Seven Days in Bali

Sometime in 2018, the text arrived: "Hey, want to climb a mountain in July 2019?". Of course, the answer is yes and the following vacation is laid out at the beginning of the year. What began as a simple few days on a mountain quickly escalated to include beaches, river tracing, scuba diving, and jungle terraces.

Day 1: Arrival and Seminyak 

We spent one night on Seminyak beach and to be honest, it was enough. This is a classic party beach with drinks starting early and continuing late into the evening. We enjoyed our alcohol with a sunset and then turned-in early to have a cheap massage before an early morning journey to Lombok.

Day 2: Lombok Waterfalls

Always on the move, we woke up around 6 or 7 to catch the ferry over to Lombok Island and meet up with friends. Two complimentary taxis and a "fast boat" later, we stepped into our mountain villa around 3 pm that afternoon. Dropping the bags in the door, we headed back out to squeeze in some late afternoon river tracing under the mountain.

Days 3 & 4: Rinjani

On day three, we began what we came here to do and started up the mountain. This adventure is outlined in its own blog here.

Days 5 & 6: Snorkeling and Scuba Diving

Arriving from the mountain the previous day, we were able to wake up early on Gili Trawangan and get in the water. We started this day by diving with baby sharks and blowing bubbles. Shortly after surfacing, we got back on another boat to enjoy a private snorkeling tour of the local islands.

This was the most touristy thing we'd done since stepping off the plane. Thankfully, the private boat helped us at least pretend to have some of this paradise to ourselves. We visited five different spots to swim with turtles, underwater sculpture gardens, blue coral and barnacle-covered bicycles.

At the fifth location, we stopped for lunch on one of the more resorty islands nearby where a seller convinced us all to buy matching turtle bracelets made from local volcanic rock and tiger's eye. They were custom made for us on the spot and subjected to the fire rest, so they must be real. Right?

We spent the afternoon exploring by bicycle and ended the day with drinks on the beach while watching the sun go down. The next morning, we did it all over again, but instead of snorkeling, we did a wreck dive instead. Everything else was basically the same: baby sharks, bicycles, drinks, and sunsets. It was perfect.

Day 7: Ubud

We had to get back to Bali to catch our flight out, so we decided to spend our last night in Ubud. This tourist-loved destination is all over Instagram because of the famous Bali Swing over the Teggalang Rice Terrace and I wanted to see what that was all about. Unsurprisingly, like most things on the internet, it's cool, but it's not "I just climbed a mountain and swam with sharks" cool.

The terrace is very pretty and there are swings EVERYWHERE for tourists to enjoy... for a price. It was here that a little girl selling postcards for "school" got me. Tracking us all over the field, she got her money and my family got their postcards.

In town, we tried civet coffee (look it up) and did some temple exploring. The jungle town had a very different feel from the other destinations on our trip. To our disappointment, we also learned that souvenirs were much cheaper here.

Conclusion

We made the most of our time. Rinjani is absolutely worth it. With more time and a bigger budget, I think I would have skipped Gili Tragawan and flown over to Komodo Island instead. Ubud and Seminyak were disappointments to me. However, choosing an out-of-town hotel in Ubud with a private jungle pool may have changed that.

Getting Around

Boats, boats and more boats. We took boats everywhere: private boats, fast boats, ferry boats, etc. They were economic, efficient and I think the complimentary hotel transfers in Seminyak and Ubud made them worth it for us. We went with Blue Ferry Express for the long journey from Bali Island to Lombok because they let us prebook online.

Hehuanshan: Taiwan's Pink Peaks

With thousands of wild rhododendron bushes blooming every spring, Hehuanshan is a yearly favorite. From late April to early June, the mountains turn a beautiful shade of pink. The flowers just take over, covering hills, slopes, and even peaks. 

Hehuanshan is a national recreation area home to multiple hikes. My go-to's are Hehuan North Peak and East Peak. North Peak is a natural dirt trail that takes about four hours round trip. There's also a split in the trail leading off to a quiet little campsite for those interested. It is a great place to try and catch the Milky Way. 

Stairs the whole way up... and down, East Peak is a little less enjoyable, but the two-hour round-trip hike is a fun challenge with a rewarding view at the top (when it's not raining). 

