DAY 3: 9 March 2013, Saturday
(Note: I managed to dig out my old diary and extracted some information from my journal entry, so this post contains more details compared to the previous two days)
After spending our first two days chilling in Ubud, it was time to move on to Kintamani, an area on the western edge of the caldera wall of Mount Batur (aka Gunung Batur), located in the northeastern part of Bali. We planned to climb Mount Batur early tomorrow morning to catch the sunrise, so we wanted to stay as close to the mountain as possible.
Before coming on the trip, I didn’t book any accommodation in Kintamani. I had done some brief research and planned to go to Toya Bungkah, a small village that is also the starting point for the climb to Mount Batur. The plan was to find our way to Toya Bungkah and then look for accommodation options after we arrive.
From Ubud, we hired a driver and told him that we wanted to go to Toya Bungkah as we wanted to climb Mount Batur. After finishing our breakfast at Alam Indah hotel, we departed Ubud at 8:50am. The distance from Ubud to Kintamani is about 40km.
At 10:05am, our driver stopped us at a place called Segara Hotel & Restaurant and asked us if we would like to stay here. He said that we can take a look at the premises, and if we don’t like it, he can send us to other hotel to consider. We took a look at the room, which was basic and had the slight air of being a prison cell, but it was acceptable. It cost only 200K IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) a night, which worked out to around S$26, which was very affordable. Since we were only staying here for one night, we said ok.
Segara Hotel & Restaurant is actually located in Kedisan and it is not far from Toya Bungkah, about 4km away. Kedisan is a small village at the western edge of Lake Batur, around the foothills of Mount Batur. After checking in to our room, we enquired with the hotel about hiring a guide to climb Mount Batur.
There were three options for the climb – a Short trip (US$35), Medium trip (US$40) and Long trip (US$50). The starting time for all three options were the same (3:45am). We decided on the Medium trip, which would end at 9am, and it included breakfast at the peak of the volcano. We managed to get a slight discount and we paid US$75 for the two of us, which worked out to US$37.50 per person.
Before coming on the trip, I read online that there were many aggressive touts operating in Kintamani and they would hassle tourists to book the trek with them. We were thankful we didn’t experience that, so it was good that we were staying here at Segara Hotel.
At about 11am, we went over to the restaurant next door for an early lunch. We ordered nasi goreng, chicken satay, omelette and fried spring rolls. It was a very delicious, home-cooked-styled lunch.
The lady of the house was the chef and her husband was an artist. As we enjoyed our food, we were entertained by the husband as he played the bamboo xylophone, a kind of traditional Balinese musical instrument. It sounded very melodious and soothing.
Like many other people in Bali, he was also an accomplished painter. His oil paintings were displayed all around the restaurant. Most of his paintings depicted everyday life in Bali, capturing the harmonious relationship between man and nature. I was particularly enamoured by a wonderfully detailed painting of the terraced rice fields, but it was too large for me to carry home. I decided to buy a smaller and simpler painting of Buddha’s face. I happily paid 100K IDR (S$13) for it.
I also tried my hand at playing the wooden xylophone. Of course, it didn’t sound as good as when he played it. However, the beauty of the instrument is such that there are no “wrong” notes, so everything you play sounds melodious and “correct”. It was quite an ego-booster for someone who was playing rubbish.
There wasn’t much to do around Kedisan. After lunch, we went to a small shop near our hotel and played a game of pool to pass time. It cost 50K IDR (S$6.50) for one hour. I’m actually quite bad at pool but CT was the pro.
It rained for most of the afternoon so we just took a nap and chilled. We hoped that the rain would stop and clear by tomorrow so that we would see a nice sunrise atop Mount Batur. However, we were not very hopeful as we were still in the midst of the wet season.
For our dinner, we went back to the restaurant. We ordered some hot vegetable soup and a fried fish with rice and fries. The fish was caught in Lake Batur so it was very fresh and yummy.
By evening time, the rain had stopped and clouds had obscured the neighbouring peaks. The temperature was also quite cool. It was nice and quiet, without the high season crowds. We went to bed by 9pm as we had to wake up very early at about 3:15am. Hope we will have a good climb up to Mount Batur!