Day 5 - Rice fields and Sidemen

This morning we set of towards Sidemen but stopped off 30 minutes in to be met with a spectacular view of some rice fields. It was full of tourists so photos were difficult but it is still an amazing place to visit. Considering these fields are used solely for agricultural purposes the fact that they are so beautiful is just a happy coincidence! It was about 30 degrees whilst we were there and even just walking up and down the terraces was tough work.

Next was our bike ride!! Luckily enough when we arrived at the place to pick up the bikes the sun had disappeared behind the sun.
So I haven’t ridden a bike in years so was a little unsure about how a three hour “offpiste” bike ride would go. With very little padding on the bike seat and a very fetching helmet we head off into the “real Bali” as the tour guide explained.

The ride itself wasn’t really that taxing, with it being mostly downhill, however every so often we had to go off road and that hurt, a lot!

We stopped off at a house that was growing Mandarin, Chillis and had fighting chickens that they kept caged up by the house. We picked the slightly yellow mandarins and ate them straight from the tree which was lovely! They tasted like diluted orange juice.

From there we had another hours cycle before stopping at a restaurant for lunch. None of the items were cooked without peanut oil so I went without and just enjoyed the views. They kept frogs in a small pond that they dipped into every so often when someone ordered frogs legs.... 🤢.

After the bike ride we all collapsed by the pool of the new hotel which was lovely. We drove into Sidemen which is smack bang in the centre of all of the rice fields. The hotel looks out over a small forest with waterfalls cascading underneath, utterly paradise!