Tres Goes Riding

I awoke to the birds singing. It was a good sleep. Did my wake up sun salutations and went to breakfast. Mariella was awake and was  to join me before the pickup. It started to rain while we were eating. It rained during yoga yesterday and fairly quickly stopped. 

The entrance roadway into the property is quite pretty as I waited for my pick up.

They were running a little behind and it gave the rain a chance to stop. Anna the Indonesian wife of the owner Ivan of Sanur Cycle Tours scooped me up and away to where we get bicycles and it would also be the start and stop of the ride.  Both of them could not have been nicer.

I was with 3 British ex-pats and a young Russian woman. Everyone was also very nice and it felt that I was a little more a local. We were led by Dwi,  the main guide. She was incredible. She does not own a car or scooter and only rides a bicycle everywhere. When you see my road pictures that is the woman I am following. Thank god. None of us could not have done the ride if had not been for her. She looked for us a million times today.

Riding in crowded places was wild. We all did what Dwi did.

We got out of town a little and the riding got a little better.

We went a bit more and before we knew it we were going through the rice fields. It was like this off road single track made of dirt, mud, broken concrete and grass. It could be quite technical. I am just going to lay a few pics out.

It was magical immersed in the land and people. Frangipani, smoke and air thick with water. The people saying hi as we rode by. A bicycle is the only way to see this.

We got to rest stop and had a sweet snack wrapped in banana leaves.

I was given a bunch and gave some to the local kids.

The shrines were interesting along with the icons and signs.

We had been climbing and continued to climb as we headed for Ubud.

We got into Ubud and went down this amazing canopy street.

This street was next to the Ubud monkey forest and we rode a trail next to it.

We went to the Capuan ridge for a look. Strenuous.

After this we went to lunch on the other side of Ubud. It was really healthy.

We went to the entrance of the waterfall and it was a zoo so we went back to the rice fields. This was not the waterfall.

We rode to a lock on a river next to a temple.

How about this guy.

The road could be like this.

We were having to come back into town at a much busier time. So it could be like this.

We did 70 km of up and then down. Indonesia is HOT. But what a day. I could have not had been happier about riding with Sanur Cycle Tours.

I got back to the hotel and the children practice folk dancing here. It was dear.

A shower, a nap and another great meal at Three Monkeys Cafe. Easier day tomorrow for a tired Namaste Tres. Peace.