Our Sweet Ride

When we started looking at houses to rent near Ubud, I had some anxiety.  All the villas were a 10-15 minute drive from town – or a long walk through rice fields, which we were told was not recommended.  Seeing as our main means of transportation during World Tour has been public transit (of which there is none) and our own feet, this posed a problem.  We were going to have to move into the countryside, and make that feasible, we were going to need a motorbike.

At first I was resistant to the motorbike.  When John suggested it, I was a definite no, probably due to years of training about the dangers of motorcycles in the US. But the more time we spent driving around Ubud, the more I noticed about the motorbikes.  First of all, they don’t go very fast.  You can’t – the roads here are all one lane and full of traffic.  Second, everyone seems to be riding one.  Which means there aren’t that many cars around that could run into the motorbike and cause serious damage to me or my loved one.  Third, there are old ladies riding motor bikes in Ubud.  If they can do it, it can’t be that dangerous, right?  Besides, I ride a flimsy road bike down curvy mountain roads going 25 miles an hour – surely going 15 miles an hour on a relatively flat and straight road on a motor bike should seem easy.

Once we found the house we wanted to rent, I agreed that John could learn to ride the motorbike, on loan from our landlord.  The first ride was just to get the feel of it.  The second time, he went to the grocery store and practiced riding home with extra weight on his back.  The third and fourth rides were practice in agility.  Before long, he was ready for me to join him.  I hopped on the bike and we took a very short ride down the road.  I practiced being a calm and steady passenger, and he got used to having an extra person on the bike.  A few days later, we rode together into the city for lunch, then went to the grocery store.  We successfully made it around all the turns, even loaded down with groceries in each of our backpacks.  It was fun riding around in our gorgeous environment, even if we weren’t going very fast.

That photo of John is a bit staged, by the way.  We always wear our helmets, but I made him take his off (it kinda makes him look like he’s about to be fired out of a canon :) )  We have helmets, though – look.  I’ll give you one guess which one is mine…

I’m not yet ready to learn how to ride it myself, but John thinks its only time until I’m running off on my own.  I’m not entirely convinced.  But I will admit that having our own transportation, and the independence that comes with it, has been pretty awesome.