Where we are today
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:38 PM
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Saturday, December 31, 2005
Hum, I see a bearded half man, half cat wearing a dress.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:14 PM
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I look so relaxed even though my foot is getting bitten by red ants OUCH!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:11 PM
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Jodi showing me where she wants to build her Youth Hostil.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:10 PM
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Stand selling Malaysian Power Bars, i.e. Fried Bananas, "pisang goreng"
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 7:39 PM
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December 30, 2005
When Jodi and I decided to do this trip we planned on keeping our ride length at 50 to 60 km per day. We did not anticipate the days when accommodation would not be available and we would need to ride more. Well, we have ridden more, much much more!
Three days ago we left Mersing for Kuala Rompin, 80km. But before moving on I discovered that Jodi’s cones on her rear hub were loose and I needed to find a way to tighten them before hitting the road. Luckily, my dad had sent one of my cone wrenches with my pedals so I could use it to install the pedals on my bike. Thank goodness the wrench was the right size but then I needed another wrench to turn the locking nut to free the cones so I could get the tension right. Again luck was on my side and the nice Chinese woman who ran the hotel had an oversized adjustable wrench. I freed the nut and the cone and was able to get the right tension after two tries, a new personal best.
The ride was long during which we discovered Mr. Pumpy isn’t always accurate with his details, or lack there of. He mentioned that from Mersing to Cherating the road is dead flat which is mostly correct but the road doesn’t get flat until after Padang Endau. Then it becomes a flat ribbon of tar stretching off into the distance. The riding reminds me of the drive between Salida and Alamosa, dead flat with waves of heat distorting the view.
The first pass through Kuala Rompin we did so thinking that we would be able to find some nice beach accommodations at Rompin Lanjut Beach (15km further up the road). We stopped in the shelter of a bus stop to enjoy a few snacks of peanut butter, apples, bananas and energy biscuits. We were not paying much attention when a guy appeared just outside the bus stop. His name was Michael, from Johor Bahru and he was seeking information about where he could buy gear like ours. He wanted to do a touring ride around Malaysia next year and I guess finding gear is very difficult. He asked how much touring we had done and I think we surprised him when we answered that this was our first trip and that we had no idea what our bags cost because some friends loaned them to us. I suggested he could probably get some made since there are so many people good at making things in Malaysia, but he said that would be too expensive. We suggested he check out the website for http://www.panpack.com/ where he could find information about the packs we are using. Michael provided us with some good information about places to stay up the road and indicated that there was nothing at Rompin Lanjut Beach. So when Michael left we packed up and rode back the way we had come to Kuala Rompin.
In all we did over 80km that day and found a place that had beach access in the distance and was acceptable but nothing like what we had become accustomed too while in Bali. It did have a great pool and HBO, both of which we enjoyed. Usually when we finish a ride we lay low in our room for an hour or two just enjoying the cool temperatures inside and on this day we watched the "Italian Job" during our rest. Later we walked down the unspoiled beach wondering why there were no other places to stay on the coastline here or any other types of development including houses. It was a long lonely stretch of beach, which was beautiful even though the ocean was very brown from the recent rains. Unfortunately we discovered we were being eaten alive as we walked along by little annoying sand fleas. We returned to our room with welts all over our bodies. Late in the evening I went into town to fetch some snacks and returned in time to take a dip in the pool, then to bed.
At 6am we awoke, packed and ate our free American breakfast of eggs, toast, baked beans and "sausage" which were actually hot dogs. Eww! The ride was an uneventful 75km, but at the end of the road we finally found what we were looking for. All the way from Kuala Rompin we noticed signs that indicated a "Beach Resort with Budget Accommodations". We followed the signs expecting yet another goat rope but this time things turned for the better (usually when we follow these types of signs the places turn out to be expensive and the signage disappears so we can not find the place and we end up circling round and round). There was a narrow walking bridge across a river and some cute beach bungalows right on the beach. It was so nice to take my afternoon nap with the sound of the crashing surf just outside. I loved it! One problem, the place did not have a restaurant and the closest warung was 2km away and did not have food that would really power us up for another ride the next day. We’re a little tired of fried rice and fried noodles. So I thought I would ride north a few more "K" hoping I could find something. I found something in Pekan 15km away, but I did not take water thinking it was only going to be a short trip. By the time I arrived at a Chinese Mini Mart I was hot, sweaty and dehydrated. I walked up and down the aisles looking for food for dinner and breakfast the following day with sweat pouring off me onto the floor. The people running the place looked at me like I was going to drop dead any minute and no one spoke English and what little Malay I knew they did not understand. They called to their teenage daughter and she came looking very annoyed that she had been disturbed from what she was doing to talk English with this hot and sweaty bloke. She helped me find the things I needed, yogurt, peanuts, peanut butter, bananas, noodle soup and tuna. I also purchased a large bottle of water that I downed once outside. They all stood around trying to figure out how I was going to carry all this stuff on my bike and even offered a few extra shopping bags. I tried to explain that I had a backpack but no dice, so I just let them do their thing while I loaded everything into the pack and handed the bags back to them when I was done. I bowed and said "Terima Kasih" and rode off.
The 15k back sucked! The whole time I envisioned Jodi napping and enjoying the beach while I was destroying the shower I had taken and on the verge of total exhaustion. I stopped just short of the lodge and purchased two orders of fried rice from the warung. They gave me an order of fish cakes, which are ground up fish that I think is similar to a spam like concoction but deep fried. I went to eat one and noticed how badly my hands were shaking and I knew no matter how much I hated deep fried food I had better eat them, so I doused them in hot sauce. I noticed a really nice SUV pull up and two gentlemen get out and sit nearby. They ordered fish cakes and sat and talked to me. They asked where I was from and I said New Zealand because every time I said I was American in Mersing the looks I received in response lead me to believe they do not care much for the good ol’ US of A. He told me we were safe in Malaysia and that we had nothing to worry about. The further north we ride the more I would agree with him. In Mersing, I felt kind of like a black man at a "KKK" convention but further north the people seem more hospitable; however, I think I will continue being a Kiwi nonetheless. They shared their fish cakes with me and they had a good laugh when my dinner only came to 6 ringets and they did the conversion from ringets to kiwi dollars. They said that is only $2.50 where you come from, not even enough to buy a coke. I smiled feeling not very comfortable with whole thing and said goodbye. When I returned to the room Jodi was just finishing the laundry and was delighted to have some fried rice and snacks. We had two dinners that night, one of fried rice and the other of Tom Yam soup, all in the passing of two hours.
It was so nice to finally have accommodation right on the beach! We enjoyed sitting in the sand watching the sunset on our own private beach. All night long I could hear the surf and it had such a calming effect on my nerves, helping me to relax and get a really good nights sleep. This morning we watched the sunrise during our breakfast and were on the road by 7:30 am. We had a "short" ride of 68km to Kuantan.
One thing that really amazes me is how much things change with the time and the distance. From Mersing to Kuala Rompin there was thick jungle on both sides with the occasional monkeys playing on the roadside. Then from Kuala Rompin to Pekan the jungle became less dense and disappeared into wetlands where we were more exposed and the riding became hot. Then from Pekan to Kuantan the road became less lonely, the jungle pushed away by development and we had much more company on our way. Then we turned from highway 3 onto 2 and were joined by all the people coming from Kuala Lumpur. The road was very busy. I wanted to get some lunch before pressing on because I wanted my wits about me but Jodi insisted that we only had 5km more today and she just wanted to get down and out of the heat. We pressed on but I don’t think it was a smart decision since the traffic wasn’t very biker friendly. We followed Lonely Planets advice (the first time on this trip) and stayed at the Classic Hotel. We don’t know if we will move on tomorrow, we are both very tired and need some down days. We had hoped to make Cherating by New Years Eve but right now laying low in a place with good food and services for the beginning of the New Year sounds very nice.
Three days ago we left Mersing for Kuala Rompin, 80km. But before moving on I discovered that Jodi’s cones on her rear hub were loose and I needed to find a way to tighten them before hitting the road. Luckily, my dad had sent one of my cone wrenches with my pedals so I could use it to install the pedals on my bike. Thank goodness the wrench was the right size but then I needed another wrench to turn the locking nut to free the cones so I could get the tension right. Again luck was on my side and the nice Chinese woman who ran the hotel had an oversized adjustable wrench. I freed the nut and the cone and was able to get the right tension after two tries, a new personal best.
The ride was long during which we discovered Mr. Pumpy isn’t always accurate with his details, or lack there of. He mentioned that from Mersing to Cherating the road is dead flat which is mostly correct but the road doesn’t get flat until after Padang Endau. Then it becomes a flat ribbon of tar stretching off into the distance. The riding reminds me of the drive between Salida and Alamosa, dead flat with waves of heat distorting the view.
The first pass through Kuala Rompin we did so thinking that we would be able to find some nice beach accommodations at Rompin Lanjut Beach (15km further up the road). We stopped in the shelter of a bus stop to enjoy a few snacks of peanut butter, apples, bananas and energy biscuits. We were not paying much attention when a guy appeared just outside the bus stop. His name was Michael, from Johor Bahru and he was seeking information about where he could buy gear like ours. He wanted to do a touring ride around Malaysia next year and I guess finding gear is very difficult. He asked how much touring we had done and I think we surprised him when we answered that this was our first trip and that we had no idea what our bags cost because some friends loaned them to us. I suggested he could probably get some made since there are so many people good at making things in Malaysia, but he said that would be too expensive. We suggested he check out the website for http://www.panpack.com/ where he could find information about the packs we are using. Michael provided us with some good information about places to stay up the road and indicated that there was nothing at Rompin Lanjut Beach. So when Michael left we packed up and rode back the way we had come to Kuala Rompin.
In all we did over 80km that day and found a place that had beach access in the distance and was acceptable but nothing like what we had become accustomed too while in Bali. It did have a great pool and HBO, both of which we enjoyed. Usually when we finish a ride we lay low in our room for an hour or two just enjoying the cool temperatures inside and on this day we watched the "Italian Job" during our rest. Later we walked down the unspoiled beach wondering why there were no other places to stay on the coastline here or any other types of development including houses. It was a long lonely stretch of beach, which was beautiful even though the ocean was very brown from the recent rains. Unfortunately we discovered we were being eaten alive as we walked along by little annoying sand fleas. We returned to our room with welts all over our bodies. Late in the evening I went into town to fetch some snacks and returned in time to take a dip in the pool, then to bed.
At 6am we awoke, packed and ate our free American breakfast of eggs, toast, baked beans and "sausage" which were actually hot dogs. Eww! The ride was an uneventful 75km, but at the end of the road we finally found what we were looking for. All the way from Kuala Rompin we noticed signs that indicated a "Beach Resort with Budget Accommodations". We followed the signs expecting yet another goat rope but this time things turned for the better (usually when we follow these types of signs the places turn out to be expensive and the signage disappears so we can not find the place and we end up circling round and round). There was a narrow walking bridge across a river and some cute beach bungalows right on the beach. It was so nice to take my afternoon nap with the sound of the crashing surf just outside. I loved it! One problem, the place did not have a restaurant and the closest warung was 2km away and did not have food that would really power us up for another ride the next day. We’re a little tired of fried rice and fried noodles. So I thought I would ride north a few more "K" hoping I could find something. I found something in Pekan 15km away, but I did not take water thinking it was only going to be a short trip. By the time I arrived at a Chinese Mini Mart I was hot, sweaty and dehydrated. I walked up and down the aisles looking for food for dinner and breakfast the following day with sweat pouring off me onto the floor. The people running the place looked at me like I was going to drop dead any minute and no one spoke English and what little Malay I knew they did not understand. They called to their teenage daughter and she came looking very annoyed that she had been disturbed from what she was doing to talk English with this hot and sweaty bloke. She helped me find the things I needed, yogurt, peanuts, peanut butter, bananas, noodle soup and tuna. I also purchased a large bottle of water that I downed once outside. They all stood around trying to figure out how I was going to carry all this stuff on my bike and even offered a few extra shopping bags. I tried to explain that I had a backpack but no dice, so I just let them do their thing while I loaded everything into the pack and handed the bags back to them when I was done. I bowed and said "Terima Kasih" and rode off.
The 15k back sucked! The whole time I envisioned Jodi napping and enjoying the beach while I was destroying the shower I had taken and on the verge of total exhaustion. I stopped just short of the lodge and purchased two orders of fried rice from the warung. They gave me an order of fish cakes, which are ground up fish that I think is similar to a spam like concoction but deep fried. I went to eat one and noticed how badly my hands were shaking and I knew no matter how much I hated deep fried food I had better eat them, so I doused them in hot sauce. I noticed a really nice SUV pull up and two gentlemen get out and sit nearby. They ordered fish cakes and sat and talked to me. They asked where I was from and I said New Zealand because every time I said I was American in Mersing the looks I received in response lead me to believe they do not care much for the good ol’ US of A. He told me we were safe in Malaysia and that we had nothing to worry about. The further north we ride the more I would agree with him. In Mersing, I felt kind of like a black man at a "KKK" convention but further north the people seem more hospitable; however, I think I will continue being a Kiwi nonetheless. They shared their fish cakes with me and they had a good laugh when my dinner only came to 6 ringets and they did the conversion from ringets to kiwi dollars. They said that is only $2.50 where you come from, not even enough to buy a coke. I smiled feeling not very comfortable with whole thing and said goodbye. When I returned to the room Jodi was just finishing the laundry and was delighted to have some fried rice and snacks. We had two dinners that night, one of fried rice and the other of Tom Yam soup, all in the passing of two hours.
It was so nice to finally have accommodation right on the beach! We enjoyed sitting in the sand watching the sunset on our own private beach. All night long I could hear the surf and it had such a calming effect on my nerves, helping me to relax and get a really good nights sleep. This morning we watched the sunrise during our breakfast and were on the road by 7:30 am. We had a "short" ride of 68km to Kuantan.
One thing that really amazes me is how much things change with the time and the distance. From Mersing to Kuala Rompin there was thick jungle on both sides with the occasional monkeys playing on the roadside. Then from Kuala Rompin to Pekan the jungle became less dense and disappeared into wetlands where we were more exposed and the riding became hot. Then from Pekan to Kuantan the road became less lonely, the jungle pushed away by development and we had much more company on our way. Then we turned from highway 3 onto 2 and were joined by all the people coming from Kuala Lumpur. The road was very busy. I wanted to get some lunch before pressing on because I wanted my wits about me but Jodi insisted that we only had 5km more today and she just wanted to get down and out of the heat. We pressed on but I don’t think it was a smart decision since the traffic wasn’t very biker friendly. We followed Lonely Planets advice (the first time on this trip) and stayed at the Classic Hotel. We don’t know if we will move on tomorrow, we are both very tired and need some down days. We had hoped to make Cherating by New Years Eve but right now laying low in a place with good food and services for the beginning of the New Year sounds very nice.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 7:30 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
December 27, 2005
Merry Christmas! It has been one of the most unique Christmas’s for us this year. Traveling in Bali we didn’t experience any of the hoopla that goes along with a western Christmas until we arrived in Kuta for our last day on the island (back on Dec. 19th). We went in the mall across from our hotel (Lord only knows why) where the Christmas music was blaring, Christmas decorations were everywhere, people were shop shop shopping, and the Balinese people working there were all decked out in Santa hats. It felt very out of place and kind of wrong after not seeing a single sign of Christmas the whole way around the island. It makes perfect sense as the island is mostly Hindu. The other tourists didn’t seem to mind the craziness, but I guess if they wandered out of the Kuta area they might understand why it was so weird for us to walk into that.
Singapore was bustling with Christmas as well. That struck us as a little odd not really knowing what to expect, but not as odd as in Bali. Singapore is a big, clean city full of malls. They have different dedicated malls for anything and everything you could think of. I’ve never seen so many malls in my life. I told Kirk it’s like the “Mall of America” but spread out over blocks instead of encompassed in one building. Kirk and I went into the electronics mall and that was enough for us. Floor after floor with store after store all selling similar products for about the same price. It was very overwhelming. We certainly got the sense that the people in Singapore are large consumers just like in the US.
Malaysia was a shock as well. We thought being mostly a Muslim country that Christmas wouldn’t be an issue. I guess there is quite the population of Christians here because signs of Christmas were all over the place.
We spent the 23rd traveling from Singapore into Malaysia (40K) which was a pretty easy ride and very easy to get through customs on a bicycle. Johor Bahru was definitely a contrast to Singapore. It wasn’t as clean and didn’t feel nearly as safe. We agreed we only wanted to spend one night there and then move on. We ended up staying at the “New York Hotel” because we were having trouble finding accommodation. We looked at one hotel above a strip mall, but when they told Kirk they rent by the hour, we knew that we needed to find a different area of town. We couldn’t find any homestay or guesthouse type accommodations that we had grown so accustomed to in Bali so it was hard for us to realize that we had been spoiled there and in this city we needed to be looking for a high-rise hotel. We figured out the hard way that the high-rise hotels are actually the better places to stay and the rates aren’t too bad.
The 24th we rode from Johor Bahru to Kota Tinggi (40K) and on the way out of town we stopped at a bank to cash some travelers checks. After I stood in line for about 15 minutes and waited another 15 at the counter the woman came back and told me they couldn’t help me because their system was down. So we hit another bank along the way and they told me they wouldn’t be able to help me until Tuesday nor would any other bank because the market was closed. That didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to Kirk and I because we figured they could just give us the last rate the market closed at. No dice. So we left for Kota Tinggi with about 65RM (approx $18 USD) to get us through until Tuesday. We thankfully were able to use our credit card at the New York Hotel and were hoping for the same luck in Kota Tinggi. Fortunately we found a hotel there that took visa also. Looking back I wish I would have just cashed enough travelers checks at the Singapore airport to cover us in Malaysia too. Next time I know better.
The saga continued when we rode from Kota Tinggi to Mersing (100km). After using our cash for a few meals and some groceries we arrived in Mersing with 25RM in our pocket which still had to get us through 2 more days. Stupid stupid stupid! And I know you’re all probably thinking why not use an ATM card? Well, Kirk and I don’t typically use ATM cards and I have one, but I don’t have the pin number. Brilliant eh? So we looked around Mersing for accommodation both being hot, exhausted, hungry, near critical melt down mode and ready to get off the bikes when we looked at several hotels that didn’t take visa because we weren’t thinking clearly. It finally dawned on us that we were going to have to suck it up and stay at one of the nicer hotels so we could charge it. So the first night we spent at a family hotel with screaming kids and the second night we went to the nicest hotel in town (since we found out it was cheaper than the family hotel) thinking it would be nice and quiet. Wrong again! There was an all night party going on in the room next door and on top of that we kept waking up to a noise that sounded like it could be a rat! We certainly have not had the best nights sleep over the last two nights which was a little disappointing.
Today is Tuesday and we originally wanted to hit the road at 7am to move on to our next destination which is about 70km north of here on the beach. We found out the banks here do not open until 9am so we figured we better stay in town to cash our travelers checks not knowing if the next town was big enough to have a bank. Good thing we did! We got up a little later than expected this morning after being pretty pooped from not sleeping so well. We ate our breakfast and were ready to hit the road at 9:30am to find a bank in town and then blaze out of here. Well nature was working against us and it started raining just as we finished packing our bikes. We jumped on our bikes and rode for a couple of minutes in the rain to get into the main part of town. We stopped at the first bank we saw and were told they couldn’t cash my travelers checks and to try the bank down the road. So I tried the next bank while Kirk waited with our bikes under an awning. Same story. I finally found a bank that said they could help me, but not until 10:15am. I’m assuming that’s when some market opened? So I waited in line and it was 11:40am before we had money in our pockets again. I’m really glad we didn’t risk going to the next town to cash our checks as we had a hard enough time here and this is a bigger town than most others that lie ahead. Moral of the story, cash as much money as you need either before or just after entering the destination country! Yes I feel like an idiot as that’s probably rule number one of most seasoned travelers. Oh well!
Kirk and I evaluated our situation and decided to lay over here one more day. A 70km ride will probably take us anywhere from 3 to 4 hours and we’ve discovered in our last few late morning starts that a nice little head wind seems to kick up around 1pm. We didn’t particularly want to have another epic day with the rains pouring on us as well so we took it as a sign that we should lay low and leave early tomorrow rain or shine. So the one good thing about being stuck in Mersing is we found an awesome internet café with a fast connection and a cheap rate. Today will be our opportunity to catch up on some things including the blog.
We are currently holed up in a nice little hotel that was only 48RM (13USD) per night with hot water, good water pressure and A/C that we could finally pay cash for. Now that’s more like it! Tomorrow we’re hoping for clear skies, light traffic and beachy bungalows awaiting us. We’ll see!
Mersing is right on the beach and has a river running through town so I can see that this might be a nice place for people in Malaysia to come on vacation. Again Kirk and I have been completely spoiled so we just don’t have the same perspective. There are several islands just off the coast here that are supposed to be lovely with resorts and great snorkeling and diving. Unfortunately we’re here in the monsoon season, so the ocean water is very brown right now and it’s probably not an ideal time to enjoy those islands. They are fairly expensive and we don’t have a lot of time left to spend in Malaysia, so it’s best for us to move on.
So far Malaysia has been a different world for us. We stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go and people stare. The people don’t tend to be as outgoing and friendly as in Bali which is both good and bad. At least we don’t have people hollering at us all the time, but the stares can be a little intimidating. Riding isn’t too bad though because the people driving down the road on motorcycles give us a little honk and wave and the people in the cars usually do the same. Although I do feel like a zoo animal walking around town sometimes because several times I’ve seen kids with their faces plastered against the car windows, eyes wide and mouths agape. I can just imagine the conversation going on in that vehicle. “Look kids…there are some white people over there, otherwise known as crackers. They smell like sour milk so don’t get too close! Wow…they’re so weird looking!” Overall it has been a totally new experience to be such a minority.
