While waiting in Jakarta for our flight to Bali I received an e-mail of the possible plans of our friends Steve and Amie whom we were trying to meet somewhere on the island of Bali. With only the information that they were hoping to go to Batur to hike the volcano we set out from the airport hoping that some how we would be able to find them. Hiring a Bemo (small van with two side way benches) we headed to Batur not really realizing that Batur was a town overlooking the volcano but that there was also multiple towns surrounding the base of the volcano. Making a calculated guess at which town they might be in and an answer to prayer ended us at the exact hotel that they were at.

We went to Batur wanting to see the spectacular views of one of the world's most impressive calderas.  Within the caldera is Batur volcano and a lake which makes for an amazing view. The Lonely Planet talks about the hike being an easy 2-3 hr hike so, having hiked many of those before we were determined to do it on our own. The LP did however warn us about the intimidation tactics that some guides will try to use so that you do hire them. After avoiding them for the afternoon before we planned to get up early and go on our own, but we were met by three guides waiting outside our hotel at 4am. We attempted to walk towards the trail entrance, but as we walked more of these guides who were part of a guiding association encircled us telling us that we needed guides. At some points we were grabbed and even physically threatened. They told us that the hike was very dangerous and that a Swede was killed only 2 weeks ago. Things continued to escalate since one of the guides of intoxicated and even brought out a mop that he threatened to use on us. Worried about what these guides would do if we tried to go further and not wanting to reward these men for their tactics that they might use again on others, we turned back to our hotel. After much debate on what to do another guide that was not part of the earlier situation appeared at our guesthouse and after talking with him we decided that we couldn’t come all this way not to hike this volcano. So we hired the two guides to take us up. Fortunately, the delay in our start wasn’t that long and we were able to get most of the way up and see an amazing sunrise. In the end the hike was super easy and you did not need a guide.

Once at the top we cooked eggs over the steam vents from the volcano and had egg sandwiches. We also cooked bananas with Tim Tam inside.

~ryan