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Trekking, exploring and adventuring


Being picked up by a driver at 1.30am after only a few hours sleep is never easy and especially not when you're off to trek up the side of a volcano to watch the sunrise. Greg, Philip and I had planned to take a trip up to Mount Batur - Bali's famous volcano - a few weeks prior to their arrival and were very excited by the prospect of trekking in the early of the hours. Having heard it could get cold up at the top, we'd dressed in our warmest clothing, most sensible footwear and donned our head-torches to begin the trek with our guide.

It was pitch black when we arrived at the foot of the volcano. Many other tourists were about to embark on their own expedition but we were lucky enough to have our own guide, who, we had been assured, was included in the quite hefty price we had paid the driver for the pick-up. We later concluded, as we were told to tip the guide by our driver, that no such payment had been arranged - my brother was extremely frustrated by this dishonesty and so enused a long discussion as to how much we should pay our lovely guide who clearly does this for a living.

Sunrise atop Mount Batur

Underfoot, the ground was a mixture of soft and sandy and hard, volcanic rock. The climb was mostly easy though grew steeper and steeper as we neared the top and began to sweat with the exhertion. When we arrived at the top, dawn was just beginning to break and we enjoyed a very random breakfast of jam sandwiches on white English bread with the crusts cut off, provided by our driver. We settled in for some amateur photography and a nice rest after the trek up.

Ngurah at the Taman Ayun Temple

Another exciting adventure we shared was a trip around the island with my 'friend' Ngurah. Ngurah works on the reception at Desa Seni retreat where I'd been going to do yoga before my brother arrived. He had told me of some places that I should visit while in Bali and had offered to me my guide. We had a truly wonderful day being shown around the Taman Ayun temple, Penglipuran village, and a wonderful beach where we ate a simple lunch and played in the waves. The friendliness of the local people made my trip to Bail all the more special of an experience and we truly enjoyed learning from Ngurah all day as he drove us around the island on his day off.

Posing for photos with the performers of the Kecak Fire Dance, Ubud.

When in Ubud, we decided to go to watch one of the famous traditional Balinese dances. We found a lovely restaurant that included a dance show in with the price of a meal and sat through an incredible 45 minutes of the Kecak fire dance. The music and sounds throughout the whole performance are created solely by the human voice - no instruments are used whatsoever and it was quite meditative. No wonder it's called a 'trance-dance' - the men performing it did seem very trance-like at times as they tried to emulate the sounds of monkeys. The story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita (taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana) unfolded while we sat soaking in the sounds and enjoying our delicious food. A great night that comes highly recommended by us.

The Kecak fire dance


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