservation form works though. You might get your room, IF Widya, (a svelte Balinese woman whose family owns the place amongst rmany other properties) has passed on your reservation to one of Warji’s House caretakers. (In our case, she didn’t! )

Another dawn before the sun breaks

Zoomed in view of Mt Agung, (3712 m), again from our room

A decade in the making, but it was new and spacious. 2 nights were marred by a larger than life, French mother and daughter chain smoking tag team. (next door) Seeing my disgust, they were kind enough to smoke in their room with their doors and windows boarded up, but presumably to enjoy their haze even longer

A group of Thai tourists on their first trip to Bali. I thanked them for checking out and letting us have their room. What a loss as they don’t smoke, and were a cheery bunch

The latest bugbear this trip must be the incessant traffic of motorcycles, which any can be had for a low Rp 14 million / US$1500 for a Made in China 2 wheeler. Ist payment is a measly Rp 500K / US$60. All traffic increases 15% yearly, while road capacity stay the same, with just more potholes after each rainy season.

Hey dude, where's my bike ?

Bali is being swamped with tourists. I think, 1.5 million each year. It’s bursting at the seams in the tourist enclaves, the southern beaches. Ubud is well on it’s way too, but I still have a few secret places left to reveal or revel in. That usually happens once we get out of even Ubud, and into the mountains and the northern coast.

Most were discovered from cycling, and trashing the rental car through bath tub sized potholed country roads. Long conversations with a few Balinese friends known since the early 90′s helped too. One is the director for rural road works and a keen cyclist. How very convenient. Another  is the car rental company boss turned village headman / problem solver and marriage solemniser with good ‘family’ connections with the police. Some nights were looooong on this trip.

Chucked in the garden of Warji's, I spotted a 'performance' MTB. Michael, a native of Hawaii, spends 4 months a year in Bali..... when he's tired of cycling in Hawaii. What a dilemma ! Where can I get/buy such a dire predicament ??

Urrgh ! Get back to work !

In Memory of Paul Lim

While driving in the mountains of Bali, on Sat. 30th April, I received some shocking and sad news that my good cycling buddy of almost 20 years had died in a road accident. He was killed in an unfortunate twist of fate, by a 19 year old drunk driver. Lo and behold, one with a drink driving record. A bike shop that he frequented a lot posted some first hand accounts on the day’s tragic events,

http://mybikeshopsg.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/sad-news-we-lost-a-good-friend/

At the crater rim of Mt Bromo, East Java, Indonesia. 11.26 am 12th May 2009

I wanted to write something eloquent and poignant but changed my mind. Many good things have already been said about Paul during his wake. I had 3 weeks to think about it, one of which was in Bali. This is for all drink and/or drunk drivers, and knowing Paul who sometimes had a short temper, he would be of the same opinion. He wouldn’t say it to your face, but most times I could read his mind.

It’s quite simple really. Do what you love. For the perceived self esteem among your inebriated friends. We encourage you to drink even more, why stop at a few drinks? The police, laws, prison system, parents, spouse, mistress, bartender hasn’t stopped you, from drinking and then driving, so what’s another few rounds?

Please drink till you drive into a wall, tree or flip your car a few times. Do it at 160 kmp/h. Just don’t take an innocent life/lives with you. (The silly occupants in your car, excepted) A life that could wake up before dawn and cycle/ride 160 kms before lunch is over. A life who enjoyed a beer or two but knew when to stop. I harbour no anger or rage in writing this. Rage would mean getting some unsavoury character to split open your drunken skull, and we have to live with a human condition called guilt and remorse.

Think about it, simple logic at it’s best, less drunk drivers on the road, simple self eradication.

RIP Paul, as sure as you are not forgotten amongst us, you know his time will come.

Friend’s tributes :

http://lovethefold.blogspot.com/2011/05/when-light-goes-off-remembering-bro.html

http://mattchia.com/blog/?p=3065

http://smallwheelsbigsmile.blogspot.com/2011/04/goodbye-paul-rip-i-will-miss-u.html