Day 51: Singapore to Setia Eco Gardens

Getting out of Singapore is hard!

We planned to be off and out early - and we did kind of make it. We were aiming to find a café on the way and stop for brekky. 

Initially everything was going well. Beautiful clear roads, no Sunday morning traffic and just a sprinkling of dog walkers and joggers. 

Then, somehow, we ended up a little off track on a mountain bike track.  

Mountain bikers looking at home.

The tandem doesn’t cope too well with mountain bike tracks. We tend to ground out on bumps we’re so long, and staying on a narrow track is tricky.  

We got there in the end though, riding up the expressway for the last few kilometres- it was just easier that way.  

That got us close  to the border with Malaysia, but still no sign of a café. Do Singaporeans not drink coffee!

Luckily we came across a slightly strange Chinese and Indian fast food place before we hit border control and they did some lovely iced coffee, banana pratas and little vada like doughnuts. That did the job.  

Just as we were about to head off we realised Tiger had a puncture. Bummer. Some thorns from the mountain bike park. All fixed and we were off.  

The Singapore border was fine (except Tiger had lost the bit of paper in his passport. Oops. They let him out though.) The Malaysian boreder was a very different matter. 

We waited in a queue of motor bikes for over an hour, through baking sun and one rain shower before finally getting cleared to enter the country.  

Finally we were going, although it was now well into the afternoon and we were needing lunch. However we didn’t have any Malaysian Ringots.

No problem- they’ll take cards. They didn’t. 

No proble, there’ll be an ATM. There wasn’t, for miles. How do these people get by without banks? 

Eventually we found a huge mall, and after a minor misunderstanding about where we should be parking we found n ATM and nice restaurant to fuel us the rest of the way.  

By this time we were never going to make it to Pontain as planned, so we stopped  at a little hotel in a weird “Eco” town. We never got to the bottom of its Eco credentials but it had a clean room and we ate good food. Job done. 

Day 50: Sightseeing Singapore and meeting the McNees

Tourist time again. ​

Bike building in progress.

We built up the bikes in the morning and then had some time to ride around Singapore and check it out. We ticked off the big ones - the big ironing board the call Marina Bay Sands, the big trees that aren’t trees behind it and took a ride through CBD to see some of the architectural high spots there. ​

Somehow we missed Raffles. No singapore sling for us. 

Onebig surprisewas discovering that, quite by chance, our friends from NZ, Hamish and Debs. happened to be flying over for a break in Singapore at the same time. Fantastic opportunity to catch up after 10 years or so. Much chatting ensued.   

Day 49: Fly Yogyakarta to Singapore

An early 4:30 start to get to the airport in two cars, with the usual boxes and bags to make the flight to Changi.

Air Asia did us proud. It may be no frills, but they get the basics right, and our bike boxes arrived fine, as well as all ten panniers, travelling separately this time, as they don’t count items, just weight.

First port of call in Singapore was the Apple Store to fix my phone. It died in the rainstorm in Bali and was making life a little difficult - especially with second factor authorisation. The nice Genius took one look and explained it was complete replacement time - so an expensive mistake.

For an evening meal we headed to Chinatown, which is in the throws of preparation for New Year. People everywhere, shopping for decorations and gifts and a great party atmosphere.

Day 48: Yogyakarta - recovering and logistics

Sarina and Tiger were much better today, and we started a day of getting ourselves sorted for the flight tomorrow.

Okie had been incredibly helpful in finding boxes and packing materials for me - a local bike shop coming up trumps. However, nothing’s free here, so the boxes cost me 8,000 Indonesian Rhupees - or 80c each.

We packed up the bikes and had time to check out the puppet workshop next door. The Wayan puppets go back centuries in Javanese culture, back to the days of animist religion and tell stories of mythical heroes. We received more information than I could ever take in, but learned a huge amount about the symbolism and physical creation of the puppets, which are hand carved from buffalo hide.

