The good and the bad of our mini trip to Lovina

We were eager to explore more of the island of Bali before we left.

Bryce suggested we take a moped road-trip to the northern part of Bali to see how the locals lived there and to check out a popular waterfall up that way.

So we booked an AirBnb and were on the road a few days later.

The drive from where we were in the south, Canggu, to where we were going in the north, Lovina, was going to take just over two hours.

The first hour was a lot of fun. The sun was shining, we saw rice terraces, a bunch of cute dogs, coconut trees everywhere, and overall beautiful scenery.

The more we drove, the less tourists we saw and we knew we were really experiencing the island.

The second hour can only be described as stressful and terrifying.

It started to rain a little so we pulled over at a gas station to put on our ponchos. We decided we would keep driving until the rain was too heavy.

That didn’t take long and about 10 minutes later we found ourselves at a convenience store called Indomaret, hiding from the rain and going inside to pick up some snacks.

We settled on Oreos, barbeque chips, iced tea and a seltzer.

We ate outside, surrounded by a large crowd of Indonesians also taking cover from the rain as we all watched the steep street in front of us begin to flood.

After about 20 minutes the rain had let up enough to keep going and we were hopping back on the moped to continue our road-trip.

We were surprised with how long we were driving up for.

It seemed we were climbing a never-ending mountain.

While talking about just that Bryce said “what goes up” and I replied “must come down.”

Little did we know the degree in which we would be going down.

Nevertheless, we tried to make the most of our rainy trip and were taking in the views of a beautiful lake we drove around with rice terraces and villages etched into the side of the neighboring mountain.

All of this while still climbing up the southern side of a mountain.

Then with one right turn we began the descent down the other side.

At this point we were 30-40 minutes away from our AirBnb, the rain had picked up a bit and we were on the steepest and windiest road either of us had ever been on.

It was a very remote part of the island. It was just us and the locals as we made our way through the mountainous jungle.

20 or 30 minutes into this section of the drive, our uncomfort with what we were experiencing had made its way out as we were talking about how this is the scariest thing either of us had done.

Let me paint a picture for you.

There we are, in the rain, wearing our blue and orange ponchos. I am also wearing a large backpack holding everything we needed for two nights away. We are on our brown Honda Scoopy moped, riding down a hill so long and so steep that I have become tired from holding myself back in order to not put all my weight on Bryce.

As we are rounding a corner Bryce yells back to me “the brakes failed, jump off, jump off!” as we are now headed towards brush off the left side of the road.

Next thing I know, we hit the ground and Bryce is helping me up as a truck full of Indonesian construction workers has pulled off the road behind us.

Bryce and I make sure we are okay as the men approach us asking the same question.

By the grace of God there were no major injuries. The only one being that Bryce was left with a small cut on his ankle where the bike landed on him and a bruised heel.

I actually had more cuts and bruises after the volcano hike than I did this.

The very kind group of men that stopped to help immediately began pulling our bike out of the brush and were lifting it into the bed of their truck.

They told us to climb in with it and we were driving down the remaining 10 minutes of the mountain before we could even process what really just happened.

We got to the bottom of the mountain and the men pulled over at an empty store front so that we could get out of the rain long enough for them to administer first aid on Bryce’s ankle.

After Bryce was tended to they asked where we were going, we showed them on a map and one of the guys, who seemed to be the one in charge, said that they would take us there.

Back in the truck bed we went and about 10 minutes later we were outside our AirBnb.

The men unloaded our moped, we gave them 200K IDR ($13 USD), although they didn't ask for anything, and thanked them profusely for helping us.

And guess what was less than 50 feet from our place.

A moped repair shop.

We quickly checked into our room and then walked the moped across the street where we explained what happened and they began looking at it.

As we waited we decided to walk to the main road not too far away and get some money from an ATM.

Right on par with how the day had gone so far, the ATM gave us the money but didn’t return my card.

Now we don’t have any way to get money as my card was the only one that worked.

Upset and annoyed after calling the bank that owned the ATM, and my own bank and not getting an answer from either, we decided we would go to the actual bank in the morning to see if they could help. Then we walked back to the moped.

By the time we got there we had brand new rear brakes and paid 70K IDR ($4.50 USD) for them.

We went back to our AirBnb and were in for the night.

Bryce made us dinner of chicken and potatoes and we played a couple rounds of Beerio-Kart as we talked about the insane day we had.

Bryce says that if the moped accident had happened 100 times, 99 times would have been worse than what happened to us.

And he’s right. There were cliffs all over that road we were driving, there wasn’t always somewhere safe to crash, we could have broken bones on impact with the ground, been crushed by the bike, we could have run into someone else or totaled the moped.

We went to bed shaken by the accident but simultaneously grateful that it went as well as it did and we were okay.

First thing the next morning we took a quick stop at the bank that owned the ATM that ate my card to be told there was no promise they could get my card back.

Which we were prepared to hear but still annoying.

Then we made our way to the real adventure of the trip up north, Aling Aling waterfall. Which is actually a series of four waterfalls: Aling Aling, Kroya, Kembar and Pucuk.

