Saturday 18th August
To say we had an early start would be a big understatement. In fact, it was so early it could still, sort of, be classed as 'late'. We got picked up from the hotel at 2am for a pre-dawn hike up Mount Batur, so we could watch the sunrise from the summit.
The volcano lies in the north-east of Bali, in the centre of two concentric calderas (basically enormous sinkholes formed after an eruption). After picking up two more people and driving for about 45 minutes, we stopped at a roadside coffee place for a small breakfast of banana pancakes and a hot drink. There were so many people there, dozens of groups brought in by different drivers. It's obviously a massive business. It was weird, actually; if you're up and out in the dark hours of the morning it's usually still and quiet and peaceful, so it was strange to be somewhere so busy and surrounded by the buzzing of lots of people talking.
After that breakfast stop it was another 45 minutes or so in the car. We arrived at a large car park and our driver introduced us to Jordan, the young man who would be our guide up the mountain. After taking the last opportunity for the next five hours to visit the lavatory (squat toilet! This morning was the first time I'd come across them, hadn't even known they existed, so it was quite amusing!), we, along with at least couple of thousand other people (I'm not exaggerating), started along the road towards the mountain. Jordan told us it would take a couple of hours to climb.
It was pitch black and freezing cold, and our way was lit only by torchlight. After a while the paved road ended and became a dirt track, leading into fields where we had to move into single file, and eventually started climbing upwards as a narrow rocky path which quickly became steep and strenuous. In such darkness, you have no idea what's either side of you, or what's ahead, or really what's behind, which in a way is a good thing, as you don't have a choice to do anything other than look at the ground in front of your feet, and focus on where you're putting them. You're also part of a very long queue of people, so you have to be aware of those in front of and behind you too, you can't really go at your own pace. The hike isn't tough, but it is a challenge and your leg muscles most certainly protest.
At various points along the route, locals had set up chairs or little stalls and were selling water and hot drinks and chocolate bars, having made the trek up here themselves, something they probably do everyday. It was still pitch black when we arrived at the top, and Jordan led us to one of a few little picnic tables where he said we'd get a great view. It wasn't quite the summit - that would take another half hour of clambering up a steep slope, and we could see an unbroken line of torchlights up there already - but none of us minded at all. It did mean sitting down in the freezing cold for 45 minutes though, which was not fun, although it finally gave me a chance to look up at the amazing stars for a few minutes. Jordan disappeared to the guide huts, and after a while he brought us out another small breakfast of a banana sandwich and a hard-boiled egg each. The latter were still in their shells and hot from the pan and we just held them in our hands for a while! The arrival of the food also meant the arrival of some very cute puppies!
In the pre-dawn grey light it was very foggy, and we were worried we wouldn't actually get to see anything. Thankfully it did start to break up and, as the sky changed from inky blue to pink and orange, we were able to see the view spread out below: an area of damaged landscape from an old eruption, the villages, the lake, and, on the opposite side of the water, Mount Agung - a sacred mountain, the highest point on the island, and another volcano which erupted at the end of last year.
Walking down was tough! Walking down a steep hill is always harder than going up, because you're bracing yourself and trying not to slip, and this took maybe an hour and a half. It was great to be able to see the wonderful views, though, if only through quick glances upwards, and the warm sunlight was very welcome! As we reached the flatter land and paved road again, we were surrounded by little farms, small fields of different types of crops. I was struck by just how basically the people here lived. That is, how poor it was. Their homes were just little huts, shacks made from combinations of breeze blocks, corrugated metal sheets, sheets of wood or plywood, tarpaulins, things like that; present-day versions of the 19th-century miner's hut at Herberton in Queensland. And there we were, thousands of tourists just walking past at our leisure, going back to hotels and forward travel to other holiday destinations or back to comfortable homes and fairly easy, well-paid jobs which give us money to spend on luxuries. It was a bit uncomfortable, which is a good thing. We're so cocooned and fortunate and take a lot for granted. I know there are places where poverty is much, much worse, but even here I can't imagine what life must be like, what an average day is like for the people who live and work in those fields, it's so different to my own. How many are content, accepting their way of life with grace and doing the best they can, and how many scream out for more?
