AsiaSportingLife: Forget the beaches

Friday 27 May 2016

Forget the beaches - Do Bali by bike!

Why do you cycle Bali? The attractions are obvious to some, but not necessarily common knowledge. Mountains, Scenery, Great roads, Food and culture... And good value (My daily ridig budget was as low as $40ASD/day). For myself, I decided to get a 'mini' tour under my belt on the famous Indo holiday island to keep my km's up in preparation for the BIG tour of Japan,To get some mountain miles in my legs.The planned route was as follows:

Day 1 - Kuta to Candi Dasar (65km)
Day 2 - Candi Dasar to Lovina (125km)
Day 3 - Lovina region (80km)
Day 4 - Lovina (via Singaraja & Kintimani) to Ubud (110km)
Day 5 - Ubud to Kuta (40km)

As it turned out, this was a perfectly planned ride. I.e, a great mix of coastal flats, killer climbs, extreme descents and beautiful scenery the whole way. The highlight of the ride no doubt being the 35km / 4 hour climb up the north side of Kintimani. Day 4 for has the profile.

Day 1 and 2 included a surprisingly interesting ride through the streets of Denpasar, then out to the east side of the island to the popular tourist town of Candi Dasar. It was a only a 4 hour day to ease my body back into things, and truth be known I wasn't in the best shape to go much further after spending my arrival evening in the bars of Seminyak.

Highlight!!! Famous Fish Paste BBQ, on the road side 25 km before Candi Dasar.