loveliness.

Tag: travel

• vegetarian

  Posted at 1:05 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 3, 2015

  I’ve been waiting to post about this for awhile, to make sure that it was really something I could stick with, but it’s been almost 6 months, and I don’t have any plans to stop, so I guess it’s probably safe to share.

  One of the changes I made while we were gone on our trip was that I became fully vegetarian, and completely stopped eating any meat or seafood (not that I ate a lot of seafood before).

  I’ve always been super picky and weirded out by meat, and that always made me feel hypocritical. Like, if you can’t bear to think about what it is without feeling sick, should you really be eating it? So I think it was really kind of inevitable, and it was just the right time.

  Most people when I tell them I stopped eating meat when we were in Indonesia say “Oh I can’t blame you, I wouldn’t eat meat over there either”, but it really wasn’t that I thought it was so much worse than meat we have over here.

  I was almost completely vegetarian by then, but I would still eat chicken once in awhile, until one day when we were sitting in a small home kitchen for lunch. D ordered chicken fried noodles, and a little boy from the family that owned the restaurant ran out to the backyard to bring in one of the chickens so they could kill it and cook it for us.

  And that really freaked me out, but not for the reasons that you might think. I just felt like if I was that uncomfortable eating a chicken that I knew was chicken, and knew exactly how it was going to be killed and cooked, right in front of me, then why would I be OK with eating meat that I don’t know where it came from, and I have no idea (actually I do kind of have an idea, and that’s even worse) how it’s treated and prepared?

  When we were in Australia, I was listening to the radio on our road trip, and a local cattle farmer was being interviewed, and she said that people always came up to her and asked her how she could stand raising animals from babies, and then slaughtering them and eating them? Like how could she eat something if she knew it’s name?

  And her point was, how can you eat something if you don’t know it’s name or where it came from? Which kind of hit home for me.

  So I stopped eating meat, and I honestly really don’t miss it, and I feel great. I actually tried vegetarianism almost two years ago, but when I stopped eating meat I just started eating chips and junk food (because technically that’s vegetarian right?) and I felt awful all the time.

  I decided it must be because I wasn’t eating meat, so I went back to it. This time, I’m actually eating vegetables (what a novel idea), and trying to eat as many different ones every day as I can.

  A few months after I stopped eating meat completely, we were in the Philippines, diving off the island of Coron, sitting in the boat waiting for our divemaster, when a small canoe-type boat pulled up next to us.

  It was a boat from Palawan, bringing live pigs over to sell in the marketplace. There were about 6 of them, enormous full grown pigs, tied to stakes, and tied to each other, and kept that way for the entire 8 hour boat ride. It was very hot that day, and they had no shade.

  The worst part was the sound they were making. I’m not even sure if pigs are biologically equipped to scream, but that’s what it was. They were screaming. It was horrible, I was almost in tears, but I asked D to take a picture so I could share it.

  

  I’ve done enough research to know that compared to treatment animals in some slaughterhouses in America, that probably wasn’t even that bad.

  So that’s where I’m at right now. I’m having fun experimenting with different recipes and trying new foods, and I’m almost feeling up to the daunting task of trying to make my own veggie burgers, but not quite.

  Posted in food, life, nutrition | 4 Comments | Tagged animal cruelty, diet, eating meat, food, nutrition, recipes, travel, vegetarianism

• trekking mt. rinjani: day 3

  Posted at 10:52 am by jasminedesirees, on January 28, 2015

  Continued from Trekking Mt. Rinjani Day 1 and Day 2.

  On the last morning of our trek, our guide Jamal woke us up at 2:30 AM to start our trek to the summit of the mountain.

  Even as we were crawling out of our sleeping bags, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go or not. The wind had been howling all night, and it was absolutely freezing outside.

  

  

  We all huddled together in the porters tent for tea and biscuits, and Jamal explained how the next few hours would go. We would be hiking for 3 hours, in the dark, up the side of the rim, across a narrow strip that was only one meter wide at some points.

