Yes, can you believe it, I'm actually writing a new post!! We can all agree that it has been FAR too long since my last one. The reason being is a combination of working two jobs in Australia 7 days a week, finally being somewhere where I'm comfortable, and...to be honest...being a little hesitant to express my true feelings on this blog.
I began writing this blog in hopes to express my true feelings about my travels and my experiences in other countries...but I have a tendency to be a little blunt, so to speak. And as a writer, I'm constantly searching for ways to better strengthen my literary voice. But after one of my lasts posts I had to be reminded of how vast and different my audience with this blog is...and how carefully I need to monitor how I write, and what I choose to write about. I agreed with the advice, but I would by lying if I said that it didn't affect me. I guess you could say that I kind of lost the drive for a little while...
But I'm hoping that all of that is over now.
My last two or three days in Bali I started feeling a little...sick. Stomach always gurgling and always needing to run to the bathroom every few minutes, but I figured it would pass after a day or two and there was no way I was going to let that ruin my last few days in one of the most amazing places on Earth. SO, I pushed through and decided to do a 3 a.m. sunrise hike up to the top of a volcano in the middle of the island of Bali. It was something I've wanted to do my entire time in Indonesia and my friends from my hostel Ben, Pat, and Pat had rented scooters and all decided to do the hike with me.
So 3 a.m. rolls around all too quickly and the three of us bundle up to jump on the scooters and drive the hour north towards the volcano. However, in all of my brilliant thinking, I forgot to bring warm clothes to hike a volcano. My blonde-haired brain thought "oh, it's Indonesia and super hot all of the time. Why would you need to bring something other than shorts and a light pullover?"
The moment we got on the scooters I instantly regretted my sad sad decision-making skills.
By the time we made it to the base of the volcano it was just before 4 a.m. and I was absolutely frozen stiff. All three of us were, but I was the one wearing the least amount of clothes. But we paid for the guided tour up the mountain and started our trek before the rest of the groups had even gotten there.
That's right. I'm wearing my pajamas to hike up the freaking Batu Volcano. But it was SO COLD, and it was all I brought from the hostel by the beach. But I push through and continue the hike up.
Half way up we all start getting really hot and take off most of our layers, wearing just t shirts and shorts for the majority of the hike up. But then things started to get intense. And going the last two days not eating or drinking much, and being properly sick, I suddenly became very very weak. So weak, in fact, that our tour guide had to hold my hand and pull me up for the last 30 minutes of the hike.
But since we had started so early ahead of all the other dozens of people doing the same hike, we were able to grab four seats in the little shanty built on the very top. Our tour guide made us coffee and steamed eggs and toast next to one of the steam vents. It was so delicious! Except once we stopped moving...my body began to freeze all over again and Ben snapped a wonderful shot of me that perfectly illustrates my torment sitting in the tent, waiting for the freaking sun to rise...
So we eat our breakfast and then join the rest of the crowd outside to wait for the sunrise...the only problem is that the sun is rising BELOW the cloud layer since the volcano is so damn high and we're ABOVE the clouds haha. So as we're all freezing and waiting, a giant family of monkeys come sprinting up from the inside of the (in-active volcano) and start stealing everyone's bread and sandwiches!!
But once the sun rises the view is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!! And all four of us had splurged to pay a little extra to do a hike around the rim of the volcano after sunrise. And my god was it worth absolutely every penny...and then some!
Yeah. Absolutely incredible, right? It's impossible for my words and pictures to capture even a fraction of the energy I felt doing that hike. I'll tell you...two of the best ways to truly feel alive is 1) skydiving and 2) hiking a freaking volcano above the clouds.
After the hike the way down was MUCH easier than the hike up. Though I was still so weak that my legs almost gave out a couple of times. But afterwards we got to take a picture in front of the massive beast of a volcano we had all just hiked together...
Mt. Batur was a beast of a hike...but we all did it. And it was well worth every single curse word, tear, and bead of sweat that came out of all of our bodies.
An amazing memory I'll never forget.
And you'll be hearing from me in my next post ASAP. I swear it. ;]
~Little Blonde Traveler
