Bali Sugar

Ahhhh. Cool at last. The sea breeze is blowing softly against my face, it feels so so good.

This is seriously the sweetest place to be right now.

I’m sitting in a little warung (a shacky type of eating place) in Padangbai, on the Southeast coast of Bali, looking out over the ocean. In the far distance I can see the island of Lombok.

It’s really beautiful, take a look:

Actually, it's getting better by the minute

It was hot riding here today, because

(a) it’s hot

(b) no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to ever get up early enough to ride in the cooler part of the day.

There seems to be an unknown force that wills me to only leave at whatever the checkout time of my guesthouse is, which is generally 11am or 12 noon in these parts. No matter what I do, I never seem to leave earlier.

I don’t really mind though, cos I absolutely love sleeping in, plus, the thing about riding in the middle of the day is that there’s way less cars motorbikes trucks on the roads at that time. People stop for lunch. I start at lunch.

Today I rode here from Ubud, the art and cultural capital of Bali, which is only about 40km away. It was mostly downhill, but with some very notable impossible exceptions.

I use an app called maps.me, it’s really good, it works offline, and gives me a cycle route option between places. The thing is, it doesn’t seem to have any filters on how steep that route can be. Today some of the roads it suggested I ride through were so steep that not only couldn’t I even dream of cycling up them, but I almost couldn’t even push my overheavy overloaded bike packhorse up them. It was really tough in parts, especially in this heat.

But then, of course, what goes up must come down. After those ridiculous climbs I then got to cruise down these amazing roads without pedalling one single revolution, not even with a suggestion of a revolution. That’s the good bit. It’s easy, the wind rushes through me and cools me off, and life is so so sweet. Until the next hill anyway.

But I gotta say it was so good today. I stopped for icy drinks and lunch at a cool little Muslim warung in Semarapura, and played with some kids inside. They were the cutest ever.

Shy at first.

Then I couldn’t stop them.

And the food was great. Coconut water, fresh mango juice (sort of a purée) and then the most yummy nasi goring with tempeh and tofu, all for the ridiculous price of Rp 25,000 (AUD 2.50). I always give a tip at those prices.

It’s so interesting riding these roads. There’s so much to see, and it’s so easy to stop and have a look. The app takes me through really tiny villages, even through farm tracks sometimes.

Today it did get a bit ridiculous though, I ended up going down these tiny tracks through little farms, coconut plantations, etc, and ended up here:

I had to ride on that little sandy track for awhile (not easy), then eventually had to actually cross the river, which you can’t really see in the pic. I needed to put my foot in the creek to get across, and guess what? It was hot! It almost burnt my foot. There ya go, a secret hot spring, I seriously didn’t expect that.

But there were some really cool things to see today.

And this is the view from my guest house here in Padangbai

Can It Possibly Get Any Better?

My last few weeks on the north coast of NSW were so amazing, I’m still smiling inside. Before heading off on my second big Oz trip in July, I met Milena, at a party/jam at Frankie’s, we had the most instantaneous deep connection ever, which has just got stronger and stronger really quickly, and more and more beautiful.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way about someone, after some torturously difficult relationships in the past. I needed a crazy long recovery time from all of that. But it’s done now. Milena’s helped me to come full circle, at last.

Music flows constantly in Milena’s Brazilian blood, she’s a ceramicist and fashion designer, outstandingly beautiful, she’s warm, loving, independent & free, gorgeously affectionate, and is a beautiful mother to her 8 year old son Marvin.

Sorta sounds like I like her a little bit, don’t you reckon?

It’s way more than like, I can tell you. I love her!

Milena, in particularly glamorous attire, given we’d just been swimming in a waterhole

The Joy Division

With the remains of her last victim. I’m really careful not to wear green.

Prince Fanta

With some of her amazing creations at an exhibition opening at Elevator Ari

Brissy Hotel shenanigans. This was the morning I left for Bali. The wine bottle was full of water, as we were already totally drunk on no sleep.