They are quite beautiful, and a parcel is on its way to the UK containing puppets of Rama and Sita, plus Tiger’s choice, the Tree of Life.

Day 48: Yogyakarta - sickness strikes, and cycling to the temples

It seems that if you spend a few weeks in South East Asia, you’re eventually going to get sick, and Sarina and Tiger were struck down overnight. They were out of action for the day, so I headed out for a cycle.

We are staying in a guesthouse called Omah Konco, which is an old house inside the Sultan’s Palace walls. The owner, Okie (guessing the spelling!) was a keen cyclist and offered to take us for a ride out to some of the temples. As the rest of the family were not available I jumped on Tiger’s bike and Okie and I set off to the east of the city.

Cycling in Jogya was a very pleasant experience. The traffic seemed more calm than I’m used to and very organised. There was still all the usual scooters cutting corners and lots of beeping horns, but everyone kept within a set fo rules and there was no drama. Okie said it’s down to a fundamental respect for others that underlines Javanese society, and I think he may have a point.

After about 15km we were out in the country. First we passed Prambanan Temple. This one is famous and it was starting to receive its daily quota of tourists. It has three tall towers, resembling the construction of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Impressive.

We carried on to a beautiful little temple called Plaosan Temple, a little further down the road. It was almost deserted and I was able to explore and take photos with only one or two other visitors around. This temple was originally Hindu, but had been amended when the Buddhists arrived around 800AD.

A lovely ride back with Okie, surfing the waves of traffic as is only safely possible in Asian countries, it seems.

During the ride, Okie had pointed out that our plan to catch a train to Jakarta and then ferry to Singapore was quite complicated compared to catching a direct flight. He had a point.

A little bit of exploration on the internet and we’d booked three flights to Changi airport, Singapore for Thursday.

In the evening we went to watch a performance of the Indonesian puppet theatre. The usual play would take 10 hours, but they’d divided the story up into smaller pieces to make it more consumable by tourists. The puppets are incredibly detailed, and you can choose to watch from the front and see the puppeteer and gamelan orchestra, or view the shadows from the other side of the screen - which is what we chose.

The puppeteer manages to make the shadows incredibly expressive considering how simple their construction is, with singing, dialogue and sound effects all thrown in.

We must confess we didn’t quite make it to the end of the performance. Over an hour in we’d lost track of the plot a little, all speech being in the local Bahasian dialect, and we made a quiet exit.

Day 47: Yogyakarta - discovering a city we'd never heard of

I must confess, I’d never heard of Yogyakarta until Lonely Planet suggested it’s the cultural heart of Java and we decided it was a good staging post half way to Jakarta.

What a great place!

It’s got a bit of the Bali “chilled out” vibe, with a proper city and plenty of history. It’s still ruled by the Sultan as a quasi independent state, underlining what a strange collective country Indonesia is.

Our base at Oki’s Omah Konco guesthouse

First stop was the Water Temple, where a Sultan had paraded his court around bathing pools, with the adjacent underground mosque, with Escher-like stairs on which everyone wanted a photo taken.

Then to the Sultan’s Palace, where he and his family still live in a modest little building. It could do with a bit of work frankly, but you can see the scale and splendour of the gatherings there.

Then we headed up to the station, as the plan at this point was still to catch a train to Jakarta on Wednesday. We walked up Malioboro Street, the main shopping street of Jogya, as it’s known, is a bustling frenzy of people selling batik, and everything else you can imagine.

Video: Australia - Myall Lakes to Brisbane

Day 46: Jember to Yogyakarta (by train)

Time to make radical changes to the plan.

We woke to the sound of heavy rain again and thought it’s time to try to get more information on the weather forecast. After a bit of searching the various weather sources, it became very clear that the rain was not going to get better, it was going to get worse. The whole fo Java was expected to get at least 10mm a day for the next week.

The BBC’s take on the rain in Java.

