The Year Can Only Get Better

The family orientated New Years eve celebration I attended with the locals provided one great benefit, I was not suffering from a hangover on New Years day. I was up and about at a reasonable hour texting and emailing best wishes and happy new years to family, but it was not to be the best start to a new year.

I received a text that my mother was receiving palliative care and would pass away in the coming days. I made an instant decision to fly back to Australia, packed my bike and rode South to Legian for a flight to Australia.

In Australia my mother passed away peacefully and together with family I attended her funeral.

As I travel, you travel with me in my thoughts, rest in peace Mum, love always.

After ten (10) days in Australia I caught a flight back to Bali to continue my motorcycle adventure.

Finding the motivation to get on my motorcycle and move on was a little difficult, I was not feeling keen at all. Luckily Michael, the Mini driver whom I'd travelled with from Flores to Bali, had not returned to Australia for the Christmas and New Year period as planned, he had stayed in Bali. Michael's girlfriend Jona, Michael's mate Russell, along with Russell's mate Stefan had arrived from the Philippine's, Melbourne and Jakarta respectively for a little rest and relaxation. (My thanks go to Michael, with contacts in Bali he was able to quickly arranged safe storage of my motorcycle in Legian while I returned to Australia).

Having Michael, Jona, Russell and Stefan in Legian provided the distraction I needed to spark up again. We ate, drank and partied a little to hard at times thanks to Russell and Stefan, though we all still found time for a great day white water rafting near Ubud. Russell, Stefan and I also had a mad day's mountain bike ride from near Kintamani to Ubud, followed up by the celebration of Michael and Jona's engagement.

Holiday mode had to end though and with the departure of new friend's it was now time to further investigate an opportunity to undertake a major travel route change to my adventure. Luke, a fellow Australian living in Singapore had contacted me through Horizons Unlimited with a plan that sounded too good to pass up. So, I boarded a plane to Singapore for a long weekend with Luke and Yvonne, site seeing, eating great food, including an Australia Day BBQ and discussing route change destinations, visa's and the like, for a mid 2014 adventure (more on that adventure destination if and when I get there).

After a longer than anticipated stay in Bali it was time to move on to my next Indonesian destination, the island of Java.

Steam and Fireworks

The morning ride North from Ubud was pretty easy, small towns and rice fields dominated the scenery, that was until the tree lined corridor of road I was riding exited onto the rim of an extinct volcano providing a spectacular valley view of Danau Batur (Lake Batur) and Gunung Batur (Mount Batur) along with the town I would spend the next two days, Toya Bungkah.

 

I settled into a hotel on the edge of the lake, booked and paid for my early morning activity for the following day, then had a free afternoon to have a look around the Toya Bungkah and Kedisan area which sits within an ancient crater below Gunung Batur.

 

 

I was informed there was a road that would take me around the volcano so I set off for an afternoon ride. The narrow tarred road is used by hundreds of small trucks daily to transport black sand unearth from the crater base to cities and towns throughout Bali, it was slow going on my bike, dodging the trucks plying the route while not wanting to end up an accident statistic. While stopped for a photo opportunity on the roads edge I was approached by a young guy wanting to show off his 150 cc Kawasaki dirt bike that he was preparing for a ride the following day, he lived a short distance away, so I followed him to his home and met his younger brother, older sister and viewed his prize collection of roosters he breeds for cock fighting.  

 

 

Continuing on, the ring road exited the crater base and provided me with another spectacular perspective of the crater valley as I circumnavigated the volcano rim making my way back to my hotel.

 

The following morning my phone alarm woke me at 3.30 am for a 4.10 am  guided walk to the summit of Gunung Batur for sunrise. The two hour walk was pretty easy and the sunrise view was well worth the early start. The guide served my walking party an egg and banana breakfast cooked on a pocket of volcanic steam venting from the volcano's summit edge. We then set off to walk another two hours back down the volcano.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a lazy afternoon recovering from my walk I ate a delicious meal for dinner consisting of local lake fish coated in honey, fried to a crisp, seasoned with onion sambal and accompanied by steamed rice.

 

The following morning I rode out of the volcanic crater and set a course for my next destination, Kalibukbuk, Lovina Beach on the North coast of Bali where I saw in the New Year.

 

 

 

Kalibukbuk was a great choice for New Years celebrations. The area is well set up for tourists yet during my visit tourists on the ground were few and far between, so I enjoyed New Year celebrations with the locals.

 

A covered stage was assembled at the beach front about sixty metres from my hotel, so the walk to and from New Years activities was an easy one. Entertainment kicked off late afternoon New Years eve with a local band, then traditional musicians provided several hours of music while beautifully dressed dancers provided a light hearted, provocative take on traditional dance by enticing men from the crowd to participate in up close and personal dance moves, the crowd was in stitches with laughter at times.

Several other local bands provided entertainment till just after midnight, about the same time many adults with children and I chose to make a quick exit. About 12.15 am, fireworks, which had been going off all day reach danger point. The most popular fireworks used throughout the day was an 800 millimetre long 25 mm diameter tube firing eight showering coloured displays about forty metres into the air. The tube had a written warning not to hold the fireworks by hand, but most people ignored the warning and when held firmly by hand posed no problem as each of the eight shots recoiled the hand securely holding the tube like a shot gun blast. It was after midnight perhaps after too many drinks, when the tube was not held firmly enough that mayhem set in. Fireworks were being dropped and shot misguidedly into the crowd, my thoughts turned to my inability to complete my motorcycle trip without two healthy eyes, so along with the responsible parents and I set off for my hotel.

 

Being on foot provided an easy escape for me, but the scooter riders whom had arrived early evening and parked close to the action were now parked in and with maybe three children also on board the scooter the situation provided additional entertainment as I stood out of fireworks shot range enthralled, while adults tried to manoeuvre their scooters around, load the children on board and ride out, it was a full on scooter jam.