Upon reaching Hotel Surya we divided ourselves to the rooms that were allocated to us. Because Wai Seng fell sick and had to forgo the trip, we had an extra room. We all decided to give the room to our driver and our guide, Yoga

I can still remember clearly that Yoga kept asking me if i was sure of giving him the room. The driver himself was baffled, LOL. Since both of them will be with us for the next few days, why not give them some proper place to rest since we have one room extra.

We were later awaken at 3 in the morning and it was freaking cold ! It wasn’t as windy as Genting Highlands but the temperature was cold.

Most of us were still in daze and once we got into the van, we dozed off.

After a short drive we arrived at the starting point of the hiking trail. If you are wondering why are we even hiking in Bali, well that’s because most of us here love hiking and when i was told that it’s possible to hike up Mount Batur, i thought no further and requested it.

A normal hike is nothing compared to hiking in the dark where visibility was minimum. So i requested for a few guides to help us out, if any required assistance.

It started off by walking through a paddy field lookalike and after half an hour, we started ascending.

We finally arrived at the top after a grueling 3 hours hike, just in time for the sunrise. Hiking up in a terrain that used to be lava is just crazy. Not as stable as i thought. We were greeted by the caretaker who had a hut which was over looking the lake and Mount Agung.

One of the guides that sold Coke as well as helped some of us carry our bags

The ladies

The guys

In Cambodia, Ai Ling stepped in a puddle of water at the 1000 lingas river and this time around Emily had a broken shoe. We took a similar photo to the one in Cambodia. So in Philippines it’s gonna be Angeline’s turn? *hides*

It was really windy and we were far away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was simply peaceful. I even spotted a foreign couple just laying there on the grass enjoying the cool breeze and scenery that this place had to offer.

After resting for a while, Daniel and David decided to hike up to the peak while the rest of us climbed towards the semi active crater.

Besides having the chance to hike up a semi active volcano, we also had the chance to meet several extra members when we were there. Codenamed, the Volcanic Dogs. I can’t described how tired some of us were but the minute these dogs ran around us with their waggling tails, we were all just pumped up again. The two golden retrievers were owned by the caretaker. They were given the name Kiki and Oza.

Elise for some reason showed extra affection towards Kiki and i asked Angeline, how come Elise calls Kiki in the different pitch. It gave me the impression that she had/has a dog with a similar name if not the same. Of course after a few days returning from Indonesia, i found out that she and Lasker indeed have a dog named Kiki. LOL!

As i mentioned earlier that we took a short hike towards the crater and there Yoga actually showed us certain places where hot steam is being released. He then gathered water in a bottle and left at the mouth of the hole where the steam was released. Not long after the water was hot. He even left a banana there to steam, lol.

When we went to the crater the Volcanic Dogs religiously followed us. Probably they got bored and were excited to see new faces

When we waited for Daniel and David to decent, we were given hard boil eggs for breakfast and some of us fed them to the dogs. They were simply adorable. So adorable that Angeline said that she doesn’t mind owning a Golden Retriever.

The Volcanic Dogs just love to get our attention !

Final group photo with Volcanic Dogs

After close to 2 hours, we started our hike down but this time we could see the places we had been through. It was definitely an experience to be cherished and meeting the Volcanic Dogs was definitely the icing on the cake !

Now that we were done with Mount Batur, we headed back to Hotel Surya and packed our stuffs before heading for lunch.

*Pictures courtesy of Phingelicious.com*

I never had any pictures of Hotel Surya in daylight and so i had to resort in hijacking Angeline’s photos. The picture above shows you the van we used to move around and the building behind is the place we stayed. We had that whole building to ourselves, hehehe.

Yoga informed me that the hotel actually had breakfast for us though it was already past 10am. Whenever food is concerned, none of us would put a pass.

We then rushed to our rooms to shower and gathered outside of our rooms before heading to our next stop .