We did a downhill cycling tour with Bali Eco tours.  It was amazing! They picked us up in morning and drove us up the mountain where we had breakfast overlooking Mt. Batur, the volcano and its crater lake. The view was spectacular! You could see the black rock from the last lava flow which happened in the ’60s and took out a big temple. Next we stopped at a plantation where they were roasting the coffee by hand and we got to sample the local coffees, teas and fruits. We tried some crazy looking fruits…snakeskin fruit was probably the strangest looking but actually tasted pretty good. We even tried the Luwak coffee which is made from beans that are 1st eaten by certain species of cat, the beans ferment in the stomach and then are cleaned and harvested from the cats poop before being roasted and brewed into coffee. If you’ve seen The Bucket List then you’ve probably heard about Luwak coffee. It actually tasted ok…just very strong and I’m not much of a coffee drinker anyway.  Then we got on our mountain bikes with our guide, Ketut, who was super cool and funny!  Plus he made sure to stop for lots of pictures! It was 25K, mostly downhill through tons of little villages and rice fields.  Children would run out as we ride by shouting “hello”, waving and giving us high fives. We stopped at one family compound and got to go inside and see how a traditional Balinese family lives. Many generations all live together in a series of small huts or buildings, at the back of the property were the animals…a cow, pigs and chickens. Each family compound also has a temple in which they make offerings every day. Most of the women were busy weaving bamboo mats. Balinese women work very hard in the home and in the fields. Even the grandma was busy weaving a mat. We also stopped in the rice paddies along the way and planted rice and harvested rice. The ride ended in the afternoon with a wonderful lunch overlooking the rice paddies. Yummy smoked duck and chicken, chicken satays, fried rice, gado gado, peanut sauce, vegetables…amazing! We ended the day at the monkey forest in Ubud.  These monkeys weren’t nearly as aggressive as the ones at the temple but they still tried to steal some things from peoples pockets and handbags. You definitely do not wear a hat or sunglasses when seeing the monkeys because they will steal it and they are sneaky!