Scootin' to Gunung Batur

Today we took off to see one of Bali's volcanoes, Gunung Batur. Naively, we thought that mid-day would be the perfect time to leave. It was sunny in Ubud and we really weren't changing elevation that much on our road trip, but OH MAN were we wrong!  Just picture that scene from Dumb and Dumber, where they are driving their moped up to Aspen and they are so cold that they are frozen together, with snot frozen on their faces.  Well, remove the snow and add in a torrential downpour but keep the chill, that is basically what we were dealing with, but I'll start at the beginning. 

 

(The view from the top) 

 

We drove and drove and drove, stopping at a pristine terraced rice paddy on the way. Although what was more astonishing than the view was how entrepreneurial the Balinese are. Every astonishing view was turning into a tourist trap, full of all the junk one could never want. So we drove on some more, only to be stopped by some lazy police hanging out in their truck on the side of the road, picking out tourists, like they were black grains of rice. Thank god we went through the hoops and got a liscence, because we sailed on through the checkpoint and continued onwards and upwards.  For each kilometer we drove, the sky would turn one shade darker and the weather would drop a few degrees.

(Rice Terraces)

As we finally reached the view point, well there wasn't much to see through the never ending sheet of rain. We pulled over and did a reverse rain dance, hoping for a break in the weather to make our trip worth it. Apparently we are awful at reverse rain dances so we had to suck it up and start a very wet descent (at ten miles an hour). We made it back to Ubud, which was also surprisingly wet and cold, hoping that a hot shower would warm us back up. A hot shower was a bit to much to ask for, since our hot water had mysteriously disappeared.  We made it all better after some rice wine and good food...so not all was lost.

 

(Goh Gajah Temple yesterday)