Last week was a holiday in Vietnam to honour the Lunar New
Year – Tet. 2013 welcomes the year of the snake and to celebrate, Vietnamese
families spent the holiday together, eating, drinking, exchanging money, and
best of all – not going to work! So four of my friends (Dan, Steph, Heather, and Christian) and I decided to spend
the week in Bangkok and Bali; we spent a few days in Bangkok and an eventful 5
days in Bali! Bali... I don’t believe there are many words I can use to
describe Bali that will do the place justice. Everything was incredible from
the beaches to the sunsets to the views to the people. Last week was also a
week of extreme activities! We surfed, climbed Mount Batur (an active Volcano
on the island standing at over 1,700 m), white water rafted, parasailed (is that a word?), and
snorkeled! Surfing was incredible though I felt something like a rag doll being
tossed around by towering waves. But my favourite activity by a landslide was
climbing Mount Batur!
We woke up at 130 AM to get ready and left our hotel at 2 in
the morning to begin the climb at 3:30 AM. The first part of the climb was exciting
to say the least – a little chilly, ashy, and reminded me of a horror movie
scene in which a bunch of campers get lost in the forest and start to disappear
one by one (yes, I watch too many horror movies...). But as we continued to
climb, adrenaline pumping and our anxiousness to get to the top before sunrise serving
as a drive, each step became easier despite the upward slope. Once we hit the second
rest stop we had passed the morning fog and when I looked up, the dark morning
sky was studded...covered...embellished with stars! Never have I seen that many
stars in my life! It was wondrous! I almost lost my balance upward a couple of
times because I was so distracted by the striking picture of hundreds of white specks
against the dark backdrop. I’ll never forget the image for as long as I live.
Occasionally I recall passing areas where hot air was emitted
from the earth (signs that the volcano is active); this was pretty cool (and warm
;p). As we got closer to the summit I remember using both my hands and legs to
haul my body over the rocks multiple times. But finally at 6:40 AM, feeling
mighty and accomplished, we reached the top! Watching the sun peak over the
horizon from the top of a Volcano in Bali would definitely go on my list of 5
most memorable life moments. Just imagine it. The experience made me feel like a piece of a great big puzzle in which all the pieces are scattered over cities, countries, continents, planets, and even solar systems that
exist; I felt like a small yet significant part of something huge and magnificent
we call “the universe.”
Even though we got hardly any sleep the night before the
climb, even though I banged my knee pretty badly on a rock, and even though after
returning to the hotel I felt like I just came back from battle (as my friend
Christian would like to say), I would relive the moments at the top of Mount
Batur again and again.
Madiha
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| We climbed this! |
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| Yes we did! |
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| Sunrise from the top of Mount Batur - Breathtaking! |
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| Me doing yoga on the beach (Photocred: Stephani Higgs) |
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| Stumbled upon this in Bangkok |
