Mr. Putu Bonconk has a keen interest in bicycling and owns a mountain bike. He is in very good physical condition and is a non smoker. Besides his native tongue Balinese, spoken in Bali, he speaks Indonesian and pretty good English. Putu was born 1977. He is married and has two children. I have made two tours with him. The first one went to his parent's home in Mayong. On the second tour we visited a family I learned to know several years ago up in Banyuseri and also a friend who is headmaster at the school in Pedawa. Both these two towns are rather high up in the mountains. Below you will find pictures from these two mountain tours but also pictures from two easy made tours I did alone. I can truly recommend Putu as a nice and reliable guide. Thanks to him I learned to take new roads not on the map to not mention the shortcut we took through the forest to his parent's house. Putu brings some basic tools with him if something needs to be adjusted on a cycle. Putu can be found at the Dolphin place in Kalibukbuk. His wife has a shop second next to a small restaurant on the right side when looking down on the Dolphin monument towards the sea. His phone number is 085 237 953 821 and he can also receive SMS. If you don't have your own bicycle, Putu can help you to rent a good one.
A good map for planning bicycle tours is BALI PATHFINDER. But no maps for Bali are to rely on to one hundred percent. If you are not used to go on mountain bikes with two hand brakes, a warning is in place due to narrow roads and crowded traffic. If your bicycle at home has a foot brake it is easy to forget that you don't have any foot break in a panic situation. Mountain roads are generally safer due to less traffic but narrow hair pin curves and no barriers towards high steeps should make you to not go with too high speed. Good brakes are very essential. The author of this page is from Sweden and was 73 years old when going on the described tours in January 2007. So if you still are young don't hesitate to explore Bali on bicycle.
The path to the right is marked as a road for cars on all maps! This path goes from Banjar to Rangdu. At this point we turned to left taking a shortcut to Mayong. Mayong is situated about 300 meters above sea level.
Coming to a somewhat primitive bridge but robust enough for us. It is situated deep down in a valley and the paths down and up are very steep. I recommend to have good shoes that not can be dropped. If it has been raining for a long time (several days or very heavy rain) it is not to recommend to make this tour as it will be too slippery.
The parents of Putu and his 9 year old son. The son lives with Putu's parents because Putu's home in Kalibukbuk is very small. In his home he lives with his wife and a younger daughter. Putu still has a room in his parent's house. The house is surrounded by a nice garden with many flowers in pots. The house is situated near rice paddies and some of them are owned by his parents. His mother and son are dressed up to soon participate in a celebration.
Near his parent's home neighbors were passing to participate in a ceremony to prepare for a wedding.
High up in the mountains on the road up to Pedawa we could look down on the towns Banyuatis and Kayuputih. These towns are situated about 900 meters above sea level.
To the right is the school headmaster Mr. Wayan Sukadana in Pedawa. He has also a shop where this picture is taken. This time I stayed longer than usual and he showed his school, which was in very good condition. There are no eating places in Pedawa but finally we could get gado-gado at a small shop serving jelly drinks.
On the road home below Tigawasa we had wonderful views down to the coast.
From Air Sanih east of Singaraja. It is a natural well with cold water but still nice to bathe in. To Air Sanih the road is flat without hills but there is heavy traffic on the road near Singaraja and sometimes there is heavy air pollution due to all diesel engines in buses and trucks.
A ship at the harbor of Celukan Bawang, which is a harbor for exporting cement to and importing coconut trees from Kalimantan (Borneo). But most of the ships are much larger and newer. Often you are invited to go onboard the ships. Celukan Bawang is situated west of Seririt (west of Lovina area) and the road has no high hills and is not too crowded with traffic.
When returning from a cycle tour it was very nice to jump into this pool at my bungalow.
Text and photo: Olof Nirs.