#volcano hike

This morning I woke up 1:40am to catch a 2:30am bus to Batur Mountain for a sunrise hike. Batur is an active volcano that last erupted in 2003 I believe. The ride there was kind if rough. I was shaken awake by the road a few times. 

The hike itself was even worse for me. I don't know if it's because I didn't get enough sleep or what, but it was a pretty miserable hike. Amanda and I feel way behind the others, which is fine because we had a mountain guide, Gede, stayed behind with us, and I have no shame in my game. We never made it to the top, but we made it to the sunrise point, which is probably 75% of the way there. Gede was awesome. Really encouraging and kind and told us not to force our bodies. 

Since being at work, I feel like I haven't had a chance to catch my breath. My life has been so busy with birthdays, trip planning, and hosting that it's almost like I never went on a holiday at all. Now that I finally have some time to myself, I am excited to share my amazing trip with you!!

Bali is a popular destination worldwide, but especially popular with Australians due to the geographic convenience. If you live in Perth, you can even get away for the weekend with great value. For us on the East Coast of Australia, it was a bit longer, but well worth the trip from Brisbane. 

We opted to fly Virgin via Sydney with a stopover to see our family, but there are great direct flights as well with Garuda and Jetstar. 

Before You Get There

There were a few great things I learned before I went to Bali that I think everyone should be aware of.

1) Make sure to bring $25USD so when you get your visa on arrival, you aren't dealing with conversions or getting ripped off. It makes the process so much faster. With that said, make sure you have 300,000 IDR left over at the end of your trip for your exit visa or that could screw you over as well.

2) Organise a transfer beforehand from the airport to your hotel at the beginning of your trip. I had read reviews that it would be great to catch a metered taxi, but it's almost impossible to find a metered taxi from the airport to your hotel. People bombard you tenfold, will try and rip you off for all you have, and is honestly so overwhelming after a long flight. We eventually negotiated, but for me it was personally worth the extra $5 or whatever to have an AIR CONDITIONED vehicle with a professional driver who is set in a contract and can't pull one over on you. 

On the way home, it is quite easy to get a transfer back to the airport via metered taxi

3) Pack lots of bug spray and sunscreen!! The sun is scathingly hot and the mosquitos are full on, but at least you can come prepared. Pharmacies are kind of hard to find unless you are staying in somewhere major like Kuta. 

Ubud

We spent the first part of our trip in Ubud, which is the cultural heart of Bali. It is most popular for their monkey forest sanctuary and gained more popularity when the movie Eat Pray Love came out. Ubud is an amazing tranquil and beautiful place where you can relax and become one with nature.

It is about 45 minutes away from the airport or about 45 minutes from the Kuta/Seminyak/Legian area. We opted to stay a bit outside central Ubud amongst the rice paddies, but the hotel offered a free shuttle making it amazingly convenient and worth the ride to stay in a tranquil place. The Santi Mandala was absolutely beautiful and would highly recommend it!! Great value for money and was in love with our villa. Breakfast was delicious and the service from the staff was wonderful. 

We only stayed a few days in Ubud, but kept ourselves busy spending the first day in the monkey sanctuary and shopping amongst the market stalls. If you do want to feed the monkeys, do yourself a favour and buy your fruit ahead of time. The best thing to feed them is coconut as they get very aggressive with the bananas and you lose all of your bananas to the mean big monkeys. If you do decide to purchase fruit, prepare to spend $5 on like 5 bananas aka total rip off!!

When in a relaxing place, we also took advantage of a cheap spa day as well. Ubud was so relaxing and the shopping seemed never ending. This is also the place to check out all the local art if you do decide to purchase a one of a kind masterpiece. We decided not to book any day tours, so we spent about an hour negotiating day tours.

On the next day, us crazy animals thought it would be a great idea to do a sunrise hike up to Mt. Batur for a bargain $27AUD. That meant being ready at 2:30 in the morning so we called it an early night relaxing by the pool. We thought it was a 2 hour hike only to find out it was about 2 hours up the mountain and 2 more hours down. It was absolutely beautiful, but will feel confident in saying that you must be physically fit to do a hike like this. The terrain was severely uneven and slippery and the hike was long and hot. My poor mom got a harsh reality check on the fit scale! However, the views and the experience were pretty incredible. 

It's a lot for one post, so I will continue on the next post about the rest of my trip <3

xx