Motorbikes, motorbikes,
are the best way forward, right?
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| Where we motorbiked during our Bali stay (Legian street was where we stayed, central Kuta) |
I
admit that navigation and sense of direction are not my fortés, but I
felt that I could probably easily manage a motorbike in Bali since I
am used to motorbiking in the Land of the Craziness of Bikes, Vietnam. Our first
night we asked our hostel about renting bikes, and were told that the
bike rental lady would be over at 9.20am. Perfect – not too late,
but late enough for us to catch up on sleep a little bit.
At
8am, I was woken up by the hostel staff from a very intense sleep - the rental lady was there and very busy! So, I negotiated a bike with her whilst 90% still asleep. It was especially unnerving when I was
filling in the form with my info, and, well, I had no license. The lady was slightly worried, but didn't let that impede the
rental progress. “Any problem with police,” she said, “don't
call
me.” Ok...
Next
I got to try the bike. Literally with nothing on me apart from the
random clothes I threw on before going to meet her, I got to drive in
Bali's left-sided traffic around squiggly streets I had never set
foot (or wheel) on before. I was acutely aware that if I got lost, I
had no phone, no map, not even money. It was quite surreal but a
very... envigorating experience. I'm in Bali, on my bike, it's
8.30am, with a whole day – many days! - ahead of me!
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| Our route is roughly in green |
Today's
destination was inland, the cultural centre of southern Bali, Ubud.
Known especially from the book/movie Eat, Pray, Love (which I haven't
seen/read, unfortunately), it's known for its art, culture and
handicraft.
It
was a relatively easy ride – driving on the left side was much
more... easy than I'd thought. I learnt quickly that Bali is also a
bit more rule-abiding than Vietnam. In Bali, the traffic is crazy,
and the Balinese know that, and try their best to make it less crazy
– the road work signs reminded everyone about safety, and people
actually kept to the lanes assigned to them. Whereas in Vietnam, I feel that people have completely given up (well, can you give up something you've never started??) trying to make things safe - it's crazy, deal with it.
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| Local traffic officials |
Once, on the way to Ubud, I stopped on the
side of the road to check my googlemaps – something very readily
done in Vietnam, you 'can' stop wherever, and be prepared for the
person in front of you to stop wherever. I did realise I was in the
wrong lane, but, well, Vietnam. Except Bali is not Vietnam. The other
cars and bikes were on the right hand lane, and a lady on a bike
there actually shouted out at me to catch my attention, reversed a
bit and gestured to the space she had now provided in front of her bike. There was
space for me, that silly tourist, who doesn't even know one lane from
another. Ah well, thank you lady...
Finally
we gradually arrived in Ubud. Despite attempted research, in the end
we didn't really know what there was to do
in
Ubud. Yes, cool arty shops and narrow streets (which were not fun to
drive, btw, the cars attempting to squish you off... Excellent
balance practise.), but what to do?
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| Tell me... WHY didn't I buy earrings here???? x( |
We
parked near a tourist info stall, near other bikes, but still making
sure the bike was always visible. We went to talk to the friendly
dude in the info stall. “What to do in Ubud?” we asked. He
explained we should just head north towards Tegalalalallang (ok, so not that many lala's, but something like that), a
village north of here which we'd heard of, but deemed perhaps too far
away. “Just go in one direction,” he said, “like the boyband.”
We (I) liked him instantly.
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| She did enjoy shopping, promise! |
After
a quick stroll around the Ubud streets, we jumped back on our bike
and headed in that one direction. It was a beautiful road full of ups
and downs. We drove through Tega, which wasn't massively exciting
tbh, lots of cool art shops though.
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| Nikki obediently took pics for me from the bike <3 |
Until,
we stumbled upon something beautiful. Ah, the famous Rice Terraces
we'd heard of! We crossed our
fingers and parked somewhere which hopefully was both legal and safe, then
went off to explore.
There
were lots of tourists, but not too many I'd say. There were many
pushy salespeople nearby, but luckily the ones in the rice terraces
themselves were mostly pleasant and the majority were very cute old men. For example
this Mr here, who was eager to pose in pictures and didn't even hint
at money (we gave him some, though).
There were two spots where
people tried to charge us for 'maintenance of the rice terrace paths'
– the first one I happily paid, the second one not so much. They
were not happy, but let us pass, but refused to let the French couple
behind us pass without paying... Dunno how that one ended.
Another
cute one was an old man with a wooden pole over the path, with a sign
warning of the dangerous bridge which also needs maintenance fees. We
gave him 10,000 and he was very happy. And the bridge was very cool.
