Ganung Batur

Next we headed further north to see the volcano, Ganung Batur. Michael and his family climbed this volcano 24 years ago so he was excited to see it all again. On our taxi ride up we were asking our driver about hiking the volcano, the town where we'd be staying, etc. He sort of laughed, mentioned something about the mafia, and then dropped the subject. Hmm, what that was all about we wouldn't find out till later.

We stayed in Penelokan, a small town set on a hillside with an amazing view of Ganung Batur. As there are only two places to stay in town we were somewhat concerned about finding lodging that was within our price range. After striking out at the first place (too expensive), we found a room at an unfinished hotel. From looking at their registration book we think we were their only guests since January. We had the whole place to ourselves and a wonderful view - certainly the best we've had the entire trip.





Our plans to hike the volcano, which one traditionally starts at 4 am, were squashed when we discovered the extorniate cost of the climb. Prices of anywhere from $55/person to $30/person were quoted, which neither of us could stomach paying as this was only a three hour hike. The high cost seems to be a function of a Hiking Guide Association that has cornered the market on this volcano. You cannot climb without them. We learned later of stories of hikers being robbed, threatened, etc. while hiking on their own which reinforced our decision to just stay one night and skip the hike.

Instead we decided to take a walk to the lake, about 1.5 miles down a steep hill. On the walk down we were talked to or stopped at least 25 times by locals offering us rides, wanting to sell their art, offering to guide us up the volcano, etc.

We stopped for lunch about half way down at what turned out to be a not so great restaurant. Luckily there was a large group of mangy looking cats who liked the offerings much more then we did and helped us finish up the grisly bits.



Upon arriving at the lake we were swarmed with locals wanting to sell us bracelets, massages, tours, boat rides, etc. I got the impression that they hadn't seen tourists in quite some time. In fact during our one day stay we saw only two other westerners.

We made our way back up the hill by motorbike. The hill is so steep that I actually had to get off my bike two times so my driver could go back downhill a bit to get more of a running start.

Dinner that night was also another weird experience. The hotel restaurant is also not really open yet so we sat, in the dark, the only two people in the whole place with leaking ceilings and incomplete menus, while two young hotel staff hovered over us.



Breakfast the next morning was more of the same but we sat on the incomplete balcony, complete with exposed rebar and no railing to keep you from falling over. The view, however, was spectacular.