Banyan Bike Tour and more Yoga!

Up early yesterday to be picked up at 7.30 am for my Banyan Tree Bike Tour.  There are lots of bike tours available in Bali and so it's a bit hard to pick which would be the best one, so I did a bit of reading around and ended up choosing this one as it was rated highly on Trip Adviser and also because there looked to be a lot of cycling through more remote parts - e.g. rice fields etc.  The tour cost 450000 rupiah (£27) and included both breakfast and lunch as well as bike hire, water during the ride, snacks during the ride, guides and transfers.  I was impressed that within less than half a day of enquiring about the trip, the owner had emailed me back with the details and confirming my booking.

I was picked up from my hotel by a guy called Nomad, we then picked up 2 Austrian ladies (who say in Bali they are from Europe so as to not be confused with the many Australian tourists!) called Regina and Petina.  They were friendly and we chatted until stopping at the bridge where in Eat Pray Love Julia Roberts is knocked off her bike by her male love interest!  I didn't take the opportunity to take a photo as I didn't really think it necessary - it was a nice enough bridge though.  We joined up with 4 chatty and very nice Americans from Colorado - 2 couples Marsha and Ali and Kim and Bill.  We drove a little further and stopped at a restaurant for our breakfast which had a fantastic view over the rice fields.  

I had coffee, a fresh pineapple juice and a vegetable omelette for breakfast to set me up for a day of cycling.  It was all very tasty.  I sat with the Americans who were very friendly, Marsha and     Ali had previously lived in Jakarta for 20 years as Ali who is originally from Iran worked for the World bank previously.  Kim and Bill who is a dentist had previously lived in Saudi Arabia for many years too and so they were very comfortable with travel and temperature!  Ali was hilarious, very dead pan comical and with an accent not dissimilar to Joe Mantegna.  We got back in the mini bus and were dropped off to pick up our bikes.  Here I am looking very cool in a helmet with my bike (note the long sleeved shirt...)

I deliberately didn't opt for the "extreme biking tour" as whilst I'm ok on a bike, I didn't fancy my chances in Balinese heat and I was pleased with the pace of the tour - some of the group were in their 60s and so occasionally we had to wait for them, but it was in general a comfortable pace.  

We headed off onto a path through some rice fields which looked lovely, but it became fairly challenging as there were small drops off either side of a very narrow (a little wider than the bike tyres) path.  I had to really concentrate so that I didn't fall off my bike.  Unfortunately I think that I was possibly the only one person in the group who didn't fall off - no-one injured themselves bar a couple of scrapes and bruises, but everyone enjoyed it and was in good spirits.  The most spectacular fall happened right in front of me.  Regina was peddling past a completely naked Balinese guy in one of the rice fields who was using the irrigation system for the rice to have a bath (initially standing up until he saw us and sat in the water).  I don't know whether it was the distraction of the naked man, the very narrow path or both, but she wobbled over and fell into the stream in front of the naked guy getting covered in mud in the process!  I don't know who was more shocked - her or the man!

We cycled into a traditional Balinese compound house with a lady sat feeding her 8 month old grandchild by chewing up rice and feeding it to him.  You can also see our guide and also Regina with a muddy t-shirt in this photo.

We continued along and cycled up a really big hill (well I say cycled, I got so far and then just rolled to a stop, so I got up and pushed my bike the rest of the way.  We were rewarded at the top with a lovely slice of watermelon - Ali liked it so much that he bought one and put it in the mini bus to carry that had been following us around.  By this point he'd fallen off the bike a total of 5 times!

We cycled through a load more rice fields (fortunately this time with slightly wider and more solid paths) and then over a dam before stopping for a banana snack and then carrying our bikes up a steep slope before getting back in the mini bus to take us to the Bike Tour owner's house for a traditional Balinese lunch.

Just before we got in the minibus again to head off for lunch - Gdang our guide, found a nice spider to show us.  "Is it poisonous " I asked before taking a photo "I don't know" he said and then put it on his face and took it with us on the ride to lunch.

(I've just googled "big spider Bali" to see if it is poisonous or not and the 6th image that comes up is also from Banyan Bike Tours!)   Apparently it is "somewhat" poisonous!

We then had a lovely lunch at Bagi's house (owner of Banyan Tree Bike Tours) which was some of the best satay and curried fish that I've ever tasted along with noodles, rice and vegetables.  The best bit was the dessert - some lovely rice pancakes wrapped in banana leaf and a stripey rice cake.

We said goodbye to the Americans (who I'm pleased to say have already registered their postal votes for Obama in advance of the election as they are still going to be in Bali on the 6th) and then we went back via a coffee plantation.

At the coffee plantation we saw lots of interesting plants - Cinnamon, cocoa, pineapples, vanilla as well as both Arabica and Balinese coffee.  We also saw a couple of Mongoose (Mongeese??) who are used to make a very expensive version of coffee - Kopi Luwak or Civet Coffee.  They basically eat the coffee beans, they pass through their digestive system and the beans are roasted and prepared to make a very expensive coffee.

The Austrian ladies had mentioned that they were interested in going to a Yoga class so I suggested that they try out The Yoga Barn as at 6 pm they were doing their Community Yoga class which is free.  I got back to the room despaired at my sun burn - (even Factor 50 can't survive loads of sweat!) and had a nap before wandering down to the Yoga Barn again.

This class was probably a lot more similar to the Yoga that I do back at home.  At home I take a class at my gym in Ashtanga yoga and this was the theme of the class that was taught by a lovely guy called Mark.  At the start of the class he had a brief discussion around yoga and then he gave us some insect repellent.  The class was very warm and lots of poses and vinyasa flow.  At the end he made us do the "Happy Baby" pose - lying on your back with your legs in the air holding your feet - some people laughed and he very positively said that it was a good thing and that "You should never regret something that made you laugh" - A pretty good philosophy I think.  I really enjoyed the class, even though I was very hot and sweaty by the end of it  I think that the Austrians enjoyed it too - highly recommend the Yoga Barn!

I headed back to my room for a well earned shower and change and then went over to Bar Luna to see what was going on and to grab some dinner.   I had a very tasty Kerouac Chicken Sandwich - grilled chicken, very tasty bread with avocado, beetroot and lettuce with mayo spread on the bread and some pesto sauce to go with it.  I also took advantage of BOGOF Mojitos which were also very tasty.