I wasn't sure what to think of my visit to Bali. I guess I was looking forward to the storied beaches and to see what the fuss is all about.
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| View from the plane going to Bali |
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| View from the plane going to Bali |
To get into Bali, which is part of Indonesia, you need to get a visa. You can do a visa on arrival which is $25. It’s a 1 minute process where you wait in a fairly short line, pay $25 and collect a stamp. You take this stamp with you when you go to immigration 30 feet down. I went to the ATM and took out 1,000,000 ruppies, their currency. I was shocked to see so many zeros and had to use my finger to take some of that out. It only came out to about $100 folks.
Getting to the hotel was easy. There is an official taxi stand here with fixed rates to different parts of the island. I paid 55,000 rupies to Kuta beach.
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| Ignore everyone, and just go to this place right outside the terminal. |
My hotel was nice. I ended up staying at the 101 Legian. It is on the main street that runs along the Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak beach. When I got there, there was a security guard and a metal detector. It made me feel secure yet concerned. I beeped when walking through the metal detector. Obviously, since I had all my bags with me. As I was getting ready to empty everything out of my bags. The guard gives me a look, shrugs his shoulders and says ”no problem”. There is absolutely no security in these countries.
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| Hotel |
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| Going up the escalator |
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| My Room |
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| My Room |
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| My Bathroom |
After figuring out what tours I wanted to do for my short stay, I decided to take a walk down the street to a pizza place called Ultimo. This took like 80 minutes. Remember, it is not as close as you think it is. I ate a late lunch of pasta and pizza and decided to walk back but along the beach.
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| Would see these outside stores - part of their religion |
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| Got to a market but seems like I missed all the action |
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| Eh... Running a power cable right by me |
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| How they get gasoline |
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| Bread at Ultimo - thought the green thing was ice cream at first |
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| Getting to the restaurant at 4 means that no one is there |
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| Pasta with chili and oil - really really good |
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| Ultimo Pizza - I am a fat kid eating this after the pasta |
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| The ceiling at Ultimo |
The beach was nice and there were a good mix of locals and tourists. I saw a gathering of locals, kids playing soccer [seems to be a common theme across Southeast Asia], newlyweds, and surfers. I watched the sun set as I strolled across the beach.
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| The original |
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| Don't know what they are doing |
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| Honeymoon? |
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| Soccer - notice how they put sticks to designate the goal |
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| Fisherman - he was happy to let me take a picture |
I grabbed some dinner at you know where and walked back to my hotel. I turned in early for my morning hike up Mt. Batur.
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| Small alleyways back to the main street |
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| More alleyways |
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| They wrap your drink in plastic for takeout orders |
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| The Prosperity Burger |
WTF was I thinking!? Why am I paying $100 to wake up at 2am to see a sunrise from the top of a volcano? Isn’t it the same thing from my hotel room? I didn’t realize it at the time but to see the sunrise meant that I would have to hike in the dark. What did I get myself into?
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| Dam it is early - I saw people still up from last night |
The morning wakeup wasn’t too bad. I’m not sure if it’s due to jetlag or the fact that I’m getting old. At least I got to sleep in the car. We got to the base of the volcano at 3:30am where I met my guide for the day.
The hike was pretty brisk and relatively flat. He pointed out certain things about the area like the green onion farms that we were walking past. In the first 45 minutes of our hike, he must have stopped to rest 4 times. A couple of Europeans with a 60 year old man ended up passing us! Doesn’t he do this every day? Surely I’m not in better shape than he is. I only started running 4 months ago.
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| Green Onions |
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| My Hiking Gear |
The first hour was pretty relaxing. What kind of flat ass mountain is this? Well, the terrain quickly changed in the 2nd half of the hike. With 20 to 45 degree inclines and loose rock, my leg muscles were burning. This was my 2nd WTF moment. WTF was I thinking signing up for this. Then almost simultaneously I asked myself, how am I supposed to get down?! When I asked the guide, he said the same way. O M F G. Oh, and any semblance of me thinking I was in better shape than him was shattered in the latter part of the hike. He glided up the mountain like it was nothing, expertly navigating the steep inclines. I was huffing and puffing behind him trying to keep up, trying to pretend that I wasn’t tired. We ended up passing the old guy and a few other groups in our sprint up the mountain.
We got to the top after 2 hours of hiking around 530. I was probably the 10th person on the summit. I sat down on a bench waiting for the sunrise to amaze me.
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| Lone Tree at the Top |
People were strolling in every few minutes. I ended up meeting a couple from France who told me of their travels to a different region in Bali, a younger couple from Australia on “holiday”, and a family from china that spoke 4 languages (Chinese, English, German, and something else)
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| French Woman's camera - cock fighting |
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| French Woman's camera - cock fighting |
At 6am the sun rose. Kinda. We couldn’t really tell because it was so cloudy. $100 sunrise mountain hike tour – FAIL. We received a light breakfast of eggs and toast which they claim was cooked from the heat of the volcano, volcanic steam. Iono. I went into the kitchen to see and all I saw was what looked like some coals.
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| One of several dogs on the mountain - This was a puppy |
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| Breakfast that is included - Hard boiled eggs and banana sandwich (the puppies will eat the bread, the older dogs are more picky and only want the eggs) |
After 30 minutes of waiting for the clouds to clear (which they didn’t), we went to look at the crater. We really didn’t see much because of the clouds but my guide showed the vents that we started our way back down the mountain. The hike down was much easier and faster. I found myself almost jogging down at a very fast pace. After 30 minutes or so, we were able to get under the clouds. That was when I saw some of what I was meant to see at the summit.
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| My Guide |
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| Looking down the foggy crater |
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| Looking down the foggy crater |
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| View from Summit 1 of 2 |
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| Working our way down |
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| Looking back up on the way down |
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| Looking down |
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| Looking back up on the way down |
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| Views were amazing - pictures don't do it justice |
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| Standing on volcanic rock |
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| A resting point for the less steep trail for when it's hotter out |
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| Farmer dude on mountain |
After the morning hike, I had a whole slew of sights planned for my tour of Bali. I was determined to make the most of my $100 driver for the day. I went to a restaurant to get a better view of the volcano, some rice patties, and some temples.
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| More of that offering thing |
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| View of Mt. Batur |
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| Warning - Yelling ahead |
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| Rice Patties |
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| Monkey Forrest |
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| Stupid Homosapiens |
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| Monkey on a Monkey |
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| This guy tried to pick my pocket |
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| Little guy couldn't get down |
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| Found a cave when I went exploring on my own |
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| This was one of two dogs down a secret passageway - I got an eerie feeling and got out of there quick |
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| I think I ended up inside the gates of someone's house by mistake - Looks like a door to a secret magical place |
I got back to the hotel around 3pm. By this point I was starving and left to find some food. It was an awkward time to eat so I couldn’t judge the restaurants by their busyness. After 30 minutes of meandering, I decided to just eat anywhere and was deciding between Japanese and Pizza Hut. I chose Pizza Hut.
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| Mixed Fruit drink |
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| Cheeezy Bread |
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| Two types of sauce on the table |
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| They had a $2 special for this pizza |
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| I eat a lot of ice cream |
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| Shake I got on the way back - kinda like Jamba |
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| Memorial of the 2002 Terrorist Bombing - 202 people lost their lives |
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, I thought about going out for a drink but I was travelling alone. I’m not one to just go sit at a bar. I guess I had an early flight the next day as well. I ended up eating a snickers bar for dinner because I ate lunch so late and turned in for the next leg of my journey.
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| My Next Flight |
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| 40,000 Ruppie departure tax for domestic flights from Bali |
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