I started my second motorbike roadtrip exploring Bali 8 days ago.  Between that time and now, I’ve had internet access only once as the small villages around the island are not yet connected to the ether.  I can’t blame being behind on my stories entirely on the internet though as I’ve also had a complete lack of time to write as well.  So now I’m finally hitting the keyboard again.  I’ve been missing it a lot.

the view from Kintamani

Although I’m not always an organized person, I’m typically a pretty organized thinker so instead of launching into some stories about the roadtrip that I’m still in the middle of as you might expect I would do, I’m going to fill you in on some stories from Ubud on which quite behind.  In between the current roadtrip and the one I took with Munawar a couple weeks ago, I took the only organized tour I’ve been on thus far during my trip:  an “Eco Bicycle Tour.”  

Now I have to confess, I’m not sure what exactly about this tour made it eco-friendly - perhaps that we were using bicycles (known here as “push bikes”) instead of motorbikes? - but the trip itself was wonderful.  I was picked up in a shuttle bus from my hotel in Ubud and driven, along with 9 other people, about an hour and a half away to a village called Kintamani that sits at the top of a mountain and overlooks one of eight volcanos on Bali as well as a large lovely lake.  On the opposite side of the lake is a village, isolated even by Bali standards, who have the unique distinction of not burying or cremating their dead, but laying their bodies out in the cemetery exposed to the elements to decompose naturally.  As we gazed out at this splendid view (mountains and lakes, not decomposing bodies), we ate a yummy breakfast of chocolate and banana pancakes (the pancakes here are more like thick crepes than what we call pancakes in the States), fried rice and fresh fruit.  

jackfruit tree

Bellies full, we hopped back in the shuttle buses to a coffee plantation that also served as sample garden of the many varieties of herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables grown on Bali.  We saw and smelled lemongrass and curry leaves as well as some additional spice leaves which don’t exist in the States. We saw jackfruit, mango and salak (the “mystery” snakeskin fruit I encountered in “In Asia at Last!”) trees.  And remember the special coffee that was an obsession of Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie the Bucket List?  It was called Luwak and cost $100 per cup.  His character was distraught toward the middle of the movie when he learned that the coffee received its distinctive flavor when the fruit containing the seed that eventually becomes the coffee is eaten whole by an animal called the Asian palm civet.  The animal can’t digest the seed which is excreted, still whole, the collected, washed and roasted.  Well … it turns out the palm civets are native to Bali and this plantation had several that were happily snoozing as we wandered the grounds.  

Asian palm civet

The plantation guides walked us through the coffee roasting proess and then treated us to same samples of coffees and teas from ingredients grown from their land:  Balinese coffee (very strong), hot chocolate from homegrown cacao (best hot chococate I’ve ever had!), ginseng coffee (my favorite), lemongrass tea (tasted like a mild form of ginger) and ginger tea (very strong … delicious!).  They also had homegrown tobacco and papers so customers could roll their own cigarettes.  I’m not a smoker, but figured this was something I’d like to try.  I struggled as I attempted to  roll my own cigarette until a more experienced member of the group took pity on me and took over.  Our group of 8 watched expectantly, waiting for this non-smoker to cough and splutter after my first toke.  I took a page out of Bill Clinton’s book, however, and didn’t inhale, disappointing those who were waiting to laugh at my coughing fits.  After about 3 puffs, I confirmed that, while this was a novel experience, smoking (even with homegrown Balinese tobacco) wasn’t for me.  

roasting coffee beans

different types of coffee and tea

Post-coffee and tea sampling, the plantation folks gave us samples of tropical fruits some of which were already familiar to me:  salak, passion fruit, mango and papaya.  New fruits to me were tamarillo (they look like a plum tomato outside, but have black seeds on the inside and taste sweeter and more fruit-like than a tomato) and mangosteen (looks like an apple with round hard leaves on the outside. The inside is a hard shell with soft, white pulpy sections in the middle.  You eat the the white pulpy part.  It tastes sweet, and kind of like pineapple with a completely different texture. I’m a fan!).  

checking out the local flavor

Of course after all these free samples, these marketing geniuses wisely took us to their giftshop where they sold everything we had just tasted along with about 50 different kinds of additional spices.  They also had Luwak coffee for that bargain basement price of $100 per box.  One nice thing about traveling light as I’m doing is that I’m not tempted to buy anything because I know I don’t have room to carry it.  It makes browsing much more relaxing!  

