June 4, 2001 - Monday - Lovina to Kedisan - Bali, Indonesia
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| Gunung Batur - Bali, Indonesia |
I swear, the first word that popped out of a baby Balinese's mouth was either "Taxi?" for the boys or "Sarong?" for the girls. We were lightly hassled everywhere we walked and when anyone is offering to take you somewhere or show you something, they are after your money. I tried to combat these nuisances several ways, some just to keep myself amused so I don't get too angry.
This girl walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy some necklace. In turn, I pulled on my necklace and asked her if she wanted to buy mine. She giggled and walked away. One guy asked if I wanted to buy some paintings - I asked him if he wanted Taxi. At first he looked really surprised, but then he walked away too. I acted like I didn't speak English sometimes and that worked pretty well too. The best trick I found was to carry my minidisc player with headphones - they leave you alone for some reason.
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| An old man trying to sell us his flute. We instead asked him to play us a tune - Bali, Indonesia |
Today, we got on the bus and headed back to the Agungun volcano area to do the climb and we eventually took at taxi down to the Kedisan area right at the lake. After bargaining for a room and got it down from US$7.5 to US$4, and then again bargaining with a guide for the volcano hike from US$30 Rupiah to US$20, we went out for a nice lunch by the lake side.
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| Old temples around the base of the volcano - Bali, Indonesia |
At dinner, Dan ordered sweet and sour chicken but it turned out to be a chicken leg in sweet and sour sauce, much to our surprise. The service was very poor at best so I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. People just continuously coming up to us from everywhere. We were asked to buy things like flute, paintings, rides, or going to the hot springs. All in all, it was starting to leave a bad taste in our mouths and lessen our experience here in Bali.
June 5, 2001 Tuesday - Penelokan to Kuta - Bali, Indonesia
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| "Pineapple Fruit", a tough leathery skin fruit about the size of a plum, tastes like pineapple with a solid, dry flesh - Bali, Indonesia |
The day started off well with the volcano hike but it all went downhill from there. We got up at 3:30AM and quickly got ready for our hike. After the shuttle dropped us off at the trailhead along with a German couple, we met up with our guide, which was different from the guide we talked to yesterday. I soon figured out that the guy we met yesterday was only there to sell the hike - he wasn't our real guide. There's a cartel of some sort here where you pay in advance and then you're just assigned a guide once you get to the trailhead.
After asking around, we found out that most people paid the "secret price" of US$40. That also explains why the people at the hotel didn't want us to pay the guide. The whole thing sounded dodgy to me. The guide was nice enough though and we started our hike up to the volcano after that through the dark.
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| A rare beautiful dawn moment on top of the volcano - Bali, Indonesia |
At the top, a group of about 20 to 30 expats gathered there along with equal number of Balinese selling soft drinks and hot drinks. There were a few kids too, one at age 11 who hiked up with us just to sell soft drinks. He looked a little mentally drained from what must be a daily routine for him. He had a voice like a zombie.
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| Monkeys climbed up from below to look for food - Bali, Indonesia |
There wasn't any sunrise to be seen because there was just too much fog and clouds around. A large troop of monkeys scrambled up the slop to our hut, begging for food. They were a comical bunch - they expose their teeth in a grinning fashion and make an eeking sound at the same time.
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| Roasting food in the hot pockets - Bali, Indonesia |
We eventually left and went to look at several other craters from previous eruptions and our guide cooked some eggs and bananas for us in the many hot holes up there. We made our way back after that and went back to our room totally knackered.
We checked out after that and when we tried to get a shuttle up to the hill, they were charging US$2 while it only cost US$0.80 to come down! I tried to talk to other people in the village and they all came up with the same price. I soon realized that the village has a small monopoly here and they try to take advantage of it by charging so much. I know it's only about US$2 but I struggled with the principle of not getting ripped off by these people.
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| Hiking down from the volcano - Bali, Indonesia |
They weren't even willing to bargain for such high amount they're asking and the first guy I asked followed me to make sure nobody else was offering anything lower. I finally shooed him away. One guy agreed to take us for US$1.50 and I agreed with his offer.
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| View of the volcano after hiking down - Bali, Indonesia |
The whole thing just infuriated me and I would recommend anybody against going down there and doing the volcano tour since it wasn't spectacular at all. If there was a sunrise, then it might've been interesting but there wasn't. Anyway, we finally make it back up to the shuttle stop and boarded our shuttle to Kuta. Looking back at it now, I guess I shouldn't have let it bothered me that much. It just wasn't the amount of money, which is small, but I just don't like to get blatantly ripped off like that.
After arriving in Kuta and settling down in a nice hotel for US$9 for our room, we went to find some food. Dan made the mistake of ordering pizza from a Chinese / Indonesian place. It looked as bad as it tasted.
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