Our alarms went off at 1:45AM and we were picked up at 2 for a sunrise hike tour of the Mt Batur Volcano. We arrived along with an unknown number of other busses and tour groups to climb this mountain before the sun came up. From 4 am until about 5:30 we hiked up by the lights of our headlamps reaching the summit and benches to take in the sun rise. The sun rise was mottled by clouds but the light through the clouds offered bits of beauty at different times.
Once the sun rose the monkeys came out, hounding tourists for food, and eating anything that wasn't being guarded by a human. Eventually we climbed back down, returned to our tour van and headed back toward Ubud. We stopped at a coffee plantation that specializes in Kopi Luwak - neither of us actually tried this speciality - and were dropped back at the hotel around 10.
A nap for a few hours to recover from the minimal sleep the night before and we headed across Ubud to the Monkey Sanctuary home of over 900 monkeys. This was a spectacular place full of well fed monkeys, many carrying babies. As opposed to the tourist money grubbing so present in the morning, the sanctuary charged a nominal admission fee and never tried to get another penny from you the rest of the day. The monkeys were well treated and the care takers were present to ensure the humans interacted with the monkeys in a safe manner.
We rewarded ourselves with balinese massages that night. A day well spent in paradise.
Once the sun rose the monkeys came out, hounding tourists for food, and eating anything that wasn't being guarded by a human. Eventually we climbed back down, returned to our tour van and headed back toward Ubud. We stopped at a coffee plantation that specializes in Kopi Luwak - neither of us actually tried this speciality - and were dropped back at the hotel around 10.
A nap for a few hours to recover from the minimal sleep the night before and we headed across Ubud to the Monkey Sanctuary home of over 900 monkeys. This was a spectacular place full of well fed monkeys, many carrying babies. As opposed to the tourist money grubbing so present in the morning, the sanctuary charged a nominal admission fee and never tried to get another penny from you the rest of the day. The monkeys were well treated and the care takers were present to ensure the humans interacted with the monkeys in a safe manner.
We rewarded ourselves with balinese massages that night. A day well spent in paradise.
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