Now, I don’t mind a ride in the rain, but it’s true to say, riding in the dry is more fun than riding in the wet… and the other thing our research showed was that it wasn’t the whole of South East Asia that was getting a drenching. Everything north of Singapore seemed to be doing fine.

One family conference over breakfast later, we’d reworked the plan. Let’s get north to Singapore pronto.

How to do it though. Flying with the bikes is a pain, but we weren’t sure whether trains would help us.

First trip after brekkie was to the train station, where we queued up to try to buy a ticket to Yogyakarta. That’s about half way to Jakarta, and sounds like a great place to hang out for a day.

The queue wasn’t too long and we were soon at the front, but not without an excellent bit of queue dodging by a middle aged woman who snuck round us, talking on her phone and then dived in on the teller just as they came free. We had to admire the skill with which she executed her plan.

We did quite well on the ticket ordering. “Tiga orang-orang untuk Yogyakarta” and once we’d added in the extra one-way only information we were sorted. We had our passports with us, tick. Then the curveball, “Dua sepada” - surely the two bicycles just go in the luggage car?

It seemed not.

Fun at the ticket counter

Many phone calls ensued - with a line behind us growing all the time. In the end it was decided that we should go to the Customer Service desk and sort this out, so off we trotted.

It turned out the Customer Service Desk was a “take a ticket, we’ll call your number” deal, so we settled in for a long wait.

It didn’t actually take too long, and  we started to make some progress once we’d explained the bikes did not fold (we hadn’t even mentioned on had two seats, that seemed a complication too many at this point.

Eventually we were told the bikes had to go by an “expedition” company, so we trotted next door to talk to them. With a great deal of help from Google Translate we came to the conclusion that they could get the bikes on the same train that we’d be on, and we could pick them up in the morning, so all seemed good.

Back to the ticket queue to buy the tickets - this time elbows at the ready to stop any incursions and we successfully had our tickets.

We delivered the bikes to the shipping company, which was quite emotional - saying goodbye to our bikes and travelling separately. Would they be there at the other end of the train journey? Would they just stay in the shed and turn up days later? Anyway, we left them and headed off to catch the train.

The train had a lot of space and was very comfortable (we were in Executive Class). There was a trolley that came round to sell us nasi goreng and a nice ticket inspector accompanied by a very military looking guard.

Plenty of leg room!

About five hours in, we stopped in Surabaya and a team came round to turn round all the seats as we were continuing in the opposite direction.

Tiger hard at work

Then after nine hours, at about 11:45 at night, we pulled in to Yogyakarta station and gathered up our 10 bags to shuffle off the train.

As we walked towards the exit we could see two bright lights coming from the other end of the platform. It was our bikes being wheeled from the other end of the train. The front lights come on automatically as soon as the front wheel is turning.

Everything seemed safe and well, and each bike had a member of staff to wheel it to the luggage area, so we followed along. We’d been told that we wouldn’t be able to collect the bikes until the next day and had planned to get a taxi to our guesthouse, but we let them know that these were our bikes and soon a guy came up with a chitty to sign and the bikes were ours.

Excellent - no taxi required, we could cycle the short distance to our beds.

Part two of the plan - get to Jakarta, to follow. First - explore Yogyakarta.

Day 44: Genteng to Jember

We rode with a local bike club today! 

We were riding west from Genteng, after a very nice coffee and pastry at the Conato Bakery (our new discovery), when we passed a group of cyclists who’d stopped for a smoko. We waved, and soon after, when we stopped for a fruit stop, they caught up with us. 

We had photos together and explained what we were up to. Then more of their group arrived and we took more photos, and more photos.  

Then we set off up the hill with them, a peloton of about 12 riding together. Of course, when a group of cyclists are all heading the same direction someone always lifts the pace to see if others can match it, and we were soon chasing down the the leaders who’d broken away.  

The other international truth of cycling is that the rider who leads up the first ramp rarely leads by the finish of the hill and some of the initial pace setters started to peel off. Tiger was doing a great job setting a steady pace and soon was leading the bunch.  