So despite all those amazing distractions I still managed to have some beautiful gatherings to say goodbye to precious friends and family on the north coast.

I managed to give away almost everything I’ve ever owned - besides a few instruments, to be babysat by friends, and a plastic tub full of kids videos and old band cds and stuff that I hadn’t got around to digitalising. I sold my car. All I own is now inside my bike panniers, and I have a beautiful classical guitar with me too. Who knows how long that’ll last, out here in the weather. It’s such a great feeling to have very few things.

Manu actually left the Shire before me, she’s gone to live in Europe, and flew out a week and a half before I did, and Carmen, her mum, left a few days later, on her way to Tasmania, and then Europe.

We had brekky to say goodbye to Lali in Brissy, I’m not sure when I’ll see her again, but am trying to convince her to come to Sotheast Asia sometime soon. Then we went to GOMA and the QAG. It’s always amazing.

Shamani’s super busy with Lachy, getting ready to open their new swish Japanese restaurant in Brunswick Heads, Trouble San. It looks amazing. If you’re on the north coast, check it out, they're planning to open to the general public on Dec 28th. The website's just being developed:

troublesan.com

Instagram: Trouble_san (no posts yet).

We had an amazing farewell party at Frankie’s salon in Mullum. Our band played, loads of people came from all over, Frankie gave a beautiful half-speech,  I gave a whole one, Robbie anecdoted, and we all danced and danced and danced.

Then we had a smaller gathering at Frankie’s a couple of nights before I left Oz. It was beautiful, and of course the goodbyes were sad.

I can’t describe to you how grateful I am for my amazing friends and family on the north coast.

We’ve been through so much together, we’ve had our kids together, been through all the trials and tribulations of bringing them up, we’ve had marriages, divorces, separations, sicknesses, all sorts of trauma, including, of course, death. Together.

We’ve all had each other to help us get through those crazy difficult times. And we’ve had the most amazing fun times too, gatherings, jams, camping trips, hikes, holidays, it’s been epic. With my family in Adelaide too.

Friends and family like that don’t grow on trees. They are trees. Most of us met when we were just saplings, we’ve grown together, and now many of us have even borne our own fruits, which are beautifully ripening. The north coast has become our own beautiful rich deep forest.

I can’t thank you guys enough for what you’ve done for me over the years.

Ubud

Even though this town is in the heavily populated south of Bali, it’s far enough away from the crazy over touristed Kuta, and from the eternal busyness of Denpasar, to give it its own unique softer rural character. It’s also up the mountain a little, it’s a little cooler.

I spent a few nights there, because I love it. I know the place, I’ve stayed there lots over the years, it’s a great spot to just chill, eat good food, and especially to lap up some amazing Balinese culture.

Yeah it’s changed a lot over the years. A lot of Westerners live there now, many of them digital nomads. Tourism is big, there’s squillions of ritzy shops, restaurants and bars. But Ubud still retains something special, because it’s at the centre of Balinese art, music and dance.

I slept a lot while I was there. What a luxury. I needed to catch up. I’d had approximately between none and very little sleep in my last few weeks in Oz, it was fun, but crazy. In fact tbh I’m still catching up.

I went to see the amazing traditional dancing and music, every time I go to Ubud I go and see it, it’s special every time. This time I saw the legong dance. The music, costumes and movement were amazing.

The music is called gamelan, it’s beautiful, these are the dudes

I stayed a couple of clicks out of town, which is totally easy when you have a bike. I booked a simple guest house, but when I arrived they were full, despite my booking, so they sent me off to their other guest house, which was way nicer and super luxurious. I stayed for four nights.

It had a pool

Which looked out over this

Big comfy room. It looked this neat for approximately five seconds.

There’s so much to see just going to, or coming from, town.

The big full moon

The highlight of Ubud, for me, is the art. I went to the Neka Art Museum, and to Puri Lukasan, both have magnificent colllections of Balinese paintings, sculptures, and keris (ceremonial dagger-type mini-swords).

