The driver came to fetch us from Amadea resort at 7.25am and off we go for the cycling trip. Along the way, another 4 more people were picked up (2 from Sanur and 2 from Ubud). There are 6 people in all who participated in this trip.
Our first stop is actually a coffee plantation.
We have the famous Lemur coffee. The Lemur sleeps during the day as seen below. There are several coffee beans on the ground. It is said the Lemur coffee are the most premium coffee beans as it has been processed organically by the Lemur before human processing.
The guide is explaining to us on the different types of coffee.
And how we process them.
We were given a few coffee to sample. There is Ginseng coffee, chocolate coffee, normal coffee and so on.
And we ordered the Lemur coffee which cost 30,000 rupiah per cup.
There is a shop nearby which we can get many of the herbs and coffee powder. (Comparatively, we find the items in the shop to be more expensive than what you can get from Kuta or Ubud). Anyway, there is no obligation to get anything from the shop. It just happen to be there for us to get any snacks before heading back to the van.
It is breakfast time and we arrived at a highland area.
It has traditional Balinese design.
It has a very good highland feel to the place.
From our vintage point, we can see an active volcano, the mount G Batur. We heard that it erupted the last century. The volcanic rocks is the black portion just in front of the mountain.
And here we are getting ready for breakfast. (at 11am)
After breakfast, we traveled to the cycling start point. I choose the Polygon bicycle as I am more familiar with this brand.
The guide explaining to us on the use of the gears. The journey consist of 90% downhill and 10% uphill, so it's going to be easy.
We always have the van following us behind, so we can always break and stop anytime.
And off we go past the beautiful villages of Bali. I greatly enjoyed the journey a lot.
The villagers carry goods at the top of their head.
Well-cultivated rice fields. We have the guide explaining to us their tradition. Everyone will join in the planting and harvesting.
We had a temporary stop and the guide explain to us about Balinese culture. Bali main religion is Hinduism and it is based on the Indian caste system. There are also names being assigned to people from different caste and their order in the family. For example, 'Made' is normally used for the second daughter in the family and so on.
The locals are very friendly and always wave and say hi to us.
We were also given bananas to recharge our energy.
At one of the stop, we saw someone climbing up a coconut tree and throwing down coconut. No tools were used to climb up. We heard this is one of the traditional skill in Bali.
Certain parts of the road are quite bumpy, but for the most part, they are normal well-paved roads.
We are almost at the finishing point.
We cross over a dam. This dam supplies water to many of the cultivated fields.
It is lunch time and while walking towards the owner's villa, we came upon rice put out under the sun for drying.
Here is where we will dine. The plates are all beautifully laid out in front for us.
The guide explaining to us about Balinese food. My favorite is actually Gado Gado which is steamed vegetables. The vegetables are very fresh.
Here is our group photo. We have friends from Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and Australia.
My lunch. All the servings are great. (Anyway our lunch is at 3pm)
And plenty of fruits to go around. The one in orange is passion fruit and the other one is snakeskin fruit. These two fruits are quite unique and rarely found in Singapore.
This activity with Bali Happy Bike Tour is strongly recommended by me. It's a great opportunity to visit the off the beaten track and experience traditional Balinese cuisine with great guides.
Next is Bali Villa
BALI VILLA
BALI VILLA
