Sunrise Trek on an Active Volcano, Kintamani, Bali, Indonesia

August 29, 2014

Mount Batur, Kitanmani, Indonesia

We met our driver, Kadek,with pillows in hand, at 1:00am to drive to Kitanmani.  At 3:00 am I joined the group from baliecocycling at the Lakeview restaurant for a 30 minute drive to the base of the volcanoe.

Hubby's knees were not up for the adventure so Russ's Flamingo joined me.  It took 2 hours in the dark, of serpentine hiking and climbing to reach the top.  I was drenched with sweat, but thrilled to reach our goal and turn off my flashlight!

After a half hour wait in the dark, the sun peeked out for a few glorious minutes.  We all grabbed our cameras and just as quickly the clouds came in.

Luckily the clouds moved on after 15 minutes.  It was beautiful, even though we never actually had a truly clear view.

After breakfast, we walked around the steaming crater and put our hands in warm fissures (vents of lovely, warm volcanoe steam).

At the top!

The volcanoe monkeys were much nicer than the Ubud monkeys.  People (not me) fed them right out of their hands.

I wasn't able to capture the depth of the crater in a photo.  It was monstrously huge!

Lake Batur in the distance

On the left you can see where Lake Batur almost meets the 1963 lava flow field on the right.

The is really amazing to see in person.

Coming down was quicker, but much harder on the knees.  From bottom left to right:  Henry our guide, Sneha and Rohit, two newlywed dentists from India and more hikers.

We're done!!!

Big Blue Starfish in Bali

August 28, 2014

Poinciana Resort, Tianyar, North Bali, Indonesia 

Happy Belated Birthday Bonnie!!!  

The water is calmest in the morning, so we went snorkeling right after sunrise.  Charles told us an entire reef had been used for building (they burn it to make lime for the cement), so we had pretty low expectations.   We were happily surprised by the number of fish and coral we saw.

The highlight was this big blue starfish.  Pretty amazing!!!

My fingernails are blue, so you can see how very big and blue the starfish is :)

Helloooo

Russ putting on his gear

Beautiful coral

And the table is set for a lovely breakfast after our swim :)

Cloves and Coffee in Northern Bali

August 26, 2014

Northern Bali, Indonesia 

We also saw lots of cloves and coffee being dried on our road trip today.

The dried cloves have an amazing aroma!

Russ and Charles at a big clove drying area.

Lots and lots of cloves drying.  The cloves takes four days to dry and turn brown like this.

Wheelbarrow full of dried cloves and tool used to spread out the drying cloves

Left to right - Clove worker, Russ, Made & Nyoman.

Clove tree

Cloves separated from their stems, start drying

Continue drying

Coffee drying

Cremation Ceremony, Northern Bali

August 26, 2014

Northern Bali

We stopped in traffic as we were driving today.  Charles got out of the car to see what the hold up was.  It was part of a cremation ceremony.  So we left the car and walked up to the intersection and took some photos.

The ceremony "parade" was passing the intersection by this temple and a policeman kindly informed us that three ceremonies were planned for today!

                    

We jumped back in the vehicle when traffic started moving again.

Later in the day we saw the preparation for another ceremony.

The body will be place in the middle section.  They will walk around town 3 times and then burn everything.

Poinciana Resort, Tianyar, Northern Bali

August 24, 2014

Northern Bali, Indonesia 

We checked out of ARMA in Ubud at noon and hired a driver to bring us to Northern Bali.  

We checked into Poinciana Resort in North Baliin the afternoon.  Our villa looks directly at the ocean.  One pool views the ocean and another views both the ocean and the volcanoes.

Looking at the pool and the volcanoes beyond 

If you look left from this pool you are looking at the ocean

Made painted my fingernails blue and my toenails green.

There are new flowers placed inside and outside every day.  I love it!

I'll add interior photos once I locate them...

FOUND :)

It turns out that the camera saves all photos taken in 200 photo increments and some of the increments didn't get downloaded.

Doesn't Russ look GQ with the flower behind his ear!

Sitting are looking at the ocean

Big, comfy bed with fully operational mosquitoes netting.  Thank goodness we don't need it!

Another entertaining bathroom.  The tub is HUGE, but Russ just can't get use tot these handheld showers in a tub :)

Beautiful ocean with a very rocky shore.  The rocks are smooth and black and beautiful to look at but very hard to walk on.

We are really enjoying the sunrise and sunset daily....ahhhhh

Market in Northern Bali

August 26, 2014

Northern Bali, Indonesia 

Today we took a trip with our new friends Charles and Nyoman.  Our driver was Made.  

Nyoman reminds us of Linda D.  She loves to shop and bought everything at the market!

A beautiful assortment of hot peppers

Grapes, local and imported ( USA ) apples, potatoes and more

Garlic and dried anchovies

Even flowers :)

Russ loved the market, even though there was no cheese :)

Duck eggs and chicken eggs, limes, watermelon, tomatoes, white rice , black rice and much more

Fresh fish and dried fish

Many, many different types of greens which are all yummy, especially stir fried with garlic!