This is a sad post as it will be the last on Bali. We are currently on a plane heading back to Thailand. Since the last post we spent some time on the Gili Islands, as well as back in Kuta. The Gili Islands, there are three, are a small group of islands just of the coast of Bali’s neighbor Lombok. And, as seems to be tradition with any of the islands we have been (live on…) it was beautiful. Not as quiet as Nusa Lembongan, but the beaches were beautiful and plentiful. We stayed on Gili T which is the biggest… takes about a half hour to bike around the whole island. There are no cars or scooters which was a treat that wasn’t as apparent until we arrived back in Kuta where the side walk acts as scooter lane for drivers wanting to go the wrong way on one ways streets. Foot, horse, and the trusty bicycle are only form of transportation on these tiny islands. We took in some great snorkeling, became experts at avoiding drug dealers, “rent bicycle?” followed up with “smoke weed, magic mushrooms?”, and became fans of the free range beach goats.
After a bumpy boat ride back to Bali (think being on poox’s dingy on a wavy day for 2.5 hours), my first stop in Kuta was to hit up Warung Indonesia for some nasi goring (fried rice). I have eaten it daily during our month in Indo and although I enjoyed them all, Warung Indonesia was the tastiest by a long shot! While in Kuta we spent time working on our sunburns and I got in one great surf session in! I learned that duck diving a short board actually works. Although once out the back its much harder to surf in… may have done a face grind along the nose of the board on multiple occasions. We also got to brush up on our bartering skills doing some shopping, my bag is way to heavy at the moment filled with gifts for ya‘ll!
The highlight of recent times was the guided mountain bike trip that Rob and I signed up for. The day started with a 2 hour shuttle from our hotel up into the mountains. Followed by one of my strangest rides to date. Not that is wasn’t great, truly amazing, if I had to sum it up it would be half adventure race, with ¼ frogger style chicken, dogs, goats, and children dodging, and ¼ river dancing. Although the lead guide was a bit of a punter, he would slow down on some of the fun sections of trail or if couldn't ride a section he would just stop in the middle of the trail assuming on one else could ride it. The tail guide on the hand was sweet. He would just chill at the back of the group with a big smile, and on some of the pavement sections we got to chat. He has only been riding for about a year but you could tell that he was hooked on riding, which was awesome to see. Along on the ride with us was two other riders, Andrus from Germany and Matt from Australia.
Some of the terrain we covered in the 40 km ride is as follows: pavement, fireroads, sand, concrete single track, perfect single track, shoulder deep trenches, rocks, roots, streams, and some hike-a-bike thrown in for good measure. It down poured on and off during the ride and sections of the trail turned into rivers. Although not a fan of getting wet, once its over with riding in the rain is one of my favorites. All in all it was a great day on the bicycles and one I will never forget. When talking about the ride after rob and I both figured that Bill Duces would have loved it... a jungle version of the ride we did in north Conway where had to wade through a beaver pond.
One other highlight of the ride was all the children in the villages waving and shouting “hello, hello” as we passed by.
Lastly, our thoughts go out to all those affected by the ongoing tragedy unfolding in Japan!
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