The other thing that is an adjustment for us is that most of the women are fully clothed with their heads covered in scarves so Kirk and I are extra conscious of how we dress here. We both make sure that when we get off our bikes, we immediately throw on a sarong to cover our tight bikes shorts. I’m sure we look like dorks in our sarongs, with our odd looking bike shoes, socks, bike shirts, gloves, helmets, sunglasses and camel backs because we get the strangest looks from people passing us, but we’re just trying to be respectful of their culture. It was an eye opening experience at the family hotel the other day when the Muslim women were fully clothed with head scarves and all calmly soaking in the pool, while the boys splashed and played around them in their swim shorts. Needless to say I wouldn’t have felt very comfortable out there in my swimsuit so we bypassed the pool.
The plan is to still be in Malaysia for New Years and we will probably cross into Thailand around January 7th or so. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you the best in the upcoming year!
Jodi
Singapore was bustling with Christmas as well. That struck us as a little odd not really knowing what to expect, but not as odd as in Bali. Singapore is a big, clean city full of malls. They have different dedicated malls for anything and everything you could think of. I’ve never seen so many malls in my life. I told Kirk it’s like the “Mall of America” but spread out over blocks instead of encompassed in one building. Kirk and I went into the electronics mall and that was enough for us. Floor after floor with store after store all selling similar products for about the same price. It was very overwhelming. We certainly got the sense that the people in Singapore are large consumers just like in the US.
Malaysia was a shock as well. We thought being mostly a Muslim country that Christmas wouldn’t be an issue. I guess there is quite the population of Christians here because signs of Christmas were all over the place.
We spent the 23rd traveling from Singapore into Malaysia (40K) which was a pretty easy ride and very easy to get through customs on a bicycle. Johor Bahru was definitely a contrast to Singapore. It wasn’t as clean and didn’t feel nearly as safe. We agreed we only wanted to spend one night there and then move on. We ended up staying at the “New York Hotel” because we were having trouble finding accommodation. We looked at one hotel above a strip mall, but when they told Kirk they rent by the hour, we knew that we needed to find a different area of town. We couldn’t find any homestay or guesthouse type accommodations that we had grown so accustomed to in Bali so it was hard for us to realize that we had been spoiled there and in this city we needed to be looking for a high-rise hotel. We figured out the hard way that the high-rise hotels are actually the better places to stay and the rates aren’t too bad.
The 24th we rode from Johor Bahru to Kota Tinggi (40K) and on the way out of town we stopped at a bank to cash some travelers checks. After I stood in line for about 15 minutes and waited another 15 at the counter the woman came back and told me they couldn’t help me because their system was down. So we hit another bank along the way and they told me they wouldn’t be able to help me until Tuesday nor would any other bank because the market was closed. That didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to Kirk and I because we figured they could just give us the last rate the market closed at. No dice. So we left for Kota Tinggi with about 65RM (approx $18 USD) to get us through until Tuesday. We thankfully were able to use our credit card at the New York Hotel and were hoping for the same luck in Kota Tinggi. Fortunately we found a hotel there that took visa also. Looking back I wish I would have just cashed enough travelers checks at the Singapore airport to cover us in Malaysia too. Next time I know better.
The saga continued when we rode from Kota Tinggi to Mersing (100km). After using our cash for a few meals and some groceries we arrived in Mersing with 25RM in our pocket which still had to get us through 2 more days. Stupid stupid stupid! And I know you’re all probably thinking why not use an ATM card? Well, Kirk and I don’t typically use ATM cards and I have one, but I don’t have the pin number. Brilliant eh? So we looked around Mersing for accommodation both being hot, exhausted, hungry, near critical melt down mode and ready to get off the bikes when we looked at several hotels that didn’t take visa because we weren’t thinking clearly. It finally dawned on us that we were going to have to suck it up and stay at one of the nicer hotels so we could charge it. So the first night we spent at a family hotel with screaming kids and the second night we went to the nicest hotel in town (since we found out it was cheaper than the family hotel) thinking it would be nice and quiet. Wrong again! There was an all night party going on in the room next door and on top of that we kept waking up to a noise that sounded like it could be a rat! We certainly have not had the best nights sleep over the last two nights which was a little disappointing.
Today is Tuesday and we originally wanted to hit the road at 7am to move on to our next destination which is about 70km north of here on the beach. We found out the banks here do not open until 9am so we figured we better stay in town to cash our travelers checks not knowing if the next town was big enough to have a bank. Good thing we did! We got up a little later than expected this morning after being pretty pooped from not sleeping so well. We ate our breakfast and were ready to hit the road at 9:30am to find a bank in town and then blaze out of here. Well nature was working against us and it started raining just as we finished packing our bikes. We jumped on our bikes and rode for a couple of minutes in the rain to get into the main part of town. We stopped at the first bank we saw and were told they couldn’t cash my travelers checks and to try the bank down the road. So I tried the next bank while Kirk waited with our bikes under an awning. Same story. I finally found a bank that said they could help me, but not until 10:15am. I’m assuming that’s when some market opened? So I waited in line and it was 11:40am before we had money in our pockets again. I’m really glad we didn’t risk going to the next town to cash our checks as we had a hard enough time here and this is a bigger town than most others that lie ahead. Moral of the story, cash as much money as you need either before or just after entering the destination country! Yes I feel like an idiot as that’s probably rule number one of most seasoned travelers. Oh well!
Kirk and I evaluated our situation and decided to lay over here one more day. A 70km ride will probably take us anywhere from 3 to 4 hours and we’ve discovered in our last few late morning starts that a nice little head wind seems to kick up around 1pm. We didn’t particularly want to have another epic day with the rains pouring on us as well so we took it as a sign that we should lay low and leave early tomorrow rain or shine. So the one good thing about being stuck in Mersing is we found an awesome internet café with a fast connection and a cheap rate. Today will be our opportunity to catch up on some things including the blog.
We are currently holed up in a nice little hotel that was only 48RM (13USD) per night with hot water, good water pressure and A/C that we could finally pay cash for. Now that’s more like it! Tomorrow we’re hoping for clear skies, light traffic and beachy bungalows awaiting us. We’ll see!
Mersing is right on the beach and has a river running through town so I can see that this might be a nice place for people in Malaysia to come on vacation. Again Kirk and I have been completely spoiled so we just don’t have the same perspective. There are several islands just off the coast here that are supposed to be lovely with resorts and great snorkeling and diving. Unfortunately we’re here in the monsoon season, so the ocean water is very brown right now and it’s probably not an ideal time to enjoy those islands. They are fairly expensive and we don’t have a lot of time left to spend in Malaysia, so it’s best for us to move on.
So far Malaysia has been a different world for us. We stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go and people stare. The people don’t tend to be as outgoing and friendly as in Bali which is both good and bad. At least we don’t have people hollering at us all the time, but the stares can be a little intimidating. Riding isn’t too bad though because the people driving down the road on motorcycles give us a little honk and wave and the people in the cars usually do the same. Although I do feel like a zoo animal walking around town sometimes because several times I’ve seen kids with their faces plastered against the car windows, eyes wide and mouths agape. I can just imagine the conversation going on in that vehicle. “Look kids…there are some white people over there, otherwise known as crackers. They smell like sour milk so don’t get too close! Wow…they’re so weird looking!” Overall it has been a totally new experience to be such a minority.
The other thing that is an adjustment for us is that most of the women are fully clothed with their heads covered in scarves so Kirk and I are extra conscious of how we dress here. We both make sure that when we get off our bikes, we immediately throw on a sarong to cover our tight bikes shorts. I’m sure we look like dorks in our sarongs, with our odd looking bike shoes, socks, bike shirts, gloves, helmets, sunglasses and camel backs because we get the strangest looks from people passing us, but we’re just trying to be respectful of their culture. It was an eye opening experience at the family hotel the other day when the Muslim women were fully clothed with head scarves and all calmly soaking in the pool, while the boys splashed and played around them in their swim shorts. Needless to say I wouldn’t have felt very comfortable out there in my swimsuit so we bypassed the pool.
The plan is to still be in Malaysia for New Years and we will probably cross into Thailand around January 7th or so. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you the best in the upcoming year!
Jodi
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:14 PM
0 comments
Monday, December 26, 2005
December 26, 2005
We found "better" digs in Mersing but not good enough for us to stay another day. We will move on tomorrow morning. The food here hasn't been very satisfying so we went to the grocery store (thank goodness they have them, Bali didn't) and bought a feast we called "Eatathon 2005" it consisted mostly of protein and didn't include rice.
Below please find some pictures and a new blog from Christmas Day. We haven't taken many photos since entering Malaysia but we will try to get some up in the coming week. Please enjoy and I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.
Kirk
Below please find some pictures and a new blog from Christmas Day. We haven't taken many photos since entering Malaysia but we will try to get some up in the coming week. Please enjoy and I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.
Kirk
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:57 PM
0 comments
December 25, 2005
Have Mersing! Today was a rough one, especially on Christmas Day but more on that in a minute, I need to provide some details about what we have done and how we arrived here.
Singapore was great, it provided a nice opportunity to take a break from third world living. Flush toilets, air conditioning, great food, subways and people who speak English were all plentiful in the shining big city. We found a great hotel called the Hotel Tekka (01-22 Belilios Lane Singapore 219962, Tel 65-6225 3378) for about $30USD per night. We spent four nights there enjoying some good downtime and some attractions around Singapore.
Since we had visited the botanical gardens everywhere else we thought it only fitting that we visit the one in Singapore also. It was a very hot day and we thought we could walk but after about a mile we were so drenched by our perspiration we decided to ride a bus. The buses whiz so quickly down the streets we missed our stop without knowing. Fortunately an English woman who worked at the gardens offered to show us in through the back entrance. The three of us walked about a 1km to the gardens and during that time it was interesting to hear her perspective on Singapore. I had always heard that it is a very sterile city without personality and everyone moving around like a robot. She pointed out that she feels more free there than in her home country of England because she feels safe. Hearing that I began to think of all the near miss stories of the women in my life and began to understand how liberating it would be to move about at any time of day without fear. Maybe public caneings and the highest number of executions per capita in the world has some benefits.
We arrived at the back entrance said our goodbyes and we made our way to the evolution garden (or the intelligent design garden depending on your beliefs). I found it very informative and well done in its portrayal of the different stages of plant development on the earth. Next we visited the ginger garden which was also very informative. I thought ginger was the stuff you get with sushi that looks a little bit like ham but it is so much more. I found that ginger is a classification and included many thousands of plants ranging from bamboo to wheat grass. Next we visited my favorite part of the gardens and probably the trip so far, the National Orchid Garden. This was the only part of the garden that charged admission but it was well worth it once inside. I don’t know much about orchids but I was impressed with the numbers of different types, all the different colors and the number of different hybrids created there. The curators have become proficient in cross pollinating orchid plants creating what is called a hybrid or a new plant. Since it is something that has never existed before they get to name it and they often name them in honor of visiting dignitaries or famous people. They had orchids for Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, Ricky Martin, Princess Dianna, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan to name a few. Some were prettier than others but each was unique and thus a very special honor from the Singapore Government.
Next we grabbed a bite to eat and made our way to our next attraction the Night Safari at the zoo. Jodi and I do not like zoos but we had heard so much about the Night Safari we thought we should make it happen. We followed the directions in the Lonely Planet and arrived soon after dark. Once there I realized we had probably made a mistake because of the Walt Disney World like appearance. We purchased tickets anyway and gave it a go. Granted the animals are more active than what are seen during the day at regular zoos, but we both felt it was still a zoo and not something we would do again. We left early and went to bed.
The next day we rested a bit, Jodi saw a doctor about a rash on her leg and we went to a book store to find a good map of Malaysia. We went to bed early because the next day we were going to do the border crossing and begin our adventures in Malaysia. Since most of the directions we have found describing the border crossing are fairly weak in detail I want to provide a description of what we did to help anyone wanting to do the same crossing in the future.
We started in Little India where we took "Race Course Rd" south to "Owen St." and onto "Thomson Rd." We followed "Thomson Rd." for over 10km until we arrived at "West Admiralty Rd." and headed west until the road ended at "Woodlands Center". We did not follow the signs telling motorcycles to turn left on "Woodlands Center" because that would have taken us on to the BCE expressway and to certain death in the fast moving traffic. Instead we turned right and followed it around the woodlands center shopping mall where the road connected to another that went up to the causeway. We turned right into the "cars only lane" and stayed to the left until the top of the ramp. Once on top we lifted our bikes over the guard rail into the motorcycle lane and through the border checkpoint.
To me the differences between Singapore and Malaysia were very similar to those between the U.S. and Mexico. One side hosts wealth and the conveniences of the west and the other filled with the smells of industry and people trying desperately to make a buck. Realizing we were no longer in the same world we stopped for lunch to study our map, read the Lonely Planet and tried to get our bearings so we could find a place to sleep that night. Jodi did not want to stay near downtown because it would be noisy so we rode up Highway three into the burbs. We noticed several high rise hotels and because we thought they were outside our price range we didn’t stop. I found a row of "budget" hotels and began my search. The first I entered and asked for a price and noticed they rent by the hour. I asked to see the room anyway and was surprised to find one of the worst hotel rooms I had ever seen. Then when I walked downstairs I discovered that it was a massage parlor and doing the math in my head I began to understand things here were not what they seemed and we "B lined" it to one of the high rise joints. The New York Hotel was very nice and cost only $37 USD per night, a little high for our budget but it beat listening to "wild kingdom" in the room next door. They had a lovely breakfast and the security were very diligent in making sure our bikes were safe for the night.
The thing that really surprised us in Malaysia was how popular "Kristmas" is. Everyone it seemed was in the Christmas spirit and everywhere we looked we saw decorations. The most bazar was a giant Santa Claus on skis at our hotel that made Jodi and I take a second look and made us wonder when anyone here has ever seen snow.
The next morning was a real "pisser." It was Christmas Eve and we had decided we did not want to spend Christmas in Johor Baruh but we would make our way to Kota Tinggi for several days. Lonely Planet indicated there was a nice 30m water fall with little pools where one could sit and enjoy things for an afternoon. It all sounded very nice and preferable to the busy city we were currently stuck in. In the morning we visited the free buffet breakfast where I exercised the kayakers mantra before paddling, "to eat until the spray skirt is snapped firmly in place on the boat." I am sure the 4 plates of food I ate surprised and maybe offended some but then again they were not going to have the same day I was going to have. Once outside we loaded our bikes and discovered Jodi’s bike had a flat so I fixed the flat and began to get annoyed that it was well after 10 in the morning, getting very hot and highway three was much to busy for my liking. This trip has been full of firsts, first ride through a tunnel, first touring experience and now first "full on" highway riding. The highway was very simple at first since there were many traffic lights to keep speeds in check but eventually we rode into the burbs where the lights became interchanges, the lanes went from three to six and highway speeds were in excess of 60km/hr. We stuck to the shoulder, when there was one, and when lanes would peel off to the left for exits we would somehow make our way across without getting killed. Jodi took things much better than I did, and I nearly cracked on several occasions when I would look back to see if she was ok and see a wall of traffic moving rapidly from behind. At one point she said to me "I want you to hold your right hand out like this, don’t look back and just pedal to that point over there." I did as she told me and the traffic yielded and slowed to let this slow moving bicycle out into traffic around lanes exiting the highway on my left. I could not believe it." It continued on like that for nearly 20km and we just took it bit by bit until we came upon a traffic jam where we were able to ride the lines to the front and around the traffic that was holding things up. When we arrived in Kota Tinggi our faces were black from the diesel soot and again I thought of Zoolander’s black lung bit.
Things in Kota Tinggi were not better than Johor Barhu, in fact they might have been worse. The one good hotel was booked so we spent several hours going from hotel to hotel looking for a room. Eventually we settled on the "Executive Suite" at the Seri Kota Hotel. What a dump, the toilet didn’t flush, so we spent the first part of our evening trying to figure out how to dump buckets of water into the bowl to wash things down stream. Then the TV didn’t work and neither did the fridge. I asked the manager about the problems and he said "I am so sorry" but nothing else. Executive Suite my ass! Early in the evening we decided we would not layover there but would move on to Mersing the next day. It would be a 90km ride, so we tried to power up on a big dinner and go to bed early so we would be ready. In the morning we did not get the early start I had hoped for but were on the road by 9am. The good news is we had overcast skies so things didn’t get too hot until about 2 in the afternoon. The road was wide with a really good shoulder and I felt safe most of the day. Periodically cars full of children and scarf clad women would pass honking and waving. To me the whole seen seemed very strange in that if I were to see a couple of bicyclists on the side of the road I would think nothing of it but for some reason some people here feel compelled to honk and wave in an effort to say hi. I am sure Jodi and I must look like a couple of space aliens to them.
I wish I could say the ride was perfect and we did it with little trouble but it was anything but easy. The road was undulating, my least favorite because the down hills were not big or steep enough to provide a good rest and the up hills were just enough to be annoying. It went on with one 1km up and another down for 90km and because I did not have much time out of the saddle my ass was so tender that I did not want to sit any longer. On a more positive note Jodi commented along the way that the ride was better than the night zoo. We saw wild pigs, snakes, a giant lizard, wild dogs and my favorite....monkeys. (One important note unlike Bali where the dogs pay no attention to passing bicycles the dogs here will chase us down the road. Yikes!)
When we arrived in Mersing we were both tired and cranky and had little patience for one another. I was thinking that we should find a place for one night and then find more comfortable digs, provided there were any the next day. Jodi had other ideas and we ended up working against one another and in talking about it later we decided we need to have business meetings at every stop to get an idea what the other is thinking so we can develop a plan and move forward productively.
Mersing is another dump! The accommodations are clogged with vacationing Malaysians and their kids run about early in the morning yelling and screaming. We can’t sleep in. The budget hotels suck and the more expensive ones are like the "executive suite" at the Kota Seri. I don’t necessarily believe the problem is Malaysian but ours because we are used to the standard of living that we had in Bali and here it is very different. If things do not improve soon, we are going to have to "B-line" it for Thailand because I have no interest in living like this on vacation. If I were to do it over I would never ride from Johor Barhu to Mersing but would have taken a bus to Mersing and saved myself two days of misery along the way.
Today we have to rest so at noon we are going to check out and ride 10km in a direction in a quest for better accommodations and hope we can find a nice quiet spot to lay down for a couple of days. Yesterdays ride zapped me pretty hard and every two hours I get hungry. Last night I awoke during the night so hungry I couldn’t sleep, fortunately we had a box of cookies and a bottle of lassie to sooth my pangs.
Looking at the map it appears that things get better farther north and from what we have heard from other people it’s a long coast of beaches and small bungalows. We sure hope that is true because this riding from shit hole to shit hole really makes the riding difficult and the stops unpleasant!
Singapore was great, it provided a nice opportunity to take a break from third world living. Flush toilets, air conditioning, great food, subways and people who speak English were all plentiful in the shining big city. We found a great hotel called the Hotel Tekka (01-22 Belilios Lane Singapore 219962, Tel 65-6225 3378) for about $30USD per night. We spent four nights there enjoying some good downtime and some attractions around Singapore.
Since we had visited the botanical gardens everywhere else we thought it only fitting that we visit the one in Singapore also. It was a very hot day and we thought we could walk but after about a mile we were so drenched by our perspiration we decided to ride a bus. The buses whiz so quickly down the streets we missed our stop without knowing. Fortunately an English woman who worked at the gardens offered to show us in through the back entrance. The three of us walked about a 1km to the gardens and during that time it was interesting to hear her perspective on Singapore. I had always heard that it is a very sterile city without personality and everyone moving around like a robot. She pointed out that she feels more free there than in her home country of England because she feels safe. Hearing that I began to think of all the near miss stories of the women in my life and began to understand how liberating it would be to move about at any time of day without fear. Maybe public caneings and the highest number of executions per capita in the world has some benefits.
We arrived at the back entrance said our goodbyes and we made our way to the evolution garden (or the intelligent design garden depending on your beliefs). I found it very informative and well done in its portrayal of the different stages of plant development on the earth. Next we visited the ginger garden which was also very informative. I thought ginger was the stuff you get with sushi that looks a little bit like ham but it is so much more. I found that ginger is a classification and included many thousands of plants ranging from bamboo to wheat grass. Next we visited my favorite part of the gardens and probably the trip so far, the National Orchid Garden. This was the only part of the garden that charged admission but it was well worth it once inside. I don’t know much about orchids but I was impressed with the numbers of different types, all the different colors and the number of different hybrids created there. The curators have become proficient in cross pollinating orchid plants creating what is called a hybrid or a new plant. Since it is something that has never existed before they get to name it and they often name them in honor of visiting dignitaries or famous people. They had orchids for Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, Ricky Martin, Princess Dianna, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan to name a few. Some were prettier than others but each was unique and thus a very special honor from the Singapore Government.
Next we grabbed a bite to eat and made our way to our next attraction the Night Safari at the zoo. Jodi and I do not like zoos but we had heard so much about the Night Safari we thought we should make it happen. We followed the directions in the Lonely Planet and arrived soon after dark. Once there I realized we had probably made a mistake because of the Walt Disney World like appearance. We purchased tickets anyway and gave it a go. Granted the animals are more active than what are seen during the day at regular zoos, but we both felt it was still a zoo and not something we would do again. We left early and went to bed.
The next day we rested a bit, Jodi saw a doctor about a rash on her leg and we went to a book store to find a good map of Malaysia. We went to bed early because the next day we were going to do the border crossing and begin our adventures in Malaysia. Since most of the directions we have found describing the border crossing are fairly weak in detail I want to provide a description of what we did to help anyone wanting to do the same crossing in the future.
