Sanur Back Lanes: Village and Rice Field Cycling

Nyoman knows the lanes the tour buses cannot fit down. You leave Sanur early while it is still cool, ride out through Sanur Kaja and Renon, and pick up the irrigation tracks between the last working rice fields inside the Denpasar city boundary.

It is flat the whole way — around thirty kilometres, but easy, and Nyoman sets a pace that suits the group. You stop at a subak water temple where he explains how the thousand-year-old irrigation cooperative still decides who gets water and when, at a family compound for coffee, and at a warung for lunch.

Bikes are hybrid, well maintained, and Nyoman services them himself the night before. A support vehicle follows the whole route.