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| The man closing the gate after us |
At
the Gangnam Style café on the terraces we contemplated our next
moves. I really didn't want to do the famous Monkey Forest as
Indonesia was currently known to be battling a rabies outbreak.
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| Kwetiau goreng (fried flat noodles) at Gangnam Style, one of my fave dishes <3 |
We
decided to set off finding this random ridgeway walk thing.
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| Not this |
On the
way, however, we saw a sign to a place we'd read about but not
actually found on the map: Elephant Park! The sign said either 1km or
7km, it ended up being the latter.
We
also got to pass a funky ceremonial thingy. Still no idea it was, but
I can tell you it was Bali culture! The locals were surprised and
excited to see us, but not... uncomfortably so, like sometimes in
Vietnam, where they just start to whisper, giggle and laugh at you.
Ah Bali <3
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| For a few days we thought Hati-Hati meant elephant... It doesn't :( BUT WOULDN'T IT BE THE CUTEST!!! |
Elephant
Park was soon on after that. You could do elephant riding, which I
preferred not to do, or just walk around the park. The first thing
you saw was a sign telling you why, despite the elephants being
chained in the park, that they are happy and this is necessary. Next
step was signing a form more or less saying that I accept I may die
of being stamped on by an elephant. Then payment, then into the park!
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| FANTTEI |
I
love elephants, but this was especially exciting for Nikki, who
hadn't seen real elephants before.
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| Elephant trunks are useful climbing devices as well |
We got pics with an elephant and got to see the only free elephant, the Baby
<3, who tried climbing over the fence to get leaves which in the
end he poo-pooed.
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| HELLO BABY |
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| Fellow tourist attempting to feed Baby |
Then,
it was time to head home. In the end we had gone even further north
than Tega, so it was a long way back (46km according to googlemaps)... Thankfully googlemaps on my
phone had started working again, so we found a route and started
following it, though not without some hiccups...
Hiccup #1: It started raining. I know riding a bike is more dangerous in the
rain, especially on an unfamiliar bike on unfamiliar, steep roads...
Hiccup #2: It got very, very cold. We were both in sleeveless tops and
shorts. I had always thought Bali to be at least as hot as Vietnam. I
was wrong. I had laughed at Nikki for wanting to take her leather jacket with her, but it would've proved very useful here...
So,
when we finally chanced upon a shop that seemed to be selling
clothes, we happily bought ourselves a beautiful Chanel hoodie with
fuzzy bits (for me) and a beautiful neon green jumper with a Union
Jack on it (for Nikki) and made the ladies in the shop very happy.
Hiccup #3: Our road randomly ended abruptly with some steps and a rock.
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| Unfortunately my camera refused to capture the beauty of it |
It was kind
of reassuring when we checked googlemaps to realise that we had
actually gone the wrong way, not that we were expected to go this
way... In all fairness, the road had been a little bit suspect for a
while, with its crazy uneven bumps and very lacking road maintenance. So,
we turned round and headed back.
Hiccup#4: Petrol was running very low. If you're outside of central Kuta,
the only way to get petrol is to stop at a shop selling petrol in adorable old
vodka bottles for about 10,000 (75 centsish).
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| Petrol Bali-style |
We saw plenty of these
shops before, but now it was dark and googlemaps had directed us onto
a backroads route...
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| It was dark |
So,
it was a godsend when we went round a corner and saw a shop with a
light on. We wandered around the shop selling bits and pieces
from food and bike parts to toiletries. After a few confused moments of being in a completely empty shop, a beaming lady of about 50 appeared. She was more
than happy to sell us petrol, and seemed sad we weren't staying to
sit down with her.
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| Our Angel pouring petrol into our bike |
In the end, we bought some of her home-made
biscuit/pasty-thingies. (Interestingly, the biscuits I thought to be
sweet turned out chili-ey and distinctly savoury, while the little
pasty that looked more savoury was sweet and red-beany. The pasties
were nice, the biscuits a bit like exotic crisps...)
Then,
bye-bye to our Angel Lady, and back on our way.
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| If you ever find yourself on the backroads of Bali, do pop in! |
Hiccup #5: My phone battery was running out... Luckily, it finally died only
on the edge of Kuta, and I was quite proud of myself for navigating
back to the hostel without a map!
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| Ah googlemaps, you saved our lives many times. And infuriated it a few times as well. |
Absolutely
shattered after the trip, but it was lovely. I absolutely love
driving a bike in Bali, the roads are so exciting and curvy and uppy
and downy and... SO COOL.
Next
day: B*TCHES GO TO DA BEACHES ;D
Emzy
xxxx
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| With less dark clouds in the future... |
