Riding overseas: Bali

[saltydog]

My last thead on 'riding with gangs' got a bit heavy so I thought I'd lighten it all up to see if KB'ers have any oversea's bike experiences.
I lived in Bali for 4 years, yeah I know, bummer, but hey. I was working the boats back here in NZ and leasing a villa in the ricefields to the north of Kuta. really nice. It was always 2 months work in NZ and 4 months Bali, and coupled with the 15 years I have been going backwards and forwards chasing waves I've seen some mad things on the roads.

Most people in Indonesia get around on bikes, mostly steppies but more recently fast steppies, 125cc 2 stroke 6 speed steppies that would leave a car for dead. I've been in Denpasar when there are illegal gatherings of these guys racing in the city. A 1km hard out stretch of road, on the picks and then back to the other end, and so on, round and round. They race until the cops turn up but by then there's 500 spectators and as soon as plod appears theres bikes going in every direction. These guys fang in jandals and t-shirts.

Theres not many big bikes as the largest capacity Wayan is allowed is 200cc. There are some Harleys and the odd sport bike, but mostly for daily hire.....but expensive. Stay clear as the roads are too dodgy for these bigger bikes. Theres even a Balinese HOG club and I've seen some amazing old BMW's around, left over from the war, in pristine nick.

The road from Kuta to Padang-bai, up the east coast to where the ferries leave to lombok is mad. From Kuta to gillimanuk on the west coast is worse. KBers would freak, its like a complusary defensive driving course every time you step out. I've been forced into the gravel many times as a there's 3 oncomming vehicles lined up all passing each other! The traffic density would rival anywhere in the world and as you head east the human obstacles give way to horse and cart and roaming animals. Go further into never-neverland, say Sumba, and the whole village will come out to meet you as you pass down narrow winding dusty paths.
'Hello mister' rings in your ears throughout Indo.

The kids stick their hands out to give you the high 5, make contact at 60kms and hell it hurts your hands, both the kid and you, yooouuch....

The most people I've seen on a bike was 6. It was something like a C90. Me and a mate were off to surf Sumbawa, boards strapped on the side of the bikes and we came accross this family struggling to ascend this mountain pass somewhere near Bima. The son no1 was standing on the bike in-between dads legs, dad was driving, there was another smaller kid behind dad, then mum with a baby in a sarong draped off the side and then another older grommet on the back guard. Geese we got it lucky here. Hanging over the bike was 3 cages of chickens and all their belongings, it made a sight.

I once had this pesky grommet from Whangamata want to follow me to scar reef on his bike through some mean tropical forest teaming with butterflys and 'micro' dust tracks. I found him crawling through the undergrowth an hour later after he failed to turn up, compound fracture and balling his eyes out. We were in the middle of absolutley fucking no-where. Another whole other story how I managed to get him out.....he vowd to never come back to Indo....he did have no respect that kid and didnt believe in Karma...silly boy.

Geeze I've done so many hours on bikes over there I would ramble for ages.

On the piss in Kuta, as you do, and the boys all head off to another watering hole through Jl padma's twisties, about 6 of us, going too fast. My mate goes down infront of me on the pea-gravel, sparks flying as I watch him straddle the side of his bike, almost surfiing the thing as it fast approaches the kerb. As he hits, the bike stands up and deposits him, feet first on the sidewalk. Not a sctrach. Only in Bali.

The Bali tattoo? It's when the tourist gets off their bike and burns their inside leg on the hot pipe which leaves a huge blister and a nice scar... seen many.

Oh the cops are funny. Sport when you live there. They block the roads off to get some 'smoke' money. ie youre not wearing a shirt, or dont have or licence, anything... then they proceed to they to try and reem every last rupih in your wallet, or US$ if youre unlucky. The best way was to have a nice crisp 50,000 Rp note in the licence, no questions asked. I ran many times and got away, sometimes. One time, real slow cruisng past the police block, dodging the officers until the indo girl on the back fell off, fark. The keys got ripped out and we got man-handled, she had no KTP (indo indentity card) and I was the dodgy, fluent Indonesian speaking 'bule', (whitey). They hauled us back to the cop shop in the back of an open pig-wagon as another cop drove my bike. We got there just to witness this 'D' beat up on this whore in the cells, imagine trying to concentrate with that going on. We got away with $20 US, I never paid up so quick.