We started in Little India where we took "Race Course Rd" south to "Owen St." and onto "Thomson Rd." We followed "Thomson Rd." for over 10km until we arrived at "West Admiralty Rd." and headed west until the road ended at "Woodlands Center". We did not follow the signs telling motorcycles to turn left on "Woodlands Center" because that would have taken us on to the BCE expressway and to certain death in the fast moving traffic. Instead we turned right and followed it around the woodlands center shopping mall where the road connected to another that went up to the causeway. We turned right into the "cars only lane" and stayed to the left until the top of the ramp. Once on top we lifted our bikes over the guard rail into the motorcycle lane and through the border checkpoint.
To me the differences between Singapore and Malaysia were very similar to those between the U.S. and Mexico. One side hosts wealth and the conveniences of the west and the other filled with the smells of industry and people trying desperately to make a buck. Realizing we were no longer in the same world we stopped for lunch to study our map, read the Lonely Planet and tried to get our bearings so we could find a place to sleep that night. Jodi did not want to stay near downtown because it would be noisy so we rode up Highway three into the burbs. We noticed several high rise hotels and because we thought they were outside our price range we didn’t stop. I found a row of "budget" hotels and began my search. The first I entered and asked for a price and noticed they rent by the hour. I asked to see the room anyway and was surprised to find one of the worst hotel rooms I had ever seen. Then when I walked downstairs I discovered that it was a massage parlor and doing the math in my head I began to understand things here were not what they seemed and we "B lined" it to one of the high rise joints. The New York Hotel was very nice and cost only $37 USD per night, a little high for our budget but it beat listening to "wild kingdom" in the room next door. They had a lovely breakfast and the security were very diligent in making sure our bikes were safe for the night.
The thing that really surprised us in Malaysia was how popular "Kristmas" is. Everyone it seemed was in the Christmas spirit and everywhere we looked we saw decorations. The most bazar was a giant Santa Claus on skis at our hotel that made Jodi and I take a second look and made us wonder when anyone here has ever seen snow.
The next morning was a real "pisser." It was Christmas Eve and we had decided we did not want to spend Christmas in Johor Baruh but we would make our way to Kota Tinggi for several days. Lonely Planet indicated there was a nice 30m water fall with little pools where one could sit and enjoy things for an afternoon. It all sounded very nice and preferable to the busy city we were currently stuck in. In the morning we visited the free buffet breakfast where I exercised the kayakers mantra before paddling, "to eat until the spray skirt is snapped firmly in place on the boat." I am sure the 4 plates of food I ate surprised and maybe offended some but then again they were not going to have the same day I was going to have. Once outside we loaded our bikes and discovered Jodi’s bike had a flat so I fixed the flat and began to get annoyed that it was well after 10 in the morning, getting very hot and highway three was much to busy for my liking. This trip has been full of firsts, first ride through a tunnel, first touring experience and now first "full on" highway riding. The highway was very simple at first since there were many traffic lights to keep speeds in check but eventually we rode into the burbs where the lights became interchanges, the lanes went from three to six and highway speeds were in excess of 60km/hr. We stuck to the shoulder, when there was one, and when lanes would peel off to the left for exits we would somehow make our way across without getting killed. Jodi took things much better than I did, and I nearly cracked on several occasions when I would look back to see if she was ok and see a wall of traffic moving rapidly from behind. At one point she said to me "I want you to hold your right hand out like this, don’t look back and just pedal to that point over there." I did as she told me and the traffic yielded and slowed to let this slow moving bicycle out into traffic around lanes exiting the highway on my left. I could not believe it." It continued on like that for nearly 20km and we just took it bit by bit until we came upon a traffic jam where we were able to ride the lines to the front and around the traffic that was holding things up. When we arrived in Kota Tinggi our faces were black from the diesel soot and again I thought of Zoolander’s black lung bit.
Things in Kota Tinggi were not better than Johor Barhu, in fact they might have been worse. The one good hotel was booked so we spent several hours going from hotel to hotel looking for a room. Eventually we settled on the "Executive Suite" at the Seri Kota Hotel. What a dump, the toilet didn’t flush, so we spent the first part of our evening trying to figure out how to dump buckets of water into the bowl to wash things down stream. Then the TV didn’t work and neither did the fridge. I asked the manager about the problems and he said "I am so sorry" but nothing else. Executive Suite my ass! Early in the evening we decided we would not layover there but would move on to Mersing the next day. It would be a 90km ride, so we tried to power up on a big dinner and go to bed early so we would be ready. In the morning we did not get the early start I had hoped for but were on the road by 9am. The good news is we had overcast skies so things didn’t get too hot until about 2 in the afternoon. The road was wide with a really good shoulder and I felt safe most of the day. Periodically cars full of children and scarf clad women would pass honking and waving. To me the whole seen seemed very strange in that if I were to see a couple of bicyclists on the side of the road I would think nothing of it but for some reason some people here feel compelled to honk and wave in an effort to say hi. I am sure Jodi and I must look like a couple of space aliens to them.
I wish I could say the ride was perfect and we did it with little trouble but it was anything but easy. The road was undulating, my least favorite because the down hills were not big or steep enough to provide a good rest and the up hills were just enough to be annoying. It went on with one 1km up and another down for 90km and because I did not have much time out of the saddle my ass was so tender that I did not want to sit any longer. On a more positive note Jodi commented along the way that the ride was better than the night zoo. We saw wild pigs, snakes, a giant lizard, wild dogs and my favorite....monkeys. (One important note unlike Bali where the dogs pay no attention to passing bicycles the dogs here will chase us down the road. Yikes!)
When we arrived in Mersing we were both tired and cranky and had little patience for one another. I was thinking that we should find a place for one night and then find more comfortable digs, provided there were any the next day. Jodi had other ideas and we ended up working against one another and in talking about it later we decided we need to have business meetings at every stop to get an idea what the other is thinking so we can develop a plan and move forward productively.
Mersing is another dump! The accommodations are clogged with vacationing Malaysians and their kids run about early in the morning yelling and screaming. We can’t sleep in. The budget hotels suck and the more expensive ones are like the "executive suite" at the Kota Seri. I don’t necessarily believe the problem is Malaysian but ours because we are used to the standard of living that we had in Bali and here it is very different. If things do not improve soon, we are going to have to "B-line" it for Thailand because I have no interest in living like this on vacation. If I were to do it over I would never ride from Johor Barhu to Mersing but would have taken a bus to Mersing and saved myself two days of misery along the way.
Today we have to rest so at noon we are going to check out and ride 10km in a direction in a quest for better accommodations and hope we can find a nice quiet spot to lay down for a couple of days. Yesterdays ride zapped me pretty hard and every two hours I get hungry. Last night I awoke during the night so hungry I couldn’t sleep, fortunately we had a box of cookies and a bottle of lassie to sooth my pangs.
Looking at the map it appears that things get better farther north and from what we have heard from other people it’s a long coast of beaches and small bungalows. We sure hope that is true because this riding from shit hole to shit hole really makes the riding difficult and the stops unpleasant!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:35 PM
0 comments
Thursday, December 22, 2005
December 22, 2005
The joys of free in room internet. While in Singapore I have found many unsecure wireless networks that I can plug into without any problem. Two new postings today with many pictures. Enjoy
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:53 PM
0 comments
Unsuspecting tourist about to get "ganked" for peanuts and napkins.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:47 PM
0 comments
December 18, 2005 (Jodi)
Well, we rode our last leg in Bali today from Sanur to Kuta. We checked back into the same hotel that we stayed in our first night here because they agreed to hang on to our bike boxes for us until we returned. That was handy! So Kirk is currently in the shower scrubbing our bikes down before we box them up for their journey to Singapore tomorrow. Yes…the shower. The bathrooms here are one room that consists of a toilet, a sink and a shower head all off the same wall. The shower doesn’t have it’s own stall or glass around it which is actually a nice simple way to build a bathroom and has inspired some ideas for us on our house plans. A lot of the bathrooms also have an opening along the roofline to the outside with a rock like wall below it and plants in it. It makes it feel like you’re showering outside. It’s a very nice idea that we’ve grown to love since we tend to rate each place we stay based on the shower (another side effect of Pole). We also appreciate the way they use tile everywhere. It’s used for porches, throughout the room and it covers the walls and floors of the bathrooms. That’s why the Balinese sweep so much. The drawback to the nice feeling of tile is that it can be a little tricky when it gets wet. Kirk almost bit it while it was raining this evening. He went to the front desk to ask a question in his bare feet and was jogging back up to the porch and did a nice little foot slide. Fortunately he caught his balance, stayed on his feet and made it look like a dance move. I wasn’t so lucky the other day. We had just finished showering and I stepped out of the bathroom. I came back in to get something and put one foot on the wet floor and my foot totally slipped out from underneath me. I was lying on the floor in shock with a few new bruises forming, but realized no overall harm was done. Whew! My sister emailed me and pointed out that I seem to be accident-prone lately after falling off my bike on a few occasions and now on the bathroom floor. Let’s hope that pattern doesn’t continue throughout the trip!
Well after 3 weeks in this lovely place I’ve come to the conclusion that I could have easily spent at least another week here exploring the lovely landscape of Bali. However, I am grateful that we were able to see and experience so much here in such a short time. It’s always a good thing to leave somewhere wanting more. It gives us a good reason to come back in the future. Bali also served a good purpose for us. It was our training ground for the bigger portion of our trip in SE Asia. It served us well in that fashion. We learned so much about traveling by bike and what kind of riding vs. layover day schedule is appropriate to let our bodies properly rest. We’ve tested our endurance and strength and feel like we could easily pound out the miles if needed. The biggest lesson though has really been how to be a seasoned tourist. We’re not “seasoned” per say after only 3 weeks, but believe me the learning curve is fast. We had our fair share of people conning money out of us through different methods. After it happens once we laugh about it and chalk it up to another learning experience.
For example our first day at the airport we haggled with a taxi driver to take us to Kuta and he started at the equivalent of $20 USD. We got him down to $10 and thought we did okay until we realized the ride was only about 4km and a total of 5 minutes. We could have easily walked to a hotel right from the airport had we known better. So we paid the money per our agreement and walked away knowing that going back to the airport we wouldn’t be suckered again. Fortunately our hotel arranged transport for us tomorrow for $3. Now that’s more like it.
Another example was near the Hot Springs after about 4 days in Bali. We stayed at a mediocre hotel and this group of guys engaged Kirk in a conversation when he went outside of the room. I came out 45 minutes later to see where he was and he was looking at a bunch of 8x10 paintings that one of the guys was selling. I figured Kirk was very interested because we talked about how we wanted to buy some art in our travels and he was out there for so long. So we looked through the paintings together and found a few we liked. The artist named “Zero” spoke very good English and told us that he used the lava from the volcano in these paintings. He also thoroughly explained the significance of the characters or symbols. Then he showed us a book where his customers, who were tourists from all around the globe, wrote a little blurb about his art and why they bought from him. We asked him how much and he said $10 USD for one or he would give us a better price for two or more. We tried to barter with him and he told us in a grave manner that, “This was not the market…this was art!” Kirk was ready to back out and just say no. He explained to Zero that we didn’t have a good means of carrying anything because we’re on bicycles, but Zero persisted. He pulled out a piece of cardboard that fit around the painting. We went in circles for a few minutes and I finally told Kirk to just go ahead and buy one. I thought it would be rude if we didn’t since we engaged this guy for so long looking and we did like a few of the paintings after all. Kirk reluctantly paid the guy $10 for one painting and then the rest of the guys that were watching this whole deal go down started in on us. One of them kept pestering us for transport for the next day and wanted to set up times and prices and he was very persistent. We tried to explain that we didn’t know our plans and if we needed transport we’d find it tomorrow. Kirk was about to explode under this guys sale pressure after being a little disgruntled about the painting, so I firmly told him “no” and we walked away. As we were walking back to our room he said “Okay, see you tomorrow”. Ugh! So we laid low in our room that night to avoid any other contact with these guys knowing that they saw we were willing to spend our money here and we were the only tourists they had seen for weeks. We snuck out of our room the next morning to anonymously enjoy our breakfast and this old man came and sat down with us. I was expecting him to talk to us about our travels and such as most friendly folks in Bali do, when he told us that his son sent him over to pick us up for transport today. We shooed him off pretty quick and were very disturbed that he would pull up a chair at our table and act like a friend. We quickly packed up to leave and as we were taking our bikes out of the room another guy approached us and asked us to look at his paintings. We told him we already bought a painting and rode as fast as we could out of there to our little oasis at the Hot Springs.
Looking back on it now, Kirk and I just laugh because we realized that Zero was an artist all right. A con artist! We later saw that these same paintings are sold everywhere for much cheaper than we paid and all of the people selling them say that they painted them. They also had similar books with testimonies from sucker tourists like us. There is no way to know for sure because I’m guessing that if they really are artists they probably learn the traditional methods, which is why their work all looks the same. Although Kirk made a good point that all of the paintings are signed on the matting and not on the painting itself. Who knows! It makes a good story though and we’ll always have that painting to look back on for a reminder.
Since then, we’ve had a couple more instances like that. All of which were frustrating after the fact when we came to our senses and realized what was really going on. The point is that it’s all a game where you have to learn the rules by trial and error and that takes time. We’re a little savvier now like in finding our transport up to Mt. Bratan from Lovina. We spoke to several drivers who wanted $20 to take us the short distance to the top of the mountain. We tried to talk them into $10 knowing that they would still make money on the deal. I even went to the lengths to explain to one guy the amount it would cost him in petrol calculated by the distance and that he would only burn gas on the way up. We’ve noticed that they all coast going downhill to save in petrol. He wouldn’t budge and tried to justify his cost by saying our bicycles made it more expensive (we’ve heard that one on several occasions, but they can’t seem to explain why that really is) or that he has to pay his driver (which didn’t calculate out either because I’m pretty sure his driver wouldn’t get paid that well). I asked one guy if he needed the money and he said “yes”. So I said, “Well, I’ll either give my $10 to you or to someone else who is hungry enough to take it”. He turned me down. This was completely silly to both Kirk and I especially after discovering that when we rode down the road about 8km to the bus station in a non-touristy town, someone offered to take us for $7.50 and he was very excited about earning that price. In the future we won’t even bother with trying to negotiate in a touristy area. We’ll go to where the locals hang out and find our bargains there.
Touristy areas like Kuta can be a little overwhelming for the first time, but coming back to it now we feel better equipped. The minute we walk out of our hotel onto the main road we are bombared with “Braid your hair?, Paint your nails?, Massage?, Transport?, Look in my shop?” Come to Eat?”, etc. etc. over and over and over. I’m sure you get the idea. This time we just ignored most of them and would have a conversation among ourselves as we walked down the road. Occasionally we would have to acknowledge them and say “no” several times firmly to get them to stop following us. For the first couple of days I felt rude if I didn’t at least acknowledge everyone who solicited us with a “no thank you”. Now I just realize that it just takes too much energy to deal with them all directly and I just don’t have it. Especially knowing that we’ll be encountering similar situations all through SE Asia. Better to harden up a little here in Bali before bringing our naivety elsewhere. Kirk has a little less tolerance for it than I do, but I always remind him that these people are just doing their jobs. They are trying to make a buck and survive and their survival depends on people like us. We’re just a little wiser to being overcharged now.
The biggest part of being a tourist is learning the value of $1 USD in the country you are in. Towards the end of our trip we finally figured out that we don’t need to pay a lot for anything here in Bali. We could easily eat a filling meal for the two of us at a local warung instead of a touristy restaurant and pay $3 USD vs. $12 USD. I know both figures sound cheap, and they are compared to U.S. standards, but we’re not in the U.S. So why pay higher prices than necessary? They still make money on you whether you buy a bottle of water from a hotel for $1 + or from a little shanty warung for 20 cents. In fact we discovered the warungs were more fun in the end and served more of a purpose in helping the general population. We could buy from them for cheaper prices than we’d pay at a store or hotel and you could tell that they were overcharging us (compared to what they charge locals) thinking they were getting away with something. It served both our purposes and we felt better knowing we probably fed a family for several meals by our meager purchases.
We found the hotels that we paid the equivalent of $25 USD for were no better than the family homestays or guesthouses that we paid $5 to $15 USD for. In fact the homestays and guesthouses were better because we were able to meet the families and interact with more locals that way. It makes for a much more pleasurable experience in our opinion. But that’s another reason that Bali is so great. If you like all inclusive resorts and you want a high dollar vacation for a fraction of what you’d pay in the U.S., come to Bali. You’ll find what you’re looking for. In the end this lovely little paradise really does have something for every kind of traveler. Sure it has some room for improvement, like the fact that there is just too much trash around Bali. I rarely ever saw a garbage bin except for in our rooms. I think it has always been part of their culture to throw their garbage on the roads, in front of their houses, in the irrigation ditches, the rivers, you name it. This method was probably fine when they just used palm leaves, banana leaves and other natural types of products to serve their household purposes. But now with most products being sold in plastics and other non-biodegradable materials, it just sits on the ground or in the water and probably will for ages. It’s no wonder they can’t drink the water from the tap with all the garbage floating around. I’d really like to see that change. These people deserve to drink right out of the tap just like we can in the States and then they won’t have to buy water in plastic bottles or take the time to boil their water everyday. Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now, but it sure made me realize how spoiled we are in our country and I wish I could do something to help these people have a better standard of living that I think we all deserve. Despite a few of the inconveniences to most Western people, Bali is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been and I’d sure like to see it stay that way.
Just a thought I’d like to add. We know that it seems like we focus a lot on the money aspect of traveling. We are quite aware that we do. It’s a big part of traveling when you are on the road for such a long period of time. The reason we figured we could stretch our travels out for so long was because we heard that a couple can easily live off $35 USD per day in SE Asia and we wanted to be able to travel for as long as possible on our overall travel budget. We also take it very seriously because every day that we go over budget it eats into our money that will go towards building our house back in Colorado. So I just thought I’d clarify that because believe me, I’m just like most people in that I enjoy the splurges of a normal vacation. However this vacation is definitely not a typical one and is very different than any one I’ve ever taken before. It’s a lot more work in many aspects but it also more rewarding than I could ever explain in words. So there you have it, our excuse for being cheap!! :)
Well after 3 weeks in this lovely place I’ve come to the conclusion that I could have easily spent at least another week here exploring the lovely landscape of Bali. However, I am grateful that we were able to see and experience so much here in such a short time. It’s always a good thing to leave somewhere wanting more. It gives us a good reason to come back in the future. Bali also served a good purpose for us. It was our training ground for the bigger portion of our trip in SE Asia. It served us well in that fashion. We learned so much about traveling by bike and what kind of riding vs. layover day schedule is appropriate to let our bodies properly rest. We’ve tested our endurance and strength and feel like we could easily pound out the miles if needed. The biggest lesson though has really been how to be a seasoned tourist. We’re not “seasoned” per say after only 3 weeks, but believe me the learning curve is fast. We had our fair share of people conning money out of us through different methods. After it happens once we laugh about it and chalk it up to another learning experience.
For example our first day at the airport we haggled with a taxi driver to take us to Kuta and he started at the equivalent of $20 USD. We got him down to $10 and thought we did okay until we realized the ride was only about 4km and a total of 5 minutes. We could have easily walked to a hotel right from the airport had we known better. So we paid the money per our agreement and walked away knowing that going back to the airport we wouldn’t be suckered again. Fortunately our hotel arranged transport for us tomorrow for $3. Now that’s more like it.
Another example was near the Hot Springs after about 4 days in Bali. We stayed at a mediocre hotel and this group of guys engaged Kirk in a conversation when he went outside of the room. I came out 45 minutes later to see where he was and he was looking at a bunch of 8x10 paintings that one of the guys was selling. I figured Kirk was very interested because we talked about how we wanted to buy some art in our travels and he was out there for so long. So we looked through the paintings together and found a few we liked. The artist named “Zero” spoke very good English and told us that he used the lava from the volcano in these paintings. He also thoroughly explained the significance of the characters or symbols. Then he showed us a book where his customers, who were tourists from all around the globe, wrote a little blurb about his art and why they bought from him. We asked him how much and he said $10 USD for one or he would give us a better price for two or more. We tried to barter with him and he told us in a grave manner that, “This was not the market…this was art!” Kirk was ready to back out and just say no. He explained to Zero that we didn’t have a good means of carrying anything because we’re on bicycles, but Zero persisted. He pulled out a piece of cardboard that fit around the painting. We went in circles for a few minutes and I finally told Kirk to just go ahead and buy one. I thought it would be rude if we didn’t since we engaged this guy for so long looking and we did like a few of the paintings after all. Kirk reluctantly paid the guy $10 for one painting and then the rest of the guys that were watching this whole deal go down started in on us. One of them kept pestering us for transport for the next day and wanted to set up times and prices and he was very persistent. We tried to explain that we didn’t know our plans and if we needed transport we’d find it tomorrow. Kirk was about to explode under this guys sale pressure after being a little disgruntled about the painting, so I firmly told him “no” and we walked away. As we were walking back to our room he said “Okay, see you tomorrow”. Ugh! So we laid low in our room that night to avoid any other contact with these guys knowing that they saw we were willing to spend our money here and we were the only tourists they had seen for weeks. We snuck out of our room the next morning to anonymously enjoy our breakfast and this old man came and sat down with us. I was expecting him to talk to us about our travels and such as most friendly folks in Bali do, when he told us that his son sent him over to pick us up for transport today. We shooed him off pretty quick and were very disturbed that he would pull up a chair at our table and act like a friend. We quickly packed up to leave and as we were taking our bikes out of the room another guy approached us and asked us to look at his paintings. We told him we already bought a painting and rode as fast as we could out of there to our little oasis at the Hot Springs.
Looking back on it now, Kirk and I just laugh because we realized that Zero was an artist all right. A con artist! We later saw that these same paintings are sold everywhere for much cheaper than we paid and all of the people selling them say that they painted them. They also had similar books with testimonies from sucker tourists like us. There is no way to know for sure because I’m guessing that if they really are artists they probably learn the traditional methods, which is why their work all looks the same. Although Kirk made a good point that all of the paintings are signed on the matting and not on the painting itself. Who knows! It makes a good story though and we’ll always have that painting to look back on for a reminder.