Then the star climber showed his hand. THe came passed us, with a young apprentice in tow and set the pace for the rest of the climb, cheerfully clearing traffic for us and waving us on. We felt like royalty being escorted by motorbike outriders!

At the top of the village the remaining riders left us and we continued on, to start the main climb through a volcanic saddle on a twisting switchback road. Luckily it turned out to not be too steep and we ground our way up, to find a very pleasant rest stop and café area at the top.  

As we went to leave the rest stop, we ran into the bike club again. More photos! 

We then had one last climb before a gloriously long descent- only spoiled by a load of cars and trucks with overheating brakes. 

It was then a short, flat stint to Jember and checkin before lunch - a first for us.  

The discovery of the afternoon was Oxy Coin Operated Laundry. The cleanest, smartest and most joyfully staffed launderette you could imagine. All our cycling kit washed, dried and misted with scent in under two hours for under $4 Aussie. Wonderful. They are a national chain - we’ll be returning. 

Day 43: Permuteran to Genteng

Goodbye to Bali. We’ve jumped on a ferry and sailed across to Java for the next stage of our journey. 

We also said goodbye to the staff at Pande Guest House who’d been fantastic, from the moment we arrived drenched and dirty two days ago. They hosed us down, gave us a lovely room, organised our snorkeling trip, sent us to a brother’s restaurant for a lovely meal, and a friend’s restaurant for a second lovely meal. 

The ferry was amazing. Buying a ticket wasn’t too hard - we were forewarned about the paperwork to fill in before purchasing a ticket and we only accidentally skipped one step, which we soon corrected. Then we cycled straight up onto the ferry.

The entire straits seemed crammed with ferries - all heading in different directions despite the fact they were all going to the same destination. However, once over the other side, it became clear why. There was a queue to get a dock to offload on, and each captain seemed to have a different strategy to use up the time. It looked like mayhem, but there was probably a plan lurking underneath it all.

We came off the ferry, turned left and headed south west along the main road. We stayed on pretty much the same road all the way to our destination in Genteng.

On the way we passed through the thriving metropolis of Banyuwangi. This gave us an interesting lunch and the surprising revelation that we’d missed the Tour de Banyuwangi by several months. It could have been our own little Tour Down Under.

Genteng is a medium sized town with not a huge amount to recommend it. Sarina did manage to ferret out a very nice restaurant for dinner though. Up a residential street it was set back from the road and served us a lovely dinner for a total of $25 AUD.

It’s noticeable the change from mainly Hindu Bali to mainly Moslem Java. Gone are the temples on every corner and we now see mosques, hijabs and no signs advertising Bintang beer. It’s a great place to cycle though, with all the lorry drivers who’ve been held up by us waiting patiently and then coming past with plenty of clearance. Great to see.

Day 41: Balian Beach to Permuteran

A climb over the central ridge of Bali today to get from the south west coast up to the north coast, with some very steep sections over 20% at times.  

We can cope with a good steady climb, but when it rises above 10% things get tough. If it’s more than 100 metres Sarina and I are off and walking. Tiger managed most of the time, but one particular steep wall had us all walking - and even walking was quite challenging 

Possibly the steepest hill climb in the world  

As we had a lovely lunch somewhere around the high spot for the day, the dark clouds started to gather and then we were soon in a torrential downpour. We have rain jackets and it’s not cold, so this isn’t a big issue. The main drawback we’ve found is it’s almost impossible to use an iPhone in torrential rain. That makes navigating a real challenge. We’ve just about cracked it with an Oakley glasses bag to dry the screen and the holding ​the phone past vertical to keep the rai off, but it’s still a little tricky. 

A long descent, that was not relaxing as the gradients were similar on the way down. My hands aches from squeezing the brakes by the bottom- not something I normally experience. ​

Then we were on the north coast, which we could hoon along on the flat road to get to Permuteran before nightfall. A nice guesthouse let us hose down the bikes, our luggage and ourselves and now we’re safely installed for the night. ​

Check out the mètres climbed. Try that with panniers on! We l

Day 40: Penebel to Balian Beach

This morning was incredible. It was a ceremonial  day for one of the local temples and Comang and his wife invited us to come and watch. 

