The Bali bike chronicles
My mind just keeps dancing in and out of the memories I have cultivated this last month here that I’ve spent in Bali. I have run into some interesting motor bike circumstances, enough of them in fact that I decided they must be shared.
Image by Monday Nomads
Instance number one: The Beloved Bali Tag
The girls and I got together on October 1st to move into our teacher villa before the retreat began for GLOW (A non profit that provides solar powered lights for small villages and eradicates kerosene lamps).
We went to park our bikes in the mini driveway at the front of our new home for the next few days and one of the girls parked quite close to the enterence. As we all shuffled around the bike carrying our 50lb packs my leg got caught on the exhaust of the bike and immediately my body was engulfed in adrenaline, I couldn’t feel pain in that moment but as the days went on my leg got worse and worse so much so one of our retreat guests who is a nurse told me that I might have a tissue infection and if not treated in a hospital I would have to amputate. It freaked me the fuck out.
I walked back to the car on the 4th day of our retreat when she made that comment to me and I felt stress wash over my body. I was in agony on the drive from the Bukit to Bondalem and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to leave the retreaters, so I chose to not listen to Melody the nurse and I stayed.
Matt, the owner of Villa Selina looked at my leg that night and if I could paint an accurate picture it would be as if I had a nasty gooey circle of hummus sitting on my leg, with orange colored liquid oozing towards my ankle like the oil that sits on top of a new sabra hummus package before you stir.
Matt decided the best course of action for my leg would be to put tea tree oil on it which is a natural antiseptic and then top it off with pawpaw to seal it and keep the dirt out.
My friend Annie then gave me some sort of pain reliever which helped and I kept it elevated.
However, the throbbing didn’t stop for 3 more days.
I kept going, I had to! Our beautiful yogis paid to be there and my fellow instructors were counting on me, there was no option but to press on!
Though I woke up stressed every morning about my leg, I had to shut it off somehow and let it go.
It was an interesting experiment to detach from my pain body, I wavered at times but felt over all I was prevailing despite the nastiness that sat on my calf.
I continued with the tea tree oil and pawpaw treatment for the duration of my stay at Villa Selina, slowly getting better and better.
However, it wasn’t until I got back to Ubud to my new villa to meet up with a few friends from California that my leg actually started to scab and get better.
I can now go in the water and I no longer have a scab or in horrendous pain but I can still feel it, it’s weird but I look back and laugh because would it really have been a true Bali experience if not for my Bali tag?
Instance number two: Indiana Shan
It was the second night after our retreat as Dev and I settled into our new Villa before heading up to Ubud to meet up with some friends. Eric the owner of the villa had rented us a motorbike and we’d been exploring during the day but hadn’t yet driven at night.
After hanging with our friends in Bingin Beach that evening, we decided to drive back home around 10pm or so towards Padang Padang. As we were driving the road was lit by lamps from outside other homestays so at first I didn’t notice, it wasn’t until we started heading in the more jungle-y areas that it became quite apparent the headlights DID NOT WORK. I quickly handed Dev my phone and she turned both of our flashlights on from our iphones to use as head lights.
It was fucking scary.
To get back to our villa we had to drive through very hilly roads that were only wide enough to fit scooters.
You know on that Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland where you drop before the giant ball comes crashing your way? Yeah that was our experience in a nutshell. I was about to shit my pants as we rode through the night with no light. I literally prayed for our safety and then started giggling out of control because for some reason this was supposed to happen to us, we were meant to experience this for one reason or another.
I felt like a true jungle adventurer as we continued our ride for the next 15 minutes through the pitch black roads, every 3 minutes or so seeing a random shop with people outside who bore perplexed expressions and laughter directed at us.
Our own laughter rang through the trees and became the soundtrack on our ride home.
Nothing could stop us, we were going to get back one way or another.
And you know what? We did.
Incident number three: Dude, where’s my bike?
I got a call last week from a friend at Lagas hostel where I had rented my bike from letting me know I had the WRONG bike.
“What the fuck?” I said
How does one accidentally get a bike confused and furthermore why would the key fit a different bike?
I had had dinner the night before at Earth Cafe in Ubud with a friend and parked my bike on the street parallel to the restaurant.
I spent an hour or two at dinner and walked down the road after to retrieve my bike.
The bike that I thought was mine was parked exactly where I had left it and the key fit perfectly, so I had driven off.
When I received that phone call we went immediately to the street where I had parked the bike and I walked up and down the road with no luck on finding my actual bike.
