More on Bali

Hi! I realized that glazed over the fact that I spent an entire week in Indonesia last month, so here's a bit more on my experience!

I spent a morning doing a sunrise trek up the volcanic Mt Batur, one of Bali's three active volcanoes. My friends and I woke up at 2 a.m. to make it the summit before sunrise. We hiked in the pitch dark up the mountain with nothing but a couple flash lights. It was cold, tiring, and a little spooky, but so worth it. Once at the top, we sat and ate breakfast and watched the sunrise over Lake Batur, a neighboring volcano - Mt Agung, and the Indian Ocean.

Once it was daylight we were able to explore the mountain. We saw lots of monkeys, viewed the sacred temple that sits on the the summit and looked into the volcanos crater.

The trip down the mountain was far more beautiful than the hike up, mostly because we could actually see. We trekked through fields of different local crops, enjoyed a couple more temples, met a few stray dogs, and attempted to learn a little Indonesian from our guide. By 10am we were back down to sea level. As much as i was dreading the event at 2 a.m., it was so fun, and such a unique experience.

Also included in our tour was a few hours at the Mt Batur Hot Springs. The hot pool had a infinity pool effect into the cool Lake Batur. It was a great way to spend the rest of our morning after a taxing hike.