Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
Estonia is a lovely little country located on the Baltic Sea. I cannot think of a single negative thing to say about this country. It is beautiful and easy to travel. Things are really, really, really old. There is a history here that is hard …
How often do you go out exploring your own backyard? This past weekend, we headed to the mountains. Our goal: huckleberries. I am happy to report that we were successful and came home with a nice little haul. R had family visiting from another state. …
When S, B, and I visited Bali, we knew we wanted to see as much of the island as possible. One way to do this was through a sunrise hike, where we would experience a sunrise after making our way up the side of a volcano. What follows is our actual experience.
The van picked us up from where we were waiting on the side of the road at 2:30 a.m. S, B and I climbed bleary-eyed and not quite functioning into the eight-seater passenger van and drove around Ubud for another 30 minutes picking up the remaining passengers: a girl from France and a girl from Germany. What was the reason for our nocturnal gathering? The allure of a sunrise hike up one of Bali’s biggest volcanoes: Ganung (Mount) Batur.
From Ubud, our driver drove to a small village at the base of the volcano called Toyabungkah. We didn’t see much of this town as it was only 3:45 IN THE BLESSED MORNING and still dark. We met up with our adorable little guide and his helper who would take us up to welcome in the sunrise.
The hike itself was listed as ‘moderate’ in difficulty and takes about two hours to get to the summit. The whole purpose is to hike to the top in the dark and then be at the summit to see the sun rise over the lake in the middle of the caldera (the center of a volcano). Sounds great, right? Well, that’s how S and I talked B into doing this particular venture. If she would have known what was actually going to go down, there’s no way she would have agreed.
Here’s what happened: about a quarter of a mile from Toyabungkah, the sprinkling began. Being the prepared Janes that we are, S, B and I pulled our rain jackets out of our packs and put them on over our headlamps. We were fine for about ten minutes….until the real rain started. Within the first 15 minutes of our hike (in the dark, at four in the morning), we were soaked. Not just a little wet, but all the way soaked. In the part of Idaho where we live, it is a desert that receives about 10 inches of rain per year. I’m pretty sure we got 10 inches of rain during our hike alone. It was so wet in fact, that our waterproof raincoats were useless. There was as much water in them as there was out.
Let me pause here to tell you a little bit about how cool Gunung Batur is. Batur is located on the northwest side of Bali and reaches to 5,600 feet above sea level. It is in the middle of two huge calderas and is close to Gunung Agung, the highest point on Bali. There are several villages in the area and the locals farm the green (probably from all the rain) and lush landscape. There are dark lava fields all over and in the middle of the lake in the caldera is a smaller volcano that is still active–last erupting in 2000. Here’s what Lonely Planet says about it: “The Gunung Batur area is like a giant bowl, with its bottom half covered by water and a set of volcanic cones jutting out of the middle. Sound a bit spectacular? It is. On clear days – vital to appreciating the spectacle – the turquoise waters wrap around the newer volcanoes, which have old lava flows oozing down their sides.” I love how the LP caveats it…the day of our hike was not clear and we definitely didn’t appreciate what we were looking at. Or for rather.
Although Bali is a part of Indonesia, Islam is not the predominant religion. Instead, about 80 percent of the island practices Balinese Hinduism, a version of Hinduism that incorporates worship of non-human entities. Balinese believe the Batur is one of the four primary sacred mountains where the Gods live. The lake in the middle of the caldera is sacred to the Goddess of the Lake, for which it is named. Tour companies request that women do not climb the volcano during their menstrual period. This is pretty common in Indonesia and while I try to be culturally sensitive, it rankles my feminist little heart. But back to the hike.
Since we couldn’t see anything because it was dark, we didn’t notice the thick fog that we were climbing in until it got a little lighter and we finally made it to the summit. There is a little tin/rock shack on top of the mountain and by the time we reached it, it was pretty full of other hikers waiting for their chance to catch the ‘spectacular’ view. While we all hunkered down to get protection against the wind and rain, we were treated to a cacophony of voices in different languages and bananas and sandwiches. These were much appreciated, but not quite the eggs cooked in the steam of the volcano that we had been told about. Oh well. We waited in the shack for about 45 minutes, with an intrepid soul leaving the protection against the elements to go check on the sun’s progress every few minutes.
Since Bali is close the equator, the sunrise and sunset are pretty predictable…it rises around 6 a.m. every day. Well, 6 a.m. came and went. All we saw were wet tourists and a lot of fog. It was a bit anticlimactic. Around 7 a.m., our guide apologetically told us we were not going to be able to see anything and that we should head down the mountain. The rain had mostly stopped by this point, so at least we weren’t still dealing with that on our descent, but it was really sad to know beautiful things are hiding just behind the clouds.