You can’t swim in Aling Aling waterfall because it is sacred and the current is way too strong but the other three you are allowed to jump in and one you can slide down.

When we got to the stand that sells the tickets for admission to the falls we paid 125K IDR ($8 USD) each to get in. This price also included a guide so that we can safely jump, learn a little about the waterfalls, a lifejacket and a bottle of water each.

There is a cheaper package for 20K IDR ($1.30 USD) but you aren’t allowed to jump or swim because it isn’t guided.

We met our guide, Ketut, and began the short 15 minute walk to the falls.

Ketut was very nice and kept us entertained and laughing the whole trip. He guessed that we were seniors in high school, told us about “the accident” which was him having a kid, and in our videos he was joking that he is American and we were showing him around Bali.

We first stopped at a rock wall on the side of the jungle that had water flowing down it. Ketut explained that this water is clean and even used to be the area’s drinking water.

Next stop was Aling Aling where we stood and appreciated the waterfall for a few minutes and took a picture as Ketut told us how sacred it is.

Then it was time for what we really came here for.

We made our way to the three other waterfalls, Kroya, Kembar and Pucuk while Ketut was telling us to prepare ourselves.

The first waterfall was Kroya with a 5 meter (16 foot) cliff to jump off of facing it.

Bryce dove off it first then I followed.

We both jumped twice then Bryce took two slides down Kroya which is 12 meters (39 feet). One on his back then another head first on his stomach.

Moving right along to Kembar waterfall, which translates to twins in Indonesian. Named appropriately because there are two waterfalls side by side with a jump point of 10 meters (32 feet) in between.

You got to Kembar by sliding down a little rock waterslide from Kroya.

You wouldn't know it by my face in the video we made from that day but the rock waterslide was fun, I was just worried about scratching up my back on the way down.

Bryce took the jump from Kembar (I stopped after the first cliff because I’m scared of heights) and I met him on the other side as he prepared for the biggest jump of the day.

Pucuk waterfall was up next at a whopping 15 meters (49 feet).

Bryce jumped off this cliff three times, it was his favorite of them all.

We waded in the water below Pucuk for a little bit after his third jump before calling it quits for the day.

We walked back to the top and out of the jungle, thanked and tipped Ketut then hopped back on our moped and drove the 30 minutes back to our AirBnb.

We made a quick stop at Pepito’s, the local grocery store chain to pick up some food for dinner. Bryce got a steak (25K IDR/$1.60 USD), I got a chicken breast (33K IDR/$2.13 USD), another potato, spinach and a bell pepper.

Bryce made dinner while I put together the video from our day. We ate then went to bed early, anxious for the moped drive back to Canggu the next morning.

We decided to get up early to beat both the rain and the traffic.

Our alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., we got packed up and were out the door just after 7.

We reluctantly got back on the moped, not knowing what to expect on the two hour ride back. All we knew was we were prepared to stop as often as needed to let the brakes cool down.

The first half of the trip was, of course, all uphill.

We weren't sure the moped was going to make it up certain stretches but thankfully it did.

The view from the top of the mountain was gorgeous though.

We could see all the villages down by the ocean and another mountain with clouds circling the peak.

It was beautiful and I'm glad it wasn’t raining like it was on the way down, otherwise we would have missed the view again.

About five minutes, maybe less, into the beginning of the downhill portion of the trip we took a break.

We let the brakes rest as we took in the view of rice terraces and laughed at the monkeys that were all around us.

After a few minutes we got back on the moped, drove for a bit, and took another break.

We were a bit paranoid about the brakes giving out a second time.

About 10 minutes after that second break we were going down, you guessed it, another steep and windy mountain side road when Bryce was all the way in on the brakes but not much braking was going on. He pulled over and we quickly noticed the front brakes were smoking.

We decided we didn’t want to risk another crash/brake failure so we called a tow truck to get us down the mountain.

But the business owner told us he only towed cars, not mopeds, so we had to come up with a new plan.

The plan was to walk the moped down the mountain.

It turned out that we stopped right before the last turn so that made walking the moped down less daunting.

We took baby steps down as I held the back of the bike and pulled it backwards while Bryce held up the front and steered.

It was maybe 100 yards of this.

Once we got close to the bottom and could see the road flatten out, Bryce jumped on the moped and rode it down until it stopped and I walked down and met him where he was.

By the time we initially pulled over, thought about what to do, called the tow company and walked the bike down, 30 minutes had passed.

Figuring that was enough time for the brakes to cool down we went on with the hour remaining in the trip.

Apart from a couple more nerve-wracking hills, we made it back to Canggu without a scratch.

As a celebration of surviving that entire trip we ordered the most delicious pizzas we’ve had on the island.

Tony’s New York Pizza. A bianca pizza and a buffalo chicken pizza.

It was a bit of a splurge (I think it was around $20 USD for both) but we didn’t care because we were happy to be alive.

It’s the next day now, we are packing to leave for Thailand tomorrow and we just returned the moped to where we rented it from.

Bittersweet.