It hasn't really struck me till now, even though I'm writing this over a month later: I climbed a mountain. A small one, yes, which may have only taken a couple of hours to hike, but it was a mountain, it was a bit of a challenge and something I haven't done before. I climbed a mountain. Cool! I didn't fully appreciate that fact when I was there doing it. I was focusing on where my feet were going and then was so cold sat at the top that I didn't actually try to stop my thoughts and just pause, observe what I had just done and where I was. Mindfulness is another skill, habit, I'd like to cultivate. Doing the hike reminded me that, for a few weeks several months ago, I wanted to climb Snowdon one day... then completely forgot about it! During this hike, I thought "Ah, this is tough enough, this'll do, this can count as a mountain climb instead of Snowdon!" But now, it being in the past and not something I'm physically struggling with at this moment, maybe I will make myself do Snowdon one day!
We got back into Ubud around 10, and my sister's friend promptly went to sleep for the rest of the day. After a few hours of doing nothing much, my sister and I went out for a late, light lunch to a place we had passed on Thursday, which had a pretty view of the rice paddy out back. Then at 5pm I went to the Yoga Barn for a salsa class, which was great fun! I put on the one nice dress I'd brought with me, a light blue, slightly floaty, knee-length pretty summer dress, thinking - it's a salsa class on a Saturday night, dress up a bit! Very quickly wished I hadn't, haha. That's not the kind of dress people wear around Ubud, and the others in the class were wearing ordinary clothes or yoga-wear. Oh well! The teacher was an exuberant, enthusiastic young Cuban with a colourful oversized shirt and a thick accent we struggled to understand. Somehow this somewhat effeminate young man was one of the most masculine men I have ever encountered, probably perhaps because it wasn't in a stereotypical way. He wasn't at all butch, but was strong and lean, and gave off a vibe of just knowing himself and being perfectly comfortable and confident in all aspects of himself. Plus he could dance, and dance well. This isn't to say I was attracted to him, it's just an objective, appreciative comment. Anyway, I had wanted to try salsa dancing for a long time, and it was good fun, I'm definitely going to look for some classes I can go to at home.
The volcano lies in the north-east of Bali, in the centre of two concentric calderas (basically enormous sinkholes formed after an eruption). After picking up two more people and driving for about 45 minutes, we stopped at a roadside coffee place for a small breakfast of banana pancakes and a hot drink. There were so many people there, dozens of groups brought in by different drivers. It's obviously a massive business. It was weird, actually; if you're up and out in the dark hours of the morning it's usually still and quiet and peaceful, so it was strange to be somewhere so busy and surrounded by the buzzing of lots of people talking.
After that breakfast stop it was another 45 minutes or so in the car. We arrived at a large car park and our driver introduced us to Jordan, the young man who would be our guide up the mountain. After taking the last opportunity for the next five hours to visit the lavatory (squat toilet! This morning was the first time I'd come across them, hadn't even known they existed, so it was quite amusing!), we, along with at least couple of thousand other people (I'm not exaggerating), started along the road towards the mountain. Jordan told us it would take a couple of hours to climb.
It was pitch black and freezing cold, and our way was lit only by torchlight. After a while the paved road ended and became a dirt track, leading into fields where we had to move into single file, and eventually started climbing upwards as a narrow rocky path which quickly became steep and strenuous. In such darkness, you have no idea what's either side of you, or what's ahead, or really what's behind, which in a way is a good thing, as you don't have a choice to do anything other than look at the ground in front of your feet, and focus on where you're putting them. You're also part of a very long queue of people, so you have to be aware of those in front of and behind you too, you can't really go at your own pace. The hike isn't tough, but it is a challenge and your leg muscles most certainly protest.