I kept wondering how in the hell did this happen and whose bike have I been driving around?
We gave up and went to lunch because hello we waited 2 freaking hours to eat in search of this bike and I was getting HANGRY.
I went back to Lagas after lunch and Gade who is in charge of the bikes gave me a weird response as to where the bike was and who had it – I literally could not get a straight answer out of him.
A few minutes later he asked for my keys, started the bike that I’d been driving and came back 20 minutes later smiling and said “Shan this is your bike”.
I felt so bad because …
I was not in a position to pay for a new bike.
He looked very stressed out when we first were talking about where the bike was.
I thought he was going to take away my bike privileges and that just wouldn’t be okay because I am thoroughly obsessed with the motorbikes here.
It turned out that someone mistook my bike for theirs and when they went to return it to their bike place they realized it was the wrong one, so their bike place called Lagas and from there on the story unfolds.
So I got my bike back thank goodness, and no one was injured financially in the process!
I would call that a solid win!
Incident number four: That damn magenta bike
That same bike I lost? Yeah it stopped working 2 days later.
I never wanted the magenta bike anyways, clearly the signs were all there in me losing it and my distaste for it’s horrid color.
I was never meant to be on that bike, it was also quite slow and I was over it.
We were outside of Coco Mart and I went to start the bike and it would not do anything. It was a dud, a fucking DUD.
We were with Dom and Adam who have thankfully experienced this stuff before because 5 minutes later after Adam was able to start it manually so we were able to make it home!
The next morning I went to have brekkie with a friend and the bike wouldn’t start AGAIN. I got so flustered until the man who was managing our villa came outside and saw me attempting to start it manually like Adam did with no luck. He was able to start my bike and I drove it immediately to Lagas to wake up Gade and help me exchange the bike. Unfortunately there were no more bikes to rent so Gade gave me his personal bike to use for the rest of my time here.
Gade’s bike is much more powerful than the bikes I had been renting out and it’s fucking awesome. I was shocked when I turned it on and there wasn’t any hesitation, just an engine roaring with power. I said thank you to the reluctant Gade and winked as I sped off onto the main road . Gade’s bike is the best bike I have had since being in Bali, and holy shit do I need me one of these!
If it weren’t for the new bike I probably wouldn’t have had much luck in my next story…
Incident number five: 3 babes, 1 bike.
One afternoon Dom, Dev & I walked to the coffee shop Uma Mandi located down the road from our villa to get some work done and we ended up getting stuck there about an hour later as the torrential downpour began.
We sat us girls talking about life, love and everything in between. I drank 4 cups of coffee within the 3 hours we were stuck there in the pouring rain and we made a new friend, Made. He spoke to us about yoga and his life here and was curious about us and where we were from. That is one thing about Bali I truly enjoy – the people! Everyone is very friendly and I can’t help but smile at strangers that turn to friends!
After we left Uma Mandi we walked back to our Villa and noticed Adam was still gone which meant we only had one bike! We contemplated for a few minutes or so about if Adam should drive back or not to pick up one of us but he said he had just cracked open a new Bintang which prompted me to suggest I drive all 3 of us over to Lagas to meet them.
Now I had only ever driven with two of us on a bike and even though I am pretty savvy on a motorbike driving three people is a whole new experience. It was nighttime so everything was a little more intense visibility wise, but there was less traffic which was a HUGE plus.
We crammed onto the bike, my ass was barely on the seat and we headed out. Dev was sitting right behind me, and Dom was in the back barely hanging on…ah this story just makes me laugh even as I am typing it out. It was a bit shaky at first but quickly we got the hang of it!
We were almost off of our road and about to hit the main drag where we turn left to head towards Lagas when Dom stubbed her toe on an extra long driveway. I had no idea it was there but they were doing a lot of construction and some of the driveways were a bit higher than the actual road so even though I didn’t go over the driveway because Dom didn’t have anywhere to put her feet it nicked her big toe!
We didn’t stop, we kept going until we got to Lagas where I almost crashed us into the side building because I couldn’t stop laughing and was trying to avoid a giant pothole. Our laughter rang through Lagas as we got in and parked next to the pool.
Everyone saw us and was baffled by how we did it but fuck it, WE MADE IT!
Dom immediately checked her toe out and yeah, shit was slightly nasty but hey she got some antiseptic and a band aid which made it good as new within the next couple of days following.
I thoroughly love these motorbikes, they have made life very interesting and absolutely hilarious!
I can’t wait to return to Bali next week so I can get back on a bike!
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xo