Mt. Batur Bali: The sunrise trek

Yes it’s a sunrise trek! Mt. Batur is one of the three active volcanoes on the island and it is indeed a thrilling experience to walk up to the mouth of Batur and watch the sun rise right across the horizon. But, it also meant we needed to start at midnight!

When Umesh told me that he was booking us on a sunrise trek for our Bali trip, I didn’t take him seriously, after all my husband isn’t a morning person at all. In fact, I doubted he had ever seen the sunrise in the last decade!

Basically we two are very lazy and sleep loving people. So my reaction, “hey! don’t forget we are on a vacation! Getting up so early is like a punishment.”
We went to the tour office to check the list of things to do in Ubud, that’s where I saw some pictures of Batur sunrise trek that was the moment I told Umesh, “we must go for it”.

Important things to carry before you go for Batur sunrise trek:
1. Carry the best shoes as the route is real tough
2. Don’t stuff your bag too much
3. Camera is a must to capture the beauty
4. Carry your cap and sun glasses it will be sunny when you get down
5. Carry a jacket because its cold

We had our van pick up at 2 am from the hotel, I was really “excited” because it was my first trek and that too a Sunrise Trek. I was thrilled!!

While we were yet to reach the base, Umesh told me “I think, I made a mistake booking this trek, it would be too tiring and since you haven’t done any it would be very exhausting for you”. I said “never mind, will give it a shot”

As we arrived the parking we met our guide who was this very lean young boy, he told us he does the trek every day. I told myself ” if this little chap can do it every day then I can of course do it once!”. We got few bananas for breakfast and started on with our trek with a torch in our hand.

Initially it was quite okay and we saw many people walking with torches and their tour guides, after sometime the trek started becoming steeper and steeper.
It was difficult to walk for long, it was really cold even in August, we had to rest after every 20 mins to catch our breath to move forward.

On that particular day I guess we were the only Indians on the Trek, I could see girls wearing shorts and spaghetti while trekking. I was freaked out “aren’t they feeling cold?”
Funny part was our guide and I were coping up quite well but poor Umesh was having the time of his life. He literally wanted us to stop at every five minutes so that he could sit and catch his breath.

There was a time I thought he will give up, the guide was very encouraging “sir u can do it” every 30 seconds Umesh asked how much more time? The guide kept saying “10 more minutes” eventually after half n hour Umesh said are your 10 mins ever going to end.

We reached a flat surface somewhere around 4 am of course because we were super slow. I saw that smile on Umesh’s face
He was like finally “I did it” there was a very fishy smile on our guide’s face I knew something is there, “sir its just the mid way” .

All the smiles vanished Umesh is like “you gotta be kidding me” we started off again with more energy, as he said “if you walk too slow, you will miss the sunrise”.

Umesh got a little pumped up when he saw kids walking faster than him, we reached our first spot right in time, there was this second spot as well which was ever higher, the weather was too foggy, so we decided to stay at the first point.

He was so relieved that we reached, we grabbed a seat on the bench, last thing we asked our guide was what time will be the sunrise? You won’t believe what he answered “let’s see if it rises as its too foggy today”. I still remember the shock on Umesh’s face on hearing that reply.

We waited patiently on the bench, sipping on the coffee, shivering in cold, waiting for the sun to come out. There was this kid sitting beside me around 12 years old, holding his tripod and camera. I asked him was it tiring for him to trek. He smiled “yes, a bit but this Sunrise is worth it. I am going to record all of it and take back these memories and cherish this for life.”

I was still wondering is it going to be so wonderful, as the colours changed and clouds moved everything around was so beautiful.