I am shattered after two full days of sightseeing. I'd decided before we headed out that I wanted to try WWR and a bike tour. After a bit of digging on the forum I booked Telega Waja rafting with Sobek and the Bali Baik tour.
The rafting was great fun, it was pouring with rain as we left, but had stopped by the time we got up into the hills. We shared our van with a Sydney couple on their honeymoon, who were good company. Sobek were very well organised and although I was just a tad nervous - as the river is really running fast at the drop in point - but they go through safety issues and then after organising you into groups with your guide, you get into the raft on land and the guide works out where he wants you to sit and then goes through what to expect and what commands he will issue etc.
So we drop in, with me and T in the front of the boat. Now the scenery is fantastic, but you are spending most of your time paying attention to the stretch of river just in front of you, trying to follow commands and keep yourself in the boat. (very nearly ended up in the drink at least once) Then we come up on a boat load of Japanese in front of us, so we of course just have to overtake. Now this isn't a particularly wide river, so our guide 'overtakes' by hurtling us into a rapid backwards, so that we bounce of the Japanese boat, then it's 'forward hard', forward hard' as we shoot in front just scraping to the side of a huge boulder. Fortunately the Japanese although I'm sure they were a little affronted, thought this was great fun. So for the next 5 hours (seemed like that for my arms) we are paddling furiously to keep in front of the Japanese, especially as they are chanting war cry's/paddling time to get themselves organised.
I think they overtook us at some stage and we got back in front, we also had a similar challenge going on with the Russian boat, I just know that I was exhausted by the exertion. In the moments that I insisted on a break though, it was absolutely stunning as we went through gorges, past farmers, ducked under trees and bamboo bridges. Great fun, I'd highly recommend it.
That night, after a few drinks in our room, we went to Gado Gado for dinner, mostly because it was right next to the hotel and it was pouring with rain again. We'd heard that this was a good restaurant and as we walked in could tell that it was not going to be cheap. We didn't care though, too tired, and we had a good meal. The gnocchi looked divine, my pork fillet salad with beetroot and feta was v tasty. All up it cost us $60 for the two of us, but that was with no alcohol. The outside area at this restaurant looked very nice, right on the beach and would be great for sunsets, shame about the rain.
Next morning I have to be up at 6, to get breakfast by 6:30 and pick up for the Bali Baik tour at 7. Boy did it rain last night, a fair storm I would reckon and it is still pouring. We get picked up on time and 2 ½ hours later are at Kintamani. Now 3 blokes on the back seat of a small van for 2 ½ hours just does not work I'm afraid. We should have done this trip when we were in Ubud, but we had time and other constraints, so what can you do. The tour was great, although the breakfast was not a highlight, that's for sure. This weird guy with an even weirder sense of humour starts talking to us and is freaking us out (at one stage he asked J to go to the toilet with him! Mmmm) and I can't tell if he is with our tour company or not, it turned out not, fortunately and as we left he tried to sell us some indescribable souvenirs. Indescribable because he only got them out as we were getting into the van. He needs to work on his sales pitch a bit. Weird anyway. We then drive off to the coffee plantation, which was really good, especially enjoyed trying the freshly roasted (still warm) coffee beans.
We had an older fit looking couple from Wales with us. Grandparents I'd assume and they really enjoyed it too. While we were trying out the freshly brewed coffee overlooking the valley, the Welsh lady asks us if Australia is still full of chauvinists, as it has that reputation. Now how do you answer that? I thought I'd keep my mouth shut as I'm only half Aussie anyway. T was very diplomatic and J says 'my wife does everything for me, she loves it and I'm very lucky'. The Welsh lady tut tut's and then asks J if his wife works. J responds 'yes, and she loves working too.' The Welsh lady gave up at this stage, but J did reassure her that he had been married for 15 years, so they must be doing ok. This will have to go down as the strangest conversation of the day.
It's now 11:30 and there is no sign of a bike yet. This is a bike tour right? We move on down the road to get the bikes, they are ok, not brand new or anything, but they worked. Mine did have a huge bulge in the rear tyre that I didn't notice at first but was starting to hurt towards the end. Cycling downhill through the countryside and the villages was great. The stops to talk about the temples were not my thing, but just seeing unadulterated Balinese life was great, although we did stop to look at the rice fields and our guide explained all about the rice production process which was very interesting. I won't go into detail about the Welsh chap's question as to whether the Balinese use human dung as fertiliser, but suffice to say that I was at this stage very glad not to be half Welsh and I won't be eating leeks ever again. (they don't use human dung as fertiliser in Bali by the way and the guide was quite offended at the question I think) There were a couple of hills towards the end, 5 I think, which hurt a tad, but were no big deal. The kids from the villages seemed to find it great fun to say hello and give us high 5's. I hadn't taken anything with us to give them, after the comments I'd read on the forum and I don't think you need to give them anything, they seem very happy and content with what they have. The odd one was cheeky asking for money and I assume that this will get more prevalent if tourists do give handouts and this would really spoil it for them and us.
Finally got to have lunch at Wayan's house, which was without exaggeration the best Balinese food I've had. J who has been to Bali 15 times before just couldn't get enough, real home cooked Balinese food, awesome. Wayan was a nice guy and easy and reliable to deal with. If you want to see the real Bali this would have to be the best. Wayan is seemingly also trying to put some of the tour profits into sponsoring some of the local village schools, so that for me would be another reason to choose a tour like this one.
Anyway I'm knackered now, it's been a great two days seeing Bali, but I'll be happy to just see my feet, my book and my Bintang's for a little while. I just hope the rain stops long enough for me to get a tan too.