Hi All
I just wanted to thank everyone for their posts as it helped me plan my latest trip to Bali, I have just finished a Bike Tour today and although I am tired I wanted to post something about it.
2 years ago I did another tour and loved it, expect the bikes were old and I ended up really sore, actually thought I hurt my tail bone on the bike as it had no suspension and the roads were terrible.
But today I rode on the best bikes and had soooooo much fun I had to share it as these guys are quite new and they are a husband and wife, she's from Australia so we got on famously and he's from Holland, but they don't do this full time they actually spend most of their time helping out the villages with education on the dangers of burning plastic, rubbish (they even have put rubbish bins in a village that they empty themselves on a weekly basis). She teaches the kids English and they have many other projects in the pipeline. They actually live in a village and are the only Westerners in the whole area.
Their cycling trip is around the Lake Batur and you also get to go through the small lanes (gangs) of the village and they are welcomed by all the children that know and love them. They'll tell you all about the architecture and the family temples and can answer any questions. Theyeven said if the didn't know the answer "they'd phone a friend" - their friends are ALL Balinese!
We got picked up this morning and instead of the old white mini buses that I find so uncomfortable they picked us up in a luxury vehicle and took us a way I have never been before - it was along the coast and through the rice paddies which I got some beautiful photos before we even got there.
We got a choice of breakfast when we got there and they gave us a small 600ml water bottle and then said that we could refill it in there office and asked if we could please use the same bottle all day as they do not want to encourage plastic waster, they even reminded us to fill it up again before we left, no charge.
After breakfast we went out on inflatable canoes, this was SOOO much fun, a little scary at the but once we got the hang of it it was great, I got a little wet though, but probably cause we hadn't done this before.
Then we had an Indonesian lunch, it was filling but not much to write about.
Then we headed off on the Bikes and those bikes are amazing, I didn't feel scared on the bumps and the road we went on had NO trucks, NO cars, a few motorbikes (about 2 came along) and it was difficult on a few hills but I felt a sense of achievement. When we got half way, all these children were walking to their village and all came runniing up and hugging both of them, he nearly fell off his bike! Later the couple explained to us that they walk every morning and afternoon to school (it's about 4 Kms!!!!) I couldn't believe it. They told us how they have had so many flat tyres on their motorbike as when they don.t have tourists they do trips back and forth taking the kids to their village or to school and that's why the kids were hugging them.
This is a couple that you have to meet, they are dedicating 10 years to this area to help it out and they seem so happy taking people on their tours to share what they are doing, I just feel good inside that I went. You can see how much money they actually spend on the kids and stuff out of their own pocket and their tour is so cheap for what you get so they really must just dig deep into their own pockets. I paid $40 and there was only 4 of us on the tour so I cant see how they really make much money.
Go and have a look at their website www.c-bali.com. I highly recommend doing one of their tours - just so you can meet them!
Thanks for reading, I'm going to have my shower now, I just had to share!