We got back to the van around 9:30 a.m. a little worse for the wear. Except the Europeans, who had that inexplicable and innate talent of looking stunning and fashionable in totally improbable situations. Guaranteed, I would not have looked as chic in cut off jeans and black nylons, but such is life.
Conclusion
Seeing the sunrise over Gunung Batur is an amazingly beautiful experience. So I hear. On the plus side, this was probably the only time that we were in Indonesia that we weren’t hot. Our poor guide was shivering at the summit, but we finally felt comfortable.
Let us talk about tour group challenges. Since last week’s post discussed Morocco and some of the benefits of group travel, I thought it only fair to discuss some of the less pleasurable aspects of traveling with a tour group. Knowing both sides can only help …
B and I are travel junkies; there are few places we really don’t want to visit (hello, Moldova), but overall we’re pretty much open to whatever. This is helpful when we come across a good travel deal, like we found a few years ago for …
One year ago today, I rolled through North Dakota. It was very exciting. Now normally, a trip to North Dakota is not necessarily worthy of any sort of celebration (no offense to the 750,000 people who live there). But this was no ordinary trip for me. You see, North Dakota was my last state. Once I crossed that state line, I could officially say I visited all 50 states.
Before heading out, I did a little research on the not-be-missed, hot spots of North Dakota. I think the locals must be very good at keeping their haunts under wraps because the internet yielded very few results. One clever commenter said that the best thing to see in North Dakota is the sign that says, “You are now leaving North Dakota.” With results like that, I struggled to make plans. Then it hit me: I could take the train.
A few years ago, I saw a good chunk of Canada via the rail line. I fell in love with train travel. Now the rail service here in the U.S. leaves little to be desired. But it is still a worthy way to see this country. For this particular voyage, I booked passage from Chicago to Seattle on Amtrak’s Empire Builder. I would have really liked to have booked a sleeper car, but it was just too damn expensive. So I booked a coach seat and hoped for the best.
The train leaves Chicago once a day in the afternoon and arrives in Seattle 46 hours later. Since I arrived in the city with a couple of hours to spare, I tried to explore a bit. But my pack got a little heavy and I headed to the station to settle in and wait.
They were offering some sort of special for those who wanted to try out the new lounge. Since it was only $10, I decided to give it a whirl. It probably does not cost $10 anymore, but I can almost guarantee that it is still worth whatever the new price is. The lounge has comfy chairs, drinks, snacks and free Wi-Fi. But best of all, you get priority boarding on the train. Me and about 15 other folks got to bypass the line and have our pick of seats. I sat across from a nice guy named Matt who clued me into the extra leg room in the first row of each train car.
The seats are not plush. But they are way better than your standard coach seat on an airplane and recline quite a bit. If you are lucky, you’ll have two seats. The train left Chicago full. But probably half of those people got off somewhere before midnight, including my seat mate. So I was one of the lucky ones (Matt, not so much). With a bit of help from some earplugs and a little Tylenol PM, I got decent sleep on both nights of the trip.
I woke up on July 4, 2015, just as the sun was rising over North Dakota. There was a fine mist covering the land and the light was muted. The view did not justify my level of excitement, but I could not stop smiling. When I planned this trip initially, it did not dawn on me until after it was booked that I would be celebrating Independence Day by visiting my final state. What a perfect way to celebrate!
I spent a good chunk of the day in the observation car watching the landscape pass by. It was more varied than I expected. It was also very, very rural (although I expected that). Some of the towns were quaint and I saw more than one 4th of July parade in the works. Others looked like ghost towns. We stopped at a couple of little towns so I was able to walk around and breathe in the air. But for the most part, I was just an observer. I never got bored and I never tired of looking out the window.
I did not see any fireworks that night. But what I did see was so much better: a colorful sunset somewhere near Glacier National Park.
Now here a couple of tips if you are thinking about taking a similar journey:
The US of A is big and vast and there is so much to explore. Taking the train is enjoyable way to see not only North Dakota, but many different pieces and parts of it. It helps to be prepared. If you are, you are in for a spectacular experience. Also, happy 4th of July!
This post about Iceland is written by our friend and fellow traveler, C. Enjoy! A year and a half ago, B, R and I went to Iceland for a long weekend. We spent a couple of days in Reykjavik and one day touring the Golden …
Janes often get asked, “How can you afford to go on so many trips?” Well, the answer is simple: you don’t spend a boatload of money on every trip. If you can’t afford to go big every time (man, wouldn’t be great?), go little a …