Part Two: Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Bima

1/22

Sarapan: nasi pecel again, love it! Rice with steamed greens, sprouts, spicy peanut sauce. This time with potatoes, a first. Tried to offer money, was denied. Back the way I came, then through the West Bali National Park. Passed many huge resorts and small rice villages. At a warnet I sent couch surf requests (something I ought to have thought about earlier because Bali is different than Java Timor in terms of the excitement to see a foreigner.) Asked at a little hotel, dude wanted 100,000 I’m like – naw can’t do it. Stopped at a fruit stand, ate watermelon and papaya, asked muslim seller about rooms, he said he knew a place for 50,000. Turned out to be 100,000 also. Whatever, this is Bali, nice enough place. (If I convert the prices to USD, it seems petty to be fussing over amazingly cheap prices for American standards, but at this point I’m working with money from a scholarship from the Indonesian government and I’m already used to prices here.)

1/23

Headed to Singaraja – got a late start, took longer than I thought. Nice flat ride. Bali grows grapes!? Kinda sour, seeded. Got some durian, yow! Very nice prices and taste. From 5,000 – 20,000 depending on size. Met an Italian bike tourer. In Singaraja met this couch surfer English major Balinese dude, Vica, and his Korean friend studying tourism in Bali. Nice people. Checked out the Buddhist temple for Chinese new year. Now its year of the dragon. Learned a bit about Balinese culture- courtship, calendar, ritual, feng sui, family. Fun fact: Every girl learns how to make the famous Balinese Hindu offerings in public school. Dropped off my laundry. Learned some card games and tricks.

1/24

Got another late start, cruised North coast, stopped for rambutan and bananas. Met bike touring Alex from Colorado- riding Indonesia tip to tip, Aceh Sumatra to Papua. Rode with him through the Eastern mountains, stopped at a water temple, jumped into fresh water pool. Got Alex to try durian for the first time, and now he likes it. Tried another new fruit, Bali is in the name, tastes like a combo of avocado, pear, sapote. Salak in Bali is wetter and more astringent, I prefer the tarter-but-not-astringent Pondok Salak in Central Java. Manggis (mangosteen) is divine here. Saw hella rambutan trees and trucks. Wanted to make it to Denpasar, got caught up in Alex’s momentum, powered through a 12 hour day to make it to Batu Bulan, a kind of suburb of Denpasar. Got to Ian’s house. He is a fellow darmasiswa recipient and couch surfer from Massachusetts studying Balinese gamelan, a songwriter too!

1/25 “Day Off”

Ian and I went for a ride around the Bukit – hilly land over an isthmus at the south tip of Bali – after stopping by the airport trying to change my flight. Checked out an awesome temple decked out for a ceremony the next day. It looked like America on the way there, but once off the main street, it was still Bali. Overlooking a killah surf spot. Caught a public bus home for cheap. Checked out the Batu Bulan night market. Stayed at Ian’s place one more night.

1/26

Headed to Padangbai to catch a ferry to Lombok. Its not going due to unsafe conditions, check back tomorrow. Got a hotel caught up on trip diary, ate 8 durian today, a new record. Gotta get ‘em while I can. The first was the best. Nice room, going luxury today. Swam in the ocean with goggles got creeped out by wave / shallow reef combo. Wish I had a surf board. Nice lefts, very fast. Gotta check on ferry at 6am. If not to Lombok tomorrow, maybe head back to North coast to try to find Arnie and Holli.

1/27-28 Ferry not Poppin’

So many people and trucks waiting. I went to Ubud for two days. Tourist haven. Stayed at a home stay, met some construction workers from Lombok chatted with them at night.

1/29

Back to Padangbai, scene at the ferry was nuts. Trucks were lining the street leading to Padangbai for about 10km. Went to a beach. Hung out with Made, the owner of the homestay.

1/30

Woke up at 4am to buy ticket, went back to sleep. Left around 9 or 10. Met a dude from Mataram, Lombok, who offered me a place to stay, but once I got to Lombok, I couldn’t understand him on the phone, then I met a fellow from Flores who helped me out with a place to stay at his friend’s house. They’re buddies from the military. Hung out in his little kos with people from Bali, Flores, and Lombok, which was cool because they were speaking Bahasa Indonesia (ordinarily people will speak their mother tongue, not the national language, unless they are talking with people outside of their ethnic group). I was happy to be away from Bali and all the tourists (which is kinda funny cuz I’m totally a tourist, but that’s how I felt). Lombok seemed much more low key.

1/31

Left Mataram, heading South, broke a spoke. Rambutan is expensive here, compared to Bali and Java. They said it was a different type, very sweet and not tart. Wow the new road is nice and flat and wide, uncrowded. Passed the airport, then into Desa Kawo where Bagong lives (met him at the port waiting for the ferry in Padangbai the first time.) Hung with him and friends. I couldn’t fall asleep so at 11:30pm I set out for Kuta Lombok. Biking in the dark was kinda scary and difficult because there were tons of wild dogs chilling on the street and barking at me and its hard to see the potholes or where I’m going. Other than my lamp, there are no artificial lights. Made it there in two hours, went to a locals-only dace club and got silly on the dance floor til they closed then chatted with a surf shop owner and boat operator. It was cool for me to sleep at the club, a big open bamboo structure. Someone came and lit an anti-mosquito incense which was very thoughtful.

