Ubud, Bali

Explore the wonders of Ubud, Bali on a bike!

Near the rice fields in Ubud, Bali

It’s been over 10 years since I have been to Bali. In that time I have changed jobs many times over, aged and gained some weight. On all THREE adventures to Bali I have biked in Ubud. Although I enjoyed the fresh air and sights along the way, I did not enjoy the experience as I once had. The bike that I rented was NOT in the best condition which made it hard for me to really settle into the saddle.

I currently live in Jakarta and ride a bike that I brought from the states. Now that I have lived in Indonesia for the past six months I know that I could have bought a bike here that I could equally enjoy (#nextyeargoals). With that information, I figured that I could find a bike in Bali, no problem, that I could also enjoy riding. PROBLEM, I was wrong FOR NOW. I will look for another bike when I come back in a couple of months.

The great thing about this ride was that my guide knew about the rice fields. The one pictured had recently been harvested and was the reason it was flooded. The rice is planted by hand, one seed at a time and then grows in bunches. It takes about 4 months for it to mature and be ready for harvesting. It is harvested by a machine. The planting got me though; I can’t believe that it has to be done by hand!!!

This bike handled like an old Walmart bike which needed a tune-up. It was disappointing, but I was happy that I was able to get a workout in before all of the TECHNICAL difficulties. I had to walk my bike up the first hill because the bike was in the wrong gear. My guide tried to play me and said, “Miss are you okay?” I told him of the gear issue. Then the pedals were making my feet fall asleep. I wear HOKA shoes and they were too big for the pedals which were the steel claw grip pedals. I ended up trading bikes with my guide (He’s a nice guys) whose bike had bigger plastic pedals. I then had to raise the seat and couldn’t get the clip to close at the correct angle and it was scraping my leg. Also, something was the matter with his pedal crank because it kept clicking when I pedalled. And, lastly the bike tires were not pumped up properly so it made the ride EVEN HARDER!!! Ahhhh!!!!

I had to TAP OUT on the adventure and ask to turn around because I just wasn’t enjoying the ride. But!!!! I did enjoy the ride back. I literally pedalled about 5 times and set off speeding back! No wonder it was so hard going; we were pedalling UPHILL! It was such a slight steady incline that I didn’t notice. Barrelling down the streets and passing the people and motorbikes was sooooo fun! All you could hear was me periodically saying, “WEEEEEEE!” All the way home!