Penebel, Bali, Indonesia

With our final goodbyes said to Made we headed off North West from Ubud. We wanted to check the huge rice terraces at Jatiluwih, a place we haven't visited before in Bali.

As with everywhere in Bali, the map said it would take about an hour to get there, instead it took twice that. But hey, who's going to complain when that 2 hour trip is along picturesque back roads, taking in views of rice fields, small villages and mountainous backdrops?

We had a place already sorted to stay at. A small Homestay in a tiny village somewhere West of Penebel. The village itself was that small, just the one road really, that it would have been easy to miss our Homestay. The Homestay itself, doubles as the village shop, restaurant and petrol station. Luckily among all this we spotted a small sign saying Buana Asti Homestay, and what a lovely little place it was.

Asti, the lady whose homestay it is was lovely and friendly. Her young daughter was lovely as well, so polite and friendly with very good English that she is learning at school. Then there was the dog and cat, both friendly and adorable as well. 

The Homestay was very basic, just what we were looking for. Friendly, cheap and cheerful. On a night various people from the village would call in to grab some food. In places like this it's sometimes cheaper for one person to cook all the meals for most of the people. One person can buy the ingredients for many meals a lot more cheaply than everyone trying to buy their ingredients separately. It makes much more sense to do it this way. Much the same as it is in Thailand. it's cheaper to eat out than buy everything you need yourself to make a meal.

It was a lovely couple of nights spent there. Making small talk with the locals who came by. A young local lad giving us few tunes on his guitar, just a really nice basic setting and slice of village life.

With two nights at the homestay we had one full day to go and explore the nearby rice terraces at Jatiluwih. The rice terraces at Tegallalang near Ubud are beautiful, almost cute. They aren't huge but the way they are laid out is as if someone like Disney created the most iconic terraces they could imagine. Jatiluwih is on a completely different scale altogether. If Disney created Tegallalang then somebody like J.J. Abrams created Jatiluwih on a huge budget. These terraces are vast, on an epic scale. 

As with most things like this in Bali, we had to pay an "entrance" fee. It was 40,000 IDR each, about £2.30. We don't really mind too much for this kind of thing. At the end of the day there are thousands of tourists every year hiking around some farmers fields. If I was that farmer and that many people wanted to roam around in my fields I would want a little compensation as well. It's understandable.

The rice fields here stretch for miles into the distance. There are several routes that you can walk round of varying length and with a full day to explore we checked them all out. The good thing about these fields being on such a grand scale is that despite their being many cars and buses of tourists parked up you only ever pass somebody else once in a while due to the sheer scale of the place. It doesn't feel crowded at all and it's nice to just amble your way along down little dirt tracks, watching the locals go about their business cultivating the rice and taking in the spectacular lush green vistas.

We spent about 3 hours just slowly making our way round all the different routes available. Occasionally disappearing off the track into the fields themselves just to get different views and to sit enjoying the peace and tranquility of it all. It was a really nice way to spend a few hours and is definitely worth the effort to come here for the views you are rewarded with.

To the North of Jatiluwih in the distance you can see the mountains where the popular Ulun Danu Beratan Temple sits. It's "that" temple that you see in a lot of photos, the one that is out in the water on a lake. With us making an early start to the rice fields and it only being early afternoon we decided to take a spin up into the mountains to grab some lunch.

We have seen the temple here before and it's usually very busy with tour buses and visitors so we rode on past it and grabbed some lunch over-looking lake Danau Buyan before heading back down to the homestay for our last night.

The next morning it was time to push on. We have finally decided on where we are headed in Indonesia now. I know, after 2 full weeks in Bali! We were torn between heading West and catching the ferry over to Lombok and the other islands East of Bali or West and taking the ferry over to go and explore Java.

After speaking with a lot of locals and other travelers we have decided on the Java option first and then after Java we may head East and check the islands out if we have enough time. I think Java will give us a bigger adventure for sure. 

Speaking of adventure it's so nice to be back to doing what we do best....pure adventure off the beaten track. In our past trips and even this one so far the best and most memorable parts of traveling for us have been when we have had our own transport, giving us the freedom to truly explore new places. Owning a motor bike and riding through Vietnam was an amazing experience, exploring Canada in "Buddy" the van was a fantastic adventure and now we have the chance to go and get lost in exotic Java with just our small day bags and a scooter. It doesn't get better than this for us, it's what we love to do and we are very excited to see where it takes us.

With everything decided we left the Homestay and headed North back over the same mountains we visited the day before. From the mountians we dropped down steeply towards the North coast of Bali. 

Now I'd like to think I'm relatively safe and sensible when it comes to riding bikes around Asia. I've had plenty of experience of it ride as safely as I can on what are some of the worlds most dangerous roads. As we descended towards the coast there were some seriously steep inclines. I kept feathering the brakes as much as I could but there were certain sections when you simply couldn't do that. You had to have both brakes constantly held to control your speed. As we leveled out and hit a fairly modest descent I checked the brakes and the front one had totally gone. It had over-heated and there was nothing there, no stopping power whatsoever. Thankfully I had checked it on a fairly level section as if this had happened one of the steep sections we would have been doomed to God knows what fate, I dread to think. 

So thinking about it logically I turned the bike around and headed back up the hill to see if we could find a mechanic to check things out and make sure we would be ok to continue. Not too far back up the hill we stopped at a shop to ask where the nearest "Bengkel" (Mechanic) was.

The lad at the shop popped over and checked and said it had simply overheated and to let it cool down for a while. It was a bit concerning as we hadn't descended very far before this had happened and I've never had this kind of problem before descending steeply but hey, you live with it.

Now you already know what we both think of the Balinese people and their amazingly friendly and warm outlook on life. Saras the young lad whose shop it was invited us in for coffee while we waited for the brakes to cool down. Then he grabbed us some free snacks from his shop while we sat chatting. Then he invited us to go and take a look and spend some time in his amazing garden at the back of his house that he has created. What is it with these people? It's truly unbelievable to experience such amazing warmth towards utter strangers. The people of Bali constantly remind us how great life is and make us feel incredibly welcome on their island.

After a very pleasant hour spent with Saras we continued down the hill towards Lovina on the coast. Scarily the brakes failed 2 more times on the way down. Luckily each time was when I was checking them on a level section of tarmac. 

As we eventually hit the level ground of the North coastal road we swung into the first mechanics we could find and got the brake shoes replaced. They may well have just overheated but it seemed to be happening a little too often for my liking. For the sake of a fiver I figured it was best rule anything out. Things are going to get a lot steeper once we hit the massive volcanoes of Java and I don't want to take any chances.

With time getting on we spent the night in Lovina. I'm not too fussed when it comes to Lovina really but it did the job for a one night stay.  

From Lovina we headed West the next day, towards the ferry and the short trip to Java. This has finally brought me bang up to date with the blog. Probably for the first time so far on this trip.

We have decided to stay at a beautiful and cheap guest house in the quiet village of Pemuteran for a couple of relaxing nights before pushing on to Java. Mango Moon guest house is very nice and chic. Almost luxurious for the small amount of money it costs and it's a nice rest up before cracking on.

Next stop is Java, I can't wait to see what adventure that brings us!