E and S vs. The Volcano

So here is the recap of EandS vs. the volcano as taken from my journal...

"Today was the first venture out of all the warm comforts of "home". Ubud was easy. Spoiled us a bit but we loved it. Hippie-yoga lunch place and all! We said farewell to Sania's Place and hired a car to take us to Kedisan. Kecak was our driver for 150,000 (about $15). It was an uphill drive the whole way through artisan village after artisan village. The views from the ridge were breathtaking. The terraced rice fields were unbelievably steep. Along the road were endless shops. Couldn't help but wonder hop people expected to sell all this crap. Apparently the bombing 3 years ago did a lot to kill the tourist industry. I imagine it wouldn't have been so bad if people here hadn't gotten so used to the tourist dollar. The fact is though, they have.

Arriving at the top of the volcano rim was gorgeous. Amazing panorama. as we rounded the curve to start our decent we were chased down byy a guy in a black sports coat on a motorcycle. His partner was just behind him and looked like something out of Harley Davidson Weekly. After a few words with our driver he asked me where we were going. I of course played dumb but his hostility was a bit shocking. Between their attire and attitude I now get the Mafia connection, The Mount Batur Tourist Guide Organization. WOW! When we got to the hotel Suryah it all became more clear. "Skinny" showed us a room for 80k, good enough for a night. While signing in the first cockroach of the trip appeared. Ironic that a giant one was in our room last night(the night before) it woke Steph up with the noise it made rummaging around on her bag. she in turn woke me up at 4:30 am. I killed if and wanted to kill this guy. Intimidation doesn't even begin to describe his MO. "

We went back and forth over price for a while. The long tour, which entailed a trek at 4:30 am up the main crater of mount Batur (from the 1917 eruption and then traveling lower in elevation to other craters from eruptions in 1926, 63, 74, and 94). The string of craters were a great example of how the Earth's crust is continuously moving. We would watch the sunrise and eat breakfast at the top of the craters rim. The asking price was $50 US a head and I instantly offered $30 but made it clear that I wasn't going to buy yet. He demanded we pay that price , I refused. We eventually got up and walked to our room where we hunkered down as he sat outside our door for quite some time. Imagine, there we are in the basin of of an enormous volcano with a perfect view of the craters rising up and this 5'9" cockroach marred the view. That's not what I payed $8 a night for! Eventually he left and we went for a walk through the village. People were quite friendly and welcoming. I ended up making tour arrangements with "Skinny" and made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with the cockroach. After our walk we met his friend "Zero", and Zero's cousin Ugly (who sold us some artwork).

We watched the sunset (around 6:30 every night) and returned to our room to discover a few oddities we hadn't noticed earlier. For example, there was a huge hole cut out of the bathroom ceiling (clearly a homeland security issue). There was also a puddle of water around the toilet and a horrendous stench coming from the bathroom. Steph wasn't into it. I of course, being the chivalrous one, offered to move to a new hotel. As I was tending to some business of my own she decided to wash up a bit. As she was using the sink, which was in the room not the bathroom, i noticed a steady stream of water pouring out of the wall. At least the toilet wasn't leaking. We went to bed around 8:30. I don't think Steph slept for no more than an hour as the whole place was kinda spooky.

3:30 am a knock on the door. It is the cockroach. He was wearing different clothes and had apparently purchased a new attitude as well. The climb up luckily was with a different guide. A couple from Romania joined us on the way up and they were quite illprepared for the climb. Apparently thel came from the $400/night Bali Hyatt and had been sold the tour but weren't aware of the difficulty of the climb. Frankly, we weren't fully aware either as it was pitch black out as we started or ascent. The last 20-30 minutes to the peak was quite a workout. Climbing on loose volcanic sand at a 45-60 degree incline would have been tough in daylight let alone darkness. Thank god for our dorky headlamps as the pathetic flashlights the others had were a far cry from reasonable. We were in the car back at the hotel around 9:30 and couldn't pack our bags fast enough. The cockroach offered us a ride, which we refused as he wouldn't negotiate a fair price and giving this sorry worm eater one red cent was not on my agenda! We would take public transport instead. These are known as Bemos. We hitched a ride to the rim of the crater in the back of a pick-up. Steph didn't realize until after the fact that the truck was not a bemo...oops forgot to tell her. We thought we might catch a tourist bus but that plan was thwarted by none other than your favorite and mine, the cockroach! He was there, waiting for us when we got off the truck. He and a handful of others ushered us into a Bemo so we didn't even have a chance to figure out the tourist bus situation. Had there not been a woman in the Bemo already I think it would have been even scarier. The Bemo rides, all 4 of them, is a story unto itself that we'll fill you in on later...

Mike- no komodo island in sight. I think a few more days here and then back to a south Bali resort before Steph's departure. Where I'll end up after that...I have no idea! We'll see where Visa and Mastercard can take me ;)

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