September 13, 2006
To Ubud: First day cycling
After yesterday's tour and seeing the traffic between Kuta and Denpasar, we plan an early start to avoid the heaviest traffic. Our biological clocks have not yet fully adjusted, at 4am we are both fully awake and ready to go. So rather than wait for the included hotel breakfast, we eat our own pastries and yogurt, roll the bikes outside the room and hang the panniers off the racks, the first of many such starts in the days to come. We read and wait another hour for some light to appear in the sky. Cycling in the dark is not a reasonable risk to us.
At about 5:45 am, still in darkness but with a lighter hue up above, we roll into Jalan Legian street and head north. We found a detailed map of Bali at the Mata Hari store and it helps us find our way through Seminyah and then onto the quieter roads heading north. We avoid the city of Denpasar.
Traffic is relatively quiet at first but quickly picks up. Many scooters, cars, some trucks and a few bicycles all mix on the narrow roads with no shoulders. It's important not to make sudden moves, turns or braking. As long as we stay predictable, traffic just flows around us. Of course, there are also the pot holes, road construction, the odd piles of construction dirt on the road with some branches stuck into it as a warning, dogs, and an occasional kid riding his bike to school on the "wrong" side of the road. Riding in Indonesia is on the left, though traffic goes in all directions.
Most roads north of Denpasar head strictly north-south, following gullies and ridges up the volcano, Mount Agung, that makes up the center of the island. To avoid Denpasar, we stay west and head up until we are just about the same latitude as Ubud before traversing east on smaller roads that go up and down to the rivers flowing off the volcano. Our first day of cycling, we need our granny gears for some short steep climbs. We always look at the first few weeks of a tour as training. Most of the roads today suffer from strip development, only occasionally do we ride through farm fields and rice paddies.
At a junction, we stop for a coke and snack and then a final push to Ubud. Patrick has found a bicyclist recommendation for Gusti's Garden Bungalows on the internet and decide to check this out first. Of course, it's at the top of a hill. The place is fabulous though, a long series of steps leads down into a ravine with small buildings, rooms, gardens, restaurant and swimming pool. More garden with small offerings and temples everywhere and the sound of running water, no road noises. We get a nice room with a fan for 150 thousand Rp, not bad for the touristy Ubud. It's barely 10 O'clock so we have a good day left to explore.
We walk down Monkey Forest Road exploring the shops, eat a pizza for lunch and share a large Bintang Beer. We find an Internet cafe and for 200Rp/minute we log on to check a few of our messages. The connection is very slow.
On our way back to the hotel, we find the large market (like Pike's market in Seattle). Rachel buys two more sarongs. When back at the hotel, she checks the sarongs she bought yesterday and it the same pattern only different colors. (Since we are editing now in 2022, Rachel still has the sarong she used all through this trip, and the 2015-2017 trip). We relax and go for a swim. In the evening we go see a Legong/Barong Dance held in an outside courtyard at the temple. After a while it starts to sprinkle and a real downpour on our way back to the hotel.
Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 38 km (24 miles)
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