Neka Art Gallery

I remember being blown away by this gallery when I first visited Ubud in the early 90s. Back then Ubud was mainly untouristed, there were no, or very few, restaurants for foreigners, just little warungs and little food trolley stalls around the place.

The first time I really saw traditional and modern Balinese painting  was at Neka. And I couldn’t get enough of it.

Nothing’s changed. Neka is still incredible, the number of amazing works is huge, both painting and sculpture.

The grounds are exquisite, set out like many Balinese museums or large temples - huge gardens and trees interspersed with beautiful sculpted buildings and pavilions, ponds, fountains, water plants.

The keris (or kris), used for ceremonial purposes

Enlightened Ganesha

Leonine. Beautiful but dangerous. Regal yet untameable.

Puri Lukasan

This is another major art museum closer to the centre of Ubud. It’s just as amazing as Neka.

Saraswati, goddess of knowledge and music

One of the pavilions at Puri Lukasan has a display of gamelan instruments, the traditional Indonesian instruments that are used to accompany traditional dance performances and ceremonies, or used for musical performances in their own right.

The sound is mesmerising, incredible metal and bamboo xylophone-style instruments hit with metal or wooden hammers in a very stylistic way, metal and skin drums, and bamboo flutes. There’s loads of polyrhythms floating around, sometimes the timing is impossible for me to work out, the pieces seem to have no beginning and no end, and the tempo often varies within a piece. It’s beautiful, and so unique.

As I left the pavilion I heard the sound of a bamboo xylophone, a rindik, being played outside, in a shady sala. I went over and listened, and then chatted to Kadek, who was playing it. It’s a beautiful soft instrument, played with rubber hammers. It has a beautiful tone, tuned to a major pentatonic scale, and, again, the rhythms are unique. I had a go, and loved it.

It turns out that Kadek is also an artist, he makes traditional reed paintings. He scratches out delicate pictures on thin bamboo reeds with a pointy ended knife-pen, then colours the grooves with burnt nuts, wipes it clean, and, voila, there’s an amazing art work. It’s an ancient tradition, he’s keeping it alive by teaching it to kids in his village near Candidasa, on the east coast.

I’ve met a bunch of travellers on my journeying in Bali, most of them aren’t travelling around so much, but stay here for longer periods, they’re digital nomads, with online businesses. Places like Ubud are a magnet for people like that - it’s cheap, internet speeds are good, and they can enjoy all the pleasures of a comfortable Western life, at crazy Indonesian prices.

Good food, cheap beer, big screens to watch the World Cup, massages, and lots of live music. It’s all there, and a lot of Westerners are lapping it up. Late one night I watched Croatia beat Brazil in the quarter final, with a German guy, Stefan. Sad.

The Ubud scene.

There’s beautiful forests around too

This reggae band were really good.

Art and Spirituality

Bali has an incredible art tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and is still flourishing. You just have to walk around for 2 minutes to see how important it is. Incredible architecture, stone sculptures, pavilions, temples, shrines, beautiful offerings of flowers and fruit, woven sculptures, they’re just everywhere.

Instagram Mecca

The incredible thing about Balinese spirituality, which encompasses Hindu traditions and local indigenous nativist belief systems, is that it’s still totally flourishing, despite massive tourism and development, which has infiltrated and changed so many places here.

I’ve seen other countries’ traditions die away quickly with huge influences like that, but in Bali that doesn’t appear to have happened to anywhere near the same extent. Everyone’s still involved in spiritual practices here, from young kids to oldies, they all have their roles.

And somehow what that’s created is a deeply spiritual people who appear to have an underlying nature of peacefulness and contentment. Of course you can’t generalise, but pretty much everyone you meet is respectful, warm, and appears pretty happy. It’s a way of being, and it’s really appealing.

