Sunrise from Mt. Batur

My day started at 2 o'clock.
2 o'clock in the morning.
In the morning!!!
What one does when traveling...

The reason was a sunrise, what else would motivate someone to get up so early.
The destination was Mt. Batur in northern Bali. Its neighbor Mt Agung has recently become famous mainly because it occasionally emits small puffs of smoke. For this reason, no tours are conducted to this summit.
But Mt. Batur, with its 1770 meters, was enough, especially for such an early morning.
However, our tour started at a café on the way, where we were able to enjoy traditional Balinese coffee and a crepe with banana.

I will go into more detail about the coffee later, I just want to note that I didn't like it at all. First of all, I need a proper sip of milk in my coffee and the coffee grounds had a disturbing consistency in the end. But 20 minutes later, I was as awake as I hadn't felt in a long time. At 3 o'clock in the morning. Yeah.

Strengthened, we went to the foot of Mt. Batur, where we then met another tour guide who would accompany us to the summit. This poor guy has been climbing this summit every day at 4 o'clock in the morning for the past 2 years, watching the sunrise, and then descending again.
Accordingly fit was the guy, but also set a good pace. My group consisted of fit people and we did our best, but at some point we were panting behind this mountain gazelle.
The path was narrow and very rocky, so in addition to the physical exertion, we also had to be very careful where we stepped.

Because soooo many tourists do this sunrise tour, you can see the path ahead of you by the many lights from flashlights. Sometimes we were walking in a long line of people; this slowed down the pace for a few minutes, but then our guide waved past everyone with swift steps and we panted after him.

After about 90 long minutes, we reached the summit, or rather, our goal a little before the summit. At the top, it was so crowded that our guide preferred to let us admire the sunrise from a little further down.
I can also say now that for the first time in Bali, I was cold. On the summit, with a light breeze and sweat - hello cold.
In addition, a wall of clouds covered the eastern sky, so we missed the actual sunrise. But the colors of the sky, the mountains in the background, and then the clouds. Wow, the clouds!

Beautiful.

Around 6 o'clock, we received a fantastic breakfast consisting of a hard-boiled egg (in the vapors of Mt. Batur) and a slice of white bread. Delicious.
I was actually the only one in the group who wanted to go up to the summit again. Come on, you're almost there and then you don't follow through? Not with me!
At the summit, we actually had an even better view, but the highlight were the monkeys who benefited from the food of the tourists. Just like with the Keas in New Zealand.
After that, we started the descent, going back down for 1.5 hours over rocks.
With trembling legs, we made it into the van, which then took us to a coffee plantation.

There we got to taste different types of coffee.
I immediately recognized my 'favorite coffee' from the morning - that's precious Luwak coffee. A Luwak is a marten-like animal that eats coffee beans and then, well... you know. They are then collected in the morning and processed into coffee.
Hm, definitely not for me.

I liked the coconut and vanilla coffee much better. The coconut or vanilla is roasted with the beans and then processed into fine powder. I had to take some home, I have to show it off. So delicious!
After 7 hours, we returned to Ubud - and it was 10 o'clock in the morning! So what to do with the rest of the day?

I have already booked a nice tour for tomorrow, but I thought to myself: let's visit some temples.
So I went out onto the street and chose a trustworthy taxi driver. Well, I don't know if he's trustworthy, but he had a sense of humor and that convinced me. And he drove me the way I wanted.

Because I didn't really have a plan for which temple I wanted to visit (it's easy to lose track), I gave the driver free rein and he suggested two to me: Danau Beratan and Mengwi Royal Temple.
Negotiated the price, got the car, and off we went.
The road took us out of Ubud towards the north and we passed the southern area with the many rice fields and small villages. I couldn't get enough of the views and I still smile when I think back to it.

At some point in the middle of nowhere, the traffic suddenly jammed heavily and I feared the worst.

Bingo.
Mass tourism at its finest.

Arriving at Danau Beratan Temple, I was first amazed at the many cars and buses and then at the relatively (!) expensive admission fee. But well, now I was here, eyes closed and go for it.

Impressive.
In a bad way.

People, wherever you look. Crowds.
This had nothing holy anymore (we are in a temple here!), it was just tourism. I took a macabre pleasure in observing the people as they showed off and tried to get the perfect photo. After that, I swore not to take any staged photos of myself in this temple and I reluctantly took photos altogether.

I also noticed that I only want to visit temples because... well, because that's what you do in Bali, right?
I couldn't really appreciate the temple in the way it deserved. Sure, these towers are quite beautiful, but still, I can invest my time differently.

I think I spent a total of 15 minutes in this temple complex and that was enough. I asked my driver to skip the second temple (the same thing all over again, just to say that I've been there?) and take me back to Ubud.
That's what he did (I'm paying him after all) and when it started raining on the way, I knew I had made the right decision for myself.

Temples in Bali? No. Thanks.