  On either side, it was a straight drop down.

  Once we left camp, we wouldn’t be able to come back unless we came back all together, because there were a couple of places on the climb where you could take a wrong turn, especially in the dark, and end up lost.

  

  

  Jamal told us we could go if we wanted, but he wasn’t going up with us, one of the porters would take us. Only about 5 of us decided to make the trip. Derek didn’t come, luckily, because I wore every single piece of clothing both of us brought.

  I wasn’t even sure I was going to go, when I went back to the tent to get ready, but then I figured I’d come this far, so I stuffed a Snickers in my pocket, and pulled a pair of socks onto my hands, and headed out.

  

  

  

  I made it exactly 5 steps before I tripped over a rock in the dark and fell flat on my face. Luckily it was so dark that nobody else noticed, and we all set off.

  I regretted my decision almost immediately. It was freezing, windy, and dark, but the worst part was that the closer we got to the top, the more the ground went from dirt, to volcanic ash. Every time I took a step, I would sink up to my ankles, and slide backwards a little bit, so for every 2 steps I took, I was only moving one step forward.

  

  

  

  It was realllllllly hard, but if you’ve ever met me, you know I am reallllllly stubborn. After two hours of climbing, a couple of the guys in our group decided they couldn’t keep going, so they huddled together behind a rock to wait for the rest of us to come back down. And then there were four of us.

  We got up to the top just as the sun was coming up. The view was gorgeous, you could see the whole island, and the Gili’s off in the distance. The relief of finally being done climbing was the greatest feeling ever.

  

  

  

  We sat up there for about an hour, and then when we started getting really cold again, headed back down to camp. Going down was so much better than going up. The volcanic ash, so treacherous on the way up, was a blast on the way down, and we ran flat out, sliding the whole way. I only fell twice.

  

  

  Breakfast was ready for us by the time we got back down, but I felt so sick that I couldn’t eat anything for the rest of the day. We packed up camp, and headed back down for 6 more hours of hiking down to the base.

  We stopped for lunch at a rest stop, and were accosted by a particularly brash group of monkeys, and I laid in the shade and dreamed about Sprite.

  

  

  When we were an hour from the bottom, I finally couldn’t take it anymore (I had blisters) and had to take my shoes off and finish off the rest of the hike in the barefoot/in my flip flops. I had the dirtiest little monkey feet in the whole world.

  

  

  The trek ended in a little town with a store, and the first thing I did was buy myself a Sprite, and lay down on the ground. It was the single most glorious thing that’s ever gone into my mouth.

  We loaded into the back of a truck for the hour drive back to the trekking center, grabbed our stuff, and went back to our homestay to shower for the first time since we’d left, and sleep for the next two days straight.

  

  

  I just went back and re-read all three of these posts, and it sounds like a pretty miserable experience. It really wasn’t, it was amazing, one of the best things I’ve ever done. It was really hard, I just want to let you know what you’re in for, but I guarantee you won’t regret it.

  I mean you will at the time, definitely, but like three days later, once you’ve eaten, slept, and showered, you’ll feel invincible.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged hiking, Indonesia, lombok, mt. rinjani, travel, trekking, volcanic ash, volcano

• trekking mt. rinjani: day 2

  Posted at 8:18 am by jasminedesirees, on January 26, 2015

  (Check out part 1 and part 3 of Mt. Rinjani)

  On day 2 of our trekking expedition on Mt. Rinjani, we were woken up just before sunrise, so we could eat breakfast and get going. The second day is the longest day, with the most hiking, about 10 hours to the stopping point for the second night.

  Nobody slept very well, and it was pretty cold when we first woke up, but the porters were awake long before we were, and made a fire and had hot tea waiting for us so we could relax and enjoy the beautiful sunrise.