It was tipping down with rain, which made things tricky, but we made it up to the temple. We were admitted by the village guards who were definitely in charge, and signed in and recorded our donation.  

We then watched as each village brought their “burong”, like a mascot, in to the temple and presented it to the “altar”. It was then installed in its own section of the temple where it will stay for the next few days.  

We were dressed in saris with Tiger and I wearing headresses too. Sorry, not photos were taken.  

it was a privilege to be invited along and we enjoyed seeing the locals take part in a ceremony that’s very important to them. 

Back at the house we got changed and headed off into the rain to find our way to the north coast. The plan was to head north and find somewhere to stay on the coast. ​

​However, rural Indonesian navigation proved quite challenging. A road got smaller and smaller until it was just two concrete strips in the grass. Then, no concrete and we’re on a muddy track. 

The map said that the road was only a short distance ahead so we tried pressing on. We crossed a stream with both bikes but then the path dwindled to nothing and more, much larger streams lay in our path.  

At this point we decided that if the road didn’t go where we wanted to go, we’d go where the road we were on went. So we ended up on the west coast instead, but that’s the joy of only planning things as you go along - it’s easy to embrace change.  

Hence we find ourselves on the west coast at Balian Beach, a lovely little surf resort, having dinner by the ocean. 

Day 39: Bingin Beach to Penebel

Back on the road again - and it feels good.  

Saying adieu to Warwick, our host in Bingin Beach

We headed along the coast through the tourist traps of Kuta and Seminyak before eventually heading inland. We were heading for a home stay with Comang and his family in remote Bali, on the slopes of the volcanoes at the island’s centre. We booked it on AirBnb, where it promised a stay with an Indonesian family in their remote home. Perfect.

It was a day of steady climbing from the. moment we passsed through Tenebel and it’s amusing (and largely ignored one-way system). 

Then we turned off the main road that takes tourists to the Jetliluwih Rice Terraces and things became a lot more rural. The road alternated between potholed tarmac to crusty concrete, with smiling locals shouting out “Hello!” at every turn. 

The last climb seemed to go on for a long time, and not knowing exactly where Comang’s house was, we weren’t sure how much further we had to go. It was then that a man on a scooter exclaimed “You’re coming to my house!” - and it was Comang’s father. “It’s only one kilometre,” and he sped off ahead. It turned out it was a little further than that, but soon enough we were greeted by Comang and his family.  

After a long chinwag with the family and with Simon, a Brit who helps them promote their homestay,  we were able to take a shower and have a rest. 

Then we had a beautiful meal prepared by Comang’s wife, on a platform overlooking their rainforest back garden. It looked like jungle to us, but Simon had explained how every plant had a purpose, whether food, animal feed or medicinal, and were all carefully cultivated. It was more like a veggie patch than the wild jungle it appeared.  

A beautiful day.  

Day 38: Rest day, Bingin Beach - Uni application time

Tiger needed to get his portfolio sorted for uni, so there was a lot of sitting around today.  

We did manage a fantastic meal at The Elemntum Restaurant over the road, after braving a torrential downpour.  

The Elementum restaurant and villas

Day 37: Bingin Beach, Bali

Priority one, get the bikes built up again. We had that sorted by mid morning and took a short test ride to check things out. The Blue Strawberry has developed a “skipping chain” which is not great. I’m hoping it’s just a stuck link, but I’ll have to investigate.

After that it was a lazy day spent in the pool, in the ocean and generally just hanging out. Tiger showed off his surfing, getting some good rides on a very mellow but powerful wave.

Video: Australia, Sydney to Myall Lakes

Day 36: Brisbane to Bali

​Our trip has gone intercontinental - and the tracking line now covers a noticeable portion of the globe, which feels better.

