Our flight from Dili, Timor-Leste, back to Denpasar, Bali, turned out a bit more expensive than we thought. Choosing a low-cost airline got back to us here as they charged a lot extra for all our bags and our two bikes in their cardboard boxes. The flight itself was smooth and we reached Denpasar on time and with all our baggage. We reassembled our bikes still inside the airport and cycled to the hotel where we would meet up with Chris and Tammie. 

Our reunion was awesome as we had not seen each other in the last 18 months. It was also the first time we both met his new girlfriend Tammie and we all got along really nicely from the beginning on. The first evening we spent with some drinks at the pool and had some awesome conversations. The next day we just spent in and around the hotel, only exploring the surrounding tourist trouble of Bali with a short walk. 

We were very glad to leave the hustle of street vendors and busy traffic behind when we left for the city of Ubud the next day. It is being described as the cultural center of Bali. Being located in the hills and a few hundred meters above sea level, the climate is way nicer and the vibe of the city is really enjoyable. There is still a lot of green everywhere and the many temples offer plenty of places to explore. In the end we stayed three nights in Ubud, spending one day renting scooters to explore the area and a close-by night market and half day we enjoyed a Balinese cooking course to get an insight into how to recreate all the yummi treats and food you get everywhere. 

Our next destination was the island of Nusa Penida, a small rocky paradise off the shore of Bali. We found a really cute bed & breakfast we stayed in and used the one day we had on the island to explore it by scooter. In order to see the sunrise at Atuh Beach, we hopped on our scooters at 5am and spent the whole day surrounding the island on the one and only small and windy road they have. The harsh and steep cliffs were awesome to look at and we had a great time on the island. 

With only two weeks on hand we had to move on again and with only Chris and Jonas having a diving certificate yet, we decided to travel to the small town of Amed in the East of Bali to go diving. Vroni and Tammie spend three days on their PADI Open Water Diver course and Chris and me enjoyed two amazing dives each day. With only 20€ per dive, we felt we could treat ourselves a bit and each morning we left for a different dive site. The awesome thing about diving in Amed is that all their sites are accessible from the beach, meaning you do not need a boat to get there and it is only a short drive away. The dive area is famous for the wreck of the USAT Liberty, an American army transport ship that was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in WWII. The sailors managed to shore the ship before it could sink but the lava of a volcanic eruption ended up pushing the wreck into the sea where it rests now in a depth of 5-30m. This wreck is fully covered in marine life we saw a reef shark, turtles, an octopus and a great diversity of other fish and corals. On the fourth day in Amed we went on our first dives with the girls after they finished their course and we all had a great time together. 

With our two weeks of time together ending soon, we decided to visit the mountainous centre of the island where you can see waterfalls and amazing scenery. One last time we used rented scooters to explore the area with all its waterfalls before we had to get back to Denpasar for Chris and Tammie to catch their flight to Bangkok where they will keep on travelling. 

All in all our time together was a blast. The diversity of things we have done, places we have seen and conversations we had was just great and Vroni and I were a bit sad to see them leave. After they left we spent one more day in Denpasar to reorganise all our bags and get ready to hop back on the bikes in direction of Java and the city of Jakarta eventually. 

All the best from Indonesia, 

Keep cycling, 

Vroni, Droni & Joni