Scooter = freedom

Random thought: Indonesia is like China 20 or 30 years ago. I say this because the cities here feel like the city I grew up in, and the village feel like the villages I used to visit as a kid in China. I am really enjoying this familiar experience. It's kinda feels like going back in time.

I met up with Adil and Corentin, the two Belgian guys I recruited to our room back at Mt. Ijen, and Kate, a German girl from their hostel, for dinner, drinks, and live music on my second night in Ubud. We had great fun watching local pretty boys pick up older white tourist women to salsa dance. Actually the better show was definitely watching the husbands sulk with their beers back at their tables. Lol. They made salsa look so fun - I want to take lessons one day! Perhaps with my husband...

I talked about how I wanted to rent a scooter to explore nearby sights on my own (hiring transportation is so expensive here). One problem though - I had never ridden a scooter bike before. So Adil and Corentin gave me a step-by-step "scooter for dummies" guide:

Perfect.
Shinggo had given me a mini lesson a month ago back in Puerto Rico, so that, along with this guide, was all I needed to get on the road the next day. And what an adventure I had!

I picked some interesting sights to visit, and planned a loop route which took me through all of them.

I have never felt this kind of freedom before - like Adil said, it was like I could fly. I could go anywhere I wanted, fast. I was small enough to weave around in between cars, and fast enough for Google maps estimations to be accurate. I could feel the wind in my face, smell the burning incense as I passed by temples, and I could stop WHENEVER I wanted to take pictures (which is a lot, I might have a picture problem)! Hungry while weaving through the mountains? Stop for a bowl of bakso!

Plus. I've been through enough crazy Indonesian traffic as a passenger to understand the rules. Or the complete lack thereof.

(Eating bakso on the floor. My kinda country)

I'm never doing this any other way. Scooters always.

Stop 1: Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave)

There were actually no elephants - the cave entrance was supposed to resemble one, but...I say no. This was built 1000 years ago, and is still being excavated and studied today by archaeologists. Also, it's supposed to be a pretty holy place.

Stop 2: Gunung Kawi (temple in the mountains amongst rice fields, much less touristy)

I loved this - these carved stone huts facing lush rice terraces must have been some ancient meditation chambers! I took a yoga in one of them. Also, I found a back path and followed it for some exploring - I found a nice and secluded stream, and also ended up in a secluded rice terrace! I love exploring random trails.
The actual temple was pretty cool too - 11 large carved rock temples, apparently for the 11 ancient royalties. Such am ideal and zen place for temples and meditation! Tropical forest, streams, waterfalls, rice terraces, bridges, with rock chambers and temples amongst all of it. Pretty great, and I love that there were barely any other tourists there.

Stop 3: Tegallalang village (tourist central for rice terraces)

The rice terrace was impressive, but I was automatically turned off by the sheer number of tourists and therefore motor vehicles. even on my small motorbike, I was stuck in this stretch of traffic for 10 minutes. I feel like it was very similar to all the other rice fields I've seen on my way over, through small village streets!

Also, I think I'm in general less fascinated by rice fields, because having grown up taking trains in China, I've seen my fair share of them (going back to my comment about how Indonesia is similar to China 20 years ago).

When I got back to the hostel, Julia, the German girl I had met back in Yogya, had arrived. She and I, along with two others, went back out to see more rice fields. I took her on my back this time! She said I was a good driver and she felt safe, but to be honest I didn't like being responsible for someone else's life. It was a stressful drive!

That night Adil, Corentin, and I met for dinner again. We planned to meet the next morning at 5:30am for a Mt.Batur volcano hiking adventure on our scooters!  So much for not waking up early to hike volcanoes anymore...