  

  

  Then we set off down the mountain. Our route for that day was to climb down inside the crater rim to the crater lake, and then climb back up the other side of the crater rim to get to the base of the summit, which we would be attempting the next morning.

  We left camp about 45 minutes before our group of porters, they have to break down camp, and pack everything up, but they are so fast, and have been doing it for so long, that they caught up with us, and passed us, almost immediately. They have to beat their group to the next stop so they can have a fire made and lunch cooking when they arrive. They are pretty much amazing, true story.

  

  

  The initial descent was pretty steep, there were some hand railings, but they were precarious at best. A couple people wiped out, but there weren’t any serious injuries. The sun came out full force about halfway to the lake, and it quickly became very hot.

  It took us about 3 hours to get down to the lake, and by then I was so hot I just kicked off my shoes and ran into the water. It was freezing, but the view was incredible. We were stopping at the lake for lunch but a short hike away from the stopping place was a natural hot springs that we could go swimming in while we were waiting to eat.

  

  

  The water was bright green, and smelled like sulphur. I didn’t go in because I was not feeling good at all by then, I went and had a nap in the shade, but everyone that went in said it was awesome, and that they felt much better afterwards.

  

  We ate lunch, and then started the hike around the lake, and up the other side. It was very strange though, there were dead fish all over the place along the edge of the water. Like hundreds and hundreds of them.

  We asked our guide Jamal about it, and he told us that the President of Indonesia had wanted there to be fish in the crater lake, so he had helicopters full of fish dropped in, but then they couldn’t survive in the water because of the volcano, so they die off in huge numbers. I have no idea if that is true or not.

  

  

  The second half of the second day was pretty brutal. It was gorgeous, hiking through the cliffs with the view of the lake, but it was very hot, and we’d met another group at the lake who were coming the opposite way, and had attempted to make the climb to the summit that morning.

  They told us it was way too windy, and almost nobody made it, and that it was so miserable there were people crying and huddling together behind the rocks. So we had that to look forward to the next day.

  

  

  When we were about 2 hours away from the second night camp, it started to get very steep again, and Jamal told us it was the place where most people get hurt, if they are going to. It was pretty sheer cliffs, and there were occasional hand rails, but it was almost worse to use them because sometimes they would pull right out of the ground.

  

  

  

  Jamal told us a story about one hiker who fell there and broke almost every bone in his body, and a group of porters had to carry him out on a stretcher. It took them a day and a half to get him out of the crater and back to a hospital, and he screamed every time they jostled the stretcher, which I’m sure happens a lot when you’re climbing down the side of a mountain.

  Needless to say, I was superrrrr careful after that.

  

  

  

  We eventually made it up to the top, and our tents were set up, and supper was ready for us since the porters had beat us there by about two hours. As soon as we got there I collapsed into the tent and vowed never to get out again.

  We were up really high by this point, and the clouds were swirling all around the tents, it was amazing. I left the tent door open so I could watch it without moving.

  

  

  

  We ate an early supper, and went to bed right after sunset, because we knew we’d be getting woken up at 2:30 AM to try to make the trek to the summit of the mountain. We didn’t even know at that point if we were going to be able to go, because if it’s too windy they close the climb.

  

  

  

  You have to do the climb in the pitch dark to be up there for sunrise, so it’s already pretty dangerous without adding gale force winds. Jamal told us he’d wake us in the morning, and we’d find out then if we were going.

  

  

  The first night we’d been kind of in some rocks against the cliff, but the second night we were out in the open with no shelter.

  The wind was blowing so hard that the side of the tent kept blowing down and covering our faces while we were sleeping, but I was so exhausted from the last two days that I slept like the dead, and didn’t move at all until Jamal stuck his flashlight into our tent.

