Ubud and the sunrise trek of Mount Batur

After leaving Kuta, I came to the Ubud area.  Ubud is a town about an hour into the island of Bali from Kuta.  It seems to be one single town, but what is called Ubud is actually a collection of about 18 communities, that are collectively called Ubud.  And it is considered the cultural and artistic center of the island.  This is where you find boutiques, carving shops, painting shops, handicrafts, artsy little restaurants, and the like galore.  And it's where you can experience nature and daily-ish Balinese life, amidst the large of tourists, of course.  And it's quite a charming little place as well.

After arriving on the shuttle bus from Kuta, I was met by a guy who was hanging around the station offering places to stay.  It seems that in any touristy place, when you get off the sort of bus that carries tourists, there will always be the caterer types who are ready to take you to accommodation or to offer tours of the area.  Well this fellow took me to his home stay and it seemed nice, so I opted to stay.  Then he sat me down and explained how it would work if I wanted to take a tour around the area.  We could go on his motorbike and go see the volcano and then go see some temples and rice terraces and have a good look around.  And all for the low, low price of 900 000 Indonesian Rupiah.  Now this may sound like a great lot, but it comes to around 100 dollars in conversion.  (The Indonesian Rupiah is having a rough time, I guess.)  Even so, this was still what I considered to be quite a bit.  I had been reading things showing tours to be about 400 000 Rupiah.  He then started hedging and offering a lower price, but this was still too much for me.  He then told me that the 400 000 ones were for people in a tour.  Oh.  Well, that's what I was wanting.  So he said he could get me on a tour.  But I wanted an itinerary.  He didn't understand.  we went around and around for about 20 minutes before I finally convinced him that he would take to a tour office for the sunrise trek.  Off we went.  When we got there, the tour guy said there was no tour.  So my home stay owner then tried to convince me to use him again.  Aargh.  Why didn't he understand that I don't want to spend that kind of money on a one day affair, when it should be possible to get on a tour, and I didn't believe for one second that in a town that relies on such touristic adventures for revenue into the economy wouldn't have some kind of sunrise trekking tour available.  Well, he did know of another company.  Aha!  So you know someone else, but they probably aren't in your "circle" and you won't get anything out of it.  I did eventually get it sorted out, and on a tour for the next morning, leaving at the ripe time of 2 am.  It was by then about 8 pm and I still needed to get something to eat.  Yikes!!  I wasn't going to get much in the way of sleep.  But it promised to be a nice morning and set of sunrise conditions.  I was going to deal with it.

I got to bed about 10 o'clock.  And woke up about 1:45 am.  The tour guy showed up right at 2, and off I went.  We stopped to pick up three young women from London, and then a German couple.  Through the dark of the night we drove.  The sky was initially cloudy, but with only light clouds and the moon shone through faintly.  At times a few stars were visible.  It appeared it would be a rather nice morning to view the sunrise.  But it was dark.

Now, I must point out here that I am not always the most prepared person in the world.  I will often be caught out missing some piece of equipment needed for something I am doing.  But it isn't usually because of lack of foresight.  Why do I point this out?  I do this because I don't wish anyone to think that I am too high and mighty.  I do recognize my own faults in matters such as this.  But still...

We stopped somewhere along the way to get some breakfast.  Now, it was dark and so I think I must have missed something, like a path tot he little shack where we ate.  But there was a man in the shack and it had soap and other sorts of things on shelves on the walls that were for sale.  It was a little shop.  But to get to it from the car, we wound through a little bit of forest on a path that was not clear, and certainly not well traveled.  If that was the true path to the little shop, the guy would get no business.  So there had to be a better defined path somewhere and our driver led us on a shortcut that he knew from long practice.  Most of us, at any rate.  The three Londoners opted to stay in the car.  It was early you see, and they didn't feel like getting breakfast.  They wanted to sleep in the back.  O--kay then.  I began to wonder at that point how much of what would be necessary had impressed itself on their minds.