For a quick weekend trip, the thing to do is drive up, hike to North Peak campsite and stay overnight. The next morning summit North Peak, then hike down to quickly run up East Peak before heading back to the city. 

The other trails in the recreation area are all easier and shorter than these two, with one exception: West Peak. This overnight trail looks fun, but I've yet to accomplish it and probably won't anytime soon :P

Other than West Peak, these are the easiest high mountain hikes in Taiwan and it's very possible to complete 2, 3, or even 4 of the shorter routes in a single day. Just drive up, park the car and get going. There are also a few rest areas around where visitors can grab some hot chocolate and warm steam buns. 

A word of caution: The quick ascent by car has a nasty habit of making these trails more difficult than they should be. Make sure to take proper care for altitude sickness by going slow, drinking lots of water, staying warm and sleeping lower than you climb. Bringing a hefty supply of ginger tea never hurts either.

Mt. Rinjani: The Prettiest Climb in Indonesia

It went moderately steep, intensely steep, moderately steep, intensely steep, and so on in a repeating pattern... for 10-12 hours. Unfortunately for the men, it quickly became apparent that if we were all going to make it to the top, they were going to have to do most of the lifting. We're not weak, every single person in our little group has a history of over-night high-mountain climbing, but we all struggled with this one.



Don't get me started on the ascent to the campsite. That was just hiking uphill on loose ground that would literally give way and roll you backward. You had to dig the hiking sticks in before taking a step or run up. (Yes, we had to go back down the same way. Yes, everyone fell.) This was hard work that really pushed us and made us question our sanity for spending our precious few vacation days on this. What the hell were we thinking?



Then we saw it... a massive caldera filled with crystal blue water and a little smoking chimney. Suddenly, the hike didn't seem that bad anymore. It was perfect. Better than we could have hoped for. After six months of planning, we were looking at what had before just been an image on our computers, another name on our bucket list... and it was better than any of us imagined. It's not often that something actually looks better than the photographs.



So, was it worth it? Absolutely. We summited twice. Once for sunset and then again for sunrise.

The guys carried most of our gear (clothes). While the porters carried everything else and a little extra. They literally carried a watermelon up this volcano. Sitting in a circle, chowing down on fried bananas, noodles and watermelon on top of a f*ing 3,000 m mountain, it was decided that they were getting a massive tip. The porters were also nice enough to share other things with us, like some hand-rolled local cigarettes to celebrate with at the summit. It was a great time.



We were extremely lucky to have such a great team that took care of us. There were definitely some less fortunate groups on the mountain. We're experienced hikers who know to pack rain gear, but when it started to pour on the way down, they pulled out ponchos for us that they had packed just in case. I didn't see any other hikers getting free ponchos. One greedy lady came up and even asked for ours. Poor unfortunate thing. Luckily, the rain held off until we were almost off the mountain and through the trickiest climbs. We practically ran down the last few sections, jumping over roots and quickly expanding mud puddles.



On this trip, we hiked with Hajar Trekking and our guide's name was Oggy. Great guy. Highly recommend. We bonded over music, relationship problems and good tobacco. This is the kind of hike that resets the bar on what you think you can accomplish as well as on what you think mother nature is capable of. It's short, only two days and one night, but a game-changer. From here, we went on to do two days of diving at one of the nearby islands.

Images courtesy of Louis :)

Hiking Yushan (Jade Mountain): Taiwan's Highest Peak

I get it. I completely understand how people who have never hiked before suddenly become altitude junkies within a year or two of living in Taiwan. The little island, about half the size of Virginia, is home to over a hundred 3,000m+ peaks and the most popular one to start with is Jade Mountain, which gets everybody hooked. Along with being Taiwan’s most popular hike, Jade Mountain is the highest peak in Taiwan and Eastern Asia. With a height of 3,952 m (12,966 ft.), it’s also the 27th most prominent mountain in the world, and my first experience with high altitude hiking.

I trained for one month and hike regularly, but knew the game had changed when one of our group members mentioned that he had just spent a week hiking around Everest’s Base Camp and the GIRLS who had gotten altitude sickness. (Thanks for that by the way, it made me feel so much better.) Obviously, he was one of the first to summit and I was one of the last, but the fact remains: I DID THAT and there must be something wrong with me, because I’m already planning my next high altitude ascent.