  

  

  To be continued on day 3…

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 6 Comments | Tagged crater lake, hiking, Indonesia, lombok, mt. rinjani, travel, trekking, volcano

• trekking mt. rinjani: day 1

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on January 21, 2015

  (Check out part 2 and part 3 of Mt. Rinjani)

  As I mentioned here, while we were in Indonesia in Lombok, we ended up doing the 3 day Mt. Rinjani hike. I had never heard of it before we got to Gili T, and it sounded kind of cool, but also, every single person I’d met that had done it said it was really, really hard.

  You could tell who had just gotten back from the hike when you saw them out on the streets of Senggigi, because they just looked completely shattered.

  

  

  We kind of thought it would be cool, but didn’t really look into it that much, and then one day D and I just kind of looked at each other and were like, “When are we going to be in Lombok again? Let’s do it”. So here is the story of our Mt. Rinjani trek, broken out by day:

  On the day we left, we got picked up from our homestay in Senggigi, around 5am. We each had a backpack with the warmest clothes we had, and 400 Snickers bars.

  We got dropped off at the climbing center in Senaru, and they gave us banana pancakes for breakfast. I hate banana pancakes, so I was playing with the monkeys climbing in the trees instead.

  

  There were about 10 people total in our group, from all over the world. We had a couple guys from the UK, a girl from Spain, a Canadian couple, and 2 Danes, a mother and daughter. The mother was in her 60’s, and she was very impressive. It was a very hard 3 days, and she kept up with us the whole time.

  Our guide was named Jamal, and he was very sweet and funny. Each group goes up with a guide, and a few porters, depending on how many people are in the group. The porters’ job is to carry all of the camping supplies: tent, sleeping bag, mattresses, food, water, etc.

  

  

  They hike up the mountain carrying extremely heavy loads balanced on both ends of a bamboo pole, usually wearing flip flops, and holding a cigarette in one hand. They only make $15 USD per day, and the goal is to eventually become a guide, but speaking English is a job requirement, so many of the porters use their time with the trekking groups to practice.

  Jamal told us his first day as a porter he made it up to the crater rim, but it was so hard that he set his load down and cried.

  

  

  The first day was pretty hard, it was up hill the whole way (obviously) and it was pretty hot outside. We stopped for a break every 1KM, so I just kept telling myself that I only had to make it to the next rest stop.

  This went on for 6 KM (it was 8 KM total the first day).

  By the time we reached the lip of the crater rim I was completely exhausted and I kind of thought I was going to cry when I realized we had 2 more days like that, but the second I came up on the ridge and saw the crater lake, I immediately forgot about how hard it had been to get up there, and I was so happy we made the trek.

  

  

  It was the most amazing view I’ve ever seen. I got a huge adrenaline rush, and spent at least an hour running all over trying to get pictures from different angles, and just enjoying the view. Beside me, a guy got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend.

  

  

  We set up camp on one of the mountain cliffs and the porters made us a delicious dinner. We stayed up chatting, and watching sunset over the mountain, and hung out for a bit just enjoying the view and the millions of stars we could see.

  I remember thinking that I wished it was warmer out so we could just sleep outside under the stars.

  

  

  

  It was incredibly windy up there, I barely slept at all because I was freezing, and because I kept thinking we were going to get blown over the edge.

  

  

  During one particularly nasty gust of wind our tent collapsed, and the cover blew off, so we ended up sleeping outside under the stars anyway. Be careful what you wish for.

  

  

  To be continued on day 2….

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 13 Comments | Tagged Indonesia, lombok, mt. rinjani, travel, trekking, volcano

• lombok: kuta beaches

  Posted at 10:07 am by jasminedesirees, on January 19, 2015

  As I mentioned in this post, the beaches in Kuta Lombok are some of the most beautiful out of everywhere we visited.

  We spent one whole day on a moped going around to see as many of them as possible, and we didn’t even make a dent in how many there are to see (there is one with pink sand, but it’s a bit of a struggle to get to).

  

  

  Our first stop was Mawun beach, about a 20 minute moped ride from Kuta. I must have taken about 500 pictures while we were there, I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.