Since then, we’ve had a couple more instances like that. All of which were frustrating after the fact when we came to our senses and realized what was really going on. The point is that it’s all a game where you have to learn the rules by trial and error and that takes time. We’re a little savvier now like in finding our transport up to Mt. Bratan from Lovina. We spoke to several drivers who wanted $20 to take us the short distance to the top of the mountain. We tried to talk them into $10 knowing that they would still make money on the deal. I even went to the lengths to explain to one guy the amount it would cost him in petrol calculated by the distance and that he would only burn gas on the way up. We’ve noticed that they all coast going downhill to save in petrol. He wouldn’t budge and tried to justify his cost by saying our bicycles made it more expensive (we’ve heard that one on several occasions, but they can’t seem to explain why that really is) or that he has to pay his driver (which didn’t calculate out either because I’m pretty sure his driver wouldn’t get paid that well). I asked one guy if he needed the money and he said “yes”. So I said, “Well, I’ll either give my $10 to you or to someone else who is hungry enough to take it”. He turned me down. This was completely silly to both Kirk and I especially after discovering that when we rode down the road about 8km to the bus station in a non-touristy town, someone offered to take us for $7.50 and he was very excited about earning that price. In the future we won’t even bother with trying to negotiate in a touristy area. We’ll go to where the locals hang out and find our bargains there.
Touristy areas like Kuta can be a little overwhelming for the first time, but coming back to it now we feel better equipped. The minute we walk out of our hotel onto the main road we are bombared with “Braid your hair?, Paint your nails?, Massage?, Transport?, Look in my shop?” Come to Eat?”, etc. etc. over and over and over. I’m sure you get the idea. This time we just ignored most of them and would have a conversation among ourselves as we walked down the road. Occasionally we would have to acknowledge them and say “no” several times firmly to get them to stop following us. For the first couple of days I felt rude if I didn’t at least acknowledge everyone who solicited us with a “no thank you”. Now I just realize that it just takes too much energy to deal with them all directly and I just don’t have it. Especially knowing that we’ll be encountering similar situations all through SE Asia. Better to harden up a little here in Bali before bringing our naivety elsewhere. Kirk has a little less tolerance for it than I do, but I always remind him that these people are just doing their jobs. They are trying to make a buck and survive and their survival depends on people like us. We’re just a little wiser to being overcharged now.
The biggest part of being a tourist is learning the value of $1 USD in the country you are in. Towards the end of our trip we finally figured out that we don’t need to pay a lot for anything here in Bali. We could easily eat a filling meal for the two of us at a local warung instead of a touristy restaurant and pay $3 USD vs. $12 USD. I know both figures sound cheap, and they are compared to U.S. standards, but we’re not in the U.S. So why pay higher prices than necessary? They still make money on you whether you buy a bottle of water from a hotel for $1 + or from a little shanty warung for 20 cents. In fact we discovered the warungs were more fun in the end and served more of a purpose in helping the general population. We could buy from them for cheaper prices than we’d pay at a store or hotel and you could tell that they were overcharging us (compared to what they charge locals) thinking they were getting away with something. It served both our purposes and we felt better knowing we probably fed a family for several meals by our meager purchases.
We found the hotels that we paid the equivalent of $25 USD for were no better than the family homestays or guesthouses that we paid $5 to $15 USD for. In fact the homestays and guesthouses were better because we were able to meet the families and interact with more locals that way. It makes for a much more pleasurable experience in our opinion. But that’s another reason that Bali is so great. If you like all inclusive resorts and you want a high dollar vacation for a fraction of what you’d pay in the U.S., come to Bali. You’ll find what you’re looking for. In the end this lovely little paradise really does have something for every kind of traveler. Sure it has some room for improvement, like the fact that there is just too much trash around Bali. I rarely ever saw a garbage bin except for in our rooms. I think it has always been part of their culture to throw their garbage on the roads, in front of their houses, in the irrigation ditches, the rivers, you name it. This method was probably fine when they just used palm leaves, banana leaves and other natural types of products to serve their household purposes. But now with most products being sold in plastics and other non-biodegradable materials, it just sits on the ground or in the water and probably will for ages. It’s no wonder they can’t drink the water from the tap with all the garbage floating around. I’d really like to see that change. These people deserve to drink right out of the tap just like we can in the States and then they won’t have to buy water in plastic bottles or take the time to boil their water everyday. Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now, but it sure made me realize how spoiled we are in our country and I wish I could do something to help these people have a better standard of living that I think we all deserve. Despite a few of the inconveniences to most Western people, Bali is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been and I’d sure like to see it stay that way.
Just a thought I’d like to add. We know that it seems like we focus a lot on the money aspect of traveling. We are quite aware that we do. It’s a big part of traveling when you are on the road for such a long period of time. The reason we figured we could stretch our travels out for so long was because we heard that a couple can easily live off $35 USD per day in SE Asia and we wanted to be able to travel for as long as possible on our overall travel budget. We also take it very seriously because every day that we go over budget it eats into our money that will go towards building our house back in Colorado. So I just thought I’d clarify that because believe me, I’m just like most people in that I enjoy the splurges of a normal vacation. However this vacation is definitely not a typical one and is very different than any one I’ve ever taken before. It’s a lot more work in many aspects but it also more rewarding than I could ever explain in words. So there you have it, our excuse for being cheap!! :)
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:29 PM
0 comments
December 21, 2005
Two days ago, December 19, we left Kuta Bali for Singapore and the next leg of our journey through Malaysia. In our last hours in Bali I learned a new game to play with the many solicitors that line the street offering transport, massage, accommodation, and art. I wondered what they would do if I made a loud noise similar to those made by people suffering from terrets. Jodi and I were walking along and we came upon a group of four guys that wanted to sell us something and when they converged I let out a loud "whoop." I totally scared them and they did not what to do and let us proceed without a word. I did it several more times with different levels of success, with one guy thinking my noise indicated that I was excited about what he was selling. I had to tell him "no" and that I was trying to make the most of a situation that was driving me crazy. He seemed to understand.
During our short time in Kuta I noticed many stores selling Xbox games, DVDs and software and I visited one to see what was up. I could not believe the selection and they each had the latest movies, King Kong, Harry Potter and Narnia with each costing $1USD. I guess international copyright laws are not enforced in Bali. I purchased two movies to help liven up some slow nights on our upcoming travels through Malaysia.
Next our hotel transported us to the airport where we boarded a plane to the entirely different world of Singapore. In recent days I had become rather excited about Singapore because it offers many of the conveniences of the modern world, good food, clean water and interesting sites. Also I needed some bike supplies and Singapore seemed the most likely place to find them.
When we arrived I found a book store to get a Lonely Planet and while I was gone Jodi was approached by a Canadian fellow who was curious about our bike boxes. Jodi told him that we were traveling by bicycle through SE Asia and he indicated him and his wife did the same thing several years ago. He suggested we ride 3km from the airport and camp on the beach for free. When I returned Jodi told me about the exchange and thought that’s nice but we don’t have gear and figured it was out of the question. I sat down and started looking through the Lonely Planet reading up where to stay and what to do when the Canadian returned. He introduced himself and told me his story. He said two years ago he was doing the same thing I was currently doing, looking through the guide book looking for places to stay and feeling completely overwhelmed by this big city. He said he learned during that visit and subsequent visits that camping on the beach was they way to go. He also said we were really lucky to be here right now since durians are in season and if you visit the fruit stands early in the morning you can get the durians that they are throwing out and have them for breakfast. I was skeptical but continued listening and told him that we had not planned on camping since and did not have any gear, that’s when he gave me a tent he had found on the beach. At this point I was all for it because of my growing frustration with several things. First it was getting late and second I was having a really tough time talking on the phone because of the airport noise and the accent of the person on the other end. Most of my phone calls consisted of my not understanding what was said and the person on the other end getting frustrated. I just wanted to find a row of hotels find out the market price and settle on one and lay down. Since it was dark, late and I had no idea where to go I thought a 3km ride and a setup sounded like a great idea. I invited him to sit with us while I assembled the bikes. He told us that he loves Singapore and because he travels so much between Japan and Vancouver he often uses his frequent flyer miles to go hangout here. As he told us his stories he kept taking more and more things that he had found out of a box that he was carrying and giving them to us. In all he gave us a tent, a tarp and a sleeping pad. When I had almost completed the assembly of the bicycles he disappeared and returned with some bananas and a pack of tofu that he insisted we take to help with energy. I think he would have given us the shirt off his back if I had asked. He then needed to leave for his flight so Jodi and I thanked him for his help. At this point I was good to go but as we all know when you travel in groups there are always different agendas. Everybody knows that I am a dirt ball and have no trouble pitching a tent and sleeping anywhere but my wife is a different animal. She doesn’t have the benefit of trusting the wind and sleeping on the beach in a big city seemed a very scary proposition. So instead I loaded up the bikes and we tried to make our way to the trains for transport to the city where we would try to find accommodation. For me the whole thing was a big let down because I thought it would have been a great story and now that is all it was going to be, "a would have been." Pushing our bikes through the airport I could not find an elevator big enough for our bikes or a passable passage to the second level where we could catch a train. If was all very frustrating. One guy suggested that we go outside and push our bikes up the car ramp outside. We tried but since it was against traffic it looked rather unappealing and we spent the next hour going around in circles trying to find our way. To me it seemed obvious, lets ride our %^&#ing bikes to the city and be done with it, but again to Jodi riding in the dark on a crowded highway was too scary and seemed much to like the "tunnel" for her liking. Eventually she also became frustrated, put on her shoes and said lets go. We turned on our lights and proceeded to ride down the highway as the Canadian suggested. The riding was scary but with some patience it was manageable. At the 3.5km point a road left the highway to a quiet frontage road and we found ourselves riding through groves of palm trees. We found a nice bike trail the followed the beach front and along our way we could see where people were camping and it all looked pretty harmless but during the riding time I began to think about how I would worry about my bike being stolen and wouldn’t sleep all night. We decided to try an area called "Little India" and slowly made our way there. At one point we pulled out the map under a street lamp on one of the many busy streets when a cab pulled up next to us. The driver hopped out and excitedly said, "You came from the airport, I saw you when you passed in front of my car. Where are you going?" I told him and he said "I will show you, ride quickly to the next intersection and I will meet you there." Jodi and I peddled faster than we had all night for 0.5km and at the next intersection there he was waiting. He gave us great directions and we found our way to the Hotel Tekka, a newly opened hotel for business travelers. It was 2 in the morning and the guy at the counter saw me roll up and he cut me a "backpacker" rate. He allowed us to put our bikes in his locked storage room and we went off to bed.
The next morning I awoke early, ate some breakfast and called my parents. It had been over a month since I had talked with them and thought it would be a good idea to call them before Christmas and say hello. They were thrilled.
Jodi awoke around 10 am and I spent the rest of the morning doing some laundry while she wrote a blog. We eventually needed some lunch so we asked the hotel manager where there was a good place and he asked several questions and walked us two places down to an Indian restaurant where we both had the best Indian food we had ever had. After lunch we boarded a tourist bus and did a lap looking at the city. It is really amazing to think that Singapore arose from a third world country to the modern city in just 40 years. It is very orderly, clean and the buildings look as if they were assembled of some really nice lego kits. The bus dropped us at Sim Lim square so we could buy a splitter for our CD player and some headphones. I noticed a really good looking building that I later learned was the National Library and after our shopping I suggested we have a look. To me it was an amazing place and we spent an hour looking at the art exhibits and learning about how and why this place happened.
Late in the day we returned to our hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my computer was able to connect to some unknown unsecure wireless network. We checked our email and I posted some blogs and pictures.
For dinner we road the bus to the city again to an area called the Boat Quay. The restaurants all featured outdoor dining along the inland water way with selections of mostly seafood, along with Thai, Indian and Sushi. We settled on a seafood joint where we had really good food but were surprised when the bill came and they charged us for some peanuts and hand towels that were on the table when we sat down. It kind of hurt because I had enjoyed the dinner and now I felt less satisfied because I had been tricked by yet another scam. Oh well such is life. We returned to our hotel and went to bed.
During our short time in Kuta I noticed many stores selling Xbox games, DVDs and software and I visited one to see what was up. I could not believe the selection and they each had the latest movies, King Kong, Harry Potter and Narnia with each costing $1USD. I guess international copyright laws are not enforced in Bali. I purchased two movies to help liven up some slow nights on our upcoming travels through Malaysia.
Next our hotel transported us to the airport where we boarded a plane to the entirely different world of Singapore. In recent days I had become rather excited about Singapore because it offers many of the conveniences of the modern world, good food, clean water and interesting sites. Also I needed some bike supplies and Singapore seemed the most likely place to find them.
When we arrived I found a book store to get a Lonely Planet and while I was gone Jodi was approached by a Canadian fellow who was curious about our bike boxes. Jodi told him that we were traveling by bicycle through SE Asia and he indicated him and his wife did the same thing several years ago. He suggested we ride 3km from the airport and camp on the beach for free. When I returned Jodi told me about the exchange and thought that’s nice but we don’t have gear and figured it was out of the question. I sat down and started looking through the Lonely Planet reading up where to stay and what to do when the Canadian returned. He introduced himself and told me his story. He said two years ago he was doing the same thing I was currently doing, looking through the guide book looking for places to stay and feeling completely overwhelmed by this big city. He said he learned during that visit and subsequent visits that camping on the beach was they way to go. He also said we were really lucky to be here right now since durians are in season and if you visit the fruit stands early in the morning you can get the durians that they are throwing out and have them for breakfast. I was skeptical but continued listening and told him that we had not planned on camping since and did not have any gear, that’s when he gave me a tent he had found on the beach. At this point I was all for it because of my growing frustration with several things. First it was getting late and second I was having a really tough time talking on the phone because of the airport noise and the accent of the person on the other end. Most of my phone calls consisted of my not understanding what was said and the person on the other end getting frustrated. I just wanted to find a row of hotels find out the market price and settle on one and lay down. Since it was dark, late and I had no idea where to go I thought a 3km ride and a setup sounded like a great idea. I invited him to sit with us while I assembled the bikes. He told us that he loves Singapore and because he travels so much between Japan and Vancouver he often uses his frequent flyer miles to go hangout here. As he told us his stories he kept taking more and more things that he had found out of a box that he was carrying and giving them to us. In all he gave us a tent, a tarp and a sleeping pad. When I had almost completed the assembly of the bicycles he disappeared and returned with some bananas and a pack of tofu that he insisted we take to help with energy. I think he would have given us the shirt off his back if I had asked. He then needed to leave for his flight so Jodi and I thanked him for his help. At this point I was good to go but as we all know when you travel in groups there are always different agendas. Everybody knows that I am a dirt ball and have no trouble pitching a tent and sleeping anywhere but my wife is a different animal. She doesn’t have the benefit of trusting the wind and sleeping on the beach in a big city seemed a very scary proposition. So instead I loaded up the bikes and we tried to make our way to the trains for transport to the city where we would try to find accommodation. For me the whole thing was a big let down because I thought it would have been a great story and now that is all it was going to be, "a would have been." Pushing our bikes through the airport I could not find an elevator big enough for our bikes or a passable passage to the second level where we could catch a train. If was all very frustrating. One guy suggested that we go outside and push our bikes up the car ramp outside. We tried but since it was against traffic it looked rather unappealing and we spent the next hour going around in circles trying to find our way. To me it seemed obvious, lets ride our %^&#ing bikes to the city and be done with it, but again to Jodi riding in the dark on a crowded highway was too scary and seemed much to like the "tunnel" for her liking. Eventually she also became frustrated, put on her shoes and said lets go. We turned on our lights and proceeded to ride down the highway as the Canadian suggested. The riding was scary but with some patience it was manageable. At the 3.5km point a road left the highway to a quiet frontage road and we found ourselves riding through groves of palm trees. We found a nice bike trail the followed the beach front and along our way we could see where people were camping and it all looked pretty harmless but during the riding time I began to think about how I would worry about my bike being stolen and wouldn’t sleep all night. We decided to try an area called "Little India" and slowly made our way there. At one point we pulled out the map under a street lamp on one of the many busy streets when a cab pulled up next to us. The driver hopped out and excitedly said, "You came from the airport, I saw you when you passed in front of my car. Where are you going?" I told him and he said "I will show you, ride quickly to the next intersection and I will meet you there." Jodi and I peddled faster than we had all night for 0.5km and at the next intersection there he was waiting. He gave us great directions and we found our way to the Hotel Tekka, a newly opened hotel for business travelers. It was 2 in the morning and the guy at the counter saw me roll up and he cut me a "backpacker" rate. He allowed us to put our bikes in his locked storage room and we went off to bed.
The next morning I awoke early, ate some breakfast and called my parents. It had been over a month since I had talked with them and thought it would be a good idea to call them before Christmas and say hello. They were thrilled.
Jodi awoke around 10 am and I spent the rest of the morning doing some laundry while she wrote a blog. We eventually needed some lunch so we asked the hotel manager where there was a good place and he asked several questions and walked us two places down to an Indian restaurant where we both had the best Indian food we had ever had. After lunch we boarded a tourist bus and did a lap looking at the city. It is really amazing to think that Singapore arose from a third world country to the modern city in just 40 years. It is very orderly, clean and the buildings look as if they were assembled of some really nice lego kits. The bus dropped us at Sim Lim square so we could buy a splitter for our CD player and some headphones. I noticed a really good looking building that I later learned was the National Library and after our shopping I suggested we have a look. To me it was an amazing place and we spent an hour looking at the art exhibits and learning about how and why this place happened.
Late in the day we returned to our hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my computer was able to connect to some unknown unsecure wireless network. We checked our email and I posted some blogs and pictures.
For dinner we road the bus to the city again to an area called the Boat Quay. The restaurants all featured outdoor dining along the inland water way with selections of mostly seafood, along with Thai, Indian and Sushi. We settled on a seafood joint where we had really good food but were surprised when the bill came and they charged us for some peanuts and hand towels that were on the table when we sat down. It kind of hurt because I had enjoyed the dinner and now I felt less satisfied because I had been tricked by yet another scam. Oh well such is life. We returned to our hotel and went to bed.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:28 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
I haven't worked for awhile so I stopped and watched what it looks like.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:56 PM
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Hey Dad maybe you could get this woman to help you get fire wood. Yes that is a log on the top of her head.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:54 PM
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December 20, 2005
We made it to Singapore. What a night! I will write more very soon!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:39 PM
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December 18, 2005
It has been a couple of easy days that started in the mountains at Candikunig and ended in a town in south Bali called Sanur. We decided to skip Ubud and stayed an extra day in Candikuning where it rained and rained but the cool temperatures felt so good and it was nice to have a room without AC that didn’t feel like a sauna at night. If I were to buy land in Bali it would be high in the mountains.
From my experience Candikuning was not a place that western tourists visit but a place where Indonesians and Balinese go for short weekend getaways. There was a Mosque and a Temple and each had a loud speaker that broadcast prayers in song at various times during the day. I am sure if I knew more about each religion the times would have made sense but to me it was kind of enchanting to hear them in the mountain setting with clouds rapidly rolling over the tops of the mountains and into the valley below. At one point both loudspeakers were broadcasting at the same time and we joked that they were having a bit of competition where one would say "We have spirit yes we do we have spirt how about you?" and the other would reply "we have spirit yes we do, we have spirit more than you." Our jokes went on and digressed a bit until we remembered " U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly, you ugly", followed by "M-A-M-A we know who is to blame, your mama, your mama." It was all in good fun but I am sure the locals would not have found the same humor in what we were saying.
We found a great restaurant! There were Basko soup carts lining the streets and I thought about having some but remembered I had three days left and the thought of being sick while riding on an airplane was not what I wanted to do so I ignored the good smells. Instead we walked up the road and found a nice place where we had soup, rice, tofu and ginger tea. All were outstanding and it was nice to see Jodi eating again since she has not been feeling well. I think the food must have given her something she needed because the next morning she felt better than she had in days and when I asked her what she wanted for lunch she said "the same thing we had last night." The girl who waited on us the night before took our order again and we said the same, so she pulled the ticket from the night before and brought all the same things again. They were all good once again and we left with a full belly.
We noticed on our map that they had several attractions we wanted to see so we asked the hotel manager where we would find the Botanical Gardens and the Geothermal Project. He said that the gardens were just up the road but the power project was not for visitors. Jodi and I were both disappointed to hear they didn’t run tours but set out into the rain for the Botanical Gardens. They were nice and they were very big and clean. Since going on this little adventure I have learned the Botanical Gardens in my home town of Denver are nothing compared to those in Christchurch, Sydney and now Bali. Each are large, informative, free and well cared for. We spent several hours walking in the forests and along the neatly manicured rows of flowers with my favorite being the exhibit of medicinal plants. It is remarkable how everything we need to fight the things wrong with our health are right in our backyards waiting for us to discover them. There was a tree that has a chemical in its bark that helps kill malaria, a root that helps with intestinal parasites and many more. What I found most interesting was how the local plants seem to help fight local problems. For instance you don’t see plants that are good at fighting Malaria in Alaska but you tend to see them in areas where the problem exists. Weird!
The next morning we thought we were in for some luck since we were leaving and it wasn’t raining. We loaded our bikes talking and ate some breakfast all the while talking about our good fortune. I was putting the final touches on my bike and taking it out the door when it began to rain lightly. I still thought this isn’t so bad and continued on my way. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill if was a down pour and Jodi wanted to see if we could wait it out. We tried but the clouds were getting thicker and the rain heavier with each passing minute. It was already late in the morning and we had a long ride ahead we decided to brave it. We donned our rain jackets and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. We had a short climb of about 1km and then it was 30km down to the coast. In the rain the views were still beautiful and we took it slow occasionally snapping pictures along the way. About 10km down the rain let up but we remained in our gear to dry it out and because we were not working very hard we stayed cool.