At various points along the route, locals had set up chairs or little stalls and were selling water and hot drinks and chocolate bars, having made the trek up here themselves, something they probably do everyday. It was still pitch black when we arrived at the top, and Jordan led us to one of a few little picnic tables where he said we'd get a great view. It wasn't quite the summit - that would take another half hour of clambering up a steep slope, and we could see an unbroken line of torchlights up there already - but none of us minded at all. It did mean sitting down in the freezing cold for 45 minutes though, which was not fun, although it finally gave me a chance to look up at the amazing stars for a few minutes. Jordan disappeared to the guide huts, and after a while he brought us out another small breakfast of a banana sandwich and a hard-boiled egg each. The latter were still in their shells and hot from the pan and we just held them in our hands for a while! The arrival of the food also meant the arrival of some very cute puppies!
In the pre-dawn grey light it was very foggy, and we were worried we wouldn't actually get to see anything. Thankfully it did start to break up and, as the sky changed from inky blue to pink and orange, we were able to see the view spread out below: an area of damaged landscape from an old eruption, the villages, the lake, and, on the opposite side of the water, Mount Agung - a sacred mountain, the highest point on the island, and another volcano which erupted at the end of last year.
Walking down was tough! Walking down a steep hill is always harder than going up, because you're bracing yourself and trying not to slip, and this took maybe an hour and a half. It was great to be able to see the wonderful views, though, if only through quick glances upwards, and the warm sunlight was very welcome! As we reached the flatter land and paved road again, we were surrounded by little farms, small fields of different types of crops. I was struck by just how basically the people here lived. That is, how poor it was. Their homes were just little huts, shacks made from combinations of breeze blocks, corrugated metal sheets, sheets of wood or plywood, tarpaulins, things like that; present-day versions of the 19th-century miner's hut at Herberton in Queensland. And there we were, thousands of tourists just walking past at our leisure, going back to hotels and forward travel to other holiday destinations or back to comfortable homes and fairly easy, well-paid jobs which give us money to spend on luxuries. It was a bit uncomfortable, which is a good thing. We're so cocooned and fortunate and take a lot for granted. I know there are places where poverty is much, much worse, but even here I can't imagine what life must be like, what an average day is like for the people who live and work in those fields, it's so different to my own. How many are content, accepting their way of life with grace and doing the best they can, and how many scream out for more?
It hasn't really struck me till now, even though I'm writing this over a month later: I climbed a mountain. A small one, yes, which may have only taken a couple of hours to hike, but it was a mountain, it was a bit of a challenge and something I haven't done before. I climbed a mountain. Cool! I didn't fully appreciate that fact when I was there doing it. I was focusing on where my feet were going and then was so cold sat at the top that I didn't actually try to stop my thoughts and just pause, observe what I had just done and where I was. Mindfulness is another skill, habit, I'd like to cultivate. Doing the hike reminded me that, for a few weeks several months ago, I wanted to climb Snowdon one day... then completely forgot about it! During this hike, I thought "Ah, this is tough enough, this'll do, this can count as a mountain climb instead of Snowdon!" But now, it being in the past and not something I'm physically struggling with at this moment, maybe I will make myself do Snowdon one day!
We got back into Ubud around 10, and my sister's friend promptly went to sleep for the rest of the day. After a few hours of doing nothing much, my sister and I went out for a late, light lunch to a place we had passed on Thursday, which had a pretty view of the rice paddy out back. Then at 5pm I went to the Yoga Barn for a salsa class, which was great fun! I put on the one nice dress I'd brought with me, a light blue, slightly floaty, knee-length pretty summer dress, thinking - it's a salsa class on a Saturday night, dress up a bit! Very quickly wished I hadn't, haha. That's not the kind of dress people wear around Ubud, and the others in the class were wearing ordinary clothes or yoga-wear. Oh well! The teacher was an exuberant, enthusiastic young Cuban with a colourful oversized shirt and a thick accent we struggled to understand. Somehow this somewhat effeminate young man was one of the most masculine men I have ever encountered, probably perhaps because it wasn't in a stereotypical way. He wasn't at all butch, but was strong and lean, and gave off a vibe of just knowing himself and being perfectly comfortable and confident in all aspects of himself. Plus he could dance, and dance well. This isn't to say I was attracted to him, it's just an objective, appreciative comment. Anyway, I had wanted to try salsa dancing for a long time, and it was good fun, I'm definitely going to look for some classes I can go to at home.
