On yer bike for a Bali good time

TRAVEL ... with David Bray

Downhill all the way. It’s the way to go when you’re part of a genuinely good day tour in Bali. Now travel writers for the glossy mags and the metropolitan dailies tend not to do tours. Don’t have to, because their hosts whiz them around in time-efficient luxury. Your reporter had some years of such junketing and saw quite a lot.

Once the freebie phase was over, it was back to Gray Line and suchlike, and it must be said they almost always proved to be enjoyable, informative and fair value for money. One such expedition not so long ago provided all of the above and a bit more. A bicycle tour without the need to ride a bike.
We see an advertisement in a tour shop as we pick our way with considerable care along the atrocious footpaths of Ubud. The brochure offered an eco/cycling day tour, down hill, suitable all ages. Just the thing, at a mere 350,000 rupiah each. Say $4.
Around 7.30 next morning Wayan picks us up at our accommodation in an air-conditioned van and we drive around town picking up others until there are seven of us, including a couple of fit-looking young men.
An hour’s drive takes us up into the cool, green hills for a nice enough breakfast at Kintamani overlooking Lake Batur and lava leavings from historic volcanic eruptions. It’s a pleasant place, good view, nice people. Next to a farm to learn what grows well here in the tropics. We are familiar with many plants. Guide Wayan (aren’t they all so named?) is a first rate teacher, well informed and with good English.
We know now that the Balinese can’t do without BBC _ bananas, bamboo, coconut. We get to sample some of the drinks. Wayan must have been looking us over, because he asks, politely: “”Mr and Mrs Bray, how long since you rode a bicycle?’’ Many years, mate. Let’s see how we find things. So soon we pick up the bikes, and helmets. They’re excellent machines, but after some surprisingly strenuous cycling around the flat ground, Mr and Mrs B accept the offer to ride the course in the comfort of the van. The five fit ones roll off and it must be said all of them make it to the finish, back in Ubud, 25 kilometres on, almost all of it downhill and on quite roads.
They, and we, visit a Balinese family who make their living from a bamboo plantation. Almost every member of the family has something to do, even granny who is weaving a mat. We learn a little about the family/social system, and later at a temple stop, discover some of the basics of the Hindu belief system.
At one stage we pull off the road to enjoy a passing colourful procession of villagers on their way to prepare for their new year celebrations. Lunch is well into the afternoon, a brilliant meal set out in a pleasant pagoda-style building surrounded by lush green rice fields.
We feel very relaxed and pleased with the whole expedition and are interested to hear the women who made the ride say they had been so busy avoiding dogs and traffic that they had not really been able to take much notice of what was around them. The blokes, more experienced cyclists, had no such complaints. For some reason none of us could be bothered doing the last bit of the tour, Monkey Forest. Nasty, greedy, thieving little wretches.
As for us, we couldn’t be more content with the day.

GETTING THERE

There are plenty of direct flights between Brisbane and Bali. Bus services and taxis run Denpasar to Ubud. Resorts and hotels arrange transfers and tour bookings. Since our effort there has been a remarkable rise in the number of cycle tours on offer in the area. Expect to pay $35 to $45. Plenty of choice on the internet.