  We arrived around 9 a.m., and there wasn’t a single soul there except for two ladies selling fresh mangoes from a little hut.

  

  

  I’ve heard that Maya Bay in Thailand is the most beautiful beach in the world, and it’s gorgeous, but Mawun should definitely be in the running, and we had the entire thing to ourselves.

  Apparently the tourists usually don’t get there until later in the day, and the locals come and go early.

  

  

  

  After Mawun we stopped in at Seger Beach, Tanjung A’an, and Gerupuk, which is a great surfing beach for beginners. We didn’t really have any idea where we were going, except for Mawun, we were just exploring and creeping around everywhere, taking rights and lefts to see where we’d end up.

  

  

  We eventually drove east of Kuta until the road ended at one last beach. We were pretty sunburnt by then, so D stayed on the moped under a thatched awning, and I went down to check out the beach.

  

  

  

  I can’t remember the name of it, but it was breathtaking, and there were dozens of fishermen standing in the water up to their waists all along the cove, wearing straw hats and trying to catch their dinner.

  

  

  

  We eventually found our way back to town, where I bought 5 popsicles and then passed out in a heat stroked coma for the rest of the day.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged beaches, beautiful beach, Indonesia, kuta, Kuta Lombok, lombok, mawun, travel

• lombok: kuta

  Posted at 7:57 am by jasminedesirees, on January 15, 2015

  One of my favourite places in Indonesia was Kuta in Lombok (not to be confused with Kuta Bali). We took a mini-bus there for the weekend while we were waiting to see if we’d ever get our passports back.

  It was about a 3 hour bus ride, we didn’t know anything about the place, and we had no place to stay, but I’d seen enough pictures of the amazing beaches there to know we definitely had to check it out (I have tons of pictures from all of the beaches, but they definitely deserve their own post).

  

  

  The bus driver let us out in the middle of town, and we shouldered our backpacks and walked about 10 feet to the nearest homestay, where we got a room with wi-fi and breakfast for $5/night.

  We were in Kuta Lombok in late October, so just at the beginning of the rainy season, but we had absolutely gorgeous weather. I’m pretty sure I got heat stroke, but it was worth it.

  Because it was the start of the rainy season though, there were hardly any visitors there, often we were the only people in the restaurants or shops.

  

  

  Kuta is not much of a tourist town anyway, it’s very laid back with amazing surfing at many of the different beaches, and it’s off the beaten path enough that a lot of people don’t make it over there, but I saw a few signs for big resorts being developed, so that will likely change in the next few years.

  

  

  We had a great time creeping the town and exploring the surrounding area on a moped, playing with the baby goats that wander around everywhere, and eating at some amazing restaurants, we only had 2 days there but I would have liked to stay longer.

  

  

  The only thing I would mention as a negative thing about Kuta is that there are a lot of children there working to sell bracelets and blankets to tourists, and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if there aren’t many visitors there at the time.

  

  

  It’s hard because you want to help them, but we’d traveled enough by then to know that it actually isn’t helping them to buy things from them on the street, because that’s just incentive for them to spend more time selling on the street to support their families, rather than doing kid things, like going to school.

  

  

  The kids would come up to you in restaurants, or while you were walking down the street and show you their goods, but if you expressed any interest you would be mobbed by any kids that were in the area, trying to get you to buy from them. I saw older kids beating up younger kids to get them out of the way, it was really sad.

  

  

  There are a couple of restaurants we visited in Kuta that donated a portion of every meal sold to helping the kids so they no longer have to work on the streets. As I learned in Cambodia, if you want to help, there are ways of doing it that won’t end up doing more harm in the long run.

  

  

  If you have a chance to visit Kuta Lombok, definitely do it, especially if you are a surfer. I promise, you won’t regret it.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, kuta, Kuta Lombok, lombok, surfing, travel

• lombok: senggigi AKA how not to renew your indonesian visa

  Posted at 10:10 am by jasminedesirees, on December 18, 2014

  After Gili T, we took a boat ride over to explore Lombok for a couple of weeks. Our first stop was Mataram, which is the main city, where we stayed for 3 days while we were trying to get our visas extended to stay in Indonesia another month.

