Bali

Seeing as we would probably never be that close again, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to Bali during our trip.  Overall it was really nice, but a lot more touristy than we were imagining. Bali is interesting because it's a Hindu island amidst the very Muslim country of Indonesia.

We statyed in the city of Ubud first, which is the cultural and artistic heart of Bali.  There are a lot of temples and artist villages. We knew we made the right choice when we got to our guesthouse....it overlooked a green rice paddy, had a canopy bed, outdoor bathroom and we got breakfast delivered to our balcony each morning (all for the whopping price of about $40).  From a friend's advice, we booked a guide/driver to take us around to some of the sites we wanted to see.  We stopped at a coffee plantation, rice terraces, a Hindu temple and went to the eastern side of the island to go snorkeling. At the coffee plantation I had the opportunity to taste some of the most expensive coffee in the world. It's made from beans that are passed through (aka pooped) a special type of animal that only eats the 'best beans'.  Cyrus never let me forget for the rest of the trip that I drank 'poop coffee'.

 

 

The highlight of the trip was a sunrise volcano hike. There are two main volcanoes in the area; one is a really easy hike that you can stroll at sunrise with plenty of other tourists, and the other requires you to leave at midnight and hike 5 hours to the top.  We decided we might as well go for the gold, and it was definitely worth it.  We found a great guide online that made the experience even better.  We got picked up at our hotel at midnight with two other people, then drove about an hour to the base of the volcano.  With only our headlamps to light the way, we started our trek.  It was pretty easy at the start, but as we got closer to the top the wind got stronger and the climbing more difficult; we were pretty much on all fours climbing over boulders. Joining us part of the way was a group of locals from a nearby temple who make the hike every so often as a sort of religious offering. I thought I was struggling, but they carried baskets on their heads and wore flip flops the whole way. Piece of cake. We reached the top right before sunrise, and it was a very rewarding sight.  Besides the fact that it was absolutely freezing, being at the top was pretty amazing. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see red hot magma bubbling in the bottom of the crater (it just looked like a normal rock pit), but oh well. After about an hour, we headed back down.

It was actually way more difficult going down. It was really steep and we were treading on loose sand/dirt so even the most simple step became like the banana peel on the floor cartoon (except it wasn't funny and hurt really bad when you landed on a rock).  All in all it was one of the best things we did the whole year and we're so glad we did it.

A temple at the base (you can see the volcano crater at the top)

Mount Agung (the volcano we hiked)

Our awesome guide

We got back from the hike at around noon, and proceeded to pass out for a few hours.  The rest of our time in Ubud we walked around and looked at all the craft shops and temples. It was nice to see souveniers different from what we saw in Thailand everyday, even if they were still dumb and touristy.

Good vegetarian food

After Ubud, we spent the day at the beach. Compared to the Thai islands we've been to, the beach was nothing to write home about (or mention in this blog).  But Bali is a big surf spot, so we got to watch all the surfers and hang out at the "cool surf shacks".  After Bali, we boarded an early flight to Singapore.