The alarm clock aka cellphone woke us up at 1 a.m. sharp. The driver was already waiting for us at the hotel. We were ready to depart from Sanur to Mount Batur for the trek up to the peak of Mount Batur before dawn. Heading into north Bali from the crowded southern plains, we entered another world, with a slower pace, cooler climate and hugely varied country side. The centre of the island is occupied by the volcanic masses of the Batur and Bedugal areas.

Why did we choose Mount Batur?

Inititally we planned to climb Gunung Agung, which is the highest mountain in Bali. But we were told by the local tour agent that even though Gunung Batur doesn’t rival Gunung Agung in stature, its accessibility and beauty are beatable especially the view of sunrise. Thus we changed our plan and hiked Gunung Batur instead.

It was about 2 hours drive from Sanur to Batur. 2 hours in the van at 1a.m. in the morning… what else can I do besides sleeping? Yup, I took a 2 hours nap in the car but couldn’t sleep at all as the van was too shaky. While doing nothing in the car, let me introduce to you the background of Gunung Batur.

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• Height: 1,717 meter
• Major jump-0ff: Toya Bungkah, Kedisan, Bali
• LLA: 8.242° S 115.375° E, 1717 MASL
• Hours to summit: 3-4 hours (depend on your speed)
• Specs: Minor climb, difficulty 5/10
• Features: Volcanic sand, night trek

Tour Guide Fees:
Rp 370k per person (We got it cheaper than the prices offered in the brochures that we got from the airport).

It was an 8 hours hiking tour from 3a.m. to 12p.m. includes exploration of crater rim and the transportation.

Danau Batur:
The Batur area was formed 30,000 years ago by the eruption of a gigantic volcano. Confusingly, the entire area is sometimes referred to as Kintamani, although this is the name of just one of several villages dotted along the rim of the ancient crater.

Another group of villages is situated around Danau Batur at the bottom of the crater: Toya Bungkah is the start of the main route up Gunung Batur, and is the chief accommodation centre.

The highest points on the rim are Gunung Abang (2153m) on the eastern side, the third highest mountain in Bali, and Gunung Penulisan (1745m) on the northwest corner, with Pura Puncak Penulisan perched on its summit. Rising from the floor of the main crater, Gunung Batur (1717m) is an active volcano with four craters od its own. Every morning, trekkers set off before dawn to climb the peak and admire the sunrise from the top.

Eruptions at Gunung Batur:
Gunung Batur has erupted more than 20 times since 1800. In 1917, a major eruption destroyed 65,000 homes, 2,500 temples, and killed 1,372 people. But lava stopped just outside the temple of Batur village, which was at that time situated in the crater beside the lake.

Considering this a good omen, the population remained in the village until August 3, 1963, when another eruption completely engulfed the village and the temple, and the people of Batur were evacuated up onto the crater rim.

The longest-lasting eruption took place in September 1963, a few months after the massive explosion of Gunung Agung, and continued until May 1964. At Yehmampeh, on the road around the base of mountain, you’ll see lava flows from an eruption in March 1974.

The newest crater, Batur IV, was formed during the eruption that started pm August 7, 1994, and that continues periodically. It’s startling to see the volcano still smoking, but local belief is that it;s better if Batur lets off a little steam regularly rather than saving it all up for a major blow.

~ End of Introduction ~

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We finally reached the destination at 3a.m. and it was already freezing cold at the foot hill of Gunung Batur. The temperature was probably less than 20 Degree Celsius and I was wearing a sleeveless shirt with a thin piece of sweater! My boyfriend was even superb, he wore only t-shirt and shorts without any jacket. It was freezing cold that I almost wanted to give up, I really hate cold. I wonder why didn’t the travel agent guy tell us what to prepare or at least what to wear.

It was the 14th day of the month, i.e. one day before full moon (the next day was Lantern Festival). So the moon was nearly full and it was so bright that we didn’t even need to use the torchlight to navigate in dark. We started quite early at 3a.m. that we were the first team to start the trek. There was another team, German group, followed behind us. After about half an hour hike, the coldness has gone. I guess the energy used up and the sweat kept me warm. Even the tour guide removed his jacket. Thank goodness the coldness didn’t follow me all the way up to the summit.

The hike wasn’t difficult compare to some of the mountains in Malaysia. The only different is that the ground is formed by volcanic sand and rocks. The routes were very rocky that I was constantly tripped by the rocks. The trail was quite steep but I didn’t have any fear at all, guess the darkness took the fear away when I couldn’t see things clearly. At about 4a.m., when we were half way to the peak, we looked down to the mountain and saw many lights in the distance, each one a group coming up the mountain behind us along the trail we had just covered. We could see some of them were just starting at base camp at the bottom of the mountain. We were shocked to find that there were many people who hiked in Bali. We always heard about people saying watching Gunung Batur from Kintamani but no one mentioned about hiking. *happy that we were not alone*

At the Summit
Finally we reached summit at 5a.m. It was too early for the sunrise, as the sun only rises at 6a.m in Bali. There was a hut at the summit for resting and to serve drinks and food. I have to say that it was extremely cold that it reminded me of the winter time in Jiu Zhai Gou. Our tour guide wore a winter jacket and headed to the bed in the hut immediately. We were too cold to enjoy the view so we hid ourselves inside the hut waiting for the sunrise. It wasn’t a good experience without bringing any jacket at all.