  I didn’t love Mataram, it’s very busy and crowded, and everything is kind of far away so it’s not really walkable, and the traffic is so crazy that I didn’t feel comfortable renting a moped either, but there was some beautiful architecture and an amazing mosque that was being erected near our hotel.

  

  

  There are agencies in Gili T, and Senggigi that will renew your visas for you, but we figured we could do it ourselves, so we went into the main government building to try. If you are going to do this, make sure you dress very conservatively. Lombok is a Muslim island (as is most of Indonesia, except for Bali) and covered shoulders, closed toed shoes, and covered legs are required.

  I don’t think it would be very hard to get your visa done this way, in retrospect we should have just waited and tried to figure it out, but there were so many people, and the language barrier was too much, we just felt overwhelmed so we decided to use an agency in Senggigi instead.

  

  

  It seemed like a good idea at first. We dropped off our passports and paid the money (about $60 each) and they told us our passports would be done within 4 days, with the new stamps. So we rented a moped and did some exploring, hung out by the pool, and enjoyed our few days in Senggigi, it’s a really cute area with lots of beaches and good restaurants.

  We went back on Thursday to pick up our passports, and nobody was at the office, even though it was well past the opening time. Sometimes things work a little slower over there, so we thought that was fine and kept coming to check in every few hours, but nobody ever showed up.

  

  

  I had taken down an email address and phone number, and given them my email address in case anything came up, but we never heard from them, and when I tried them, both the email and phone number were out of service.

  We decided to check back again the next day, but there was still nobody there, and when we asked the neighbouring business if they had any contact info, we were told that he was almost positive they had packed up their business and moved back to Bali. So that was fun.

  

  

  We ended up going to the tourist police station which was quite nearby, and they couldn’t have been friendlier, or more helpful. They eventually tracked down the guy and called him for us, and he told us we would have our passports back on Monday (5 days late) and was confused about why we had contacted the police.

  We were supposed to be leaving for a 3 day trek up Mt.Rinjani (more on that later) so we had to push that out by a few days. On Monday we went back there to pick up our passports, and still nobody was there. Finally someone showed up, but he had no idea what we were talking about.

  

  

  

  We refused to leave without talking to someone, eventually another guy came, an Australian, and he told us that our passports were in Senggigi, ready to go, and they would be there any minute. We waited another hour, until finally the guy we had originally given our passports to called him, and told him that our passports were still at the renewal office in Mataram (where we had originally gone to renew them ourselves) and we’d have to go there to pick them up in person.

  We did that, we were super annoyed, but we would have done almost anything to get our passports back by that point. Once we got back to the renewal office, it took about 20 minutes, we went upstairs, got our photos taken again, and got our passports with the updated visas.

  

  

  I’m not saying you should definitely renew your visa yourself, but it’s more expensive to go through an agency, and you will likely end up having to go get it yourself anyway, since most of the time they need to redo your fingerprints and photographs.

  So it all worked out in the end, our time in Senggigi was great, except for that minor hiccup. I’ve never seen so many palm trees in my life as on Lombok, and if you are there and looking for a great place to eat, check out Cafe Alberto, it’s right on the beach, has an amazing view for sunset, and has the best mushroom ravioli I’ve ever had.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, lombok, mataram, passports, senggigi, travel, visa renewal

• tirtta ganga

  Posted at 9:02 am by jasminedesirees, on December 15, 2014

  On our way back from hiking Mount Batur, we stopped in to check out Tirtta Ganga, one of Bali’s gorgeous water palaces. it’s up in the NE part of Bali, so it’s perfect to visit while you’re up in Amed, or on your way back from a day trip out of Ubud.