Watched a row of bikes on a ferry one day, all tied together, about 30 of them, all hit the deck in heavy seas, the place was a zoo.

Saw a mad tourist (must have been good mushies) drive his rental off the end of the whalf in Jimbarin one day, straight into the piss. Wish I had the video camera for that one.
I've got to stop, I have many more mad Indonesian bike adventures to tell but perhaps later.
I'm sure there are some other interesting adventurous KBrs out there???

[gijoe1313]

:rofl: What a riot of a read, sounds like keystone cop shennanigans and comedy central all rolled into one! Glad to hear you lived through it all! :sweatdrop

[kevfromcoro]

Went to Bali a few years ago...
Stayed on Kuta beach...had one of those Suzuki 4WD things.. with no 4WD lever ,,and after driving it a few ks..got out and had a look ,,and there was no front diff in it.
Anyway ,was in my hotel room one night,, and a friend rings me.
Come and pick me up and we will go out for a feed.
I had ,,,had a skinfull by this time....but me being me...iam going to drive.
Well i got lost..really lost..it was dark ..and Kuta seems to have millions of people everwhere
Spotted 3 cops ,standing in a hotel carpark....
So i pull in and ask for directions back to Kuta.
One of the cops oppens the drivers door..and i fell out.
Crash on the ground....shit this is it..i thought.
Anyway.one of the cops.walks out in the middle of the road..whistle in his mouth
Stops all the traffic..and the other two dirrected me on my merry way.
Fond memorries

[saltydog]

Mate, you know exactly where I'm coming from. I've just cracked up big time reading this :yes:

[kevfromcoro]

Great story salty...tell us a few more....
Have done a lot of riding in Asia....
can beleive all that u are saying is true.
sometimes.just sit on the side of the road and piss ya self.
4 people 6 chickens and mum and granny on a bike
will put a few funny ones up too

[WanderBird]

iv'e just bought a BMW F650, after a 25 year gap, your post reminded me that is not as long as I think - that I rode all over Bali in 1998, so it hasn't really been that long, it just feels like it!

Your post brought back a lot of memories - the crazy tooting over there - a cacophony of sound, but eventually you kinda 'get' that the toots actually mean something...passing left, right etc.

I got cleaned out by the cops for, if I remember about $30 USD (yep, I was green!) because I had a Balinese person on the back!

And all the people on 1 bike - amazing. Dad, 3 or 4 kids & mum balancing contentedly sideways right on the back breast feeding a baby...

Ah the oil smoke from the trucks, my totally black face - except for the finger lines where I had wiped away the sweat & oil. The potholes! The smells....Expect the unexpected - that guy wandering across the road actually has a 12m really thin (can't see it till you are right on it) bamboo pole over his shoulder, and it is just at the right height to decapitate me!

As a woman alone on a bike in both Denpasar and the wopwops, I had some amazing experiences with the locals - especially in the wopwops, they really seemed to respect it. I got to stay with families in the jungle, got to see some really sacred ceremonies.....

Hoping to do Vietnam this year....after I get a handle on riding again, of course

[saltydog]

You're way more decsriptive in your writing, it brings back memories for me as well.
Tha mad thing about is asia is the apparent complete lack of road rules, but through all the madness there is a system
1/ the biggest vehicle on the road always have right of way

2/turn first and then look- this one amazes me because it works. As everyone always only looks straight ahead there is not much need to indicate then look back before excuting a turn. Infact NEVER use your indicators as it just confuses everyone.

3/ Try to stick to your side of the road, although if there is a gap, stack-ups are acceptable.

4/ If you see a gap, make it yours!

5/ never trust anyone to do what you think is most abvious.

Actually reminds me of another time I was in heading back from Dongpu to the surf camp at lakeys. Because I was the only one mad enough to ride all the way from Bali, and hence the only guy not at the mercy of the mad bemo drivers I was nominated to ride the 40mins into town? for the beer run.

All went off without a hitch, I got the beer, didnt get ripped of by the old chinese lady running the shop, managed a nice feed and even tracked down an ice cream. I headed back just after sunset, insects the size of small birds were the only problem as I peered out from behind my, at the time, ultra cool clear safety glasses into the black that was a dark Sumbanese night.

