Keep on rolling: Kadek Ratni is ready to ride.

Wearing very short shorts and a hot pink polka-dot T-shirt, 19-year-old Kadek Ratni sits sideways on a chair with her legs swung over the arms. She is discussing her first encounter with a motorbike.

'I started riding my automatic three-wheeler bike in 2010. I was full of confidence when I took off, but then one of the back wheels fell off and I was thrown into a creek ' I watched my leg sail through the air,' says Ratni, bursting with laughter at the memory. Ratni's legs often come off. She is a double amputee and wears thigh-length prostheses. 'I wasn't hurt in the crash, but it was so funny watching my leg go flying,' says Ratni who felt a new freedom when she learned to ride.

Ratni was born at home with her knees bending the wrong way. Her mother was assisted at birth by a local midwife and medical intervention for Ratni's disability was far outside the family's financial capacity, so her problem was left untreated. Until she was 16, Ratni walked on the backs of her knees.

A botched operation in Yogyakarta only made things worse. 'They operated on my feet, not my knees. Malpractice,' says Ratni who was then sent to Singapore in hopes of improving her mobility.

'The doctor there said I had two choices ' one was that he could straighten my legs but so that they would never bend at the knee and the other was double amputation above my knees,' says Ratni of a decision no 16-year-old should ever be faced with.

Road warrior: Have wheels will travel.
'After a month I decided on amputation because I wanted to continue my schooling ' I was in junior high at the time,' says Ratni who was unable to ride a scooter when she still had knees that bent the wrong way.

These days Ratni is one among many differently-abled people at Senang Hati in Tampak Siring, an organization established by the disabled for the disabled.

The term disabled just doesn't mesh with these extraordinary people who are far more able than a great many of us with all body parts in working order.

Senang Hati has established a restaurant, which was full to overflowing the day The Jakarta Post visited, and offers Happy Hearts Tours to nearby destinations on motorbikes modified to offset missing or malfunctioning legs.

One driver is 24-year-old Rudi, who lost the use of his legs to polio, as did his 14-year-old brother, Wayan. 'Taking people on tours is fantastic. It's a great way for people to see local places and we as drivers feel really proud because although we are disabled we can show the world that disabled people can be inspirational to others. For myself I can dance, play music, go diving and drive for our Happy Hearts Tours group,' says Rudi, who recently joined a lap of honor with motorbike marathon rider Sri Lestari, who despite her paralysis from the ribs down rode a modified motor scooter from Jakarta to Bali.

On the go: A Senang Hati member is proud to advertise the group's tours while riding her modified motor bike.'People would not believe she could do that, but Sri proves we can do this. She makes us as disabled people really proud. She is living proof we can do anything,' says Rudi during a birthday party event for a Denpasar 17-year-old catered and held at Senang Hati.

The head of Happy Hearts Tours is 30-year-old Gusti Lanang Putu, who lost his right leg in a crash with a truck when he was 2. He recalls the anguish he suffered following the amputation of his leg and the realization that the life he knew had been extinguished with the crash.

'For 12 months I did not want to leave my home. And then I had a friend from Yayasan Bunga Bali, which is like Senang Hati. She came over and picked me up to go out. She is also an amputee and the girl she came with had polio. I felt confident in myself. I started an eight-month computer course and my spirits started to lift again,' says Gusti. 'It was like the light had come back,' says his wife of five years, Ayu, or 'Like a flower blooming again,' says another Happy Hearts Tour driver, polio victim Wayan Sugianto.

'To people who lose a leg, I can just say don't be scared and never give up, because there is still a lot of life to live ' a good life,' says Gusti, his 3-year-old son perched on his knee and surrounded by good friends all with different abilities; abilities which when brought together make the extraordinary people of Senang Hati and Happy Hearts Tours an unstoppable and inspirational force.

Tricked out: Gusti Lanang Putu, the head of Happy Hearts Tours, with his modified motor bike.

Unstoppable: Disability is no block to the driving team from Happy Hearts Tours in Tampak Siring.

' Photos by J.B. Djwan