Bali | Climbing Mount Batur
Day Two started at 2:30 am as we were going to hike up Mount Batur and watch the sunrise. It was a 45 minutes ride to the base of the mountain and the hotel prepared breakfast for us! Inside there was a banana, guava juice, two croissants, two bread and two eggs (which were half cooked and cold and I personally think is gross when it's not hot, but then again I hate cold food soooo. Furthermore, peeling the half raw egg in the car spilled everywhere so yucks!!!!!)
So the climb was pretty tiring – it was both mentally and physically draining because I was quite stressed out from not falling – I did slip a few times, and I had to get into a crawling position to get a better grip of the rocks. The tourguide also had to help me up. I was wearing a head torch, but I wouldn't recommend doing so because IT DOESNT SHINE ON THE ROCKS !!!!!!!! I got quite annoyed because I couldn't see the rocks and the torch provided wasn't as bright, and wearing the head torch made me sweat a lot at the forehead zzzzz >://////
visuals
does my brother not look like Kim Jisoo ?? YES RIGHT ????
It was pretty cold when we reached, and also really dark, so we took out our torches that we brought. Our tourguide, nyoman (or nioman?? idk), also gave us two torchlights. We started our hike at 3:45am!
The first half of the hike was quite easy, and I thought "woah, if the entire hike is like this it's gonna be so easy lol", because there's actually like a pavement to walk. I did get a little breathless at times because it's quite steep, and it also started raining about 10 minutes into the hike. (One thing to note is that it will get quite warm because you'll sweat! But do bring a jacket because you'll be cold when you reach the top and you're waiting for the sunrise.)
There is a little fork, and one marks the easier trek while another is the tougher one – more rocks and all. We didn't choose, but our tourguide let us go by the easier route.
After we reached the halfway point, which is marked by some "rock buildings", our tourguide told us that it's going to get really narrow, steep and slippery (especially since it was drizzling) and we had to go one by one. And sure enough, there wasn't anymore pavement – we had to climb the rocks. Beside the rocks, it was a cliff so yes I got pretty stressed out because I didn't want to drop off the rocks and fall down the cliff...
There were also a lot of tourists climbing up the mountain, so don't rush – just let them pass first and take a break while waiting. This was what our tourguide stressed, and he also kept saying "slow and steady"!!!! just go slow, but try to make it up by sunrise ya bc that's the whole point.
We were pretty slow actually, (my dad is so unfit omg) and by the time we reached the sunrise point there were many other tourists.
Sighs we weren't able to catch the sunrise because it was so cloudy (remember it rained), but the view was beautiful.
We were given a choice if we wanted to stay at the sunrise point, or continue about 10 minutes more to the peak. Honestly I really just felt like giving up, but my family decided to go all the way up to the summit. SO YEAH
It's about a 200m incline, and it is very slippery – all loose sand. I had to crawl, because if not I would slip. The whole time up I was just worrying about getting down – I mean if I had so much trouble getting up, how would I go down??? I would just slip and fall (because gravity's a b*****, right?)
Finally, we've reached the summit. According to our tourguide, 60% of the people make it up to the summit, while 40% stay at the sunrise point. And out of the 60%, 90% of the Asians stay at the bottom, and only 10% make it up LOL. So I'm really proud of us!!!!! hehhe
There are mats placed for us to sit, so we sat down and our tourguide brought over tea, coffee, bread and banana for us! I read from other blogs that some of them get eggs, and I wanted an egg as well but I didn't get one :-(
There are also doggies around so cute aw. I heard that every day, they will go from the base all the way up to the summit, and then back down again.
We rested for about 30 minutes, taking photos of the mountains opposite us (mount abang) and of the crater. It got cold up there because of the wind and our sweat yikeSS.
Then we walked around to take more photos and this is probably the most hilarious part, my tourguide is so cute and he's hilarious omg ok, he helped us take a panorama, and make us stand at the starting point of the panorama. After panning and almost reaching the end, he would pause and make us hurry over so that we would appear in the panorama again JAHAHA the result is so amusing. Also he kept ordering us where to stand, where our legs should be etc so cute ok if you ever go, please book your hike up with him, his name is Nyoman. ;-)
Downhill time!!!
It was paved with loose sand and rocks. Initially I was so nervous and kept gripping my toes really hard that it hurt, but my friendly tourguide held my hand and helped me down together YAYERS that's why you should book Nyoman !!!!
Anyways I learnt that you shouldn't try gripping the ground too hard, instead just let yourself skid, and let your shoes sink into the sand. It's really a lot easier this way.
Going down was so stressful though, even though I had someone to hold on to, but still, I'm so scared of falling sighh. We chose not to see the monkeys because we wanted to get down faster so yeapp but there are monkeys around.
It was about 8+ am when we went down, and by the time we reached the base it was almost 10 am HAHAHA we're really super slow LOLOL.
We passed by a few villages and farms, and honestly being a the urban kid that I am I was so fascinated by the chicks so cute omg the momma hen and her babies as well as the many puppies and kittens we saw aw :")
Anyways marks the end of my Mount Batur hike! Here are a few tips:
• Do tip your tour guide, because they're not paid per trip, they actually have a fixed pay (which is probably rlly low). So tipping them will really help! Especially if you're happy with their service :-)
• Bring a small backpack to put your jacket and water (don't drink too much water though, there's nowhere for you to pee)
• Bring some money to buy coffee / tea at the summit!!!!
• DONT GIVE UP just go all the way up I mean you've already climbed all the way, what's 200m more???
• ENJOY YOURSELF!
visuals
does my brother not look like Kim Jisoo ?? YES RIGHT ????
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