The Great Bali Escape: To Mount Batur!

I had NO idea what to do Bali. There’s only so much drinking and chilling out to be done, and we don’t particularly wish to visit temples after temples.

When my sister and her husband were in Bali, they went on a cycling trip around the countryside, leading to Lake Kintamani. There they had lunch overlooking the lake and the volcano mountains. It was great fun, scenic and they enjoyed it. If you’re interested, they booked it via Bike-Baik Tours.

Unfortunately Fireangel is as handy with a bicycle as I am well-versed with a long-term relationship. I half-jokingly told her that she had 4 months to learn. That didn’t happen, so cycling plans right out of the window.

Mount Batur!

The idea of lakes and volcanoes stuck with me. Upon Googling, I found out that you could trek up the volcano Batur mountain to catch the sunrise. Wow, doesn’t that sound adventurous, like something I’d never do? Let’s sign up for that one!

There’s this thing about holidays when you’re in idyllic bliss, and you believe you could do anything, include walk upwards a mountain with zero training. That was how I felt when I contacted Yande Ardana to book his services. Totally glossed over the “2 hours trekking + mountain” part.

Yande was to pick us up at our hotel at 2am. We’d been walking around Kuta/ Legian/ Seminyak earlier and went to bed at 9pm in hopes of getting decent sleep before our Mount Batur adventure. No such luck for me. I was uncomfortably sun-burnt, my flesh felt like it was burning from within. I could hear the hotel guests coming in and out, talking and splashing in the pool. I got hungry but there was nothing to eat. Looked over at FA sleeping soundly, almost jumped on her bed so she’d wake up and share my misery 😛

Finally it was 1.30 am. Got ready: Torchlight, check. Sunblock lotion, check. Wind breaker, check. Band aid, check. Willing spirit, check. Willing body, errr…

We asked Yande to bring us some place with food. The only food outlet open at 2am in Bali is McDonalds, no prizes for what we ended up with. I wolfed down a double cheeseburger that I would regret later.

Slept through most of the 2 hours journey to Kintamani, the foothills of Mount Batur. At this hour, the streets of Bali were deserted save for stray dogs aplenty. Initially Yande would point out local attractions, i.e. wood/ silver factories and villages as we drove past. He stopped when he saw us nodding off. I’m glad that we hired a guide/ driver. Don’t think I’d be able to navigate through the small, winding roads in the middle of the night even with GPS assistance.

We reached the foothill of the mountain in good time. Yande got us a hiking guide and negotiated a decent price – Rp300K (RM103) for the two of us, including a simple breakfast which was a lovely surprise.

Note on guides: If you’re unfamiliar with the area, it’s best to engage a guide. It’s dark and the trail could be misleading. I found out later that some folks paid double of what we paid, sorry you got ripped off.

I was already feeling lousy when we reached the foothills and guide hut. Then I saw the whiteboard in the hut and nearly got a heart attack. “Mount Batur climb is Moderate to Hard”??? What have I gotten myself into?!?

I must confess that by this time, my enthusiasm was absolutely nada.

We were introduced to our guide, an amiable chap called Wayan. There are many Wayans in Bali, click here to find out why. There were a few groups of trekkers with their own guides, some already walking towards the trail. Another chap named Ketut followed us. He wore slippers and carried a backpack filled with bottled waters and Coke to be sold to the tourists later at good prices. Mountain goats, all of them.

Peak of Mount Batur, 1,717 metres high, 2 hours of walking… here we come!

*Complete Flickr set of Mount Batur, Bali here.