Our guide Wayan was pleasant, spoke good English and was funny at trying times. A mountain guide for 10 years now, it takes him just 40 minutes to leisurely walk up to the peak of Mount Batur. Coming down is a hop, a skip and a jump of 15 minutes. Ketut, the other guide carrying a backpack of drinks didn’t say much, but grinned a lot.

It was dark at 4 a.m. (duh). We relied on our torch lights to navigate through pebbles, rocks and uneven steps. Put on our jackets because of the early morning chill, but took them off after 15 minutes. After a bit of walking, we were hot and sweaty found it easier to continue without wearing them.

I can’t begin to describe how I felt at that time. We had to stop frequently because I found it quite difficult to continue on without. You know, being the fat and unfit lazy arse that I am.

Many times, the reality of what we were doing came crashing down at me. I couldn’t stop wondering, why the hell I signed up for this! FA was a trooper. She tried to encourage me and I am sorry for telling her to stop talking at times. Sorry… love your great intentions but it made me feel worse <3
Splendid view halfway up to the peak.

But for all that, it was VERY beautiful, even in the dark. The stars were shining bright and aplenty. I thought I saw The Archer, turns out I need more studying in constellations. Looking back, I would have liked to take in more of my surrounding view, but I was too exhausted to care much.

After an hour, I sat down and thought I could not move anymore. Wayan suggested that Ketut leads FA to the top, her being way fitter than I am in every sense, and he would continue with me. That was done, and we sat for a while longer before continuing on.

Side note: the mountain guides were randomly assigned to us, and I was REALLY glad that we got Wayan. Might even go offer incense to ze gods later as a note of thanks. I know I would not have made it to the peak without Wayan’s encouragement and help. Being an experienced guide, he’d come across situations like mine (i.e. unfit) plenty of times, and knows exactly what buttons to push to keep you going. Words fail to describe my appreciation, and I am SO DARN GRATEFUL for him!

Insert wondrous poetic lines here

The rest of the way up was grueling and backbreaking. Many times I fretted that we would miss the sunrise, but Wayan being the chillax guide that he is, smiled and confidently told me that we would make it.

“Relax.. take in your surroundings, the sunrise will be there.”

That helped… for 5 minutes. When I looked up to see the path’s 60 degree angle leading to the peak, can you spell demotivation? I didn’t think I would have any strength to haul myself up.

Wanted to quit. Almost teared up which disgusted myself because in the real world, this is not difficult!! But Wayan held my hand and let me take my time, going at my own pace. I apologised to him for my weakness and he kindly smiled, “Don’t think too much. Everyone has their own pace in Bali.”

Woah… that did the trick. I felt better after that.

This too shall pass.

And a full 60 minutes later, it did!

Bucket list, done

What can I say? It was breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL at the peak. Magnificent views overlooking the black lava from the 2000 eruption. Mount Abang and Mount Agung were resplendent in the horizon. Puffy cottony white clouds covered Lake Batur down below and unfortunately the rising sun. No matter, it was still a splendid sight to behold.

Mount Abang and Mount Agung

With the fantastic Wayan!

Later Wayan got us our breakfast – sandwich of boiled bananas and 2 hard-boiled eggs (apparently boiled using the natural hot spring water). Non-aggressive monkeys were every where hoping to get remnants of our breakfast.

We sat, chilled, chatted, took photos and videos. After an hour, the other tourists began to leave. Maybe they had tour schedules to keep, or have seen better, who knows.

After we were done with food, Wayan took us down the slope to see the sulphur spots, cave and crater. By the time we got back to the cabin at the peak, we were among the last couple of groups around. Was nice to have the whole place to ourselves, just sit around, take in the resplendent view and talked.

Remains of the lava from 2000

It was time to leave, else we’d end up fried Malaysians. Going down was slightly easier, though your thighs would feel like they’d wrestled Stone Cold the next day. At least we could see clearly now, things we’d missed on the way up, i.e. a tomato farm.

It was THAT steep. The top part of Mount Batur anyway.

Could hardly believe I was actually at the peak!

Best hiking pal ever.

What an incredible experience! Three things I learnt from this adventure:

1) Never eat oily food before trekking up a mountain. You’ll feel it at your throat later.
2) Some sleep is better than no sleep.
3) Never refuse a hand when offered. Very important, this.

Said thanks and goodbye to Wayan and the other guides. Yande (our day guide) took us to Lake Batur (also known as Danau Batur) so we could see Mount Batur from another side.

Danau Batur

View of Mount Batur from Lake Batur

I made a video of our Mount Batur experience. 6.50 mins, I was not very cohesive, BUT WHAT THE HECK I JUST WALKED UP A 1,717 METRE HIGH VOLCANO MOUNTAIN!! 😀

*Complete Flickr set of Mount Batur, Bali here.

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.