Bali 2009- A Pictorial Narration

The route of the aborted tour, abandoned at Pekutatan on the second day

View Kuta - Pekutatan in a larger map

At LCCT. The start of the journey, hopefully with the travel guide we'll find our way in the island we have not been to. I read the guide cover to cover hoping to visit as many places as possible.

We travel by Air Asia. This is the departure gate to Denpasar.   We are advised  Air Asia charges extra for the bike boxes under sport equipment, so we tell the counter clerk the boxes are not bike boxes, only our baggage in boxes. He takes our word and we save the expenses. I think by this time Tony has wizened up, you will need better camouflage to fool them again, but no harm trying the same tactic.

In flight service. Air Asia is commended for their pretty flight attendants. It sure makes the flight time feels shorter. 

This is son Zahir, still single and immensely eligible. We are having dinner at a nasi padang warong near  our hotel. We arrive at 10.00 pm and a guide is waiting for us with a van. A van is necessary to accommodate the two bicycle boxes.  The hotel is just outside the airport.

Inside the hotel room. The bikes are still in the packed in the boxes. Neat isn't it

Ready to go. These are our bikes after unpacking and assembly.

First stop after checking out. We stop at Kuta Beach to see the famous beach at close distance. It is still early and the area is still pretty much deserted. The beach is to the front of the picture.

The air man. We have to pay to pump air into tires and even then, the pressure his motor pump gives is below what we want and we end up riding on under inflated tires. The mini pump we bring is a cheapie and only a superman can drive it to the recommended pressure i.e 100 psi. Time to replace the pump with a better version and in doing so I end up with about half a dozen types.  Another issue is that our tires, 25x700C, have  too small a volume of air and need very high pressure to maintain the ride at optimal level.  A wider tire like 32 and above will not only be more comfortable but also will need less pressure and less work on the hand pump. We cannot change to wider tire because our forks do not allow anything wider than what we have. This is a limitation touring with a racer, its light and fast but that is all, in touring other factors start kicking in like road condition, steep hills and as said the maintaining of tire pressure all of which is hard on the rider.

Amazing sight of Bali. Our first sight of the terraced rice fields. The rice fields in our country all lie on  plains, its like stretching all the way to the horizon. Hills are only for rubber trees. It is humbling to see the farmers in Bali  conquering the slopes and turning the hills into a rice growing area without resort to modern technologies as these rice fields are hundreds of years old 

This is taken just before reaching Tanah Lot from Kuta. Sadly we are told this sight is getting less common as rice fields are abandoned to commercial sites and that fewer farmer are willing to work the fields, a back breaking job compared to servicing tourists. 

Tanah Lot. A very famous pura by the sea.  Entrance is by purchasing tickets 

The temple garden is what you want to recreate back home and tell everybody you have a Bali Garden.

A vendor inside the pura. From the entrance to the temple site you have to run a gauntlet of tenacious vendors, except for very few nice and pretty exception, like this girl who is running a juice stall.

After Tanah Lot and near Tabanan we are supposed to turn left to stay on the coastal road to the east. The maps are quite good but our map reading is very poor that we have to ask the locals the obvious, like when we see a sign pointing to Gilimanuk we have to ask the local,  where Gilimanuk is,  when we should have known that Gilimanuk itself is a marker being a famous port in east Bali 

Just after the killer climb after Tabanan. The gradient is so steep and so long we almost got down to push but pride make us stay on the saddle until the crest.

We come to Bali for this view. The padi is maturing and the yellow hues of the leaves against the blue mountain is a fantastic sight

We reach Lalanglinggah late afternoon and stay for the night at a homestay near a beach

Volcanic sand is soft, shiny and black

Our shadows.

The cow of Bali wears white stockings

Our cycling attire laundered and hanged to dry

Coke and nasi goreng for dinner

Starting out in the morning. The omen is not good, looking at the sombre expression. The tour is abandoned  at Pekutatan, one hour away due to severe back pain suffered by my son.

Our homestay at Made's.

The man, Mr. Made and his tatoo.

I like the roads in Bali as they are lined with trees and we ride in the shadows,  a welcomed respite from the afternoon heat. It is not long after this we have to turn back because of the back pain suffered by son.

This is on the way to Ubud from Kuta where I ride alone as son has been disabled by back pain. In this area the padi are still green.

I ride to the monkey forest near Ubud.

No, the swimming does not ease the pain. It is severe because of the pinching of the nerves due to slipped disc. We take an early flight home to get treatment and like the saga of Apollo 13, we do not achieve our aim but are lucky to overcome the disaster in one piece. There is always next time.