Never say never

For the first several weeks we were here the idea of self-navigating the Balinese roads presented a daunting prospect of doom and death. But the practicalities of relying on a driver to get us around meant that we were not doing as much with our days as we wanted. In quintessentially Canadian fashion there were times I didn't want to "interrupt" our driver's day with my whims of wanting to go here and there.

One afternoon Alex made a spur of the moment decision to rent a motor scooter. He happily set off with the wind at his back (what was it he said about Easy Rider?) while my visiting parents, (Jan and Ron) and I waited around in the heat for the driver. That was a month

ago and in the time since we have been becoming increasingly brave. In one especially Balinese moment we had Alex, Maia, Ava and me on a bike all at once. As you can imagine, that was tight so the ride lasted only until the closest rental shop and resulted in a second scooter. I now have my own pink scooter and we've gone on family outings by scooter.

The act of renting a motor bike is a funny experience. Basically we hand over 500 000 Indonesian Rupiah (about $60) for a months rental, the shopkeeper asks for our passports which we never have (they're with the visa people) we are asked where we are staying and for a phone number which is apparently sufficient to hand over the key. I have had to ask them when the expect the bike back and was even given extra days because February only had 28 days (?!). No insurance documents, no rental contracts, nothing. In fact, I realize as I write this that I don't want spend a lot of time thinking about it because it seems even more reckless than the act of driving the scooters in the first place. Enough said about that.

Back to the scooters; I love it and am having so much fun riding around. We stick to an area about 10 km square. In the morning the girls head off to school and after checking in with the world by internet Alex and I hop on the scooters, sometimes with Jan and Ron as passengers, and head off down the road. It's not possible to go very quickly because even if the cars, dogs, chickens, street vendors pushing trolleys, and push bikes weren't enough to keep things slow, the innumerable pot holes act as speed bumps.

The kids love it! Chloe absolutely cannot understand why we won't just give her the keys so she can ride off on her own. Maia stands in front of our knees and looks out the front watching the world go by. Ava sits behind giving me a big hug and talking all about everything as we ride along. It feels so nice.

Riah