My sister and her friend met me after the class and we went to the same hotel restaurant from Thursday. I had a beef curry this time, which was again very nice but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the yellow vegetable curry before. There was a performance of traditional Balinese dance. The costumes were brightly colourful and elaborate, with headdresses and a lot of make-up. There must be some meaning behind all the movements, but because I didn't know what they are, to be honest it was just a bit bizarre. I probably could have appreciated it a bit more if there wasn't head-jerking and weird creepy eye movements. But I'm glad I got to see some traditional Balinese dancing!
Oh, and although the curry wasn't as wonderful as the one I'd had before, the pudding I ordered was wonderful. Super simple - deep fried bananas - but gorgeous! The batter was sweetened with delicious palm sugar and was thin and light and crisp, and the fruit inside was warm and soft but still with some bite. Hmmm :)
Sunday 19th
Another early start, this time to go our separate ways. My sister and her friend were staying in Bali for another week and a half, and left early on the 8:30am shuttle bus for Seminyak. I spent a couple of hours writing some blog, pottered around, and went out to buy a nice dress I'd seen the day before. (Came out of the shop with two nice dresses. The owner was very happy that she'd sold two items to her first customer of the day, and went round the shop touching the money to everything else, as a blessing and good luck charm.) I got the 12:30 shuttle bus to the airport, then a taxi from the airport to my nearby hotel, as my flight to Singapore was at 7am the next morning.
The hotel was lovely, modern and purpose-built, and I just stayed inside very happily, listening to music, unpacking and repacking my suitcase, a bit of writing. Around six I went downstairs to the empty restaurant, where dinner was okay but nothing special. They had MTV playing on the TV screen, and I enjoyed listening to the songs, it was oddly comforting for some reason. Although I had brought my iPod on the trip, I hadn't listened to it at all. I often feel like that on trips, like not listening to music, partly because it acts as a reminder of normal daily life, where I'll sometimes listen to music during my commute. I don't want to bring that to mind when I'm on holiday. After dinner I washed my hair so I didn't need to in the morning, then got an early night. Shortly before 11pm I woke up to the bed wobbling a bit. I didn't know if it was my half-asleep brain still in dreamland, or if it was an earthquake. It stopped about ten seconds later, I couldn't hear or see people outside and nobody came to the door so I just stayed in my room and went back to bed. I thought it probably was an earthquake, due to the ones in nearby Lombok in previous months, so it was quite weird, ever so slightly disconcerting. But I was fine. Shortly afterwards a message from my sister confirmed my assumption. Her hotel had been evacuated and she was very shaken up, but otherwise okay. (If anyone's curious, as I was - magnitude 6.3, depth just 16 miles down, epicentre roughly 100 miles away.) I went back to sleep easily enough and woke up at 4am.
The hotel was lovely, modern and purpose-built, and I just stayed inside very happily, listening to music, unpacking and repacking my suitcase, a bit of writing. Around six I went downstairs to the empty restaurant, where dinner was okay but nothing special. They had MTV playing on the TV screen, and I enjoyed listening to the songs, it was oddly comforting for some reason. Although I had brought my iPod on the trip, I hadn't listened to it at all. I often feel like that on trips, like not listening to music, partly because it acts as a reminder of normal daily life, where I'll sometimes listen to music during my commute. I don't want to bring that to mind when I'm on holiday. After dinner I washed my hair so I didn't need to in the morning, then got an early night. Shortly before 11pm I woke up to the bed wobbling a bit. I didn't know if it was my half-asleep brain still in dreamland, or if it was an earthquake. It stopped about ten seconds later, I couldn't hear or see people outside and nobody came to the door so I just stayed in my room and went back to bed. I thought it probably was an earthquake, due to the ones in nearby Lombok in previous months, so it was quite weird, ever so slightly disconcerting. But I was fine. Shortly afterwards a message from my sister confirmed my assumption. Her hotel had been evacuated and she was very shaken up, but otherwise okay. (If anyone's curious, as I was - magnitude 6.3, depth just 16 miles down, epicentre roughly 100 miles away.) I went back to sleep easily enough and woke up at 4am.
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