15km from home I round this bend leading up to a small bridge.....and there is this old mongrel dog asleep on the road (the roads warm and everything sleeps on it during the night). I watch as it gets its bony arse off the tarmac and starts to move to the left.....the right.... I remember thinking, "wanna dance do you?" and before you know it booomph! I take the dog out, go down on the road, wince as I listen to the bottles smashing and the bike wringing its guts out in the middle of the road. For some reason I had decided to wear jeans, denim jacket and blundstone boots so i wasnt to bad. The right elbow worn down through the denim and long sleve shirt, pissing blood......not too bad....the dog had broken leg (its a full mogrel, no one owned it so I thought) and was yelping in the middle of the road and in my anger, the moment, I went up and put the scrawny thing out of its misery with my boot to the head. naughty but hey. About this time the dull flash of torch light intersected the accident scene as locals woke up to come and see what was going on. Soon I was surrounded by 10 Indo farmers all going off at me for killing their dog and demanding stupid amounts of Rupih. Luckily I speak really good indo and went on the defensive while tryng to lift the bike up while bending back the gear lever and bars saying who was going to pay for my bike! That didnt work and as I tryed to mount the bike I get a rap over the knuckles by the back of a 3 foot long machete. Ok, lets try again. Surveying the mangled crate full of broken Bintang bottles I noticed there was 3/24 still intact and quickly grabbed them out....suddenly the Indos all gazed at what i was holding and in unision all went ohhh arrhh, beer! Needless to say they got the beer, the dog got chucked into the ditch and the crazy tourist limped off into the darkness.

The boys, although very dissapointed, cracked up when they saw my sorry arse back in the surf camp with no beer, mangled bike and in need of a stitch or 2.
Funny but true.
Needless to say I was back into Dongpu the next day, the boys needed beer.

[kevfromcoro]

This isnt Bali.. it was in Thailand.
A guy i know organised a bit of a ride in Eastern Thailand.
Well all meet in the morning as we do.walk around checking out the bikes.and chatting
BTW..i wasnt on this run....
A Honda 750 turns up .with a couple of thai guys rididing it.
this thing wasnt in the best of cond.2 pipes out of 4.and had no throttle..where the cable ended was attached a pair of vice grips. next to them was a pickup ,with about a dozen thais on it.
so of they went...pickup in hot pursuit..the honda had no elect start .so they all pushed it..and away they went. bit of a yank on the vive grips.and it roared into life
.after a few ks, they stopped. the pillion hops off..jumps on the pick up. the rider moves back,,, and a new rider hops on..this is how it went for the rest of the day.

well i suppose its a bit of a way for a dozen guys to get a bit of a ride

must of been funny to watch

[deanohit]

Jeez you guys are cracking me up, just what I needed after a shitty day today. Keep them coming!

[kevfromcoro]

one night i had 3 girls with me.....so we are going out to diner
ask one of the girls to ring a taxi..
2 motorbikes turn up.hang on ...there are now 6 of us and 2 bikes
never mind says one of the girls this is thailand.
so of we go ..6 people and 2 bikes.......


going down a side street it was black as the inside of a cow
they had there lights on.. but had a bag in the front bassket
didnt see them.next thing a bit of a crash. 2 of the girls fucked off.....
never to been seen of again
and another bike comes towards us.

[saltydog]

Another reason to love Bali

[kevfromcoro]

lets hear them

[saltydog]

In Sumartra heading to a place called Krui, another surf location in the middle of wop-wop.

Winding through these impossibly narrow mountain roads in a fully laden bus driven by a 13 year old on betel-nut we hit a small snag. The rear end of the bus cracks and slumps onto the road.

Arr huh.

Talk about number 8 wire. Under direction of the driver we spend about an hour unloading the roof and inside of the bus, including 2 bikes and chicken coup full of, yes, more chickens, he asks all the big strapping surfer lads and a couple of Indos, to go down to the back of the bus and lift the subframe up.

So he jumps up inside the bus and starts lashing the broken/cracked window pillars together with a poxy bit of rope he scrounged of an old woman who didnt want to give it up. Back of bus secured, all us tourists are going "No farkin way!!!" he orders a re-load and were off another 80kms to our destination.
Only in Indo....

