We left Ubud and our plan was to go north across Bali, eventually getting to the north coast of Bali.

Leaving Ubud it was crowded and we got our first taste of fighting for road space with other bicycles, horse drawn carts, moving fruit stands, motor bikes, cars and big trucks. After about 20 km we came to Redang and from there we took a small road heading into the moutains. It was tough going but the views were great.

Just before nightfall we made it to Sidemen a cute mountain town famous for soghket, a cloth woven with gold and silver. We stayed the night in a nice (all though a little over budget) bungalow overlooking the rice fields. It was wonderful. We contemplated staying longer but decided to move on.

Our next goal was the area Mt. Batur, a famous volcano crater area in the north of Bali. The road up to Sidemen had been uphill and it was to continue that way. The first 20 kms were not too bad but after that things went steeply uphill. We braved it for a while, crawling along at a speed of 6 km/h, but then (you could see it as a godsend or inevitable on an island crawling with tourist touts) someone stopped and said, "You look tired. Let me take you to my friend's hotel." Turns out the hotel was in the town we wanted to stay and since, as he had noticed, we were pooped we took him up on the offer. After arriving we made agreed to a price (reluctantly) for hiking Mt. Batur for sunrise the next morning. We paid in full upon booking and Jon said he didn't sleep the whole night wondering if the guide was actually going to turn up or no. He did turn up (at 3:30 in the morning) and we had a great hike up the mountain. Lots of other tourists had also arranged to go and while the peak was busy it was interesting to see the sunset with so many different people, including our guide who answered all our questions about Balinese culture as best he could.

We had thought about continuing on after our hike but decided against it and had a nice relaxing day taking two short jaunts on our bikes to the towns bordering the large crater lake at the foot of Mt. Batur. We (well 3 of us, not Deb) enjoyed some fresh fish for dinner and we turned in early after having gotten up so early.

The next day we woke up on time and made it out of the hotel in record time. We were on the road by 8:00. Our goal was Lovina, a touristy beach resort on the north coast of Bali, and we were looking forward to a long down hill there. The downhill didn't materialize right away and much to our chagrin we realized we had a ways to go before heading down. However, geographical features don't just disappear and soon enough we were flying down the best downhill of the trip yet. 35 km straight down. It was great. When we got to the bottom we were almost relieved; our arms were so tired from braking. Only 10 kms more down the coast and we made it to Lovina.