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36 Hours in Ubud, Bali

Ubud is roughly 23 miles from Kuta but it took us almost two hours to get there because of traffic. The streets in Bali are clogged with cars and mopeds and it can take quite a long time to get anywhere. There is virtually no public transportation because everyone has a moped. In fact, Bali experimented with a public bus, but when nobody used it, they cancelled the service. The taxi ride was only 260,000 IDR ($18.20) which felt like a really good deal compared to the 20-minute taxi ride from the airport for which we paid 150,000 ($10.50). When we arrived in Ubud, the taxi driver dropped us off roughly half a mile from our hotel because of the network of one way streets and we walked up to the hotel.

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Relaxing in Kuta, Bali

Since Bali was added to our itinerary mostly because of the weather and the cheap flights, we had opted to only spend five days there. Since we’re not really beach people, we though more than three days at the beach might be overkill, so we split our stay into three days in Kuta where we could go to the beach, surf, and relax and two days in Ubud further north to see temples and rice fields. We’re really glad we did; these two areas of Bali were pretty different even though they had similar cultural feel.

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Here We Go – Phase 3!

We are heading to Asia, Australia and New Zealand for Phase 3. As with Phase 1 we want to follow summer and ideally with the same rules about not backtracking. Unfortunately since so many of our desired destinations (Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia) require flying, this turns out to be more challenging. South East Asia also has monsoon and very hot seasons we want to avoid as much as possible.

When it came to actually booking flights, we knew we would be leaving the US on roughly August 15th, so we looked up “best places to visit in Asia in August”. Our search returned Bali and Singapore, so we made those our first destinations. Bali won the honor of being first because we were able to book flights there from Rochester, MN, using Delta points for only $14.20 per ticket. To go all the way to Asia!!

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Week 8: Bicycling Clam Lake, WI to Onamia, MN

  1. Total distance: 382.7 miles (slightly more than a week)

Day 50 – 64.1 miles – Clam Lake, WI to Edgewater, WI

Since our campsite was buggy, we went back out to the town and found a picnic table there to make breakfast. While we were cooking two cyclists stopped to chat with us. They were doing a shorter ride heading back the direction we had come. We swapped tips and stories for over an hour before deciding we all better get on our bikes.

Clam Lake is Wisconsin’s elk capital of the world. Shortly after leaving Clam Lake we saw a series of elk-crossing warning systems that would flash if elk were near by. We never saw an elk but we saw lots of flashing lights.

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Week 7: Bicycling Ensign, MI to Clam Lake, WI

Total mileage: 302.4 miles

Days 43 – 35.8 miles – Ensign, MI to Lake Bluff, MI

Theme: Doesn’t the wind ever get tired? Poor planning means extra miles.

Our goal for the day was a short 25 miles from last night’s stealth camping spot. Since we are so far ahead of schedule and Eric’s presentation is in two days, we decided we should stay put for a few days. Eric needs good wifi for his presentation, and once we leave Escanaba, MI, we’re not sure if we’ll see wifi again for a while. Escanaba is only about 35 miles away though, so we needed a place to spend a few nights without breaking the bank. We opted to spend two nights at Pioneer Trail Campground between Lake Bluff and Wells and then splurge on a motel in Escanaba for the third night.

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Week 5: Bicycling Millington, MI to Ludington, MI

Total distance: 251.9 miles

Day 29 – 0 miles – Millington, MI – Rest Day # 3

Happy 4th of July!

Theme: Playing Wingspan, a fun game about birds that Paul and Maggie brought.

We spent the day hanging out with our friends and playing games. We interrupted a Wingspan marathon only to eat and to venture out into Frankenmuth. We strolled around the incredible Christmas shop there which sells Christmas tree ornaments of every color and theme imaginable.

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Week 4: Bicycling Hamilton, ON to Millington, MI

Total distance: 315.5 miles

Day 22 – 50.8 miles – Hamilton, ON to Port Ryerse, ON

By the morning, Jess’s rear tire had lost some pressure again, so it was clear there was, in fact, a leak. It still seemed slow enough that we decided to wait to patch it until we got to camp that night. Our goal for the day was to reconnect with the Adventure Cycling (AC) map near Lake Erie. We were using Google Maps directions since our Toronto detour wasn’t on the AC route. The day started out with roughly ten miles of the Escarpment Rail Trail which was beautiful. When that ended we were on Route 6 for the rest of the day, which was considerably less pretty and had a lot more traffic, but it had a decent shoulder, so the large trucks whizzing by weren’t too close.

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Week 3: Bicycling Rochester, NY to Hamilton, ON

Total distance: 233.75 miles

Day 15 – 0 miles – Rochester, NY

REST DAY! First order of business was our Healthy Me appointment which was scheduled for 10:45am. After getting weighed and measured, we had officially completed the most difficult step of saving money on next year’s health insurance premiums. We went in search of food and wifi and found ourselves in the cafe at Wegmans.

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