Hikers were resting inside the hut

Soon after we arrived summit, there were more groups arriving filling up the place. Surprisingly we were the only Asian team. Well, I guess the fun part of the trip was that all of the hikers who stay in the country with four seasons wore winter jackets and long pants while two Asians who live in tropical country with hot weather all year around wore only t-shirt and shorts. So all hikers sat at the best spot to view the sunrise outside of the hut while the other two Asians hid themselves inside the hut trying to get some warmth from the stove.

Let’s see what they wore.

And let’s see what we wore.

Well… at least we were the only Malaysians in 20 years that conquered Gunung Batur. I’m not making it up, our driver who has been working there for 20 years told us that Asian hikers are rare in Bali and we were the only Malaysian trekkers that he has ever met. Ok, I took it as an achievement.

The sun was finally rising! The wind was so strong early in the morning that it was such a tortured experience to have to stand in the wind but we gotta defeat the coldness to fully admire the sunrise.

Here we admired the sun slowly lighting the whole lake, caught glimpses of Gunung Rinjani, Gunung Abang and Gunung Agung.

The 2 nearer mountains opposite Batur Lake were Gunung Agung (highest mountain in Bali) and Gunung Abang (second highest mountain in Bali). The furthest mountain in the picture is Gunung Rinjani in Lombok island, which is the highest mountain among all. This is what make Gunung Batur unique with its spectacular sunrise view.

After the sunrise, we were ready to explore the crater rim by descending from another route.

This is the crater of Batur. The newest crater formed in 1994 eruption. We trekked along the crater rim to explore the nature of volcano.

There was a big steam hole behind us. We could actually feel the heat from the behind.

Can you spot the steam coming out from the ground?

We stopped by at the crater to have our hard-boiled eggs as breakfast! The eggs were burried inside the steam hole. They were then covered with the dry grasses and stone to speed up the steaming process.

Don feeling the heat from the ground

There were uncountable steam holes around the crater rim. After about 15 mins, the eggs were ready to be eaten. Our tour guide digged out the eggs from the hole and the eggs were ready to be put into the mouth.

On the way back we finally saw the trail for the first time as it was too dark to see anything during the night hike. The same sandy volcanic trail that we had to scramble! Some sections of the trail were too sandy and steep that we had to semi slide down the sand for hundreds meters.

Here is the route where we trekked across the other summit.

After the fun of sliding, our shoes were full with sand. It felt so uncomfortable that we had to remove the sand from the shoes.

We reached the base of the mountain at 12p.m. and ended our unforgettable journey to Gunung Batur.

The only Bad Experience We Had

I have to say that most of the Balinese are friendly and honest except our Gunung Batur tour guide who really upset me by being too cunning and greedy. If it happened that he was assigned to you as your tour guide, please say NO and get someone else.

This is our tour guide

While ascending to the summit, he was so quiet and he didn’t give any instruction or explain anything to us at all. We didn’t even know what to do next when we reached summit as he just went into the hut and slept. He wasn’t friendly at all at first and only after the sunrise, his attitude was like 360 degrees changed. He smiled at us, took pictures of us and was being very helpful. After that he told us that our package was actually covered only hiking up to the summit and descending by the same route without further exploration to the crater rim. If we wanted to explore crater rim, we had to pay him extra as the tips. He requested a whopping Rp100k!

We were puzzled as when we talked to the travel agent that we found at Seminyak area, it was very clear that the package included exploring crater rim and descending by using the other longer routes. That was why we were given eggs to be cooked at the crater rim. We had an impression that this tour guide was trying to take advantage on us. We were fine with the travel agent guy, he has been quite honest with us in all the packages we got from him (include diving package). We believed this tour guide was trying to con us.

Besides, he started to tell us the story about his son, who apparently does very good in academy and was shortlisted as an exchange student to Singapore in the student exchange program. However his son refused to go as they were too poor. I was like why did you tell me this?  He then changed the topic and said my backpack was very nice and asked where did I buy it. He wanted to get a nice one for his son. He kept telling us how smart and good his son is.

Then he requested to take a picture with us. Right after taking the picture, he told us to send the picture to him, and send the backpack as well. WTF… even though we might be richer than him that we get to travel to Bali, while he might have never leave Bali island, does it mean we must pity him by giving him gifts and money?

The saddest part was that he was being so friendly with us with the bad intention!

When we arrived at the foot hill, we found that other tour guides actually asked for tips from other tourists by telling them the reasons why they need the tips. Well, at least they were being honest to request for tips and it was up to the tourists whether they want to pay extra. Unlike our tour guide, he tried to con us! It was a freaking bad experience that I really hate this kind of people.

Anyway, I wouldn’t say that all Balinese are bad, in fact most of them are trustworthy. We were just unfortunate to meet someone like this.

On the Way Back to Hotel
The driver of the tour was a very nice guy. He was the one that told us we were the only Malaysian team that hiked Gunung Batur. On our way back, he told us that we can stop by any place to visit if we want. No extra charges incurred. We asked him to recommend us for a place to have a drink. He drove us to a coffee farm where we can get to taste Balinese coffees and teas without any charges. He reiterated that we were not obligated to buy anything from the coffee farm. He was very friendly and talkative, he told us a lot of things about Bali. It was a pleasure to ride with him.