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Crossing over from Java we seem to have finally left the rains behind. Two years ago while on the Arabian Peninsula I was in email contact with Ivan, an Australian biker working in Oman at that time. He and his wife have since moved to Sanur and they invited us to their home. For that reason we ride straight across Bali and around Denpasar to a warm welcome.
Unfortunately, Su has an accident riding Ivan's 125 and not wearing any protection (other than a helmet). A young girl cycling in front of her suddenly turns across her path. Luckily, the girl lands on top of Su and is unhurt, but Su has a nice abrasion on her leg that takes a long time to heal. Whlie trying to fix the electrical problem I had for a long time I discover that I had mis-diagnosed it. Now I have a spare regulator (thanks to Ivan). Instead I need a new battery again, the third on this trip. There is a Yuasa distributor in Denpasar and to my great surprise they pull out the correct battery for my bike. No more push-starting.
Our Indonesian visas are running out, so we take a short trip to Kuala Lumpur, where we obtain new 2-month visas without any problems. In KL we stay at Wheelers Guest House, but we get more here than we bargained for: bed bugs! For some reason they like me more than Su. I have bites all over my body. When we tell staff in the morning they are unconcerned: we supposedly brought them in in the first place! They change the sheets, but not the mattress. We have to take a trip to the hospital. There is lots of good Indian food in the area around where we stay, but apart from that we aren't really interested in this big modern city, so I'm afraid there are no pictures for you. We bid farewell to our generous hosts Ivan and Anna and set off to explore at least a small part of Bali.
We head NE out of Denpasar, along the coast at first, but then turning inland. This area is rural, almost untouched by tourism. The roads are small, but good. The landscape is dominated by Gunung Agung, an active volcano.
In Amed Beach we have some difficulty deciding where to stay, there are many choices and not expensive. This is where we stay:
There is a surprise waiting for me. As I go swimming off the beach I find myself immediately in a wonderful reef, full of coral and colourful fish. No scuba gear required. Too bad Su can't enter the water because of her accident. Further South the coast becomes quite steep and the narrow road is like a roller coaster.
Once out of the hills we ride to Padangbai, where our bikes get crammed onto a ferry for the 5-hour trip to Lombok.
We find ourselves in the SW of Lombok at the lovely Palm Beach Garden Resort, run by a German and his Indonesian wife.
We would like to stay here for a few days, but it's booked out the next day.
So, the next morning we are off to the South coast. There may be a road along the coast. It's not far to the coast.
But there is only a small village with friendly inhabitants and a big beach with wild surf.
The road, however, ends here, so we turn around and backtrack, past the ferry port. We cross through Mataram, the 'capital' of Lombok, an experience I rather like to forget... There are lots of resorts along the NW coast and like in Amed the difficulty is choosing which one to stay at.
The sun sets beside Gunung Agung, Bali. We stay here near Senggigi for a few days. Su first finds quite a cheap place, set back from the beach, but as I go to check it out the loudspeakers from nearby blare at me: "Allaaaaaahhh-hu Akbar!" I quickly retreat, not wanting to be woken up every morning at 4:30. There are many resorts around here, but strangely deserted. Some are closed. The economic downturn and the bombs in Bali must have hit the tourist industry in Lombok hard. Eventually we settle into Pondok Damai. This is our little hut by the beach:
We make a little round trip to the North of the island via the interior, returning along the coast.
We continue our trip around Lombok in clockwise direction. Just a little past the Northern end we turn inland again, on a very small road that climbs up to a plateau on the Eastern side of Gunung Rinjani. Reading the Wikipedia article we just missed a major eruption. There is an impressive photo in the article.
On the East coast we have trouble finding a place to stay. The recommended place has closed down and we don't like the looks and price of the homestay the locals point us to.
One last look back over the peaceful harbour and then we join the organised chaos to get onto the ferry. We notice that the standard of the ferries declines as you go East. It's not exactly a rust bucket, but... The rear ramp never gets used, there are no marks on the paint, presumably because the captain can't be bothered reversing the boat into the dock. Instead, all vehicles have to reverse on board. (except bikes, of course.) The loading takes a long time. Happily, the trip only takes 90 mins.