To Jodi’s annoyance I often ignore the map and say lets turn here and before we know it we are lost. I did it once more and found that we were on a much better road without traffic and the warungs lining the street. I loved it but my better judgement, called Jodi, was saying from behind we had better not get lost because we had a long way to go and 20km out of the way was not something that was going to be fun. Surprisingly, it was all pretty straight forward and we found our way to Sanur without any trouble.
Sanur is nice but a little more touristy than I like. There are many businesses wanting to sell sarongs, wood carvings, custom made clothes, and paintings. There are more people of European descent here than I have seen any where else and I suspect with them comes the problems of the European world. The beach is lovely and the only white sand one I have seen. There appears to be a really nice reef break about 300 meters from the beach that I saw many surfers getting some good rides out of. Along the beach are many resort hotels and some have pools like the hotels in Vegas that appear to have all the amenities, good food, golf courses and ready made tours. We our staying at a small homestay with a pool, restaurant and AC that is perfect for us. Along our journey we have discovered that we like the homestays better because they are usually small, quaint and the owners very helpful and ready to please unlike the annonymous bedroom cubicles of the hotels.
Last night it rained and we had dinner at the homestay. We each had gado gado, a dish of cooked vegetables with tempeh served in a spicy peanut sauce. It was the best meal we have had so far and surprising since we are the only customers.
Today we make a short ride to Kuta to a hotel that has been storing our bicycle boxes since we arrived and we pack for our next trip to Singapore and onto Malaysia. Looking back I would offer the following advice to anyone wanting to travel here, "Do it!" Just before the last bombing Outside Magazine did a story about Bali, read it because it will make you want to go but ignore the travel advice since it outlines an itinerary of pricy beach resorts. Stay off the beaten path, avoid anyone offering you transport or to find you accommodation but find them yourself. There are many rewards to taking the more difficult road because it is your road, the one you made yourself with your own cunning and creativity.
From my experience Candikuning was not a place that western tourists visit but a place where Indonesians and Balinese go for short weekend getaways. There was a Mosque and a Temple and each had a loud speaker that broadcast prayers in song at various times during the day. I am sure if I knew more about each religion the times would have made sense but to me it was kind of enchanting to hear them in the mountain setting with clouds rapidly rolling over the tops of the mountains and into the valley below. At one point both loudspeakers were broadcasting at the same time and we joked that they were having a bit of competition where one would say "We have spirit yes we do we have spirt how about you?" and the other would reply "we have spirit yes we do, we have spirit more than you." Our jokes went on and digressed a bit until we remembered " U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly, you ugly", followed by "M-A-M-A we know who is to blame, your mama, your mama." It was all in good fun but I am sure the locals would not have found the same humor in what we were saying.
We found a great restaurant! There were Basko soup carts lining the streets and I thought about having some but remembered I had three days left and the thought of being sick while riding on an airplane was not what I wanted to do so I ignored the good smells. Instead we walked up the road and found a nice place where we had soup, rice, tofu and ginger tea. All were outstanding and it was nice to see Jodi eating again since she has not been feeling well. I think the food must have given her something she needed because the next morning she felt better than she had in days and when I asked her what she wanted for lunch she said "the same thing we had last night." The girl who waited on us the night before took our order again and we said the same, so she pulled the ticket from the night before and brought all the same things again. They were all good once again and we left with a full belly.
We noticed on our map that they had several attractions we wanted to see so we asked the hotel manager where we would find the Botanical Gardens and the Geothermal Project. He said that the gardens were just up the road but the power project was not for visitors. Jodi and I were both disappointed to hear they didn’t run tours but set out into the rain for the Botanical Gardens. They were nice and they were very big and clean. Since going on this little adventure I have learned the Botanical Gardens in my home town of Denver are nothing compared to those in Christchurch, Sydney and now Bali. Each are large, informative, free and well cared for. We spent several hours walking in the forests and along the neatly manicured rows of flowers with my favorite being the exhibit of medicinal plants. It is remarkable how everything we need to fight the things wrong with our health are right in our backyards waiting for us to discover them. There was a tree that has a chemical in its bark that helps kill malaria, a root that helps with intestinal parasites and many more. What I found most interesting was how the local plants seem to help fight local problems. For instance you don’t see plants that are good at fighting Malaria in Alaska but you tend to see them in areas where the problem exists. Weird!
The next morning we thought we were in for some luck since we were leaving and it wasn’t raining. We loaded our bikes talking and ate some breakfast all the while talking about our good fortune. I was putting the final touches on my bike and taking it out the door when it began to rain lightly. I still thought this isn’t so bad and continued on my way. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill if was a down pour and Jodi wanted to see if we could wait it out. We tried but the clouds were getting thicker and the rain heavier with each passing minute. It was already late in the morning and we had a long ride ahead we decided to brave it. We donned our rain jackets and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. We had a short climb of about 1km and then it was 30km down to the coast. In the rain the views were still beautiful and we took it slow occasionally snapping pictures along the way. About 10km down the rain let up but we remained in our gear to dry it out and because we were not working very hard we stayed cool.
To Jodi’s annoyance I often ignore the map and say lets turn here and before we know it we are lost. I did it once more and found that we were on a much better road without traffic and the warungs lining the street. I loved it but my better judgement, called Jodi, was saying from behind we had better not get lost because we had a long way to go and 20km out of the way was not something that was going to be fun. Surprisingly, it was all pretty straight forward and we found our way to Sanur without any trouble.
Sanur is nice but a little more touristy than I like. There are many businesses wanting to sell sarongs, wood carvings, custom made clothes, and paintings. There are more people of European descent here than I have seen any where else and I suspect with them comes the problems of the European world. The beach is lovely and the only white sand one I have seen. There appears to be a really nice reef break about 300 meters from the beach that I saw many surfers getting some good rides out of. Along the beach are many resort hotels and some have pools like the hotels in Vegas that appear to have all the amenities, good food, golf courses and ready made tours. We our staying at a small homestay with a pool, restaurant and AC that is perfect for us. Along our journey we have discovered that we like the homestays better because they are usually small, quaint and the owners very helpful and ready to please unlike the annonymous bedroom cubicles of the hotels.
Last night it rained and we had dinner at the homestay. We each had gado gado, a dish of cooked vegetables with tempeh served in a spicy peanut sauce. It was the best meal we have had so far and surprising since we are the only customers.
Today we make a short ride to Kuta to a hotel that has been storing our bicycle boxes since we arrived and we pack for our next trip to Singapore and onto Malaysia. Looking back I would offer the following advice to anyone wanting to travel here, "Do it!" Just before the last bombing Outside Magazine did a story about Bali, read it because it will make you want to go but ignore the travel advice since it outlines an itinerary of pricy beach resorts. Stay off the beaten path, avoid anyone offering you transport or to find you accommodation but find them yourself. There are many rewards to taking the more difficult road because it is your road, the one you made yourself with your own cunning and creativity.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:36 PM
0 comments
Saturday, December 17, 2005
All the way around! The map is 3 days old, I will try to update it soon.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:51 PM
0 comments
See the one on the blue bike, I hear he is afraid of monkeys and will give you his water bottles if frightened. So when I say "go", get him.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:50 PM
0 comments
Cool statue but the picture is kind of dark if possible try zooming in. It is of this really western looking tourist getting attacked by monkeys. See the monkeys are really scary.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:42 PM
0 comments
Thursday, December 15, 2005
December 15, 2005
Let me start off by saying if anyone read my last blogs and thought I was a moron then you are probably correct in your thinking. Yes I know it is “coral” and not “corral” but it was late at night and when I am tired my dyslexia really becomes a problem. Writing is not something I have ever been good at and my blog is really the first time I have ever put anything I have written “out there” for others to see. So please be patient!
Today, Jodi and I are in Candikuning, a lovely place that is in the bottom of a volcano crater surrounded by three lakes. Our hotel room over looks lake Danau Bratan. There is a temple on its western shore and we watched people paddle across the lake to make an offering. They sang and chanted during the journey making the place feel a little spiritual.
Our arrival here was a difficult one since both of us were given a case of Bali belly from a tofu burrito that had a little too much Mexico included. We had planned on riding our bikes, but during the night our room smelled entirely wrong making it clear that we were not going to ride up any hills the next day. Instead we decided to leave Lovina via shuttle but were disappointed to learn what that was going to cost. One gentleman suggested we go to the Singaraja bus terminal and seek transportation there. Jodi was reluctant to go but I was all for it since I had visited Singaraja the day before and knew exactly where the bus terminal was located. We loaded our bikes and rode the 10km and were immediately offered transportation by an independent driver to the place we wanted for 25% of the cost that the Lovina drivers wanted. He was really surprised when I accepted his offer without any negotiations and loaded our gear into his van before we could change our minds.
The ride up was very pretty and I wish so much that I could have ridden it. Unlike most rides in the past days it wasn’t along flat coastline, which makes my ass feel like a baboons’ looks. This was a climb and anyone who knows me knows that I love to climb mountains. The view from the cab was nice, with green vegetation everywhere, grand views of the valleys below and the occasional waterfall spilling off some cliff above. To earn the top would have been something really special.
The driver pulled off the road at a rest stop at the top of the crater and sitting along the edge of the road were my new nemesis, monkeys. Ever since my incident in the monkey forest I am really afraid of them and when I see one I try to stay far away. Fortunately these were not as aggressive and when we unloaded our gear they ran off as if they were afraid of us like good monkeys should be. We loaded our bikes and headed down into the crater. Occasionally we would encounter one sitting on the side of the road and Jodi later told me that one crouched down as if to jump on her as she passed by. I thought dogs were bad to bike riders but monkeys have some scary potential.
At the bottom we immediately began looking for accommodations but could only find resorts that like the others we had seen were empty. We gave several of them a try but they still wanted USD so we passed. Further down the road we found a café that specialized in strawberries and we stopped for a strawberry pancake and strawberry and banana smoothie. Both were excellent! We moved on and eventually found a place before it began to rain and we both settled in for a nap and then a happy hour of Bintang and peanuts.
I think we will layover here tomorrow instead of going on to Ubud. The weather is cool and it feels more like the summer air in the mountains of Colorado. Tomorrow we plan to check out the Botanical Gardens, the strawberry farm and the Geothermal Project then we will start moving onto Kuta for our flight to Singapore.
Today, Jodi and I are in Candikuning, a lovely place that is in the bottom of a volcano crater surrounded by three lakes. Our hotel room over looks lake Danau Bratan. There is a temple on its western shore and we watched people paddle across the lake to make an offering. They sang and chanted during the journey making the place feel a little spiritual.
Our arrival here was a difficult one since both of us were given a case of Bali belly from a tofu burrito that had a little too much Mexico included. We had planned on riding our bikes, but during the night our room smelled entirely wrong making it clear that we were not going to ride up any hills the next day. Instead we decided to leave Lovina via shuttle but were disappointed to learn what that was going to cost. One gentleman suggested we go to the Singaraja bus terminal and seek transportation there. Jodi was reluctant to go but I was all for it since I had visited Singaraja the day before and knew exactly where the bus terminal was located. We loaded our bikes and rode the 10km and were immediately offered transportation by an independent driver to the place we wanted for 25% of the cost that the Lovina drivers wanted. He was really surprised when I accepted his offer without any negotiations and loaded our gear into his van before we could change our minds.
The ride up was very pretty and I wish so much that I could have ridden it. Unlike most rides in the past days it wasn’t along flat coastline, which makes my ass feel like a baboons’ looks. This was a climb and anyone who knows me knows that I love to climb mountains. The view from the cab was nice, with green vegetation everywhere, grand views of the valleys below and the occasional waterfall spilling off some cliff above. To earn the top would have been something really special.
The driver pulled off the road at a rest stop at the top of the crater and sitting along the edge of the road were my new nemesis, monkeys. Ever since my incident in the monkey forest I am really afraid of them and when I see one I try to stay far away. Fortunately these were not as aggressive and when we unloaded our gear they ran off as if they were afraid of us like good monkeys should be. We loaded our bikes and headed down into the crater. Occasionally we would encounter one sitting on the side of the road and Jodi later told me that one crouched down as if to jump on her as she passed by. I thought dogs were bad to bike riders but monkeys have some scary potential.
At the bottom we immediately began looking for accommodations but could only find resorts that like the others we had seen were empty. We gave several of them a try but they still wanted USD so we passed. Further down the road we found a café that specialized in strawberries and we stopped for a strawberry pancake and strawberry and banana smoothie. Both were excellent! We moved on and eventually found a place before it began to rain and we both settled in for a nap and then a happy hour of Bintang and peanuts.
I think we will layover here tomorrow instead of going on to Ubud. The weather is cool and it feels more like the summer air in the mountains of Colorado. Tomorrow we plan to check out the Botanical Gardens, the strawberry farm and the Geothermal Project then we will start moving onto Kuta for our flight to Singapore.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:26 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
December 14, 2005
Kirk and I are taking a layover day today in Lovina after completing our longest ride yet of almost 90K yesterday. We need it as we are both physically exhausted, but pretty impressed about how our biking has improved since arriving in Bali just 2 weeks ago. Every day we seem to be able to handle hills and distance with a little more strength and endurance. I’ve even shed the few extra pounds that my body has been hanging on to since we were at Pole. That’s a nice feeling! I’ve finally become somewhat comfortable in riding with clipless pedals and I am much better at using my gears. I never biked much before this trip so I’ve learned a lot in a short time. I’ve taken my fair share of spills though too. Kirk and I were riding up a short but quite steep hill a couple of days ago and I tried to drop my gears too quickly and plopped over on my side because I lost all of my momentum and I couldn’t get my feet out of my pedals fast enough. Live and learn! Some of the other adjustments from riding besides a couple of bruises have been the Charlie horses in our legs during the night, aching in my lower back from the riding position, sore butts, and stiff hands from gripping the handlebars for so long. It’s not too bad though as we are growing more accustomed to our new appendages (our cycles) on a daily basis. The worst part of riding is getting started everyday. Once we’re on the bikes we work the lead out of our legs after the first few kilometers and the rest of the day seems easier in comparison.
So far our routine is to get up around 6am and pack up our stuff to get ready to ride. By 7am we are eating our free breakfast that comes with most rooms here. It consists of fresh fruit, fresh blended fruit juice (watermelon and mango are our favorites), coffee or tea, toast and sometimes eggs. Then we are ready to hit the road by 8am. Some days we are graced with clouds to cover up the scorching sun, but regardless the rides are always sweltering. During our rides, we tend to stop a couple of times along the way to get snacks and cold drinks at the warungs (roadside stands). A lot of the warungs only sell warm drinks as ice is not very common here and refrigerators seem to be out of most of these people’s price range. We are pretty spoiled in that we are always looking for the warung with the cold green Fantas and have passed our fair share of the ones without refrigerators. Snobby Americans we are! But I’ll tell you what, those cold drinks go down pretty nicely when you’re sweating buckets. On several occasions Kirk and I have sucked down 2 to 3 each in a matter of a few minutes while the people running the warungs look on in shock yet they always seem pleased to have the business. We’re also fond of finding chocolate bars to refuel or peanuts, as long as they are without the garlic flavoring. Most of our rides tend to be about 3 to 4 hours and by the time we arrive at our destination we’re hot, a little cranky and ready to get out of our stinky gear. The thing I look forward to most at the end of each ride is a refreshing shower. Showers mean so much more to us especially after being deprived of them at the Pole. Some of the places we have stayed actually have warm water, which is just icing on the cake. We tend to look for places with A/C because after boiling and soaking in sticky perspiration all day, the last thing we want is to sweat through the night as well. We haven’t always found rooms with A/C and we tend to do okay without it, but again it’s one of our little treats that we prefer to indulge in.
Immediately when we check into our digs for the night we haul our bikes into the room and can’t strip off our gear fast enough to hit the shower. Next we wash our bike clothes out in the sink or tub to take care of our “laundry”. It would be pretty disgusting if we didn’t take care of this chore daily as I’m sure you can imagine. Most places must be used to this as they have drying racks outside. Because of the humidity here our clothes do not tend to dry all of the way after one night and we end up riding in wet gear the next day. It’s not always a bad thing though as it helps keep us cool for a while. If we wash other clothes as well we will hang them off of our panniers to let the wind dry them while riding. Sometimes they end up with little mud spots on them from the road, but it’s better than having them sour in our bags from being put away still damp. So it’s kind of like a long camping trip in a way, but without the tent and the stove.
Another routine of ours has been “happy hour” where we celebrate the days’ ride by drinking a cold Bintang or two while enjoying our dinner. This is about the time where the cycling makes for good conversation as most of our hosts are interested in finding out our nationality, where we cycled from, if our bikes are from America and why we are cycling around Bali. Most Balinese know at least a little English and we’ve managed to be able to communicate through body language and gestures if necessary as well as words.
It’s been really fun to come back to the same hotels that we stayed in previously both in Ubud and Lovina. All of the staff recognize us and welcome us back wanting to hear about our adventures. The Balinese seem to be impressed with a woman cycling here and they often comment on how I must be “very strong” (which was the inspiration for one of our latest photo captions). I find it amusing since I don’t think it’s really as much of a feat as people think it is. But in general the Balinese people are pretty thin and I tend to be a little meatier than most of the men here so I can see why they say that.
Another thing that Kirk and I have noticed is how some things that we thought were so great at first are starting to wear on us a little. We still think it is really remarkable how friendly the people are here, but after so many “hallos”, “good mornings”, “where you go?”, whistles, hollering in Balinese, and laughs in our direction as we ride along throughout the day, we find ourselves weary to answer after awhile and sometimes don’t answer at all. Especially to the laughter. A lot of times it feels as though we are being laughed at and not always in a friendly manner, which I suspect is the case. It would make sense that not all Balinese people love the foreigners that come here and I’m sure to them we look rather silly in our gear. For the most part the few cyclists here are either old people or children and neither of them wear cycle helmets. Their custom for men and women is to wear sarongs and to have their knees covered so I’m sure our tight cycle shorts with pads in the butt look pretty amusing. I’ve never seen any of the locals wear sunglasses so that must be an oddity as well and then there are our cycle shoes and our camel backs so all in all we must look like aliens from another planet. I can understand the laughter, but sometimes it wears on me nonetheless…mostly towards the end of a ride when I’m hot, tired and ready to be off my butt and on my feet again. One thing I never tire of is the children though because their excited waves, smiles and giggles are so innocent and inspirational.
Overall, riding is wonderful. I look forward to watching the landscape change as we ride along and eventually discover what the next destination holds for us. It’s amazing that there is so much diversity on this small island, from the cooler temperatures in the mountainous areas near Penelokan to the dry lava valley of Amed. I feel like riding has given us a pretty good sense of the island itself as well as the people. We’ve been able to observe that their pace of life is slow, they don’t have much, but they are very family oriented and seem to be happy in their simple ways of life. You always see parents interacting with their children through laughter and touch and they seem to function as a unit each knowing their role. Kirk and I are often asked if we have any children of our own. It’s obvious that children are a large part of married life here and they do not understand why we don’t have any kids when we’ve been married for 2 years. They all seem to have an entrepreneurial spirit as there are warungs in front of most farms, houses and shacks along the road. People are always looking to make money however they can. In fact I had a guy on a motorcycle pull up next to me on the road the other day while we were riding along at about 25km/hr and ask me if I needed transport. I looked at him like he was on crack and said “no thanks”. I respect that they try so hard though. Kirk and I were joking yesterday about how we need t-shirts to wear around here that say “Yes I’m a tourist, no I don’t need transport, or a sarong and I already have accommodation, thank you” in Balinese.
I will be sad to leave Bali next week, since this has been such a memorable and magical trip for us, but I know that we also have a lot to look forward to in SE Asia. So stay tuned! It’s really been fun to share this experience through a blog with everyone! Don’t you just love the internet!!
Jodi
So far our routine is to get up around 6am and pack up our stuff to get ready to ride. By 7am we are eating our free breakfast that comes with most rooms here. It consists of fresh fruit, fresh blended fruit juice (watermelon and mango are our favorites), coffee or tea, toast and sometimes eggs. Then we are ready to hit the road by 8am. Some days we are graced with clouds to cover up the scorching sun, but regardless the rides are always sweltering. During our rides, we tend to stop a couple of times along the way to get snacks and cold drinks at the warungs (roadside stands). A lot of the warungs only sell warm drinks as ice is not very common here and refrigerators seem to be out of most of these people’s price range. We are pretty spoiled in that we are always looking for the warung with the cold green Fantas and have passed our fair share of the ones without refrigerators. Snobby Americans we are! But I’ll tell you what, those cold drinks go down pretty nicely when you’re sweating buckets. On several occasions Kirk and I have sucked down 2 to 3 each in a matter of a few minutes while the people running the warungs look on in shock yet they always seem pleased to have the business. We’re also fond of finding chocolate bars to refuel or peanuts, as long as they are without the garlic flavoring. Most of our rides tend to be about 3 to 4 hours and by the time we arrive at our destination we’re hot, a little cranky and ready to get out of our stinky gear. The thing I look forward to most at the end of each ride is a refreshing shower. Showers mean so much more to us especially after being deprived of them at the Pole. Some of the places we have stayed actually have warm water, which is just icing on the cake. We tend to look for places with A/C because after boiling and soaking in sticky perspiration all day, the last thing we want is to sweat through the night as well. We haven’t always found rooms with A/C and we tend to do okay without it, but again it’s one of our little treats that we prefer to indulge in.
