We didn't bring Flash drives.

2am and we were awake. We packed our backpacks, put on our takkies and went outside to meet our driver. There was already a German girl in the car and we still had to go pick 1 more person up, a girl from LA who has family in East London. Small world. By the time she got in the car we were running a bit late and it had started to drizzle. We got a flat tyre about 30 minutes into the trip, which in all honesty we were not surprised at after he was driving so badly, hitting every pothole in the road. 

We then stopped off to have tea, coffee and pancakes with chocolate and bananas and told to wolf it down because we are running behind schedule and would have to run up the volcano to make it in time for sunrise. We were all a bit on edge at this point and by the time we actually got to the site we were just keen to get walking, luckily for us the rain had stopped. We were greeted by our 'guide' who was really enthusiastic and took a photo of all of us before asking if we had brought flashlights. Seriously? Three little blonde girls who didn't even think to pack jackets. No. We don't have flashlights. 

We resorted to using the flash on our blackberries. Thank you technology. It was pitch black and we were about 2 minutes into the walk when our very reliable and knowledgable 'guide' tells us that he is not feeling very well and can we please do the hike by ourselves.  Eyewitness Travel, Bali and Lombok states that "A local cartel, the HPPGB discourages trekking alone and climbers are advised to take a licensed guide with them", we were all seriously unimpressed with this guy and in retrospect should of cut our losses and left him at the bottom of the volcano, but in the moment we were all fuming and actually shat the guide out, saying we have spent so much money to do the trek and it is extremely unorganized considering we were running late, had no way of seeing where we were going and our guide was trying to ditch us, he reluctantly took us up the volcano. 

The trek was a mixture of soft sand and loose volcanic rock, this made things very difficult for us and I seriously thought at least one of us would come back home with a missing tooth or broken leg, which would have been a serious problem, because there is not a chance any of those useless people making a quick buck out of us had a first aid kit let alone a plaster. 

Half way through the hike our Blackberries proved to us why they are such useless phones after being on charge all night and being put to the test for about 40 minutes, the batteries started dying, leaving us to share lights between us, slowing the hike down. As time went on we began to get more and more concerned that we would still be climbing when the sun started to rise, Lindsay was motivating us to move forward more than the 'guide' who kept trying to convince us that the sun only rose at 6:30am. He needed to rest more than us and close to the top we decided to leave him panting on a rock. We were then met by another man on the path who tried to hijack us as a group and lead us up. Also trying to tell us that there would be cold Coca Cola and Bintang at the top of the volcano. We were not interested at all and after a few minutes of him slowing us down Lindsay just told him to get out the way. Not really sure if the main reason for this was that she wanted to get to the top or because he was the smelliest human being of all time and she was gagging from being downwind of his stench. 

Reaching the top was an amazing feeling and we managed to get there just in time to watch the light from the sun creep over the lake and make the misty valley the most beautiful color, allowing us to see what we had just spent about 2 hours climbing up. We whipped out our cameras, took a few photos and then just sat down and soaked in the view . Our 'guide' was right, the sun did rise at 6:30, but by then the picture perfect moments were long gone. We became frustrated shortly after when our 'guide' approached us and offered us a hot drink, that was at an extra cost. When we booked the tour we were assured that we would be getting coffee or tea at the peak as well as bread, bananas and an egg that they would cook using the heat from the volcano. Empty promises. We complained. Again. We finally did receive the breakfast we were promised and it was extremely unsatisfying. 

We were seriously disappointed in the tour, but at the end of the day we were still standing at the top of the most active volcano in Bali. An amazing moment and achievement for all of us. Our 'guide' and driver put us through a lot of grief but the views alone were worth it. However we do still need to google the volcano to find out how far we walked etc, because the 'guide' could not answer a single question. Surprise. Surprise. 

When we finally made it back down the volcano we were all just keen to get back to our Hotel in Seminyack, not that gross room we rented for the night. We negotiated a price and jumped into a taxi, leaving Ubud behind us. We had a really good weekend away but I cannot see us returning to Ubud. We would rather spend our time on a beach enjoying the fish in the sea and learning to surf than getting robbed blind by someone who has only climbed up the volcano 3 times. 