[vamr]

Another reason to love Bali

Hrm tempting but under the sheet is probably a penis.

[saltydog]

Bencong pernounced ben-chong is the name for the Indonesioan lady-boy. There are a few. I was leaving the island of Flores on this mother passenger liner called the Killimutu and there was this bencong along side. We had just cast off, people hanging off everwhere and this bencong decides to do a show for the boat, prancing around in this floral dress? number like the poofter he was, singing... everyone ripped into him and he just kept strutting!
legend.

[Jaxi]

On our overland trip in 2004 / 05, the closer we got to Indonesia the more I was crapping myself about riding through the country as so many people we'd met riding the opposite way to us had said that it was worse than riding in India!

They obviously hadn't ridden a in India yet!

It was great, I loved Indonesia. The riding was a bit dicey in the heavily populated areas of Java, but the rest of the country was fantastic, especially the island of Flores, the island is about 350km long, but the road from one end to the other is about 700km!! (albeit with lots of potholes and frequent landslides and other road blocks!!)

The Indonesians were really laid back and welcoming. One funny experience was when we were in Sumatra, heading towards Parapat to catch the vehicle ferry over to Tuk Tuk. We'd just missed a ferry, but the locals insisted we could tie the bikes down on the front of the passenger ferry and go across on that as it was just about to leave. The captain roped them down so they couldn’t fall into the lake, but didn’t think about them falling inwards. Towards the end of the journey, a large wave hit the boat and Trent’s bike fell over and smashed one of the windows! Fortunately there was no-one sitting near the window at the time! We gave the captain some money to repair the damage - we figured that at US0.50cents per ticket, it would take him a long time to save up to repair the window!

We stopped in Krui one night and made the unfortunate mistake of listening to the locals – They suggested we head further south and cross the mountains at Ngaras instead of the well-known crossing to Liwa. Sounded good to us – according to our map, the crossing would save loads of time and was much shorter than the other way. As it turned out, once we got to Ngaras, the locals said a landslide had blocked the road and we should carry on south around the peninsula. “Is the road OK?” we asked… “Oh Yes… very good road” was the answer, so off we went. After a while our “good road” turned from tarmac to gravel, then a short time later turned to dirt, and shortly after that to mud. We persevered with the mud for a while until we rounded a corner and found a truck bogged up to its axels in ½ metre deep mud. We soon realised there was no way around the truck, and he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry, so we turned around and went back the way we came. After about 5hrs riding and around 240km’s we were back in Krui again!

A "Must Ride" road in Thailand is the Doi Pukka loop in the north, it's awesomely smooth and curvy and relitively traffic free.

[kevfromcoro]

Was driving down from a place called singaraga...top of bali.it was hot and a jungle area.
Stopped the car and found a pond not far from the road.
Went and had a refreshing wash in the water...as Kiwis do
Got back in the car..and reached for imformation booklet...to see where i was
1st page read.......Do not go near the streams or estrines ,,as they are infected with crocadiles and alligators.

[terbang]

Another reason to love Bali


Hmm 'Ayam'.

[breakaway]

Top thread A++ Would read again

[Jaxi]

Here are a couple of pics relating to my post above.... The bikes on the ferry!! And the road from Krui to.... well um nowhere!

We spent some time along the coast of Java, a town called Pelabuhanrata was pretty cool. It was the furthest we could get along the coast, from there we had to head inland. We stayed at “The Green Room” a surfer hangout, it was nice to have a break from nasi goreng (although all through Indonesia it was awesome!)
We bumped into a couple of Aussies and Kiwis in the bar who lived in the town. They were surfers in their late 40’s who came over 20 years ago and never went home. Their days consisted of eating, drinking and “hanging 10 on the gnarly waves dude”. Apparently when the waves are good, “they’re very very good, and when they’re bad, they’re wicked!” We had a great time with them, Terry took us up to his “house”. It was amazing… built from coconut trees; it consisted of an open-air downstairs area with a small sleeping compartment above. The view out to the sea was awesome, and he had claimed some of the surrounding rice paddies for his own garden. (Veggies, sunflowers, grapes, “special herbs” etc) It was an incredibly serene setting.

