Prepare for Mount Batur trek, Bali

Sunday. January 19, 2020 - 6 mins

On my last trip to Bali, I went to Mount Batur Sunrise Trek. In this blog post, I am going to tell you all the details you need to know for the trek.

Mount batur is situated in the North-East part of Bali, in Kintamani village. There are multiple points to start the trek. The most famous one is the sunrise trek. It is around ~81KM from Ngurah Rai International Airport (Bali airport).

There are many tour packages which offer this trek, they will pick you up from your hotels at around 2-3 AM, followed by trek, breakfast at the top and again back to the hotel in the afternoon. They also provide a guide that will take care of you on the way.

What did we do? We landed at Bali airport at 02:10 AM, then took the cab to the starting point. It was a ~2 hr drive. You can easily get GoJek or Grab or local Taxi. I would suggest you to either take GoJek or Grab because local Taxi will ask for more money ad being foreigner, and you will have to negotiate. Also, you will not be familiar with the local language. GoJek/Grab will charge you around ~450.000 IDR.

On the way, there was some guy who was collecting 30,000 IDR per person on the way to the starting point. This was a few kilometers away from the point. Nobody checked this ticket, you can avoid this.

After reaching the point, we asked Cab driver to talk to a local residence for a guide. He asked for 700.000 IDR. This was the way to high and might contain his commission as well. So we refused and found a girl who agreed in 250.000 IDR.

It was around 3:40 AM, and we started the trek. It was full moon night so the path was visible. The torch was provided by the guide, which helped a lot on the way. The way is almost straight, only a few divergences.

There are few shops on the way, for water bottles/cold drinks. But the price is more than 2x (around ~70.000 IDR), it gets on the increase as you move forward.

We took some Apples, and eat it while trekking. I advise you to take some fruit with you.

We keep on moving forward, there were people from all over the world trekking with us. I meet some people from Korea, Mauritius.

The point where the car drops you, at the starting point of the trek is already at some height. There is a village down. So after a few minutes of trek, you can get some views like

The way was not so steep, it is easy to moderate level. There is also a bike service which takes around 1000.000IDR to 2000.000IDR, totally depends on your negotiation. If you are taking a bike service, please make sure to hold your hands tight with the rider. If you fell, you will get hurt hardly.

It was around 05:30 AM, and the sun started rising. The view was like this

On following the path with fellow trekkers, you will finally reach a point where the bike services stop. From this point, the way is steep, full of rocks.

It will take around 15-20 mins from this point to reach the top of Mount Batur.

We were fortunate we reach at the top by the time sunrise. The winds were mind-blowing. And the view was superb ❤️.

There are few more hilltops nearby if you wish you can take some more time and visit them as well.

This is the village I was talking about, whose light looks fabulous while going up.

It was around 07:00 AM we started to go down back. It was easy to run, as you just need to maintain body balance.

Now the interesting part kicks in, as we are close to reaching bottom base. Our guide asked for her fee which was 250.000IDR. We gave it.

We were late while coming back, the sun was all most top at 09:00 AM.

After reaching base camp, there was nobody except a few local guys. And no cabs/transport service to catch the highway. There was a person and a car, whose tire was broken. This person kept on saying wait for a few minutes, the car driver is coming. As while starting the trek, we told our GoJek driver not to wait so he went. Now we were left with no option.

For a few minutes, we waited for the driver, then found some suspicious activity from this guy. He kept on calling a number on his phone. So we decided to walk with the help of directions in Google Maps. First, this guy was not allowing us to leave. But we kept on insisting that we will manage. And then this started asking for the trek fee around 700.000IDR by showing fake tickets. We refused it. Also at this point, our lady guide was not accepting that she has received money from us. They were having some conversation in the local language.

We decided to walk, there were no proper roads. I remembered the way while coming, so it was easy but the problem was you need to walk in an unknown place. Most people there don’t know English. While walking we got one farmer, who can only understand “highway, he took us to the main road. Then we saw a board of the cab service. While talking to the cab driver, one man came and started asking for money. This was the same man to whom we have refused for a guide while going up. As we have taken the cab, so the cab driver helped us from this guy and saved our money. Otherwise, we would have paid additional money.

This main road also had a way to start the trek, so you don’t need to go interior in the village as we did.

If you are planning to go there, be cautious. Don’t give money without proper investigation, if someone asks for some fee or something else.

The overall experience was very good. If you love trekking, then this trek is for you. It is of moderate difficulty, I would suggest it for beginners as well.

Then we went to a few more places, like Bali Handara Gate. I will write another blog post in this series to share my first Bali trip.

Till then have a good time.

Disclaimer:

All photos captured from One Plus six and GoPro 8

Vishwesh Jainkuniya

Learner