spices

At last we were ready to hop on our bikes and start the hard work  … of coasting downhill for about 2-3 hours.  Easy on the legs, but hard on the hands for constantly braking.  We were offered the option of doing a fast ride which included a lot of uphill work.  Naturally, all but one really fit German guy (who, incidentally, happened to be a juggler) chose the slow downhill, picture-taking mode.  

high fives with the local kids

Our guide told us in advance that we would feel like celebrities during our ride because the children would run out into the street and line up to give us “high fives” and everyone would shout hello to us.  They weren’t kidding.  I must have given over 100 “high fives” that day and said “hello” about 200 more times.  The children and adults alike happily posed for photos.  In fact, many requested that their photos be taken and then thanked me for doing so.  A photographer’s dream, for sure! I must say that it’s nice to feel welcomed by the Balinese and not resented.

The first stop on the bike tour was at the home of a family who specialized in making bamboo products: baskets, mats, woven bamboo ceilings.  As we walked through their compound, I noticed a home gym setup that was straight out of a Fred Flinstone cartoon.  The weight lifting bench was made of wood and each of the weights were different sized round wheels of concrete.  

a gym Fred Flintstone would have been proud of

ari ari (placenta) marker

Bamboo in Bali is used to make everything imaginable.  It’s used for clothesline, drinking cups, baskets, walls, ceilings, fences, ladders and a number of things I’ve forgotten to list. In addition to learning about the multiple uses for bamboo, we saw a typical Balinese kitchen and learned about the physical layout of the family compound.  The compound, our guide explained, is like the body; it has a head a torso and legs.  The head end of each compound is always the end closest to Mount Agung, considered the holiest mountain in Bali.  This end contains the family temple.  At the “feet” end of the compound is animal pen.  The family lives and cooks in the “body” with sleeping quarters closest to the temple end and the kitchen closest to the animal pen.  Because the Balinese believe the spirits of their ancestors return to their former homes, no Balinese can sell their family compound because that would be like selling the ancestors themselves.  Another interesting aspect of the family compound concerns the placenta of each person living there.  The Balinese believe that the placenta and blood of each baby is holy and akin to the baby’s brothers so at birth, these (called “ari ari”) are saved and placed inside a hollowed-out coconut shell.  The shell is then buried in front of the northernmost building in the compound.  Ari ari’s of boys are buried on the right side of the building and girls’ are buried on the left.  The burial spot of each ari ari is marked with a special stone and three sticks tied together to form what looks like the spine of teepee. 

We left the home of the “bamboo family” and rode our bikes down quiet country roads through miles and miles of rice fields and temples.  We passed men working in fields and weaving mats out of palm leaves for roofs.  I saw women carrying baskets of leaves, large bundles of firewood, buckets of concrete and entire tree trunks on their heads.  Men everywhere were massaging their prized fighting roosters for cockfights I have yet to see.  We stopped at the home of a woodworker and then at the home of a  family of rice farmers. It was quite an education in the lives of Balinese who are not involved in the tourist industry (although even these families are affected - they received a small stipend for allowing us to view their homes and businesses).  

Balinese man working by the roadside

In general, the main roads in Bali are pretty well maintained.  The roads not considered main roads, however, range from pretty good to filled with potholes.  Unfortunately, this particular fell into the latter category.  I tried filming as I was coasting to give you an idea of what it’s like to ride down a lovely road in Bali … and almost fell off my bike a couple of times as I would ride right into a pothole when I wasn’t watching the road.  After coming close to breaking both my arm and my camera equipment, my survival instincts won out over my photographic ones (I included my “near spill” in the footage … it’s obvious!)  

a beautifully laid out lunch

We finished our interesting and interactive bike ride with a tasty lunch that was beautifully presented in clay pots lined with banana leaves.  Although we hadn’t exactly burned many calories during our “coast,” we were still hungry and smoke duck, smoked chicken, lawar (Balinese vegetable-based dish), mie goreng (fried noodles) and nasi goreng (fried rice) hit the spot. As usual, I was so hungry, I forgot to photograph my multi-colored feast.  I did remember to photograph our fresh fruit salad dessert, however, which was just as lovely.

dessert

The “Eco Tour” was offered through Bali Budaya Tours and I would highly recommend it to anyone in or near Ubud.

 Additional photos for this and other blog entries can be found on the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of this blog.  

To see video from my Eco Bike tour (including my near wipe out) click here.