  

  

  

  It’s not marked very conspicuously, when our driver pulled over I thought he was just stopping for snacks, because it’s surrounded by walls, with shops and restaurants in front, with just a little gate and a sign over the archway.

  

  

  

  Luckily it wasn’t very busy when we were there so we were able to check everything out and take lots of pictures without there being a crowd, or a group of random people in all of our photos.

  

  

  The grounds was amazing, with lots of sculptures and water features, and a giant fountain in the middle. There are stepping stones all through the first pool so you can walk around it and look at all of the sculptures.

  

  

  We were told that the waters in Tirtta Ganga were supposed to have spiritual healing properties, and that people were allowed to swim in certain areas, but there wasn’t really anyone to ask, and we didn’t want to accidentally go into the wrong area.

  Also, there are huge Koi fish everywhere, and they definitely could have taken off a pinky toe if they felt so inclined.

  

  

  It was very peaceful, quiet and green, even though there is a more expensive homestay and a nice restaurant along the right side of the property, it doesn’t take away from the ambiance.

  

  

  Also there was a large pool filled with lilypads and gorgeous purple flowers, so that was my favourite part, obviously.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged amed, Bali, culture, Indonesia, tirrta ganga, travel, ubud, water palace

• on coming home

  Posted at 9:47 am by jasminedesirees, on December 8, 2014

  We’ve been back from our travels for about 2 weeks, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I haven’t seen my family yet, so I am still waiting ever so patiently (is it Christmas yet?) for that, but other than that we’ve seen a bunch of Derek’s family, and all of our friends in California, and made a road trip up to Oregon to see my best girl for Thanksgiving.

  I’ve drunk my twisted tea, I’ve got my scuffed up leather boots back on (it is probably not normal how much I missed them, I had dreams about them when we were gone), I’m sleeping and waking on a normal schedule again, I’m even back at work, as a temp in the city until we move to Phoenix in January. We’re officially and definitely back to reality.

  I am a little sad to be back, but I was worried that it was going to be more like this, and that I was going to be really depressed not to be traveling constantly, and sleeping in a new place every night. To be honest, I never got tired of that. I know some people would have, but I could live like that forever.

  The thing is, even though we are back to reality, we aren’t yet back to routine. We are basically homeless, we’ll be moving to a brand new city at the end of the month, and the time up until then is filled with friends and family and Christmas-ness. I am starting to look for a job in Phoenix, and I have some big goals for myself for 2015 as well.

  Even though we were gone for six months, now that we are home again, it kind of feels like the whole thing might have been a dream. I just want to hold on to all of the things I learned while we were away, and keep my priorities straight, remembering the things that are important, and the things that aren’t and never will be.

  Our trip was an amazing chapter in our lives (and I still have a ton of posts to share), but it’s not the last chapter. Instead of being sad to be home, I’m really just excited for what is coming up next, including starting to look ahead, and beginning to save for our next big adventure.

  Posted in thoughts, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged friends and family, homecoming, life, priorities, travel, writing

• hiking mount batur

  Posted at 8:16 am by jasminedesirees, on December 3, 2014

  The first thing I will say about hiking to the top of Mount Batur to watch the sunrise, is that it is amazing and breathtaking and gorgeous and you should definitely, definitely do it while you’re in Bali.

  The second thing is, for the love of God, wear every piece of clothing you brought with you. People kept telling me to dress really warm, but I am very stubborn and had already decided what would be appropriate volcano hiking gear, and refused to listen to anybody.

  I also was thinking of the time we climbed to the top of Pura Lempuyang, and people told me to bring a jacket, and it was not cold at all by my standards so I had to carry it the whole way.

  

  

  I figured that since I am Canadian, I have a higher tolerance for cold, and since I spent most of my time in Amed wishing it wasn’t so freaking hot out, it would be nice to be out in the brisk morning air.