Life is all about different experiences and no matter how unpleasant they are, I am sure that as long as we have each other to get through them we will manage to have a good time. 

That is it for the weekend. More varsity field trips in the morning.

xx

"Make your own sandwich? I want to make a sandwich with 10 layers of bacon and thats it."

The last post was typed on Friday afternoon, but just to cover what we did after that. We went looking for a Mexican Restaurant with our friends who were certain it was just down the road, which it wasn't. After walking for half an hour in the wrong direction we decided to just eat anywhere. The boys were disappointed and we are sure the search for tacos will resume sometime this coming week.

Monkey Forest.

Saturday morning we woke up and caught a taxi to Ubud, we got dropped just outside the Monkey Forest excepting to see a lot of monkeys and some Balinese people worshipping said monkeys. What we were not expecting was for one of the fattest monkeys in the forest to jump onto Lindsay, attacking her water bottle 2 minutes after walking through the gates. Unfortunately there is no photographic evidence of this event as Lindsay just stood still trying to avoid being bitten and myself and Sam were useless, panicking more than Lindsay. Needless to say that incident really put us off and every time someone offered us "Banana for the monkey?" we quickly declined.

"It is advisable to heed the warnings against feeding the monkeys - they can become aggressive."

The people who work at the monkey forest obviously do not heed against these warnings, they are just keen on making a quick buck off all the tourists. It was extremely bizarre for us to see people laying out offerings and chanting to the monkeys, all we saw were monkeys living the high life playing on vines and ancient stone temples and snatching the food being offered before it hit the ground. The funniest moment of this excursion was definitely seeing a little boy walk in as we walked out with an entire bunch of bananas, he looked extremely chuffed with life but he had not seen the thousands of little monkey eyes watching him, we all just chuckled and said "yoh, goodluck".

We then made our way up Monkey Forest road in search of our next excursion and a place to eat. There were many "tourism offices" where you could book tours, so thinking we were all cool we went to most of them trying to bargain for the best deal. We managed to organise a short tour to the elephant cave or buddhist temples and to the rice terraces and we booked an excursion to hike up Mount Batur a volcano which is still active. As we learned later, we would be jewed out of the proper experience anyway. We had lunch at an amazing little restaurant in central Ubud that looked over a beautiful rice field and we ate the most delicious food, leaving us all so full we could hardly walk back up the road in search of accommodation.

Our adventure to the elephant cave or some of the many Buddhist temples was an enlightening experience but not one that we would highly recommend. We were required to wear sarongs into the temples as a sign of respect, something which we were not too excited about as it was extremely hot. Next stop, the rice terraces, which are definitely as beautiful as what they look in pictures. We did a bit of shopping and visited a place where they showed us how to make coffee, we also got to sample different types of coffees and teas. The Vanilla Coffee was too divine for words.

Elephant Caves.

Coffee and Tea Tasting.

We went for dinner at a small restaurant where sitting on the floor on pillows was optional, we chose this option. It was not long until we spotted the mice (Plural), running around everywhere. We were all very shocked and the waiter found it quite amusing. Besides the mice, the food was good.

We managed to find accommodation at a small home-stay just off one of the main roads which we paid R70.00 each for, for the night, little did we know it would come with some surprises, nonetheless entertaining as usual. We thought we found the bargain of the century until we bathed ourselves and went to bed. The bathroom was very special, the basin was in the bedroom but if it was in the bathroom  it would have been possible to sit on the toilet, shower and brush your teeth at the same time. Efficient- yes, hygienic- not so much. When bed time came we were greeted with ginormous ants all over the floor, which later made their way into our beds. We blame this on Sammy as she thought it was a good idea to kill all their friends with her slop. As all became still and we got used to it sounding like we were sleeping in Grand Central Station with all the motorbikes up and down the road, we heard a very strange sound coming from what sounded like in my bed. We eventually presumed it was a chicken in the roof, we found out today that it was not a chicken, but a species of gecko or lizard. We are all really glad we did not know it was a gecko or a lizard because from the volume of the sound it was making it sounded like it could be the size of a Komodo dragon. We also had to lock our door with a wooden plank, how Sammy slept, we have no idea.

Too hungry to write anymore, to be continued….