Jade Mountain is great for beginner altitude climbers, because it can be spread comfortably across two days and only requires hikers to carry 10-12 kg (22-26 lbs.). The mountain has two lodges, so tents aren’t necessary and neither are sleeping bags, which can be rented on site. Portering companies, also, send food and kerosene up the mountain daily so hikers can purchase meals at the lodges.

Serving more hikers than any other trail, the Jade Mountain lodges are revered as the best on the island. Instead of sleeping bags, the first lodge rents out weighted blankets and pillows (ACTUAL PILLOWS). I slept like a baby. For $300 NTD ($10 USD), the second lodge gives out nice down sleeping bags and fleece blankets. Interestingly, the second lodge is completely off the grid. Water is pumped in from a nearby river and the lights run on solar power. I was able to drink tap water for the first time in two years. In addition to this, it’s rumored they’ll be setting up some wind turbines in the near future.



Access to the summit is limited to 90 people a day and, of course, everyone needs two permits, which can be extremely difficult to come by. Also, the permits, lodging, meals and sleeping bags all have to be booked separately through different companies. For example, the food has to be booked directly through the portering companies and isn’t included in the price of the lodge. The sleeping bags are rented directly from the lodge, but as a separate transaction, so you have to remember to book it with your bed. Also, if you don’t get a receipt number, your reservation and money might be conveniently lost. Complete disclosure, just writing about it is giving me a headache and I’m super glad we joined a group instead of trying it alone.

There are lots of different organizations and people offering trips up the mountain. Trips are expensive (about $300 USD), but everything is included (even transport from Taipei) and they do all the paperwork, which (as mentioned above) is a huge pain. Ours was organized by trekking author, blogger and expert Richard Saunders, but lead by Mark Roche, the owner of Blue Skies Adventures and Saunders’ boss.



It was Roche’s 42nd trip up the mountain, so he was prepared for everything and full of good advice, such as how to ward off altitude sickness with ginger tea. (I love ginger tea, so this was great news.) Roche also has a favorite dead tree named Freddy, after Freddy Kruger. Again, I was usually bringing up the rear, so I got to talk with Roche more as he always tried to be the last one off the trail.

In addition to Roche and Saunders, other trekking companies organizing Jade Mountain trips include: Taiwan Adventures and Taiwan Adventure Outings. Yes, they are two separate companies. Taiwan Adventures has been around longer and has a good reputation for high mountain climbs, especially Snow Mountain. Taiwan Adventure Outings is a newer outfit that just took their first trip up Jade Mountain this year. That being said, the pictures from their trip looked great and I don’t think anyone died.



Speaking of dying, that happens. According to Roche, people die every year on the mountain. He alluded that the deaths were mostly older hikers and could be contributed to heart failure. Regardless, this climb is easily the scariest and most beautiful thing I’ve ever intentionally done to myself. Once you get over the scary, it’s an awesome (the original meaning) hike with mountain landscapes and shaded forests to keep you company.

The high altitude terrain is littered with firs, pines, hemlocks, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and edelweiss. This was the first time I’ve smelled pine needles since moving to Taiwan. Being as homesick as I am, the stupid things almost made my eyes water, as did the view on multiple occasions. (It’s unfair really, because in novels the girl who cries at beautiful things is such a romanticized idea, but in practice it’s awful, especially when the girl is trying to pretend to be a badass mountain climber, which she is not, and tears are not going to help the image.)



In distance, it’s not a very long hike, just 11 km from the trailhead to the summit. It’s the elevation that gets you and it literally takes two hours to hike what a person normally runs in ten minutes. There are two rest areas on the trail at the 1.5 and 5 km markers. They’re great places to have a snack and catch your breath. The summit lodge is at 8 km. If attempting a sunrise summit hike, most hikers stop here to sleep and eat before continuing on at two or three in the morning.

The final 2.4 km leading to the summit is a steep scramble with lots of windy cliffs, but there are chains and cages in place that make it feel relatively safe. A plus to doing the sunrise hike is that you can’t see how far you have to fall until on the return trip. It’s hard to believe that human beings actually do this for fun: "Let’s relax by standing two inches from certain death in the dark on the side of mountain almost 4,000 m above sea level.” You know what the stupidest thing is… I’d do it again.