New Zealand – how it began

Well, I appear to be in New Zealand. I’ve been here for about four days now. I landed in Auckland and was picked up by my friend Kendal, who has been really amazing and supportive in my plan to ride around NZ. I also got to meet Sarah Hart, the gal who had toured NZ for a year whom I had interviewed for GWWR. They were both fantastic gals and really good riders. I got to do a nice local ride with them to a pub where we had dinner and conversation.

I spent the first couple of days going around to the local bike shops to find a bike to rent or hire and came up with nothing. I’ve been really frustrated at this. The lowest bikes I could were a Kawasaki Ninja 650R and a BMW F650GS twin. They were both just a wee bit too tall though and I could barely only touch the tips of my boots to the ground.

And then I got an email from Andrea Ladbrook of Kiwi Motorcycle Rentals in Christchurch. She said that she had a BMW 650GS twin with a low seat and factory lowered suspension available for rent. I made up my mind to fly to Christchurch and get that bike. She was even kind enough to offer to pick me up from the airport and stay the night. I had originally planned to get a bike in Auckland and do a loop around the North and South islands. This was a bit of a twist in the plan but it meant that I could ride one way and drop the bike off in Auckland. Not a bad change in plans!

Andrea and Allan were both really great. And the bike was perfect! Well it was still a bit high and a bit heavy but more perfect than anything else I could have gotten. We set up the handlebars for my arms, added the GPS mount, and attached huge Givi panniers (hard luggage is a first for me). I took it for a short test ride and liked the way it handled. Not at all buzzy like the singles!

First day of the ride! Next to the BMW F650GS twin I would ride for the next month.

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Luang Prabang, Laos

I’m sitting in a small cafe in Laos called Cafe Joma. I paid for it with a thousand baht note because I didn’t have enough Lao kip (LAK) to pay for it (an Americano cost 16,000 LAK, roughly US $2). I got my change back as a 20 USD note and the rest in LAK. This is indicative of how the economy here operates with three currencies (possibly in Vietnamese dong too, I haven’t tried to find out).

The coffee when delivered to my table in itself is a symbol of some of the more thoughtful elements of life in Southeast Asia. It was delivered to me in a cup and saucer with a small container of hot milk. I really do appreciate this touch. It’s so common to go to a coffee shop in Seattle (or pretty much any restaurant in the United States) to have to top off your coffee with cold milk from a thermos flask. The cold milk turns your hot coffee into lukewarm coffee. In SE Asia however, almost everywhere you order coffee or tea, if it comes with milk (rather than creamer), it is hot. I think Asians would be rather puzzled at our tradition of pairing cold milk with a hot beverage.

I should of course mention that the very Western style coffee shop I’m sitting in, in the little town of Luang Prabang, Laos, is strictly for tourists and not any kind of fixture in the life of a typical Lao person. And the reason I’m sitting in a very touristy place is because it’s the best sort of place to get your writing done (coffee, comfortable seating, low music, free WiFi). Also, I budgeted three entire days to stay in this little UNESCO World Heritage site, about two more than strictly necessary to see it properly, resulting in a lot of free time on my hands.

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Borobudur, Indonesia

We wanted to see Borobudur at sunrise, however the forecast predicted that it would be cloudy and rainy so we decided to leave at 9:00 AM instead. I was secretly relieved because I wasn’t relishing the thought of leaving at the unholy hour of 3:45 AM.

It took about an hour to get to Borobudur by car. On the way we saw numerous little mosques with shiny silver domes, testament to the fact that we were in an Islamic country. In many respect, life here seemed quite sedate.

The price of arriving at the temple at a more tolerable hour was the fact that it was inundated by tourists. It being Saturday, the place was full of locals as well as tourists. We saw many schoolkids walking in their uniforms in big groups. It was pretty cool to see hijab-wearing Muslims thronging to see a Buddhist site. Actually, what was even cooler was seeing hijab-wearing little girls laughing and taking selfies and asking us if we would take photos with their group (since we were “exotic looking” tourists to them). They seemed endlessly amused to get their picture taken with us. :P

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Yogyakarta, Indonesia

We got an early morning flight (a very, very, very early morning flight) to Yogyakarta on the island of Java. This little city is known as the cultural center of the island.

We landed at the airport and wandered around to find a taxi. Almost as one, we followed our noses to a wonderful fragrance emanating from a little stall that sold these fresh baked buns that were stuffed with butter and topped with some kind of coffee flavored cream. Yummy! At a princely sum of 9,000 rupiahs each (less than a dollar) they were delicious.

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Kuta, Indonesia

We took a return boat from Gili Trawangan to Kuta. Here our group separated into two. Three of us checked into a small villa in Legian which was adequate to say the least. We checked in, left our bags and went out to get lunch with our friends. I got some duck that was surprisingly tasty!

After this, we dawdled quite a bit looking at little tourist shops looking for souvenirs. In hindsight, this was a big mistake. We should have headed out to the beach as soon as we could. However, all the photos I had seen of the beaches were crowded and full of tourists and not something I was super interested in seeing. By the time we found our way to the beach, darkness was falling. We crossed a last busy street before going around a wall to the beach and…. my jaw dropped open when I saw a beach that stretched for miles, the water churning in the distance, crowned by the most fantastic sunset I had ever seen. A sunset in Bali has to be seen to be experienced. Everything about that place and time was magical – the fiercely bright colors in the sky, the sand that stretched out as far as the eyes could see, the distance lights of the city on the other side, the few lingering people dotted here and there, all of us witnessing this marvel.

At that moment I kicked myself for having only one night in Legian and swore that I would be back to fully experience this place again.