2/1

The owner of the club is a dude from Jakarta with an Aussie accent, very good English, and very good vibe. He is married to a Kuta local, who made sarapan (breakfast)- rice and mushroom soup. Jumped into the ocean, no waves here. Headed out, North up high into the hills, busy road. Stayed at expensive place (300,000) because I was exhausted and didn’t feel like looking more and didn’t have any offers and it was raining.

2/2

Made it to the ferry, to Sumbawa. Met a dude living in a village by the ocean who told me to come stay with him. There was a very good busker kid working on the ferry. Entering Sumbawa I felt more wild and adventurous, no other bule around. The terrain is interesting with Dr. Seussical hills. Met an English speaker Haty, talking to me from the back of her brother’s motorbike. Went to her family’s rice field with coconut trees (they also have a fruit tree garden), drank some young coconut. It was getting late so I went to her family’s house for dinner. Met a dude, Haty’s brother’s friend, a Michael Jackson fan, who offered me a place to stay.

2/3

Into Sumbawa Besar. Met a nice warung owner. Got good vibes from the town and people here. Biked on nice smooth road for a bit, then the road was messed up for 10km (like the worst sections of the San Onofre parking lot) – slow going. Caught in the rain, stopped at a house where guys were harvesting gold from land using six mixing machines. Met my new buddy Marcel. Watched water buffalo racing practice in unplanted wet paddy land. Riding behind two harnessed together. Not a fan of animal sports, but they were so excited to show me I went anyway. Went to Marcel’s garden, ate hella corn. Its harvest time for corn. He lives in a house on stilts in a little kampung. His brother gave me a bunch of Sumbawa music, sweet!

2/4 Rained In

Woke up kinda late and it was raining, and kept raining all day. Spent another day with Marcel and family.

2/5

Left feeling kinda sour about getting some money lifted from my wallet by Marcel’s housemate. When you are riding a bike alone you really have much time to think, which can become unproductive and circular if something is bothering you and you don’t watch out. I eventually forgave myself for being stupid leaving my wallet in the house for the day, and gave myself permission to feel angry. Made it to Empang where an English-speaking ex-guide-woman with a German husband, Febby. She took me to her Desa. Heard some cool music which I wish I recorded, a dude on guitar singing Sumbawa and Bima songs.

2/6

Ate young coconut and was off to a late start. Beautiful uninhabited coastal cove after cove. Made it to Bima region. Really hot day. Hung out at a warung owned by Lombok people and stayed the night. Ate lots of nasi pake timon.

2/7

Headed to Dompu, up a big climb with a totally messed up road. The views were awesome thanks to the crazy shape of the island, land behind ocean. Stopped at a bike shop, no patch-kit or spare spokes, but they gave me a lot of water and bought me food. Walked around the relatively bustling downtown of Dompu, met a fellow who works for PLN the electric company. Stayed at a hotel, watched Rocky, which got me pumped up for the next day.

2/8

To Bima- up some more hills in the rain out of the valley and back to the coast of a big bay. Met a friendly guy who rode with me into town, cruising on his motor bike. Got some spokes!! There was a fixed gear specialist store, and the guy gave me eight extra spokes, which I needed because I had used up all my drive-side spares. At a warnet chatted with my old housemate and music friend Mark Deutsch, yes! Moved out of Bima but not too far thanks to rain and night. Stopped at a warung kopi for the night – like a beverage and snack stall with places to sit. The family who owned it slept there too.

2/9

Got a nice early start up up and up out of Bima across the island to the eastern coast. Traditional houses on top of the hill. Beautiful climb and descent. Forest with monkeys and rice paddies in the valleys. Made good time to Sape, to the harbor is a street on a narrow peninsula with houses on stilts over the water. Walked to the bank, met some motor-bike racers, hung with them. Gotta wait for the ferry to Sumba tomorrow night. Met some Sumbanese dudes at my hotel. Met an Indonesian bike-tourer from Solo, he started in Aceh, North Sumatra 400 days ago on a standard sepeda onthel (single gear). For me Bima to Sape was 2.5 hours, for him 10 hours. He encouraged me to stop and get a book signed at pos polisi every so often I guess to prove that I made it the whole way but I didn’t understand why.

2/10

Leaving tonight at 9pm, an eight-hour ferry ride. Biked around Sape, drank kelapa muda (young coconut). Hung with the motor racers until polisi shut down the race trials, and dispersed the crowd. (there were many policemen in Sape because three weeks earlier thousands of people from Sape marched to Bima and burned a government building in protest of a controversial foreign-owned goldmine that the government approved, which the people violently opposed). Waiting for the ferry met dudes from Komodo and one guy from Sumba – a furniture store owner. Almost was too late for ferry, confused about the time. On ferry met one other bule – an Italian named Markus. He was going to Sumba to check out Pasola – a yearly festival involving riding horses and throwing sticks at people from neighboring villages to promote a good crops for that year. Maybe I’ll check that out! Got little sleep on the overnight ride.