To enjoy this trip I've had to suspend many of my normal fears and concerns (some would say neuroses). I have ridden often in insane traffic with no seatbelt, eaten foods without consideration of chemical ingredients, constantly been around pesticides and toxic mosquito repellents, and even flown on airplanes. Today my bravery reached new heights--I rode on a motorbike.
We started the morning with an herbal walk through the rice fields with an expert on the use of local plants. He pointed out many common plants and talked about their medicinal and other uses. More than that, he shared a lot about Balinese culture and philosophy. At the end of the walk we went to his store for some herbal tea and he invited us to lunch ("do you eat rice?").
The warung was only five minutes away, he said, can you ride a motorbike? Well, I've ridden on the back of a motorcycle about twice in my life and hated every minute. But I'm on vacation from my fears so I agreed and soon found myself on the back of the shop assistant's bike while Dale rode with our host (who had recently broken a bone so had only one good arm). I'm sure the ride took 10 minutes or an hour or more, passing cars on either side of a road barely built for two lanes, but my driver was actually very careful and I survived with body and dignity intact.
We ate at a small nondescript restaurant that Dale and I probably never would have noticed. Although we've been eating nasi goreng and other Indonesian foods, we didn't know what food was specific to Bali and thoroughly enjoyed the spicy bowl of rice, cassava, tofu, coconut, tempeh (and chicken for Dale). We spent the better part of two hours talking and learning about Balinese philosophy from a very wise man. Tomorrow I'm taking the jamu class to learn to make herbal concoctions.
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