The tandem was in two boxes with Tiger’s bike in another. Then our panniers were in another two boxes. Five in total. I think we looked like cardboard smugglers.  

We landed in Denpasar and the humidity was immediately obvious. It’s only 30°C, but it feels hotter. We ran the gamut of the assembled throng of taxi drivers keen to help us with our large load of boxes and found the official taxi counter where we arranged a prenegotiated price and then started trying to get all the boxes in the minivan. It was big, but not that big, and once we’d squeezed them in, Sarina and I were left one seat to share. That was a little tight. 

It was only a little over 30 mins to our villa, down south in Bingin Beach... and the villa was perfect. Two small pavilions with en suites facing a pool and separated by a kitchen and living area. Luxury - including staff to make us breakfast and tidy up. We are really resting up in style. We’d better be really quick cyclists to make up for this.  

Even an evening thunderstorm couldn’t get Tiger out of the pool.  

Day 35: Camp Hill

Today was a day of packing.

Jet had kindly arranged with Bikebug to get some bike boxes, which we went down to pick up from the legendary Henk Vogels. 

Then it was time to start washing the grime off our bikes - and there was a fair bit accumulated over 35 days. Luckily Jet has a great collection of bike cleaning equipment.  

Getting a full Jet wash.  

We also needed a couple more regular boxes. Luckily, the cardboard recycling depot down the road had some boxes. Time for some dumpster diving. 

Now we’re all packed up with a maxi taxi booked for tomorrow morning. Bali here we come.  

Day 34: Miami Beach to Camp Hill

After a lazy day yesterday we had to do some work today, with 90km to our destination, where Jet and family had generously offered to put us up for a couple of nights before we fly to Bali. 

We started off riding up the coast through Broadbeach, Surfers and Southport - a ride we’ve done before, but it hasn’t got any better. The cycle path seems to appear and disappear at will, which plenty of morning traffic adding to the stress. 

We did it though, through the Commie Games I park in Southport and then started heading inland towards Brisbane.  

We discoered there’s a bike path called the V1 (Velopath 1 I think) that goes all the way to Brisbane, which would be perfect if it didn’t also disappear occasionally. 

Still, we kept at it and eventually the high rises of Brisbane appeared ahead of us.  

We did a small amount of shopping for bits and pieces in Brisbane and then head to Jet’s home just a few km’s from the centre of town.  

On the way back a white van flagged us down. We were ​a bit confused what hé wanted to start with, but once we stopped to chat we discovered that the driver, Daniel, just wanted to chat. He was a cycle tourist who hosted Warm Showers guests and had friends who were currently in Thailand and Europe cycling, including a couple on a tandem. It’s amazing the people you meet riding your bike.

Daniel and his van. 

Jet, Sue and family had kindly offered to give us a place to stay in Brisbane whilst we pack up our bikes and sort things out... and what a place. It was fantastic to be able to cool off in a pool at the end of a long day, followed by a great meal off the barbecue. Fantastic. 

​We’ve realised that the 116km we rode today is actually the longest distance we’ve ridden in our journey so far - and it didn’t feel like a stretch. Our bodies may be getting used to this now. 

Day 33: Tugun to Mermaid Bay

Slow day. We were having too much fun on the Gold Coast and we had a bit of time up our sleeves, so we made pretty slow progress.  

Coffee and açai in a lovely café in Currumbin and then we carried on up the coastal path. 

​Riding past Burleigh Heads SLSC we ran in to a familiar face. Simon was on his way back from a ride and doing surf club pickup. Je’s Looking like he’s enjoying the Gold Coast - in no hurry to head back to work!

By the time we got as far as Robbie McEwan’s café Piccolo in Miami we were keen for another coffee, and whilst drinking it we decided we didn’t need to go any further today when there’s a beach sat there waiting for us to swim in it. 

So, we booked in to a Motel over the road and headed for the beach.  

Tiger auditions for the cover shot on Body Surfing Weekly.