Tuban

I arrived in Bali on a Tuesday afternoon, with way way too much luggage. The thing is, I really don’t know how long I’ll be travelling, and exactly where I’ll be going, so I’ve packed for all occasions. I’ve got a tent, a tarp, camping gear, a bit of cold weather gear for the mountains, I’ve got electronics, books, and a guitar, no less. Plus I’ve got a bike of course, and all the bags, panniers and tools to go with it.

It’s annoying, because I actually really love travelling light, and in this part of the world it’s so easy to travel light. But I won’t be here forever, and I don’t wanna store gear, because I don’t wanna have to come back.

Of course when I arrived at the airport there were no trolleys.

Welcome to Indonesia.

I had to drag, push, slide and coax this ridiculous amount of heavy luggage for hundreds of metres through the airport. It fell over a few times, after which I received many sympathetic looks from the locals. I sweated an ocean, the aircon in the airport was nonexistent.

Of course Customs wanted to check everything. But actually we got chatting about my cycling adventure, and they ended up not even opening one box.

I got a car to my hotel, but, oops, I’d booked it for the wrong night, and they were full. I’m nowhere near as organised as I used to be. The next hotel was also full. Eventually I found a spot, thanks to the helpful driver. I stayed in Tuban, a little south of Kuta, for a couple of nights, just to get myself sorted out.

I went to Kuta, it’s still as messy as it always was. Lots of drunk Aussies, who jump up on stages and think they can sing into microphones, whereas in fact they sound more like screeching cockatoos (the women) or bellowing wombats (the men). It’s pretty excruciating to listen to, let alone to watch, as they stumble and dribble over each other, while the local musicians take it in their stride and keep asking them back up.

Check out the Chicken Gordon Blue. Btw tauge is the Indonesian word for mung bean sprouts.

One afternoon I rode to Canggu, through Kerobokan, it’s so busy now, and ritzy. All the beautiful people are in Canggu these days, with their surfboards, designer clothes, or walking down the street in baggy board shorts or very very skimpy bikinis. Cultural appropriateness seems to be pretty nonexistent these days. Maybe the goalposts have shifted, I’m not sure.

Kerobokan Prison has had some pretty famous inmates, like Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, who were all jailed for drug offences. Shapelle’s now free, 2 of the Bali Nine were executed, one died of cancer in prison, one was freed, and the other 5 are still in prison. Harsh.

Full moon rising

Busy Canggu at sunset

So finally I got my shit together, loaded up my bike and rode up to Ubud. It was uphill, hot, and tough. I rode through the crazy traffic in Denpasar, it was pretty chaotic, but somehow, having ridden motorbikes enough in places like this, I sorta know how the traffic works.

Basically, you need to watch out for anyone in front of you. They can do what they like, cut you off, pull out in front of you etc. Same goes for sideways. Watch out. But you really don’t need to worry about the people behind you. Cars and trucks will beep before they pass you, they expect you to stop suddenly or do unpredictable things. And I have a mirror too, just in case.

The local drivers and riders here are pretty polite, and predictable, in terms of their own rules, like riding completely on the wrong side of the road (motorcyclists), and braking suddenly in front of you. It doesn’t surprise me anymore. The locals seem to know that Westerners can do other unpredictable things too though, and so they steer a little clear of me. Mostly.

Unfortunately it's true, Westerners here have done unpredictable things around me, pulled out from behind, or passed me way too close. It’s actually the tourists I worry about on the roads here, not the locals. The tourists even occasionally have the gall to tell me off, just for riding like the locals do (ie. taking little notice of what's behind me). Maybe I need to be a little more careful in tourist hotspots.

Loading up for the first time in Indo. Way too much stuff.

Finally out of the craziness of Kuta

Lunch stop near Singapadu Tengah

Nusa Penida

So now I’m sitting in another little warung on Nusa Penida, a fairly large island off the SE coast of Bali. It’s lunchtime, but, surprise surprise, it’s only 1pm. I had to get up earlier than normal this morning, to catch a ferry. I can actually get up early if I have to.