Immediately when we check into our digs for the night we haul our bikes into the room and can’t strip off our gear fast enough to hit the shower. Next we wash our bike clothes out in the sink or tub to take care of our “laundry”. It would be pretty disgusting if we didn’t take care of this chore daily as I’m sure you can imagine. Most places must be used to this as they have drying racks outside. Because of the humidity here our clothes do not tend to dry all of the way after one night and we end up riding in wet gear the next day. It’s not always a bad thing though as it helps keep us cool for a while. If we wash other clothes as well we will hang them off of our panniers to let the wind dry them while riding. Sometimes they end up with little mud spots on them from the road, but it’s better than having them sour in our bags from being put away still damp. So it’s kind of like a long camping trip in a way, but without the tent and the stove.
Another routine of ours has been “happy hour” where we celebrate the days’ ride by drinking a cold Bintang or two while enjoying our dinner. This is about the time where the cycling makes for good conversation as most of our hosts are interested in finding out our nationality, where we cycled from, if our bikes are from America and why we are cycling around Bali. Most Balinese know at least a little English and we’ve managed to be able to communicate through body language and gestures if necessary as well as words.
It’s been really fun to come back to the same hotels that we stayed in previously both in Ubud and Lovina. All of the staff recognize us and welcome us back wanting to hear about our adventures. The Balinese seem to be impressed with a woman cycling here and they often comment on how I must be “very strong” (which was the inspiration for one of our latest photo captions). I find it amusing since I don’t think it’s really as much of a feat as people think it is. But in general the Balinese people are pretty thin and I tend to be a little meatier than most of the men here so I can see why they say that.
Another thing that Kirk and I have noticed is how some things that we thought were so great at first are starting to wear on us a little. We still think it is really remarkable how friendly the people are here, but after so many “hallos”, “good mornings”, “where you go?”, whistles, hollering in Balinese, and laughs in our direction as we ride along throughout the day, we find ourselves weary to answer after awhile and sometimes don’t answer at all. Especially to the laughter. A lot of times it feels as though we are being laughed at and not always in a friendly manner, which I suspect is the case. It would make sense that not all Balinese people love the foreigners that come here and I’m sure to them we look rather silly in our gear. For the most part the few cyclists here are either old people or children and neither of them wear cycle helmets. Their custom for men and women is to wear sarongs and to have their knees covered so I’m sure our tight cycle shorts with pads in the butt look pretty amusing. I’ve never seen any of the locals wear sunglasses so that must be an oddity as well and then there are our cycle shoes and our camel backs so all in all we must look like aliens from another planet. I can understand the laughter, but sometimes it wears on me nonetheless…mostly towards the end of a ride when I’m hot, tired and ready to be off my butt and on my feet again. One thing I never tire of is the children though because their excited waves, smiles and giggles are so innocent and inspirational.
Overall, riding is wonderful. I look forward to watching the landscape change as we ride along and eventually discover what the next destination holds for us. It’s amazing that there is so much diversity on this small island, from the cooler temperatures in the mountainous areas near Penelokan to the dry lava valley of Amed. I feel like riding has given us a pretty good sense of the island itself as well as the people. We’ve been able to observe that their pace of life is slow, they don’t have much, but they are very family oriented and seem to be happy in their simple ways of life. You always see parents interacting with their children through laughter and touch and they seem to function as a unit each knowing their role. Kirk and I are often asked if we have any children of our own. It’s obvious that children are a large part of married life here and they do not understand why we don’t have any kids when we’ve been married for 2 years. They all seem to have an entrepreneurial spirit as there are warungs in front of most farms, houses and shacks along the road. People are always looking to make money however they can. In fact I had a guy on a motorcycle pull up next to me on the road the other day while we were riding along at about 25km/hr and ask me if I needed transport. I looked at him like he was on crack and said “no thanks”. I respect that they try so hard though. Kirk and I were joking yesterday about how we need t-shirts to wear around here that say “Yes I’m a tourist, no I don’t need transport, or a sarong and I already have accommodation, thank you” in Balinese.
I will be sad to leave Bali next week, since this has been such a memorable and magical trip for us, but I know that we also have a lot to look forward to in SE Asia. So stay tuned! It’s really been fun to share this experience through a blog with everyone! Don’t you just love the internet!!
Jodi
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:29 PM
0 comments
December 13, 2005
I found a really good connection and I did some modifications to the blog. It will be best if you scroll down to December 12 and read up rather than top down because they will be in the order that I post them. Enjoy and thanks for the many great comments and keep them coming.
Cheers
Kirk
Cheers
Kirk
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:37 AM
0 comments
What morning looks like. Haven't seen one of these in awhile.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:32 AM
0 comments
I see condos and subdivisions with little putty colored houses everywhere. I must buy and develop
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:27 AM
0 comments
The Balinese Men are always telling Jodi how strong she is when she lifts her bicycle and they try to help and can't
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:25 AM
0 comments
December 13, 2005
We made it all the way around! We arrived in Lovina at 11:00 am after five and a half hours of riding. As planned we awoke at 4:00am, ate a breakfast of cornflakes, bananas and cherry yogurt waited for the light to start peaking over the horizon. Jodi says we were on the road about 5:30am. To our surprise the ride was nothing like the person in Ubud had told us it would be. I did not see any pirates and it wasn’t very hot and arid as we had been led to believe. Instead it we found a short distance where the vegetation and villages had been wiped clean by the eruption of Mt. Batur in 1963 (I know I said 1968 in a previous post). It must have been some eruption because it covered the ground with rather large black rocks that I am sure during a hot summer day makes the place feel just lovely. There was little vegetation and yet there were people here trying to make a living with warungs and fishing. The barren landscape went on for 15km then greened up. Jodi and I were riding along with not much of a care in the world watching the early morning routine of the Balinese when we noticed some school kids following us on their motor scooters. At first there were three then the crowd increased to about 10. They had little interest in me but they seemed fascinated by this western red head riding her bicycle. At first I was a bit worried then after watching things a bit, I began to think they were just curious or like all teenage boys looking at her tight riding shorts. I pulled up next to one of them and asked, “why do you follow us?” and they just looked back at me with blank stares. We continued riding and Jodi commented “we have an entourage” and then I began thinking, “cool” as I envisioned the entourages of pop stars. It was Jodi and her gang of thugs riding down the street.
They eventually became bored and moved on and we resumed a slower pace to Lovina. Jodi commented that she needed to go to the restroom so I began looking for forested sections of road where she might have a little privacy. We passed a few but in all there were not many to choose from. I eventually found what I thought was a good spot and hit my brakes to let her catch up when I felt her bike hit me from behind. She bounced off me and into the street where she took a pretty hard digger but no road rash. I felt terrible and after some roadside domestic issues we continued on.
Jodi was fading fast, probably a combination of a small breakfast and the adrenalin of our accident. I started pushing for us to stop and eat some of the snacks but she just kept on going. She does this sometimes and I am not sure why but she pushes herself well beyond where she should and will not stop for a small snack. Finally her need to Pee overcame her need to continue and she stopped. She ate a couple of bananas and some cookies and presto, within an hour the tank had fuel again and she was humpin’ along. Our pace quickened and we resumed our standard 20 clicks an hour.
The riding was flat and pretty nice with sections along the ocean in the morning light. There wasn’t much beach and it appeared the Indonesian government had constructed a seawall along the coast to prevent further erosion. The abruptness of the transition between land and sea was prettier than one might think and I rather enjoyed the view as we continued on. Eventually the coast gave way to some rather large estates where I have to assume some rich foreigners lived. It was amazing to me since there is so much contrast between what the Balinese and Westerners considered good living. They had swimming pools, satellite dishes, expensive cars, nice architecture and beautiful gardens. They looked like many of the resorts we had passed on other parts of the island but in this case they were for one person or family.
Eventually we entered Singaraja and we were immersed in a big city once more. There were cars, buses, and motor scooters everywhere. It was chaos and I began to get very annoyed at all the buses and scooters cutting me off. I am sure there will be much more of this and I had better get used to it but for some reason some Balinese cannot get used to the idea that we are traveling at the same speed even though we are on bicycle and they insist on getting in front of us. The good news is it only happens in the big cities so I doubt I will have any road rage incidents while here.
The really great thing about entering Singaraja is it was only 10km from our stopping point and we began riding like the wind was at our backs. We raced along with me in front and Jodi in my wake, I would yell out any oncoming hazards and scared the crap out of one man as he opened his car door and I yelled “door” to notify Jodi of the hazard. We finally arrived at our stopping point, checked in and took a nap. I guess we can ride 90km after all.
They eventually became bored and moved on and we resumed a slower pace to Lovina. Jodi commented that she needed to go to the restroom so I began looking for forested sections of road where she might have a little privacy. We passed a few but in all there were not many to choose from. I eventually found what I thought was a good spot and hit my brakes to let her catch up when I felt her bike hit me from behind. She bounced off me and into the street where she took a pretty hard digger but no road rash. I felt terrible and after some roadside domestic issues we continued on.
Jodi was fading fast, probably a combination of a small breakfast and the adrenalin of our accident. I started pushing for us to stop and eat some of the snacks but she just kept on going. She does this sometimes and I am not sure why but she pushes herself well beyond where she should and will not stop for a small snack. Finally her need to Pee overcame her need to continue and she stopped. She ate a couple of bananas and some cookies and presto, within an hour the tank had fuel again and she was humpin’ along. Our pace quickened and we resumed our standard 20 clicks an hour.
The riding was flat and pretty nice with sections along the ocean in the morning light. There wasn’t much beach and it appeared the Indonesian government had constructed a seawall along the coast to prevent further erosion. The abruptness of the transition between land and sea was prettier than one might think and I rather enjoyed the view as we continued on. Eventually the coast gave way to some rather large estates where I have to assume some rich foreigners lived. It was amazing to me since there is so much contrast between what the Balinese and Westerners considered good living. They had swimming pools, satellite dishes, expensive cars, nice architecture and beautiful gardens. They looked like many of the resorts we had passed on other parts of the island but in this case they were for one person or family.
Eventually we entered Singaraja and we were immersed in a big city once more. There were cars, buses, and motor scooters everywhere. It was chaos and I began to get very annoyed at all the buses and scooters cutting me off. I am sure there will be much more of this and I had better get used to it but for some reason some Balinese cannot get used to the idea that we are traveling at the same speed even though we are on bicycle and they insist on getting in front of us. The good news is it only happens in the big cities so I doubt I will have any road rage incidents while here.
The really great thing about entering Singaraja is it was only 10km from our stopping point and we began riding like the wind was at our backs. We raced along with me in front and Jodi in my wake, I would yell out any oncoming hazards and scared the crap out of one man as he opened his car door and I yelled “door” to notify Jodi of the hazard. We finally arrived at our stopping point, checked in and took a nap. I guess we can ride 90km after all.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:09 AM
0 comments
December 12, 2005
I have not written for some time due to the lack of internet cafés and the fact that we have been putting in some long days on the bicycle. Today, it feels good to get a day of rest and catch up on my blogging before what could be an epic tomorrow. 5 days ago we left Negara for a small beach on the southern coast that is simply labeled on our map as Surabrata.
We stopped a short distance away to visit one of the Hindu Temples. Lonely Planet said it was the only one built on the beach so we thought it would be worth a look. To me many of the temples look the same with red and gray brick walls and because I am not Hindu they really do not mean much to me. We rented a couple of sarongs and the host walked us around telling us about each statue and significant places. We had a nice time and learned a few things about the Hindu culture that helped us understand some of the things we had seen on the road.
When we arrived at Surabrata we found that it was not a town but a lovely black sand beach with two resorts and a small homestay sandwiched between. The woman who owned the place was really happy to have us there and we were just as happy with our room that over looked the ocean. It did not have air conditioning but it didn’t really matter since there was a nice ocean breeze the entire evening. Jodi and I walked along the beach, drank a few beers and just enjoyed the sounds of the crashing surf just outside our door. In the evening the woman cooked us spaghetti dinners that to our surprise were outstanding and we watched the sunset over two glasses of beer.
The next morning we left what I would call the best beach in Bali to ride and unlike the previous 24hrs of peacefulness we found ourselves on a busy highway with every diesel truck belching smoke in our faces. It was the worst ride in all of Bali; loud, stinky, devoid of scenery and not very many snack stands along the way. It was a slog and we arrived in Ubud late, tired and our faces covered with soot. Feeling our spirits brighten on our way into the hotel I joked with Jodi with a line from Zoolander; “cough, cough, I think I have the black lung”. We both chuckled.
We quickly showered and I did some laundry in the bathtub and went out to buy some Christmas gifts for our parents. We thought we were doing really well spending under $10USD but were a little less proud when we learned it was going to cost us $30 USD to send them home. We did it anyway and found a place for dinner where we devoured our food and tried to find an Internet Café that was open. I found one that was opened long enough to upload some blogs before they kicked me out and I went “home” and to bed.
The next morning we awoke early to ride from Ubud to Candidasa. We thought it would be a short one because it was mostly downhill and we would arrive early enough to relax a bit before our next ride the following day. Somewhere along the ride I took a wrong turn that resulted in us arriving at the coast next to a warung in the middle of nowhere. We asked some locals for help and like most people in the sticks they do not speak English but somehow we were able to communicate well enough to find our way back to the main road. Our misdirection caused us to ride an additional 20km and in the time we were lost it had become very hot and humid resulting in fatigue. I looked back and saw Jodi’s face was as red as her hair and she was panting “cold drink”. I immediately stopped at the nearest warung asking for “digan fanta” and the lady said “no digan” so we rode another 2km in search of cold drinks. We finally found some cold green fanta’s (our favorite flavor) and I purchased some biscuits that looked like peanut butter cookies. We sat on the curb thinking we were in for a treat with the cookies but they turned out to be not sweet at all, loaded with garlic like most things here and not very good. Since they were homemade I slipped them into our shopping sack and smiled as I chewed the bit that was in my mouth trying to show the lady that I liked them when I really didn’t. We finally arrived in Candidasa for a lovely afternoon. Most appealing was the restaurant that served western food where Jodi and I ate seafood skewers and drank Bintangs on the beach. We tried to give the biscuits to some local kids and they looked at them and said something like “no way” in Indonesian. We relaxed and tried to figure out if we were going to layover there or the next day since we had a big ride coming in two days from Amed to Lovina. We decided it would be best to do the big ride coming off a days rest so we opted for one night in Candidasa and two in our next stop, Amed.
Late in the afternoon I was working on our bikes when I discovered that my rear shifter cable was not going to make it much further because it was fraying badly and would most likely snap very soon. I asked the hotel manager where I might fix the problem. He had a hard time understanding me but finally suggested I try one of the many motorcycle repair shops. I thought “yea right” but having nothing to lose I gave it a go. I stopped at a small shack were a man and his son were working on a motorcycle and I showed him the problem. He hopped on his cycle and told me to sit in the shade and wait for him. He returned 30 minutes later with a new shifter cable and we installed it together. He did not know English but we did really well communicating by pointing and demonstrating what needed to be done. 10 minutes later I was good to go with a bike that shifted like new. Whew what a relief.
We grudgingly mounted our bikes the next morning. My legs felt like they had been pumped full of battery acid and from the sounds coming from Jodi she felt the same but one thing I have learned on this trip is when things look most bleak they often come up roses and today was no different. We both clawed our way up a hill and on the other side found ourselves in a very remote valley surrounded with lush green hills, riding through rice paddies. It was beautiful and our aches and pains were soon forgotten and were replaced with peaceful feelings once again. We stopped along the way to snap pictures so we might remember this place when the peacefulness of Bali is washed from our hearts. The ride continued on and on through lush green fields until we started to descend to the other side of the Island where it became very arid quickly. Amed is a place that time forgot and like most places these days in Bali, free of tourists. It isn’t as nice as other places on the island but has fantastic diving and snorkeling as we discovered while snorkeling around one of the two shipwrecks located only a few meters from the beach. When we were told we ought to go snorkeling we thought how good could it. I rented some gear from one of the local stands swam a few feet and was overcome by all the color and fish that were so close to the shore. At first I could not find the wreck but swam around until I happened upon a ledge and sitting just on the edge was a small boat. The U.S. Navy put it there just after WWII after a Japanese boat had sunk it and it was now the farmland for corral. At times the wreck appeared to be moving because of all the small fish swimming just off the corral surface and when I dived down to swim through the hull I discovered even more colorful corral growing on the surfaces that were not exposed to direct sunlight. It was the best snorkeling I had seen and kind of made me wish I dived.
Tomorrow we hope to ride 88km from Amed to Lovina where we will have traveled the entire circumference of the Island. The beta we received from a driver in Ubud about this stretch is that it is very hot, arid and full of thieving crooks that we should not let near our gear. I figure it will be kind of like riding through the IRS building in Ogden UT. In all seriousness I am very worried about this stretch since we are both still pretty tired even though we have had a nice layover and much rest. I suggested to Jodi that we ride back the way we came to Candidasa but she insisted that she wanted to travel around the Island. Hearing this it became clear that she had a goal and that we ought to make it happen. We plan on waking at 4:00 am, eat some breakfast and ride 6 hours. We will evaluate our situation each hour beyond and if it becomes necessary to stop short then we will do so. To me 88km feels like a long way with loaded panniers in this hot climate where I am not able to find food filling enough to keep me going for 2 hours let alone 6. I guess time will tell.
We stopped a short distance away to visit one of the Hindu Temples. Lonely Planet said it was the only one built on the beach so we thought it would be worth a look. To me many of the temples look the same with red and gray brick walls and because I am not Hindu they really do not mean much to me. We rented a couple of sarongs and the host walked us around telling us about each statue and significant places. We had a nice time and learned a few things about the Hindu culture that helped us understand some of the things we had seen on the road.
When we arrived at Surabrata we found that it was not a town but a lovely black sand beach with two resorts and a small homestay sandwiched between. The woman who owned the place was really happy to have us there and we were just as happy with our room that over looked the ocean. It did not have air conditioning but it didn’t really matter since there was a nice ocean breeze the entire evening. Jodi and I walked along the beach, drank a few beers and just enjoyed the sounds of the crashing surf just outside our door. In the evening the woman cooked us spaghetti dinners that to our surprise were outstanding and we watched the sunset over two glasses of beer.
The next morning we left what I would call the best beach in Bali to ride and unlike the previous 24hrs of peacefulness we found ourselves on a busy highway with every diesel truck belching smoke in our faces. It was the worst ride in all of Bali; loud, stinky, devoid of scenery and not very many snack stands along the way. It was a slog and we arrived in Ubud late, tired and our faces covered with soot. Feeling our spirits brighten on our way into the hotel I joked with Jodi with a line from Zoolander; “cough, cough, I think I have the black lung”. We both chuckled.
We quickly showered and I did some laundry in the bathtub and went out to buy some Christmas gifts for our parents. We thought we were doing really well spending under $10USD but were a little less proud when we learned it was going to cost us $30 USD to send them home. We did it anyway and found a place for dinner where we devoured our food and tried to find an Internet Café that was open. I found one that was opened long enough to upload some blogs before they kicked me out and I went “home” and to bed.
The next morning we awoke early to ride from Ubud to Candidasa. We thought it would be a short one because it was mostly downhill and we would arrive early enough to relax a bit before our next ride the following day. Somewhere along the ride I took a wrong turn that resulted in us arriving at the coast next to a warung in the middle of nowhere. We asked some locals for help and like most people in the sticks they do not speak English but somehow we were able to communicate well enough to find our way back to the main road. Our misdirection caused us to ride an additional 20km and in the time we were lost it had become very hot and humid resulting in fatigue. I looked back and saw Jodi’s face was as red as her hair and she was panting “cold drink”. I immediately stopped at the nearest warung asking for “digan fanta” and the lady said “no digan” so we rode another 2km in search of cold drinks. We finally found some cold green fanta’s (our favorite flavor) and I purchased some biscuits that looked like peanut butter cookies. We sat on the curb thinking we were in for a treat with the cookies but they turned out to be not sweet at all, loaded with garlic like most things here and not very good. Since they were homemade I slipped them into our shopping sack and smiled as I chewed the bit that was in my mouth trying to show the lady that I liked them when I really didn’t. We finally arrived in Candidasa for a lovely afternoon. Most appealing was the restaurant that served western food where Jodi and I ate seafood skewers and drank Bintangs on the beach. We tried to give the biscuits to some local kids and they looked at them and said something like “no way” in Indonesian. We relaxed and tried to figure out if we were going to layover there or the next day since we had a big ride coming in two days from Amed to Lovina. We decided it would be best to do the big ride coming off a days rest so we opted for one night in Candidasa and two in our next stop, Amed.
Late in the afternoon I was working on our bikes when I discovered that my rear shifter cable was not going to make it much further because it was fraying badly and would most likely snap very soon. I asked the hotel manager where I might fix the problem. He had a hard time understanding me but finally suggested I try one of the many motorcycle repair shops. I thought “yea right” but having nothing to lose I gave it a go. I stopped at a small shack were a man and his son were working on a motorcycle and I showed him the problem. He hopped on his cycle and told me to sit in the shade and wait for him. He returned 30 minutes later with a new shifter cable and we installed it together. He did not know English but we did really well communicating by pointing and demonstrating what needed to be done. 10 minutes later I was good to go with a bike that shifted like new. Whew what a relief.
We grudgingly mounted our bikes the next morning. My legs felt like they had been pumped full of battery acid and from the sounds coming from Jodi she felt the same but one thing I have learned on this trip is when things look most bleak they often come up roses and today was no different. We both clawed our way up a hill and on the other side found ourselves in a very remote valley surrounded with lush green hills, riding through rice paddies. It was beautiful and our aches and pains were soon forgotten and were replaced with peaceful feelings once again. We stopped along the way to snap pictures so we might remember this place when the peacefulness of Bali is washed from our hearts. The ride continued on and on through lush green fields until we started to descend to the other side of the Island where it became very arid quickly. Amed is a place that time forgot and like most places these days in Bali, free of tourists. It isn’t as nice as other places on the island but has fantastic diving and snorkeling as we discovered while snorkeling around one of the two shipwrecks located only a few meters from the beach. When we were told we ought to go snorkeling we thought how good could it. I rented some gear from one of the local stands swam a few feet and was overcome by all the color and fish that were so close to the shore. At first I could not find the wreck but swam around until I happened upon a ledge and sitting just on the edge was a small boat. The U.S. Navy put it there just after WWII after a Japanese boat had sunk it and it was now the farmland for corral. At times the wreck appeared to be moving because of all the small fish swimming just off the corral surface and when I dived down to swim through the hull I discovered even more colorful corral growing on the surfaces that were not exposed to direct sunlight. It was the best snorkeling I had seen and kind of made me wish I dived.
