Bali - Mount Badur

By Rough Guy’d

Before we went to Mt Badur, we had a whole evening to spend first. The climb, I was advised, was done at night and each party required their own guide as it was strictly regulated as they wanted to limit the numbers of climbers. The main reason it was done at night was because of the burning heat of daytime and because one of the main highlights was the morning sunrise. This meant that we would be making for the mountain at 2am that night leaving us a whole evening to spend before a quick couple of hours sleep.

As well as they touristy art stuff my friend sold back in Malaysia, she also did a bit on the side, arranging tours for Malaysians in conjunction with her local friends in Bali. I got to see examples of this first hand as I spent that evening visiting some hotels and resorts with the pair of them. While this alone doesn’t sound very exciting, it was a new experience for me and then when I saw the hotels, I was gobsmacked. These were some of the nicest, fanciest hotels I’d seen with one of them, the Ubud hanging gardens having almost exclusive use of a gorgeous valley with a 24hr manned outdoor elevator and each room having three personal baths/pools to use.

After all this, we enjoyed a dinner of Balinese suckling pig before I headed off to bed for a very early start. While this delicacy can be enjoyed all over Bali (but not the rest of Indonesia as the rest of Indonesia is very strictly Muslim), I doubt I would have been able to both find and then order a dish of this quality without the help of my new friends.

10^th of May and I woke and checked out at 2am as planned. Not surprisingly the roads were relatively empty and we reached the mountain without incident. This was the one time I was glad that I had packed anything heavier than a t-shirt. There was a base camp of sorts there, where other tourists and their guides met up. The proffered cup of coffee there was gladly accepted, even if I usually never drank the stuff and I was also offered some and stuff. One of the things I’ve learned is even if there are people capable of translating for me what I just ate, sometimes ignorance was bliss.

Now the thing I will mention about the climb up Mt Badur is that it is surprisingly simple. It would have to be as you walk in near complete darkness for most of it (except for a flashlight) and no climbing equipment is needed. Even so, it was strangely uphill all the way and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit puffed. It was all worth it when I reached the top though, or so I thought except the first breath of fresh air I received at the top smelled an awful lot like second-hand smoke. Thanks a lot noisy German tourists. When the sunrise came up, it was at that point that I realised it was all worth it and after enjoying it as long as I could, followed up by watching some monkeys who were obviously far too used to humans, I made my way down the mountain again with my guide. Next stop, Lovina.