Saturday, February 21, 2009

Cycling Trip to Ubud




I like Ubud and visit it a lot especially during my off day. Visiting Ubud too many times makes me wonder what else can we do beside just walking around. So my freelance guide friend, invite me to go with him for a cycling trip to Ubud and he promised that he will bring us to see the other side of Ubud..

Yeah well, I visited almost all five star hotels in Ubud and knew that they do have the stunning view to the valley, hills or to the river. So what else could be the other side of Ubud?

We started in the morning by rent the bike first. There were 4 of us including the my guide friend. The bike rental normally is Rp. 50.000 per day but we bargain alot and we got Rp. 20.000 per bike for that day. I am so proud of my friend who can bargain that much.

I choose a small yellow bike with a basket in the front to put all my things: water, jackets, camera and one of my friend put his raincoat on my basket (he said just in case it’s rain so he doesn’t want to get wet).

We started from Ubud art market and went along the busy road which is not too busy because it’s still early. A group of elementary school children with Balinese costume walked along the road with us. They went across the street to the temple near the river. We followed them, not to the temple but down to the river. The road is a bit slippery and children running along the narrow lane makes it difficult to control the bike.

After passing all those children we have to take our bike climb up through the step. I already complained for the step because my bike is quite heavy. But as we reach to the top, I was stunned with the spectacular view. We were on the hill where we can see all the hotels along the main road in Ubud. Apparently this hill is the view from that hotels.

This hills was covered with the high grass and some trees. The pathways were already built crossing the hills. My friend said that this is Sobek’s trekking path. So I hope Sobek don’t mind that we were using their path. My friend said it’s ok. It does not belong to them.

We met some expat walked with their dogs and also some others passed by with their bike, just like us. Other than that is just silence and the sound of the wind touching the grass, the sound of the nature…

We cycle very slow in that path until we reach the end of the hills. There were some workers building a new villa. We stopped for a while imagining that the villa will have a stunning view to the hills.

We passed the village and the ricefield. Some farmers were sitting down and have a rest after planting lots of rice. It seems life are simple here, but I don’t know maybe for us who enjoy the view, yes it is seems simple. Maybe for the farmers it is not simple at all. They have to work hard planting rice and took care of the rice, harvest it later and sell it cheap. What if there was a storm that destroys the rice or what if some bugs eat most of their rice. They will have nothing to eat and their family will struggle with the need.. But I am sure the farmer live a happy life and the harvest will bring them lots of rice to sell..

Enough about rice, when we reach the end of the village, we took a shortcut back again to the centre of Ubud. None of us want to take the offer to continue the trip to taro village which is quite far as we are already exhausted.

We met some other people, who use bike for their daily life. Some kids wento to school with their bike. We met a “Bakso” (meatball) seller who had their cart on the back of the bike, I am sure it’s heavy but the seller never give up promoting his “Bakso” with the unique sound of his bell. The smell of the meatball broth rise in the air made me feel hungry.

As we reach Ubud central again, rain suddenly fell. We stopped at the nearest circle K convenience store and bought some drinks and snacks while waiting for the rain to stop.
It’s fun watching all the people passing by through the rain. Some tourist use a colorfull umbrella, some don’t care about the rain and let themselves wet. Some motorbike driver use the raincoat to pick up their kids from school and few people took shelter at the hall.

Rain quickly stopped, so we continue our trip to return the bike. We use motorbike from denpasar to Ubud so we keep our motorbike parked in front of the shops near the bike rental. After returning the bike, my friend got panick as he couldn’t find his motorbike key. The shopkeeper, a young boy came and gave him his motorbike key and explained that he found the key hanging on his motorbike so he took it to save it. After thanking him for his kindness, my guide friend said “ That’s the difference between Ubud and Kuta, here people are still honest. If you hang your key in your motorbike in Kuta and left it, surely your motorbike will be quickly gone”

I thought maybe it’s true…
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