BALI-ing on Bebek, Mt Batur & Babi Guling

Sunrise view from Gunung Batur of Gunung Abang

Carpe Diem. Part of life's adventures is the ability to seize the moment! This opportunity came when a friend of mine sms-ed me and informed me of an opening to Bali for a 5 day 4 night holiday.

"Heaven & earth" were moved (considering the busy schedule I hold at my current workplace). I was on a plane to Bali within 24 hours of notification! How cool is that!

It was my first trip to Bali. I didn't know what to expect except for the few things on our list of "to dos" - climb a volcanic mountain, go white water rafting, eat, shop, shop, and shop! We did all but one ... I would have to come back another time for white water rafting, if it's really any good.

Bali-Denpasar, 12 April 2007 - My friends picked me up from the airport. The hired taxi took us to Kuta (the famous tourist town that became infamous for the bombings in recent years). We had Balinese dinner. The Bali bebek (duck in Bahasa Indonesia)! Delicious and tiny, like the people.

People's photo: Balinese Roast Duck

Ubud, 13 April 2007 - After dinner, it took us about an hour's drive to the quaint, tourist town called Ubud, where we stayed at Sahadewa Resort & Spa, a boutique hotel.

Our Balinese-styled accommodations provided moderately large rooms with very comfortable beds, a curtain-drawn bathroom with a huge bathtub that allowed one to bathe and splash water all over without flooding the rest of the bathroom! Yes, the bathtub was that huge!!!!

Nestled within Monkey Forest is a temple, where seemingly "halo-ed" monkeys guard the temple!

Apart from the tourist sight seeing at Monkey Forest Sanctuary and shopping for knick knacks at the Ubud market, we continued to eat Balinese food, well, except for the Soy Burger I had for lunch.

Dinner was another round of Bali's famous crispy roast duck at Bebek Bengil restaurant, which was a hop, skip and a jump from our boutique hotel.

Gunung Batur, 14 April 2007 - Saturday came quickly. We rose at 2am and began the hour-long journey to the base of Gunung Batur, the volvanic mountain that remains active. The last eruption was in early 2000 and the smoke rising from the ashened grounds of a once-existent village remain apparent.

Our guide Nyoman told us at the start of our journey that the slowest group he has ever taken up to the point of sunrise viewing took 1 hour 20 minutes. We promptly informed Nyoman that we were record breakers in this aspect.

We were the first to begin the journey up the mountain. Along the way, there must have been 4 to 5 groups that passed us. We arrived 2 hours later!

We caught the sunrise - an awesome sight that makes all pain worthwhile! From one mountain, we saw Gunung Abang, the mountain we said we would climb next ... by then we hope to be as fit as a fiddle!

It took us 3 hours to get back to base. We opted for the scenic route that brought us to different parts of the mountain - it reminded me of the Sound of Music, where Julie Andrews sang "the hills are alive with the sound of music ...."

Richard (pictured right) in a "National Geographic" moment with walking stick, hat, backpack, et al.

For me, the hills were very much "alive" as people cooked their hard boiled eggs, witnessed the steam coming out of ashened grounds and the rolling hills formed by volcanic eruptions of the recent past.

The moment we got back to Ubud, showered and napped a little, we made a beeline for Bu Oka restaurant, where tourists and locals alike sit on straw mats similar to Japanese dining, except this one had no air conditioning. Bu Oka is well known for it's Babi Guling (roast pork in Bahasa Indonesia).

Babi Guling - delicious and uniquely Bali

Ubud, 15 April 2007 - The next day, we opted out of white water rafting, citing painful muscles but really it was the thought of a lazy afternoon of eating and shopping that won in the battlefield of the mind! We went for another round of Babi Guling before heading to Kuta to do the tourist thing ... that's possibly another blog entry in time to come.