Biking in Bali Countryside

We left Sama’s Cottages early this morning for a day of biking in the Bali countryside. After getting picked up in a van with our bike tour operators, our first stop was breakfast at a beautiful restaurant that overlooked several volcanoes.

We ate our breakfast right out on a deck overlooking this spectacular view.

Next stop was picking up our bikes and beginning our tour that was complete with lots of learning about Bali culture.







I personally found the bike riding challenging - I’m not a huge fan of going downhill fast (I know, most bikers’ dream condition 😀). So when this all day trip was billed as downhill biking, I was already feeling the adrenaline inside. Let me add, it was downhill, around sharp curves on a narrow road that we were sharing with passing motor scooters. Shortly, after we took our first couple miles on the narrow road, we turned right and started going down another hill, but one that was like a mountain biking road complete with rocks, holes, and gravel. I put on the brakes and front wheel stopped too suddenly (oh, what a mountain bike novice!) and did a little flip off the bike. I am so grateful that I only ended up with a huge thigh raspberry and a cut that wasn’t too bad. Could have been a lot worse.

We are certainly talking about not being limited by our fears this week - I had the perfect little laboratory to “practice” leaning into my fear of going downhill on a bike for the remainder of the day. I’d like to say “I’ve conquered my fear, but not the case! As I felt my extremely dry mouth with every sharp turn and passing motor scooter, I just tried to take this entire adventure in  and appreciate being on this amazing trip 😀

Touring the rice patties and learning all about rice and its importance for the Balinese people. Each family raises rice for their own family - Bali does not import it’s rice to other countries.

Farmers (with hats) planting the rice.






The water to grow the rice comes down from the mountains and is carefully channeled to supply all the farmers equal amounts.

The rice is harvested by hand - this farmer has harvested rice to feed his family. Rice is eaten at every meal.

Our next stop was for lunch in a “family home.” We learned a lot differences in Balinese family traditions versus the values we espouse in the United States. While we work hard to “launch” our children to independence, in Bali, families live together for a lifetime. We visited a family compound, had a delicious lunch, and learned about family structure. We learned that essentially all family compounds would contain the same elements.

One of the Celebration Bike Tour operators handled us each a wicker “banana leaf” plate holder. His smile is what we’ve seen on all the faces of the people we’ve met - our bike guides, Sama’s Cottages staff, restaurant staff, and shop owners. Gracious is the word I would use to describe the lovely people we’ve met.





Need I say more - the food was absolutely delicious!

Here are the key elements of each family compound. In the Eastern corner (behind the room in the foreground), every family has its own temple. The Balinese people are predominantly Hindu while most of the rest of Indonesia is Muslin.

Next to the temple, in a place of honor, is the living area for the grandparents who head up the family.

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This is the children’s room where children go after they are old enough to leave their parents’ side. In Bali, men and women don’t have arranged marriages anymore. When they do marry, the men (and their new wives) live in the man’s family compound. Women go to live with their husband’s family. There are additional rules for what happens if a family has only girls (in that case, the husband comes live at the woman’s family compound). However, the bottom line is that families live together their entire lives and they have the expectation that they will care for each other. This compound we visited had 20 plus people living there with four generations.

Each family compound has its own public space where weddings, funerals, and other celebrations are held. 

This the room where the rice is stored - it is right across from the kitchen. Our guide said that all of the cooking for the entire day is done in the morning. After an “offering of food” is put out for the gods, the family eats. The remaining food is then eaten later in the day.

We all agreed that our day was an amazing experience complete with a beautiful countryside, delicious food, and hospitable Balinese people who welcomed us into their home.