It has been a busy 10 days but we are now relaxing in Ubud, so time to catch up with what has been happening!
We loved our stay in Seminyak at the Seminyak Beach Resort and Spa, which is a great hotel. Ideally located for direct access to the beach, on which you can walk 5 kilometres either way, watching surfers, joggers, dog walkers or just enjoying the ocean breakers. Seminyak is the up-market part of the South West Coast with great shopping and restaurants. Our favourite were Bambu and Sarong but lots of top quality restaurants to choose from.
We moved to the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel last Thursday to meet up with 75 members of the IVCA who had come from around the world for our first rally in Asia. It was a bold move by our President Dirk van Luchem, but the enthusiastic Indonesians treated us to an amazing 4 days of celebration of the Bicycle!
At the opening Gala Dinner we were welcomed with a performance of the Ganesha dance:

The President of KOSTI, the Indonesian Cycle Club organising the event, was pleased to take delivery of my 1878 Bayliss Thomas Penny Farthing, and a small piece of ole English cycling history is now the prize piece in his collection of old bicycles:

We welcomed 10 KOSTI members who had cycled 1200 miles from Jakarta to celebrate the opening of the IVCA rally:

The next day we planned to participate in a 100km distance ride, but with temperatures of 32 degC and 90% humidity we decided on a more leasurely ride to plant mangroves to protect against future tsunamis. Meanwhile, there was a constant stream of cyclists arriving from all over Asia to take part in our Rally


Saturday was jumble sale and race day, and was greeted with a sunrise and view of Mount Agung, which thankfully was not threatening to erupt!

There was some competitive racing, especially the Penny Farthing races, with the reproduction Penny winners being Arie Liefhebber in the men’s and the young Kamila Fialova in the ladies:

I won the bronze medal in the original Penny Farthing race – the other riders had more modern originals with inventions like ball bearings!
The evening dinner was again a festival of music and dance, and attended by the Minister of Tourism and the Head of Police. There was a parade of National flags

and much dancing:

Sunday was the International Costume Parade, prefaced by music and dance entertainment, and over 8000 riders in some amazing National outfits!

And then there were the IVCA members:

We rode 20 kms through the centre of Denpasar without stopping, while the excellent team of 300+ police stopped the traffic at every junction to allow us to pass through!
At the IVCA AGM on Sunday afternoon, Dirk passed the Presidency to Brian Rosenberg from Denmark, and I was elected as Vice President! Much praise was given to the excellent organisation of the Rally in Bali to the Committee, and in particular to Fahmi Saimima who has been fantastic!

Our final day together was a visit to the Mason Elephant Park and the forest before a most special evening in Ubud where we were welcomed by the King of Ubud to have dinner at his Palace! What a treat for us all! He was a warm and interesting man, spoke 6 languages, was fascinated by our passion for cycling, and is now the owner of an Indonesian Penny Farthing!

It was a very special evening which brought our Rally to a close, with fond memories of all the special people we met over our 4 days together. Thanks to all involved in organising a great IVCA Rally in wonderful Bali!