First Impression of Bali

Today was our first full day in Bali! We woke up pretty early and had breakfast at the hotel and then we met up with out driver from yesterday and took a long drive to the base of Mt. Batur. There is a lot of Hindu imagery and statues everywhere. Also a lot of Buddhist influence although to a lesser extent. Pretty much everywhere we looked they were selling stone statues of every shape and size. But mostly Hindu god shapes. And also mostly Hindu god sizes.

Anyhow. When we got to the base of the mountain we were immediately accosted by these three guys who were offering to be our guide up to the top. "We'll be fine with no guide, thank you very much" we said. But they insisted. Oh how they insisted! "It is our rule, and you must respect our rules here" they countered. But we were not convinced, everything about these guys just said that they were trying to rip us off. We saw one tourist who had just finished and she had paid 1 million RP for a guide to the top. Obviously none of use were too thrilled about that prospect. So we tried to argue with them but to no avail. We agreed that if they could show us some sort of legitimate proof that we were required to take a guide then we would go. But instead they just kept telling us that it was a rule of the "association" and somehow that was more important than the rule of law.

I asked at a tourist information office if there really was such a rule and the woman there said that we could hike without a guide if we wanted to even though she didn't recommend it. So we decided to just ignore them and go up anyway. No luck there though. They drove up on their scooters and tried to stop us but we just kept walking. Then the head guy drove up ahead and parked his scooter so that it blocked most of the path. Then he stood menacingly in front of it with his arms akimbo. When Jonathan walked up and tried to pass him he shoved him back and then he pulled back his jacket to reveal a knife in his belt which he proceeded to run his hands over threateningly. We thought we would call his bluff and we told him if it was really illegal that he should go ahead and call the cops on us, we didn't mind. Unfortunately he wouldn't do it (obviously) and we didn't have a phone to do it ourselves. So, lacking the means to resolve the conflict by way of the police and being at a disadvantage in the weapons department we backed down and went to leave.

I was all for finding another way up or bushwhacking it past the initial parts of the trail but nobody wanted to do that. We were stubbornly going to abandon the idea completely (this after a three hour drive to get there which only goes to show how angry we were with the whole situation) but Josef really wanted to go so we decided eventually to turn around and go with a different tour guide who was cheaper (slightly) and although probably affiliated with the same odious "association" would at least take the cut that those jerks would've gotten.

Now that I'm done ranting... the hike was really good and as we started to get above the valley floor the views of the lake and other mountains as well as the quaint farming village below were absolutely breathtaking.

Lena was having a hard time because she hadn't eaten for 36 hours due to some bad food poisoning and a stay in the hospital.  I wish she had told us that beforehand and I would've forced her to eat something. Anyway, it was understandably hard going for her and she had to turn around about 80% of the way up. Ben graciously offered to go down with her.

The rest of us pushed on to the top where we got to hike around the rim of the crater and stick our hands in some active vents. The rim was pretty narrow and when the clouds rolled in and covered everything it looked like we were on a long narrow island floating in the sky. Well, eventually we did come down and when we finally got to the bottom we feasted sumptuously on really cheap Tim Tams, the best prepared Ramen noodles I've ever eaten, and fresh mango and pineapple juice.


Afterwards we went and drove to Ubud where we got checked into our hotel and then we went and got dinner on the main street. Dinner was good but not great. Gelato after dinner was great but not exceptional. Bali however, and I assume Indonesia as well, is exceptional and nothing else. It has so much personality. To wit, there are these really highly ornamented stone and wood gates all over the place that all look like they are hiding some sort of secret. I feel like if you went through one of them you would be spirited away to another world. If enchantments exist, Indonesia is a land filled with them.