Tomorrow we hope to ride 88km from Amed to Lovina where we will have traveled the entire circumference of the Island. The beta we received from a driver in Ubud about this stretch is that it is very hot, arid and full of thieving crooks that we should not let near our gear. I figure it will be kind of like riding through the IRS building in Ogden UT. In all seriousness I am very worried about this stretch since we are both still pretty tired even though we have had a nice layover and much rest. I suggested to Jodi that we ride back the way we came to Candidasa but she insisted that she wanted to travel around the Island. Hearing this it became clear that she had a goal and that we ought to make it happen. We plan on waking at 4:00 am, eat some breakfast and ride 6 hours. We will evaluate our situation each hour beyond and if it becomes necessary to stop short then we will do so. To me 88km feels like a long way with loaded panniers in this hot climate where I am not able to find food filling enough to keep me going for 2 hours let alone 6. I guess time will tell.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 1:04 AM
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Friday, December 09, 2005
Ketut on his Vespa. Very Cool! He restored them as a hobby.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:51 PM
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Where we stayed in Pemuteran. Not much to say other than the ride from Lovina to here was pretty dry and hot.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:46 PM
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Where we were two days ago. Not quite caught up on the blogging.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:37 PM
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December 8, 2005
In Lovina we stayed at a resort at a fraction of the normal cost since they did not have guests. We were there two days where we frolicked by the pool, ate some nice dinners in Lovina and recovered from the bronchial sinus infection that I was suffering. We decided to leave on Monday morning and head to Pemuteran. We had heard there was some nice snorkeling and diving in the area so we thought we would see what it was about. For us it was a bust! All the lodging in the area were resort complexes that were most likely owned by foreign interests and charged USD per night. Our pocket book brought us to a home stay with a very nice room but it did not have air conditioning. There was a restaurant associated with the home stay and because it appeared to be the only one around we ate our meals there. Once in our room we walked down the beach and were surprised to find village squalor along side a $120 USD per night resort. The contrasts were offensive and I felt embarrassed for the stupid white folk who were so obtuse to flaunt their wealth in front of those so less fortunate. We ventured into a dive center and were told that the water wasn’t clear enough for snorkeling and that they would not be able to take us out further because there are not enough tourists wanting to snorkel so they could fill the boat. If we were to go we would need to rent the entire boat to make it worth their while and that like the hotels nearby were in USD so not possible within our budget. That night was a sticky one but we managed to sleep pretty well in spite of the heat. The next morning we loaded our bikes and hit the road for Negara. We had a late start making us ride in higher temperatures than expected but surprisingly the heat wasn’t bad and we were able to keep hydrated and fed. We started in a dry portion of the island where the vegetation was sparse with the occasional monkey running across the road. The riding was undulating with the downhill portions providing enough breeze for us to get cool before the next short uphill. Overall it was very pleasant. After about an hour of riding we passed over to the south side of the island and entered a lush green forest with very few side roads and traffic. Occasionally, a motor cycle or bicycle would emerge from the forest heavy loaded with a stack of firewood on the seat that appeared 6 to 7 ft tall. Amazing how they make the most of the transportation they have available for every use. The forest continued for the next 20km and then we began to enter the more populated area around Negara. The sky cleared and the sun beat down on us causing me to tan my arms further and causing me to feel very sick. Jodi did really well in the heat and continued pushing me to keep going until we found accommodation that met our needs. Every place we stopped was rather unimpressive and even though it had more comforts than the place of the night before they just did not feel right and we would keep moving down the road. I was reminded of several raft trips I had been on where the person looking for the evenings camp had a particular idea of what the wanted and each camp site ahead just did not make the cut and the group would keep moving further and further down the river until everyone was cold and tired. I was hot and just wanted a shower and a place to lie down for the night. We continued looking and then a place found us that looked like nothing but turned out to be something special. In a small town outside Negara called Tegalcangkring we found ourselves at a gate with a British flag painted on one side and a Japanese flag on the other. It turned out we were at the doorstep of a language school that taught foreigners Indonesian. The owner hearing English spoken in an American accent outside his home became curious and met us in the road outside his house. He directed us next door to his brothers home stay showed us a room and we decided to give it a go for one night. The Indonesian gentleman named Ketut (meaning fourth) was very excited to have a couple of Americans staying next door immediately wanted to practice his English with us. He asked us about our travels, what we did and talked a bit about politics. He spoke pretty good English and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking in the outdoor living area. He asked us what we like to eat and we told him rice, noodles, tofu and vegetables and before we could protest he told his wife to head to the nearest warung (ride side stand) to fetch some things for dinner. That evening him and his wife invited us next door for dinner. We had tofu, goreng (noodles), vegetables and white rice. It was very good and best thing of all was the portions were adequate to fill both Jodi and my stomachs after our 80k ride of that day. We talked a bit more and Ketut invited us to his school to visit with his English speaking students the next day. We thought nothing of it but when he showed up at our door the next morning with breakfast ready next door we knew we had better go. We ate traditional Indonesian breakfast, hurriedly changed clothes and found a bus to take us to the next village. We walked up a road about 200m and found a junior high school. Our entire trip children outside the schools have been very friendly, always greeting us with a big “hello” and sometimes a “good morning”. Ketut introduced us to the teachers and they asked Jodi and I to come to their classes to help with their English studies. The teachers wanted their students to get an opportunity to practice their conversational English so they asked the class to ask any question. They asked, “where I was from”, “what I did”, “was I married” and many others. After that class one teacher thought it would be fun since I did engineering if a taught his physics class in English. I thought physics “no problem” since it was one of my stronger subjects. So I entered the class, the teacher introduced me and told them that I was there to help them understand physics better so if they had any questions about their lessons so far they should present them. One student raised his hand and proceeded to ask me a question about the function of MnCl in the operation of a battery. I thought “crap electrical and chemistry in the same problem and I really suck at both in English let alone in Indonesian.” I had a hard time understanding the problem and I tried to answer it to the best of my ability but in the end I was bull shitting my way through and I suspect the students were onto me. The next student asked me a question about electrical again becoming frustrated I thought “does this book have any projectile or something I could apply Newtons laws of physics,” frightened I picked up the book and was surprised to see the level of physics these students were learning at 14. There were circuits, magnetic fields, batteries and many others subjects that most American students would not get until AP physics in high school. Again I pulled an answer out my ass and hoped I hadn’t led the class to far astray. Seeing my difficulties the teacher stepped in and suggested we practice our English instead. Thank goodness. Later we retired to the teacher’s lounge where all the English teachers began asking us many questions about climate change and terrorism and what the US is going to do. Both were subjects that are really big with the Balinese and they wanted some hope that America was going to help them. Having to give them the mealy mouth answers of our current administration hurt and I so desperately wanted to give them hope but instead I felt like bureaucrat reciting the party line. They seem to understand that there was little I could do as a ordinary citizen other than listen. They made us Balinese coffee and dropped the politics and started asking questions about my work in Antarctica.
The school was very nice and the teachers did their best to give the students the best education they could get. They did not have a library filled with stacks and stacks of books, a laboratory filled with computers and overhead projectors in each classroom. Each teacher had a room with a blackboard, a piece of chalk and raised stage area in the front. The students were very good and very respectful of their teachers and they seem to enjoy being at school. I liked standing before the students helping them with their English and I felt like it was an honor to have visited their school. About mid day Jodi and I returned to our hotel and we were once again invited next-door for mid day tea. We had salad of bean sprouts and an unsweetened rice pudding. Again it tasted very good and were honored that they had us in their home once more.
Tonight they had us over for a last time before we depart in the morning. I don’t think today’s events will be something I will forget anytime soon, I learned so much about the Indonesian way of life and myself in such a short amount of time that I am reeling a bit. I hope I never forget these people!
The school was very nice and the teachers did their best to give the students the best education they could get. They did not have a library filled with stacks and stacks of books, a laboratory filled with computers and overhead projectors in each classroom. Each teacher had a room with a blackboard, a piece of chalk and raised stage area in the front. The students were very good and very respectful of their teachers and they seem to enjoy being at school. I liked standing before the students helping them with their English and I felt like it was an honor to have visited their school. About mid day Jodi and I returned to our hotel and we were once again invited next-door for mid day tea. We had salad of bean sprouts and an unsweetened rice pudding. Again it tasted very good and were honored that they had us in their home once more.
Tonight they had us over for a last time before we depart in the morning. I don’t think today’s events will be something I will forget anytime soon, I learned so much about the Indonesian way of life and myself in such a short amount of time that I am reeling a bit. I hope I never forget these people!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:34 PM
0 comments
December 4, 2005
Kirk has been really diligent about blogging while I’ve been keeping my own hand written diary to record all of my impressions and thoughts. So I figured maybe I should throw in a blog about a few of my experiences and impressions of Bali.
Walking off the plane onto the walkway….hot hot hot and the air thick with humidity. This is a welcome change from the cooler temperatures in NZ and OZ. Walking out of the airport into the Bali world….tropical…palm trees line the street…people see you are white and persistently approach you for hiring them for transport.
Kuta Beach….very busy with traffic and people, westernized, a scattering of tourists but probably nothing in comparison to the days before the bombing. We found out we were staying about a block from Ground Zero, which made me a little nervous. Vendors, vendors everywhere soliciting us for places to stay, motorbike hire and transport. More vendors are in the outdoor type strip malls along every road selling sarongs, jewelry, beachwear, food, etc. It really wasn’t so different than a beach town in the states. It made me sad that the Western influence sucked out the culture of this area and replaced it with malls, shops, restaurants and hotels.
The roads are busy with small motorcycles and cars, but the pace is slow. They are very conscientious drivers for the most part and if someone is coming up behind you they give a little “toot” of their horn to let you know they are passing. We heard a lot of toots as we rode along which is a nice change from the full on road rage horns that are used back in the States. The traffic in Denpasar was a little intimidating at times. We were navigating with a map, but found out that it wasn’t that great. The road signs aren’t posted very often or very well and the names of the roads seem to change from one block to the next. It was very confusing. Eventually we made it to the main road we were looking for to take us to Ubud, but that seemed like a little bit of luck mixed with a decent idea of the direction we should be traveling.
Ubud was a nice relaxed little arty town. We enjoyed the slower pace of life there and the culture oozing out of everything and everyone. It was such a pleasure to see the Bali that everyone had told us about. This is where I started to realize that maybe the South Pole really was worth every minute after all.
The road from Ubud to the hot springs at Mt. Batur was full of interesting things. The people watching us ride by with curiosity as they carved, swept or hid from the heat in their roadside shelters. Sometimes they would yell “hallo”, “where you go?” or whistle or say something in Balinese. The children were very entertaining as they would get excited and scream “hallo” at us many times over and over and wave. If we stopped for a rest and there were children close by they would gather around our bikes and thoroughly inspect them all the while smiling and giggling with their friends.
The rice paddies with the people working in them look surreal almost like moving paintings. I feel so lucky to be here!
The poverty of some of these people is very apparent as we ride by their shacks with their tattered clothing lying in the bushes to dry in the sun. We stopped at a little stand about halfway to Ubud looking for a cold drink. A refrigerator caught Kirk’s eye in their very simple and small stand so the couple in it sold us two cold Sprites and a bowl of soup for Kirk. The woman was sitting at a sewing machine sewing together the holes in a ratty t-shirt. They seemed so happy to have us there.
Further up the road we came upon a man just peeing on the side of the road. I guess that’s what they do here because shortly after that we came upon another man doing the same and not being shy about it at all as cars, motorcycles and us on bikes whizzed by (well, we weren’t whizzing really…more like panting by) a couple feet away.
When we reached the top of the hill at Penelokan we were hot, tired and sweaty and I nearly averted a meltdown as I was having flashbacks of the hill in NZ. Thankfully there was an end to this hill and the incline wasn’t nearly as bad. We had a swarm of people meet us at the top of the hill with questions, wanting to sell us things and checking out our bikes. We were pretty overwhelmed. We have learned a lot on this trip so far about bartering, what things should cost, what to say, who to ask for help, etc. and I’m quite sure we will continue to learn more about the society here every day until we leave.
The hot springs was like a little oasis in a ghost town waiting for tourists. Several places to stay had shut down and we had very few to choose from. Thankfully we stumbled upon a very nice woman who helped us and took us to a home stay. Both the woman and the people at the home stay were so gracious and kind to us. They seemed to really enjoy our presence and individually told us how their town has suffered since the bombings. They haven’t seen a single tourist in the last two weeks and that is why they were grateful to have us. It is really sad because so far I would have to say that Bali is the most amazing place I have ever been. It truly is like waking up in a postcard everyday. One of the greatest pleasures so far has been talking with the locals because it has left such a great impression on both Kirk and I. We are learning so much about their way of life and their struggles to make money. It can be heartbreaking.
The 40K ride from Penulisan to Singaraja was pretty fast since it was all downhill. I realized that I needed to be more careful because at the start of our ride I accidentally went off the side of the road into the small patch of rocky terrain adjacent to it. My bicycle jumped out from underneath me and I managed to land on my feet with my toes hanging over the edge of a steep ravine. I thankfully caught my balance while adrenaline was shooting through my veins. That could have been quite a disaster! Especially because Kirk was ahead of me enough to not see or hear me fall. Whew! I’m glad that turned out okay. The temperature at the top was nice and cool but heated up the closer we came to Singaraja. We had to stop several times so Kirk could clear his nose and try to unplug his ears due to his sinus infection. We also stopped a couple of times to shake our hands out. Holding the brakes for that long makes the blood feel like it is no longer in your hands and they cramp a lot. The hillsides were dotted with small houses among lush green as far as the eye could see. It was a pleasant ride.
Singaraja was an active town with buzzing traffic and people everywhere. We happened to find a doctor’s office as we were in search of the local hospital in order to get Kirk some antibiotics. There were a couple of teenage boys that were inside the building and they opened up the window to talk to me while I watched the bikes on the sidewalk. They spoke a few words of English and asked me for cigarettes, snacks and money. I’m pretty sure they were also making fun of my cycling shorts because they pointed and giggled a lot. Remembering that I had a gutter brain myself as a teenager, I laughed along with them.
Lovina Beach was only 8K from Singaraja and looks a lot like Kuta Beach, but with less people, shops and tourists. We were once again bombarded as we rode to the beach just to check it out. We have to take it all with a grain of salt as this is these people’s livelihood to sell items to tourists. They also explained to us that they haven’t had many tourists in the last few weeks. Kirk and I wish that we could help every one of them, but we just can’t. The waiter who served us dinner at our hotel last night told us that he makes the equivalent of $50 USD a month and he works 6 days a week, 8 hours a day with no paid vacation. He said he lives in a boarding house with his wife and kids with an outdoor bathroom for $15 a month so by the time he buys petrol and food he just isn’t making enough money. He said he would really like to travel like we are and his dream is to make enough money to buy some land and build a house for his family. Ugh…so heartbreaking!!! If anything I have come to realize just how wealthy and fortunate we are in comparison to so many in the world. The bicycles, gear and clothing we have are more than these people could probably ever afford in their lifetimes. It’s mind blowing. Especially when you consider that Kirk and I are living off about $35 USD a day for the both of us which includes food, lodging and incidentals and these people make about $50 USD a month to support their families! That makes us feel like we’re pretty much living high on the hog.
We ate at a restaurant in town tonight (our hotel is about 2km from the main part of Lovina) and I had a seafood platter. It had calamari, shrimp on a skewer as well as tuna and red snapper. The shrimp and the red snapper still had their heads and tails attached. Normally this would bother me, but I have become accustomed to it already and it doesn’t phase me anymore. There are geckos crawling up the posts and walls hunting for their dinner and mosquitoes hovering and waiting to take a bite of us for their dinner. It’s hot even at night here with the thick humidity so it’s either cover up your skin with sticky repellant or cover it with clothing. I chose repellant. Seems to work.
So far riding bikes has been such a great way to travel (thanks Andrea and Peter for the inspiration!). It’s very hot during the day, but biking makes our own wind and keeps us cool. When we stop for a rest we actually are hotter than if we keep on pedaling and the sweat pours off of us like rain. It’s not too bad though. I’m still enjoying the heat as I haven’t felt this hot for so long. Sometimes Kirk and I feel like two pieces of bacon out there in a frying pan though. So far we’ve both suffered some intense sunburns. It’s strange because I can’t feel my skin burning here like I can in Colorado and we were burned on heavily clouded days. I have a feeling we’re going to have some serious farmer tans when we get home. We’ve been riding in long sleeves and with sunscreen on, but the tan lines are appearing nonetheless (on Kirk anyway…mine are more like burns and then freckle lines…ahhh the blessing of the piglet skin of a redhead!).
The main form of transport here is bemos (small vans with bench seats that are used as buses), small motorcycles, and cars. It’s very interesting how much they can pack on a motorcycle. They either load them up with people (we’ve seen 4 people on one small motorcycle) or they load them up with things. We’ve seen people carrying big stacks of wood, tire tubes, large baskets, long logs, petrol, tools, bags of rice, boxes, you name it. Very few people use bicycles, but we do see them occasionally. Kirk and I thought our loads were heavy….but nothing in comparison to the way they can load some of the bikes here. They have large boxes that are used like saddlebags and they also stack a wall of boxes behind their backs. It’s pretty amazing considering the bikes they are using have very few gears. The women here walk along the roads in their traditional clothing and carry large baskets on their heads. They balance some very heavy loads as well, which is remarkable.
Riding along some of the things I notice are the lovely butterflies frequently crossing our path, the smell of green thick in the air, occasionally big whiffs of exhaust from the trucks passing, extraordinary landscapes of rice paddies, chickens, roosters and baby chicks dotting the sides of the roads in front of houses and shacks, people walking along the roadside in bare feet and those are just to name a few.
We are having a lovely time and a valuable experience. I would highly recommend Bali as a place to cycle tour to anyone! We feel very safe in our travels so far because the Balinese are very friendly and helpful and seem intrigued with tourists. It is a wonderful place to be!
Walking off the plane onto the walkway….hot hot hot and the air thick with humidity. This is a welcome change from the cooler temperatures in NZ and OZ. Walking out of the airport into the Bali world….tropical…palm trees line the street…people see you are white and persistently approach you for hiring them for transport.
Kuta Beach….very busy with traffic and people, westernized, a scattering of tourists but probably nothing in comparison to the days before the bombing. We found out we were staying about a block from Ground Zero, which made me a little nervous. Vendors, vendors everywhere soliciting us for places to stay, motorbike hire and transport. More vendors are in the outdoor type strip malls along every road selling sarongs, jewelry, beachwear, food, etc. It really wasn’t so different than a beach town in the states. It made me sad that the Western influence sucked out the culture of this area and replaced it with malls, shops, restaurants and hotels.
The roads are busy with small motorcycles and cars, but the pace is slow. They are very conscientious drivers for the most part and if someone is coming up behind you they give a little “toot” of their horn to let you know they are passing. We heard a lot of toots as we rode along which is a nice change from the full on road rage horns that are used back in the States. The traffic in Denpasar was a little intimidating at times. We were navigating with a map, but found out that it wasn’t that great. The road signs aren’t posted very often or very well and the names of the roads seem to change from one block to the next. It was very confusing. Eventually we made it to the main road we were looking for to take us to Ubud, but that seemed like a little bit of luck mixed with a decent idea of the direction we should be traveling.
Ubud was a nice relaxed little arty town. We enjoyed the slower pace of life there and the culture oozing out of everything and everyone. It was such a pleasure to see the Bali that everyone had told us about. This is where I started to realize that maybe the South Pole really was worth every minute after all.
The road from Ubud to the hot springs at Mt. Batur was full of interesting things. The people watching us ride by with curiosity as they carved, swept or hid from the heat in their roadside shelters. Sometimes they would yell “hallo”, “where you go?” or whistle or say something in Balinese. The children were very entertaining as they would get excited and scream “hallo” at us many times over and over and wave. If we stopped for a rest and there were children close by they would gather around our bikes and thoroughly inspect them all the while smiling and giggling with their friends.
The rice paddies with the people working in them look surreal almost like moving paintings. I feel so lucky to be here!
The poverty of some of these people is very apparent as we ride by their shacks with their tattered clothing lying in the bushes to dry in the sun. We stopped at a little stand about halfway to Ubud looking for a cold drink. A refrigerator caught Kirk’s eye in their very simple and small stand so the couple in it sold us two cold Sprites and a bowl of soup for Kirk. The woman was sitting at a sewing machine sewing together the holes in a ratty t-shirt. They seemed so happy to have us there.
Further up the road we came upon a man just peeing on the side of the road. I guess that’s what they do here because shortly after that we came upon another man doing the same and not being shy about it at all as cars, motorcycles and us on bikes whizzed by (well, we weren’t whizzing really…more like panting by) a couple feet away.
When we reached the top of the hill at Penelokan we were hot, tired and sweaty and I nearly averted a meltdown as I was having flashbacks of the hill in NZ. Thankfully there was an end to this hill and the incline wasn’t nearly as bad. We had a swarm of people meet us at the top of the hill with questions, wanting to sell us things and checking out our bikes. We were pretty overwhelmed. We have learned a lot on this trip so far about bartering, what things should cost, what to say, who to ask for help, etc. and I’m quite sure we will continue to learn more about the society here every day until we leave.
The hot springs was like a little oasis in a ghost town waiting for tourists. Several places to stay had shut down and we had very few to choose from. Thankfully we stumbled upon a very nice woman who helped us and took us to a home stay. Both the woman and the people at the home stay were so gracious and kind to us. They seemed to really enjoy our presence and individually told us how their town has suffered since the bombings. They haven’t seen a single tourist in the last two weeks and that is why they were grateful to have us. It is really sad because so far I would have to say that Bali is the most amazing place I have ever been. It truly is like waking up in a postcard everyday. One of the greatest pleasures so far has been talking with the locals because it has left such a great impression on both Kirk and I. We are learning so much about their way of life and their struggles to make money. It can be heartbreaking.
The 40K ride from Penulisan to Singaraja was pretty fast since it was all downhill. I realized that I needed to be more careful because at the start of our ride I accidentally went off the side of the road into the small patch of rocky terrain adjacent to it. My bicycle jumped out from underneath me and I managed to land on my feet with my toes hanging over the edge of a steep ravine. I thankfully caught my balance while adrenaline was shooting through my veins. That could have been quite a disaster! Especially because Kirk was ahead of me enough to not see or hear me fall. Whew! I’m glad that turned out okay. The temperature at the top was nice and cool but heated up the closer we came to Singaraja. We had to stop several times so Kirk could clear his nose and try to unplug his ears due to his sinus infection. We also stopped a couple of times to shake our hands out. Holding the brakes for that long makes the blood feel like it is no longer in your hands and they cramp a lot. The hillsides were dotted with small houses among lush green as far as the eye could see. It was a pleasant ride.
Singaraja was an active town with buzzing traffic and people everywhere. We happened to find a doctor’s office as we were in search of the local hospital in order to get Kirk some antibiotics. There were a couple of teenage boys that were inside the building and they opened up the window to talk to me while I watched the bikes on the sidewalk. They spoke a few words of English and asked me for cigarettes, snacks and money. I’m pretty sure they were also making fun of my cycling shorts because they pointed and giggled a lot. Remembering that I had a gutter brain myself as a teenager, I laughed along with them.
Lovina Beach was only 8K from Singaraja and looks a lot like Kuta Beach, but with less people, shops and tourists. We were once again bombarded as we rode to the beach just to check it out. We have to take it all with a grain of salt as this is these people’s livelihood to sell items to tourists. They also explained to us that they haven’t had many tourists in the last few weeks. Kirk and I wish that we could help every one of them, but we just can’t. The waiter who served us dinner at our hotel last night told us that he makes the equivalent of $50 USD a month and he works 6 days a week, 8 hours a day with no paid vacation. He said he lives in a boarding house with his wife and kids with an outdoor bathroom for $15 a month so by the time he buys petrol and food he just isn’t making enough money. He said he would really like to travel like we are and his dream is to make enough money to buy some land and build a house for his family. Ugh…so heartbreaking!!! If anything I have come to realize just how wealthy and fortunate we are in comparison to so many in the world. The bicycles, gear and clothing we have are more than these people could probably ever afford in their lifetimes. It’s mind blowing. Especially when you consider that Kirk and I are living off about $35 USD a day for the both of us which includes food, lodging and incidentals and these people make about $50 USD a month to support their families! That makes us feel like we’re pretty much living high on the hog.
We ate at a restaurant in town tonight (our hotel is about 2km from the main part of Lovina) and I had a seafood platter. It had calamari, shrimp on a skewer as well as tuna and red snapper. The shrimp and the red snapper still had their heads and tails attached. Normally this would bother me, but I have become accustomed to it already and it doesn’t phase me anymore. There are geckos crawling up the posts and walls hunting for their dinner and mosquitoes hovering and waiting to take a bite of us for their dinner. It’s hot even at night here with the thick humidity so it’s either cover up your skin with sticky repellant or cover it with clothing. I chose repellant. Seems to work.
So far riding bikes has been such a great way to travel (thanks Andrea and Peter for the inspiration!). It’s very hot during the day, but biking makes our own wind and keeps us cool. When we stop for a rest we actually are hotter than if we keep on pedaling and the sweat pours off of us like rain. It’s not too bad though. I’m still enjoying the heat as I haven’t felt this hot for so long. Sometimes Kirk and I feel like two pieces of bacon out there in a frying pan though. So far we’ve both suffered some intense sunburns. It’s strange because I can’t feel my skin burning here like I can in Colorado and we were burned on heavily clouded days. I have a feeling we’re going to have some serious farmer tans when we get home. We’ve been riding in long sleeves and with sunscreen on, but the tan lines are appearing nonetheless (on Kirk anyway…mine are more like burns and then freckle lines…ahhh the blessing of the piglet skin of a redhead!).
The main form of transport here is bemos (small vans with bench seats that are used as buses), small motorcycles, and cars. It’s very interesting how much they can pack on a motorcycle. They either load them up with people (we’ve seen 4 people on one small motorcycle) or they load them up with things. We’ve seen people carrying big stacks of wood, tire tubes, large baskets, long logs, petrol, tools, bags of rice, boxes, you name it. Very few people use bicycles, but we do see them occasionally. Kirk and I thought our loads were heavy….but nothing in comparison to the way they can load some of the bikes here. They have large boxes that are used like saddlebags and they also stack a wall of boxes behind their backs. It’s pretty amazing considering the bikes they are using have very few gears. The women here walk along the roads in their traditional clothing and carry large baskets on their heads. They balance some very heavy loads as well, which is remarkable.
Riding along some of the things I notice are the lovely butterflies frequently crossing our path, the smell of green thick in the air, occasionally big whiffs of exhaust from the trucks passing, extraordinary landscapes of rice paddies, chickens, roosters and baby chicks dotting the sides of the roads in front of houses and shacks, people walking along the roadside in bare feet and those are just to name a few.
We are having a lovely time and a valuable experience. I would highly recommend Bali as a place to cycle tour to anyone! We feel very safe in our travels so far because the Balinese are very friendly and helpful and seem intrigued with tourists. It is a wonderful place to be!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 11:31 PM
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Sunday, December 04, 2005
December 04, 2005
We are moving on tomorrow morning and we may not have internet service for some time so please mom and dad do not worry about us we are fine. I have done some major updates in the last day, check them out.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 10:32 PM
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Jodi's view of things. "Whats that white thing up ahead?"
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 10:28 PM
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December 04, 2005
Yesterday we rode 10km down the road to the hot springs. We went thinking we will check it out and if it doesn’t look like fun then we will move to some other place. We were both feeling rather “put out” by several experiences from the evening before and that morning and neither one of us thought we would find so much better 10km away but we did. It all started when we topped the hill at Penelokan where the men of the village wanting to find us accommodation for a commission. It was all rather frustrating in that they were so in your face and really put the pressure on. We finally agreed to look a place this gentleman wanted us to see so we dropped down off the top into the volcano crater to take a look at the accommodations. The ride down was very steep and it is unlikely that Jodi or I could have ridden up it with fully loaded panniers. The place was ok so we agreed to stay the night. Well they guy who showed us the place must have notified his friends that we were there because they all sat outside wanting to sell us art, and take us tramping up Mt. Batur. So every time we emerged through the doors of our room two or three guys would approach us. The next morning the father of the person who showed us the place we were staying approached us at breakfast wanting to sell us transport up the hill. After that Jodi and I realized we needed to disappear into the landscape or accept the offer of transport and get the heck out of there. We decided to travel the 10km to the hot springs and if it wasn’t much then we would find a bus or truck to haul us back up to Penelokan. We loaded up our bikes and tried to leave as quietly as possible and pedaled the short distance to discover the hot springs pool was very nice so we decided to find some accommodation. During our search we happened upon a very helpful woman who showed us to three different places, negotiated the deal and offered to arrange our transport up the hill the next day. We ended up in a home stay for $5 per night including breakfast. We unloaded our bikes and walked across the street to the pools and spent the next 6 hours lounging about in the hot pools, drinking fresh fruit juices and having a very relaxing time. My cold had taken a turn for the worse and had become a sinus and bronchial infection (the joys of my genetics) so sitting in the hot pools felt really good. Jodi would occasionally look at me and ask “what do you want to do today” and I would respond, “I am doing it”.
Jodi had agreed to a massage with the woman who had helped us and we had both thought she would just come and get Jodi when she was ready but we later discovered it was supposed to be at 2:00PM and it was now about 3:30. When Jodi went to our room to get something, the woman approached Jodi and asked, “where have you been? I have been waiting since two and it is now to late for me to do it and get home to my family.” Jodi felt terrible and asked how she could make it up to the woman and she said “buy one of my bracelets”, Jodi agreed and came to me at the pool needing some money. When I heard the story I also felt badly and told her to buy as many bracelets that $7.50 would get (it was all I had in my pocket at the time). She ended up with three but the woman added one other and told Jodi that she had arranged our transportation with the man who operated the guesthouse. It was a huge relief to know that it was all handled and we would not need to haggle with all the men.
Late in the day it began raining so we returned to the guesthouse. I was doing some adjustments on the bicycles when the little boy of the family operating the guesthouse decided he wanted to help. He just stood there watching me doing my thing, the whole time singing songs in Balinese and drawing pictures for Jodi and I. His parents kept telling him to leave us alone and he would leave for 15 or 20 seconds and return singing again. Later I told his dad that he was a very good boy and he wasn’t bothering us.
Later in the evening the little boys uncle arrived to finalize a price and a time for our transport up the hill in the morning. He said he did not feel right about taking us just to Peneloken because there was still more hill beyond so he offered to take us 25km further so we could coast down the other side. Since I felt like crap and did not feel like doing any more hard riding than I had to I agreed that his idea sounded good. I asked how much and was very surprised whe he said “$7.” I asked “each?” and he replied, “total”. His price had taken me by surprise because the other guy had wanted $20 to take us to Penelokan which was only about 5 km away. I agreed to his price and he stayed through the evening talking with Jodi and I about Balinese culture and the family structure. He also explained that the most recent bombing had all but shut down the tourist industry and most of these people have not sold anything in 2 weeks.
The next morning the woman of the house cooked us banana pancakes and the uncle arrived at 8:00am to transport us. We loaded our things into his truck and the little boys mom after some whining agreed that he could go with his uncle and us. The four of us crammed into the cab and made the journey to the top.
Once at the top we loaded our bikes, said our farewells and coasted 40km to Singaraja. On the ride down it was interesting to feel the difference between the temperature on the mountain compared to that at the coast. I also had some problems with clearing my ears as we changed altitude due to my sinus and lung problems.
Once in Singaraja we found a Doctor so I could get some Antibiotics. He was very young and had been the doctor for one of the western hotels but had started his own practice. He gave me some Cipro, eardrops and decongestants. I did not have to fill out any paper work, go to any pharmacies, show my insurance card or anything else that western doctors make us do. I asked, “how much do I owe you?” and he said “$30,000rp ($3.00 USD).” I could not believe it, even the doctors are inexpensive in Indonesia. I then downed some drugs, mounted my bike and continued riding to Lovina Beach.
We found a really nice beach bungalow with a swimming pool and air conditioning for $17.50 a night. We then went further into Lovina to find an internet café to check our email and update the blog.
Jodi had agreed to a massage with the woman who had helped us and we had both thought she would just come and get Jodi when she was ready but we later discovered it was supposed to be at 2:00PM and it was now about 3:30. When Jodi went to our room to get something, the woman approached Jodi and asked, “where have you been? I have been waiting since two and it is now to late for me to do it and get home to my family.” Jodi felt terrible and asked how she could make it up to the woman and she said “buy one of my bracelets”, Jodi agreed and came to me at the pool needing some money. When I heard the story I also felt badly and told her to buy as many bracelets that $7.50 would get (it was all I had in my pocket at the time). She ended up with three but the woman added one other and told Jodi that she had arranged our transportation with the man who operated the guesthouse. It was a huge relief to know that it was all handled and we would not need to haggle with all the men.
Late in the day it began raining so we returned to the guesthouse. I was doing some adjustments on the bicycles when the little boy of the family operating the guesthouse decided he wanted to help. He just stood there watching me doing my thing, the whole time singing songs in Balinese and drawing pictures for Jodi and I. His parents kept telling him to leave us alone and he would leave for 15 or 20 seconds and return singing again. Later I told his dad that he was a very good boy and he wasn’t bothering us.
Later in the evening the little boys uncle arrived to finalize a price and a time for our transport up the hill in the morning. He said he did not feel right about taking us just to Peneloken because there was still more hill beyond so he offered to take us 25km further so we could coast down the other side. Since I felt like crap and did not feel like doing any more hard riding than I had to I agreed that his idea sounded good. I asked how much and was very surprised whe he said “$7.” I asked “each?” and he replied, “total”. His price had taken me by surprise because the other guy had wanted $20 to take us to Penelokan which was only about 5 km away. I agreed to his price and he stayed through the evening talking with Jodi and I about Balinese culture and the family structure. He also explained that the most recent bombing had all but shut down the tourist industry and most of these people have not sold anything in 2 weeks.
The next morning the woman of the house cooked us banana pancakes and the uncle arrived at 8:00am to transport us. We loaded our things into his truck and the little boys mom after some whining agreed that he could go with his uncle and us. The four of us crammed into the cab and made the journey to the top.
Once at the top we loaded our bikes, said our farewells and coasted 40km to Singaraja. On the ride down it was interesting to feel the difference between the temperature on the mountain compared to that at the coast. I also had some problems with clearing my ears as we changed altitude due to my sinus and lung problems.
Once in Singaraja we found a Doctor so I could get some Antibiotics. He was very young and had been the doctor for one of the western hotels but had started his own practice. He gave me some Cipro, eardrops and decongestants. I did not have to fill out any paper work, go to any pharmacies, show my insurance card or anything else that western doctors make us do. I asked, “how much do I owe you?” and he said “$30,000rp ($3.00 USD).” I could not believe it, even the doctors are inexpensive in Indonesia. I then downed some drugs, mounted my bike and continued riding to Lovina Beach.
We found a really nice beach bungalow with a swimming pool and air conditioning for $17.50 a night. We then went further into Lovina to find an internet café to check our email and update the blog.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 10:20 PM
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Saturday, December 03, 2005
Me and this guy get into a little after this picture is taken
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:48 PM
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December 01, 2003
Today we left Ubud for Penelokan, a town on the rim of a volcano that last erupted in 1968. The ride was not long, only about 30km but difficult because it consisted of one hill that went on for 27km and we had a late start causing us to ride in the heat of the day. Leaving Ubud I was amazed at how many art stores there were, with a continuous string going on for about 8km. They sold masks, paintings, mosaics, furniture, wood animals (i.e. cats, frogs, giraffes, snakes and birds), and pottery. As I kept riding I thought, “how can these places all stay in business?” but the further I moved up I realized I was witnessing a factory assembly line. A tree is harvested from a forest high on the mountain, then taken by truck to a mill where it is cut into boards, then carved into a mask, then painted or stained and sold to a store. Each task occurred a little lower on the mountain with the final step being the stores where the items are sold. I thought how could there be so much demand for these things when there are so few tourists visiting Bali. Then I started noticing how poor these people were and how much they need visitors to survive and how all these Balinese treasures would find their way to stores and eventually homes in the western world where they would become an interesting trinket. In the end I became thankful that I had visited Bali, something that I was hesitant to do after the most recent bombings, because I learned how kind and gentle everyone is instead of the few extremists we see on the tele. A friend of mine always says, “if something seems scary it is probably worth doing” and I said this same thing to Jodi as we were flying into Depensar and I suspect when we leave we will think Bali is special.
Further up the mountain we stopped for a couple of Sprites that cost 60 cents and I had a bowl of a local dish called “es” for another 20 cents. It was a soup of coconut milk, mung bean sprouts, rice and a little cabbage and I though it tasted quite good. As I sat in their roadside stand I pulled out a map of the Island and asked them where we were and they became quite excited to show me and teach me a few Balinese words. Of course I forgot them as soon as I mounted my bike, but it was fun nonetheless. Continuing on, the road became steeper but still fun because of all the children calling out to us as we passed “hallo” and at one point we passed a school where we heard so many hallos that all we could do was our best to respond with a smile and “hallo” back to them. Another time a scooter passed and I looked up to see a man and a women seated riding with child standing on the seat in between them calling out “hallo” and waiving. It was really heart warming and brings tears to my eyes thinking about it now. We must not be something that they see very often because they were so fascinated by our riding up the hill. About 1km from the top the road became pretty steep and we were both exhausted from the heat and the climb so we began walking our bikes into Penelokan. Usually when I arrive at the top of a hill I am filled with a sense of relief but the top of this mountain brought anxiety. It seemed Penelokan had fallen on hard times and our arrival brought out everyone who wanted sell us something or take us to accommodation. I learned what famous people must feel like when they are mobbed by their adoring fans. I was losing it fast and fortunately Jodi just kept us moving through the throng until we were clear. We rode down into the volcano crater and found accommodation for $8.00 including breakfast. At first we were a bit put out because we thought they were saying 800,000 rp which is a little over $80USD and we both felt so silly when we finally listened well enough to learn they were actually saying “80,000 rp.” We checked in, and I went outside to sit on the porch for a few minutes and ended up buying a small painting from a very persistent local. He explained all the religious figures and their significance and the $10 seemed like a small price to pay for the information and a reminder of the day. We then went to the Café next door for some lunch and to bed for an afternoon nap that went well into the night and the next day.
Further up the mountain we stopped for a couple of Sprites that cost 60 cents and I had a bowl of a local dish called “es” for another 20 cents. It was a soup of coconut milk, mung bean sprouts, rice and a little cabbage and I though it tasted quite good. As I sat in their roadside stand I pulled out a map of the Island and asked them where we were and they became quite excited to show me and teach me a few Balinese words. Of course I forgot them as soon as I mounted my bike, but it was fun nonetheless. Continuing on, the road became steeper but still fun because of all the children calling out to us as we passed “hallo” and at one point we passed a school where we heard so many hallos that all we could do was our best to respond with a smile and “hallo” back to them. Another time a scooter passed and I looked up to see a man and a women seated riding with child standing on the seat in between them calling out “hallo” and waiving. It was really heart warming and brings tears to my eyes thinking about it now. We must not be something that they see very often because they were so fascinated by our riding up the hill. About 1km from the top the road became pretty steep and we were both exhausted from the heat and the climb so we began walking our bikes into Penelokan. Usually when I arrive at the top of a hill I am filled with a sense of relief but the top of this mountain brought anxiety. It seemed Penelokan had fallen on hard times and our arrival brought out everyone who wanted sell us something or take us to accommodation. I learned what famous people must feel like when they are mobbed by their adoring fans. I was losing it fast and fortunately Jodi just kept us moving through the throng until we were clear. We rode down into the volcano crater and found accommodation for $8.00 including breakfast. At first we were a bit put out because we thought they were saying 800,000 rp which is a little over $80USD and we both felt so silly when we finally listened well enough to learn they were actually saying “80,000 rp.” We checked in, and I went outside to sit on the porch for a few minutes and ended up buying a small painting from a very persistent local. He explained all the religious figures and their significance and the $10 seemed like a small price to pay for the information and a reminder of the day. We then went to the Café next door for some lunch and to bed for an afternoon nap that went well into the night and the next day.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:38 PM
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November 30, 2003
Earlier today we visited the Monkey Forest. The people here believe the place is sacred, it is home to a bunch of monkeys, a rain forest, a temple and a burial ground. To pay for the operating expenses and upkeep they charge $1.00 per person to enter. Like a typical tourist I suggest to Jodi that we visit, so I paid the entry fees along with another dollar for a bunch of bananas to feed to the monkeys. We walked in and did not see any monkeys until they saw the bananas in my hand. I would pull a banana from the bunch and hold it out to the monkey and it would walk up, take the banana and eat the banana. I gave away about 10 or so before I thought I would see what they would do if I held a banana just out of reach, a smaller monkey approached, grabbed hold of the bottom of my shorts and started climbing up me, I instantly panicked and dropped the banana causing the monkey to jump free of me to get the banana. The remaining bananas I handed to the various monkeys well within their reach. I also learned these monkeys not only like bananas but they also like bottled water. Jodi had a small bottle of water that she asked me to carry through the forest, being the good husband I accepted. While on our way out of the park we happened upon a rather aggressive male who wanted her bottle of water. I tried to resist but it became apparent that he was going to get it so I dropped it and stood back. He set it on the ground, unscrewed the top and guzzled the water. I then thought I would try to get the bottle back so I would not be littering on sacred ground. I waited for him to lose interest in the bottle and then tried picking it up. As soon as I touched it he decided he wanted it back and grabbed it and started playing with it. I waited some more time thinking that he would lose interest again and I would kick the bottle to a safe distance from him and the pick it up. He began walking away so I gave the bottle a small kick and he turned, bared his teeth and took some really aggressive steps toward me. I nearly peed my pants standing there looking at this monkey with his bared teeth, thinking he was about to climb up my leg and bite me. I turned to run and after a few quick steps I remembered that a human should never run from an animal but back away maintaining eye contact, He continued showing his teeth and I backed away and left the bottle hoping that sooner or later he would loose interest and allow a park attendant to toss the empty bottle in a rubbish bin. Thank goodness I survived my first monkey encounter.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 8:00 PM
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About Me
- Name: Kirk & Jodi Roberts
- Location: Buena Vista, Colorado, United States
Mechanical and Plumbing consulting firm working in the mountains of Colorado
Links
Previous Posts
- The end of another year
- Good news!
- The best summer yet
- Stepping up in the world
- Gas Tax Holiday
- Kirk's Birthday/Last Day at Monarch
- April 15, 2008
- Boeing and U.S. get used to it!
- GWPP or BSPP
- End of Year Letter
Archives
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