In the little cafe/shop we were treated to banana pancakes and some tea.  Also there were two Japanese women who had come up from Kuta.  We all had a nice breakfast and then broke up into two groups, as there were only allowed four people per guide up the mountain.  I ended up with the three Londoners.  When we got back to the car, it had grown foggy.  I was a bit surprised by that.  It had been clear when we went in, but now it was quite foggy.  I knew we had climbed a fair amount, but such changes in the air I have only experienced on mountains that were somewhat higher.  The tropics must make some sort of difference.

Then we headed down, after having climbed all that way.  Now I did make note of this, but only to myself.  This is again to make it clear that, although I am calling the kettle black here, it is knowing that I am the pot.  However, from the back I heard, "So let's get this straight, we climbed up the mountain, and now we are going down again, only to climb back up later."  And there was some grumbling about that.  (Well, it's dark, dear darling, and we have no idea what it looks like out there.)

We got to the parking lot where our driver was to leave us in the company of our guide, who would be taking us up the mountain.  And then it started to come clearer how little of what was required had impressed itself on the minds of the young Londoners.  "It's dark."  (Hmmm.  It 4 am.  It's not June, and we are not in the high Arctic.  Yup, that would mean it's going to be dark.)  "I don't have a flashlight."  (Well, it is dark and you are going tramping through an unfamiliar area.  Did it not occur to you that you might need a flashlight?)  "Why didn't they tell we would need a flashlight?  Why didn't they give some idea of what we would need?"  (Does your mother still spoon-feed you, too?)  There was a general scrambling as the driver searched for and produced a couple of flashlights for the Londoners.  "This one doesn't shine very bright.  How am I supposed to be able to see and not fall down?  Are we going to be climbing over rocks and things?"  (You don't get out of London much, do you?  You are damn lucky that the driver had a couple of spare flashlights for you use, as you showed no forethought as to what you might need for TRAMPING UP THE SIDE OF A VOLCANO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STINKIN' NIGHT.)  And off we went.  "Ouch!"  "What's wrong?"  "I didn't bring very good shoes for this.  These are so thin, I am feeling the sharp edges of the rocks through my footwear."  (Sheesh!  Mountain.  Mountain!!!  That means rocks.  And though I will cut some slack on this one because not everyone studies any geology, volcanic rocks means sharp rocks.  Foresight.  FORESIGHT!!!)  And the complaining went on and on.  Eventually I found out that if I went to the back, the moaning and complaining became an unintelligible drone, rather than a stream of words that I could make out and gnash my teeth at.  That's when I started bringing up the rear, in order to "use my strong flashlight to help illuminate the steps of the others."  And that's my story and I'm sticking it to it.

I have no photos of the climb up to show because, well, it was dark, and they would be somewhat uninteresting.  And they would all look the same.  So I will start with sunrise time itself.  The photo at the top is a panorama of the full view I had at sunrise.

The night had cleared nicely by the time the dawn started.  There were some clouds off to the east, but rather than close off the sunrise, they promised to give sunrise some character.  And it was quite spectacular.

Now, just to be fair, by the time the sun had done its rising, the Londoners had come around to the point of view that it had been rather glorious and a very cool thing to have done.

After the sun had risen properly, we got a chance to look around at the area, including the crater of the volcano itself.  The volcano is still active, so there was steam rising from spots, and there were little vents where you could warm your hands here and there.  And we ate a little meal that included eggs boiled in a river nearby, heated by the volcano.  The having gone up, only to go down, only to climb up again had been because of the outer ring of the volcano.  We had gone over that outer caldera, and had climbed the central cone.



As is obvious, there is a lake inside the caldera, called Lake Batur.  There were little bits of mist moving about inside the caldera, over rocks and trees.










As we walked down the cone at the end of the morning trek, what we passed was able to be seen.  It was quite striking.

And then, it was back to the guest house and a well-earned nap.  It was definitely worth the lack of sleep.