As it turns out the ferry was a couple of hours late to depart, so I needn’t have bothered. It was the slow boat, from Padangbai to Sampalan, but actually the ferry wasn’t particularly slow, it was the loading and unloading of it that was slow.

It was so crazily disorganised, well it looked that way to me anyway, it took forever, partially because a truck broke down in there. But eventually all the trucks and motorbikes and one lone bicycle were squeezed into the bottom deck, and off we went.

Wasting time, in the waiting line

There were only 2 other Westerners on the boat, a young Russian couple, otherwise it was just locals.

Way nicer than Kit Kats

Bali in the distance. Mt Agung, the volcano, rising through the clouds.

But, silly me, I didn’t do my research as well as I should have. As usual. I’m so lazy about those sort of things these days. The ferry actually docked about 8km east of where I expected it to. I just assumed it would dock where the fast boats come in. But no.

Anyway, needless to say, 8km on a bike on a beautiful flat coastal road is a treat, not a burden.

And when I made it to my guest house, I couldn’t believe it.

My bungalow is the one on the right. I’m in the pool of course, which is beautiful, despite being lukewarm.

The view from my balcony.

They place beautiful offerings in this little shrine by my balcony every night.

This guy gets to it during the day

The craziest thing is, my bungalow here comes with a price tag of just over AUD20 per night. It's nuts.

Crystal Bay

Well, I’ve been in Bali for more than a week, and this is the first time I’ve actually felt cool whilst being outside. I’m right on the beach, the wind’s blowing strongly, I keep grabbing the big old wooden beach umbrella I’m sitting under, so it doesn’t fly away and decapitate me, or some other unsuspecting person.

I’m at Crystal Bay, a beautiful beach which is an impossibly steep ride up from the small town near my guest house, then across the northwestern ridge of this island of Nusa Penida, and then even more steeply down again.

There’s a lot of Indonesian tourists here, and quite a few Indians too. On the way here a couple of convoys of tourist cars passed me (not so easy on these one lane roads), and they arrived at the beach pretty much at the same time as me. A bunch of hefty Indians piled out, went down the beach for literally ten minutes, then all piled back in their cars and headed off again. It’s surreal.

A lot of day trippers come here from Bali. They book a day tour, zip over on a fast boat from Sanur, and get zipped around to all the nice spots on this island before taking a speedboat back.

It’s pretty much the antithesis of my current travel style. I really don’t feel like moving fast at all. I just ride my bike, I stop wherever I want, I have long lunches, long breaks, and I get there when I get there.

Of course, I’m lucky enough to have the absolute luxury of being time rich.

When I do get somewhere I generally feel like staying for awhile, to check it out. I don’t wanna ride a heavy loaded bike every day, unless I need to get somewhere.  I love to have loads of time to write, play guitar, read, hang out, and explore a place. On an unloaded bike. So I tend to just find a place to stay, hang there for a few days, and then move on.

Steep, quiet, skinny roads

One car width

Hanuman guardian

Before

After

During

No swimmers required

A ban on single use plastic (plastic, begs, straws, styrofoam food containers, etc) will be reintroduced in Bali from Jan 1, 2023. The ban was temporarily suspended for hygiene reasons during Covid. Great that it’s being reintroduced, because so much plastic ends up in the waterways, and then the ocean.

Some popular tourist beaches like Kuta have plastic bags and other rubbish floating around in the water. Yuk. The new ban doesn’t apply to plastic bottles, however, which are widely used by tourists, especially for drinking water. Some hotels and guest houses provide drinking water for guests these days, but it’s nowhere near widespread enough.

Pura Goa Giri Putri (Giri Putri Cave Temple)

Today I rode to this amazing cave temple, about a 15km ride from my guest house, along the beautiful northern and eastern coasts of this island. As usual, there was loads to see on the way.