  It was. The air at the bottom of the mountain at 2 am was glorious. And then we started climbing. And during the two hour climb to the top, I was so hot and sweaty I wished I would have worn even less than I was wearing.

  But once we got to the top, and stopped moving, I was whistling a different tune. Or at least I would have been, if I’d have been able to feel my face.

  

  

  We started the climb up the mountain at about 3:30 A.M. It’s pitch black, but everyone gets a flashlight, and it’s mandatory that every group has a guide. It was really beautiful to look back behind you as you were climbing to see the string of flashlights bobbing along in the darkness. I wanted to take a picture, but I know my limits, photography-wise, and I am pretty confident it would have just been a black fuzzy blur.

  There are two places where you can stop and watch the sunrise. One is the main area where most people hang out, and the other is the very, very top. It’s another 30 minutes climb past the main area, and it’s a hard and treacherous climb (I would like to note that this was before I had climbed Mout Rinjani in Lombok. Now it seems like a leisurely stroll in the park. But more on that later).

  Being me, I obviously decided immediately that we hadn’t come all the way up there to not make it to the very top, so up we went.

  

  

  The climb to the summit isn’t actually very far, but because the very top of the mountain is coated by layers and layers of volcanic ash, it’s very hard to climb. You sink in above your ankles with every step, and you also slide back a little bit with every step, so it takes a really long time to make any real progress. On top of that, it was incredibly windy, and we weren’t moving fast enough to keep warm so it was bitingly cold.

  Have I sold you on this yet? Perfect.

  

  

  Once you kept to the top, it’s completely worth it. We found a little spot to sit down, and one of the guides brought us coffee. The sun was just starting to peak over the top of the mountain.

  And then right at that moment, an enormous cloud appeared, and blocked the entire thing.

  

  

  Just when I was contemplating flinging myself over the edge since we’d made that journey for nothing, the clouds parted for about 15 seconds. Just long enough to snap a few pictures, and everyone at the top with us jumped up and started cheering.

  Then the clouds came again. And this kept happening over and over again. Just when you thought the clouds would never move and we wouldn’t be able to see anything, they would part again and give us a few seconds of complete magnificence.

  

  

  We were up there for about an hour before we started the climb down. The guides made us breakfast on top, bananas and eggs cooked in the little pockets of volcano steam, it’s pretty cool to watch.

  Then we started the trek down. It takes about an hour and a half, and you come down a different way, skirting the crater rim, and then descending into the valley filled with lava rock from all the years of eruptions.

  

  

  Once we got to the bottom, our driver picked us up and drove us the hour and a half back to Amed.

  This hike was definitely one of the best things we did in Bali, and I can’t recommend it enough. But please, please don’t wear shorts. My legs turned blue. It was not ideal.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 10 Comments | Tagged batur, hiking, Indonesia, mount batur, sunrise, travel, volcano

•        
• Follow loveliness. on WordPress.com

• Follow Blog via Email

  Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  Email Address:

  Follow

• Popular Posts

  • viewpoint
  • big sur
  • for women who are difficult to love
  • orange county
  • capitola
  • back packed
  • scuba diving: komodo national park
  • trekking mt. rinjani: day 1
  • biking through bali
  • preparation

• Recent Posts

  • half dome: part 2 (the climb)
  • half dome: part 1 (before)
  • favourites
  • queretaro
  • white sands
  • orange county
  • life update
  • news21
  • land’s end
  • big sur

• Instagram

  No Instagram images were found.

• Categories

  Categories Select Category Arizona art Australia B.C. beach books California Cambodia Canada chocolate DIY exploring family fashion favourites food friends happiness Hawaii holidays Indonesia inspiration life Los Angeles love loveliness Mexico Montana new mexico New York nutrition Oregon other things Philippines photography poetry quotes recipes San Francisco Seattle Singapore Thailand thoughts travel Uncategorized USA utah Washington

• Archives

  Archives Select Month August 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012
• Search for: