Three hours of sleep and a day full of events has taken its toll. We are so exhausted now. But wow, we’ve seen some things!

• Mount Batur sunrise hike
• Batur Natural Hot Springs
• Tegallalang Rice Fields
• Tegenungan Waterfall
• Pool
• Teba Rasi Resto

The day started at 1:30am when our alarm went off. Our driver would come pick us up at 2am at the hotel, to go to Mount Batur, hike the 1,7km tall volcano and watch the sunrise from the top. The weather gods were on our side today, no rain, a good amount of clouds and no wind. It couldn’t have been better.

There were tons of hikers and guides, each group of around 6 people had two guides, one in the front and one in the back. It was Mikael and I, two girls from northern England and a couple from Canada. Two hours to the top and one and a half on the way down. Up was not too bad. Except that it was pitch-dark and you had to have a flashlight and if you looked away from the path, you stumbled. It was a great hike and not too bad for me. One in our company had troubles with her cardio though and we didn’t quite reach the top top to watch the sunset, but we watched it while hiking the last way. Which definitely wasn’t too bad either. But a time-lapse video from the top of that incredible sunrise would have been awesome!

We were told there would be stealing monkey’s on the top and that we had to be careful with our food and things. My brother told me that he lost his breakfast egg up there to a monkey when he did it a few years ago. BUT. We didn’t see a single monkey. I was disappointed. I know they are annoying and might have rabies and we told ourselves beforehand to stay away from them. But I would still very much like to see them. They can be both annoying and cute at the same time.

Up there, we had steamed banana sandwhiches which was surprisingly good. We watched the sun rise next to the other two mountains on Bali. Can’t remember their names.

We took an easy way down, not so steep, and not so rocky. Which was awful for my knees. My left one is kaputt now and I really hope it isn’t anything worse than just after this hike down.

Right after the hike, our driver took us to Batur Natural Hot Springs. At first we thought it was weird to go to hot springs on Bali, but we withdrew those thoughts immediately. It was like a spa facility, with many pools and very warm water outlets. The water was warm, but those were really warm and great to ease the shoulder muscles. We only stayed for an hour and a half, and I probably would have wanted to stay longer. It was incredible. At the bottom of the big crater, right next to the lake. So worth it after that hike.

We switched driver after the hot springs and also got our local guide with us for the rest of the afternoon. We had decided that we wanted to see rice fields, waterfalls, and Monkey Forest and she came along for all of them.

First, we went to Tegallalang Rice Fields, which I thought would be just beautiful rice fields, but instead we ended up at a day pool club. And that place was all about Instagram and getting the perfect picture from swings to infinity pools and photo places. It was cool, sure. But I would have been happy just seeing the fields. We had lunch there at the restaurant with the great view. We had Satay which is a spicy course here on Bali, compared to back home when Satay is more sweet and peanut-y. We saw two Luwaks, the civit animals who are picky coffee bean eaters, who later poop out fermented beans that are then ground down to coffee. We tried a cup there and then and it was not as sour as the coffee we drink back home. Not too bad!

We had lunch with the guide and she told us that we were her first travelers since 2019 since she had a stroke then and was in a coma, wheel-chair and walked with a cane up until a month ago. It was sweet of her to share. When we were leaving, the rain began to fall.

Our next stop was the  Tegenungan Waterfall. It also had a day pool club with party music and soooo many shopping stands with souvenirs and stuff. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for so many people on this island when it shut down for 2,5 years. Our guide told us about this as well.

Our last stop of the day was supposed to be Monkey Forest. But the rain had gotten so heavy that we decided to head back to the hotel instead. The guide told us that we did not want to go there and see angry monkeys, they’re bad as they are, haha! SInce we’re leaving Ubud tomorrow, we might as her to set up something else for us when we get back to Sanur on four days. Going all the way up to Monkey Forest when we are staying in the south might be too much of a hassle. But I also don’t want to be here for 2 weeks and not see a single monkey!

Back at the hotel, we were so tried that we fell asleep for an hour before we took a dip in the pool in the still drizzling rain. And then we decided that it would be worth going out for a real dinner our last night here in Ubud. So we called a taxi which took us to Teba Sari Resto, which was a restaurant in Ubud close to a Koi pond. It was a bamboo construction and the pond had huts with tables in them. We didn’t get a pond table, but we still had a nice view. We tried fried duck and friend banana for dessert. Their drinks, Mango Berry and Cosmo Colada, were really good as well.

It was a long day, but such a fun one. We are both really excited to go to Gili Trawangan tomorrow and start our diving adventure together!!