The steep narrow track out of my guesthouse

Convoy of tourists in their pods

It rained on and off

Bird market in Sampalan

Seaweed farm. The farmers actually plant the seaweed within fenced areas, dry it and then sell it. It’s used as a food and cosmetic additive, and sometimes as a raw material for bio-based packaging.

Lombok in the distance

The sacred volcano Gunung Agung, in Bali. It’s the one that erupted in late 2017,  causing widespread damage, mass evacuations and disruptions to air traffic. It didn’t really settle down for the next two years. I’ll be getting all close and personal with Agung as I head up the east coast of Bali soon.

Umbrellas on gravestones, to keep the hot sun off the dead. That’s actually true.

The cave temple itself was really amazing. There were a lot of worshippers in there, singing and doing rituals, making offerings. It’s an important temple for the Balinese, and many locals make the trip over from Bali to go through a purification ceremony there.

I also had my own purification ceremony in there, it was seriously like a sauna, every single piece of my clothing was saturated by the time I got out.

At the entrance you climb through a really narrow hole in the rock, so small that I needed to take my day pack off my back to get through. There’s another couple of small openings, and then it totally opens out. It’s really incredible, it's the largest cave on Nusa Penida.

There’s a spring in the cave and the water is regarded as sacred. Here, three priests are splashing the sacred water on devotees. I got a splash too, it felt good.

Diamond and Atuh Beaches, and Thousand Island Point

So I decided to bite the bullet today, and ride across this very steep hilly island to some amazing beaches, a round trip of 60km from my guest house. Don’t ask me what drives me to do such physically questionable things, because I don’t really know.

I could easily have just hired a moped and cantered all the way there and back without raising a sweat. Instead I dripped a swimming pool’s worth through my clothes, and into my eyes and mouth, my heart just about popped out of its socket half the time, and my legs were on fire as I took on the hills.

But it was actually loads of fun. The local 12 year old teen boys (and older) on their motorbikes kept giving me fist pumps as they passed me, while I was going uphill. Many locals and Indonesian tourists looked at me with puzzled expressions. But I smiled, even when I was grimacing, and they smiled back immediately.

The people are so incredibly friendly here, so warm and helpful, extremely polite and easily humoured. I love it. Pity my Indonesian’s not as great as it used to be, but it’s getting there. Every day learning more. Setiap hari.

So the trip was beautiful, along the northern and eastern coasts, and then right up over the southeastern interior of the island, and back down again to the clifftops.

They don’t seem to have any regulations on hill gradients in this part of the world, sometimes the roads are so steep it’s super scary going down, and super ridiculous trying to get up. But I did it.

And it was totally worth it. The beaches and the views are amazing, although, major bummer, swimming was not allowed due to dangerous currents. I had to swim elsewhere. Poor me.

Alternate swimming spot. A family must've left their thongs.

Another seaweed farm

It was super steep going down

Another Insta spot. Sad but true.

Good spot to park

Until I looked up. Dangerous.

Quiet in the middle of the day

Stunning views

Fast and cool going down

Up The Coast

So today I'm heading back to Bali on the ferry, and tomorrow will start my cycle up the east coast, and then head west along the north coast, towards Java, the world's most populous island (with a cool 150 million). I don't really have a time frame, I have a 30 day visa that's extendable once, then I need to leave the country.

I've been here for 2 weeks already, I really feel like I've settled in, which includes the Balification of my belly and bowels, which are rumbly and, how can I put this, no longer as they once were in the solid West. It's a pretty familiar feeling.

I'm well rested, my body feels stronger (besides my digestive system), my guitar playing and book reading is coming along nicely, and yeah I've also been spending a lot of time online with Milena, as is my heart's want. Better than nothing I guess.

But oceans away from the real thing.

Cycling is such a beautiful way to see this place, it already feels familiar. I'm looking forward to telling you all about my next superhuman adventures, or, should I say, my next ordinaryhuman adventures, and especially if I made it over the side of Gunung Agung without anything erupting❤️