It was a bummer to have to head inland, but heading south through Bandung was apparently the best option. The traffic was rubbish, very slow moving, frequent gridlocks, and mile upon mile of city. On top of all that we managed to get disoriented (read: lost) in the city. After getting totally screwed up, we stopped to ask a guy sitting on the side of the road for directions in our very limited Indonesian. Not only could he speak English, but he also said he was heading the way we were and would be leaving in a few minutes. The next hour or so was spent weaving our way around the cars, buses and motorbikes while trying to keep up with Hamdani! He said it would take around 2 hours to get to Garut, but we were there in just over an hour! Seems he didn’t want to hold us up on our “Big Bikes”! (Strangely they seem to think big bikes can go anywhere (eg the “good road” above) and that big bikes with wide panniers (our bikes were a metre wide at the back!) can slice through the closely packed traffic as easily as their scooters!)
We stayed close to Garut in a “hot springs” town called Cipanas. The room we stayed in had a personal hot spring bath with continuously flowing hot water, the perfect end to a hard day on the road.

We followed the highway east for a short time the next morning, before taking a side road south to the coastal town of Cipatujah, then headed east along the coast to Pangandaran where we stopped for the night. We were sitting there in a bar (surprise!) when we got a text asking "were we ok" Um yes, why? Apparently there had been a big earthquake in Sumatra.... I guess that's ok for friends and family to be worried since we were in Thailand when the Tsunami hit and we hadn't been in contact for ages, they had lost track of us.

I got my first puncture, a rather large bolt through the tyre, 50000km since leaving the UK so that's not too bad. Unfortunately with Trent getting loads of punctures (13 if I remember correctly!) we had used up all our decent tubes and so I ended up with a really small tube, all we could get as spares and which would explode every 500km or so from there until we were able to buy decent ones again when we hit Darwin.

Riding in these places you have to take the good with the bad, but a couple of years later all the bad is forgotten and I can't wait to get back there for another go, sounds like some of you guys feel the same!!

[nonferrous]

I hired a scooter a couple of months ago and rode into Patong. It only came with 1 helmet so my daughter wore that. Anyway the cops set up road blocks to raise a bit of revenue. We got stopped along with a whole lot of other no helmet wearers. Instant fine of about NZ$10.00. They then give you a ticket receipt and the cop explained that I could now ride for the rest of the day without a helmet and if I got stopped again no worries just show the receipt. Only the rider needs to wear a helmet - passengers as many as you like don't need to.

[saltydog]

Cant imagine doing Indo on those big bikes. I always loved the fact mine was hired in Bali. All care but no responsibility. As it turns out the renter always got back a better bike from me than when we started.
I'm off To New Plymounth this morning to catch a boat. I'm going to be out on the 12 mile until the 18th so no more posts from this puppy.
Travel stories are great though, the reader can immerse him/herself in the words and almost experience the highs, lows and tribulations.
Merry Christmas everyone
over and out.
:2thumbsup

[Jaxi]

I hired a scooter a couple of months ago and rode into Patong. It only came with 1 helmet so my daughter wore that. Anyway the cops set up road blocks to raise a bit of revenue. We got stopped along with a whole lot of other no helmet wearers. Instant fine of about NZ$10.00. They then give you a ticket receipt and the cop explained that I could now ride for the rest of the day without a helmet and if I got stopped again no worries just show the receipt. Only the rider needs to wear a helmet - passengers as many as you like don't need to.

We were heading out of Bangkok towards Kanchanaburi and the "Bridge on the River Kwai" Trent was doing a great job of navigating us out of Bangkok when we were pulled over by some cops right in the middle of an intersection.

Usually when we were pulled over, it just seems to be a bit ofcuriosity - Where are you from, where are you going etc... This time, these boys must have been after their lunch money because they asked for our licenses, and then mumbled something about paying a fine... When pushed for the reason, we were told that we were riding in the wrong lane! They could speak English quite clearly, but were not keen to write us a ticket and wouldn't give our licenses back until we paid the "fine". Trent stood there pointing to every motorcycle riding in the same lane as we had been, but they weren't interested. We decided they could keep our licenses and jumped on the bikes and took off.

It was all a bit dodgy really. So, for all we know, our licences are probably still peeking out of the top pocket of their skin tight brown uniforms. A small souvenir from us... oops, didn't I mention they were "copies"??