Sunday 6 December 2009

A Thanksgiving with Altitude - Ubud



We’ve arrived in Ubud! The landscape is dotted with rice terraces.

Surprisingly, lots of ducks hang out at the terraces. There’s a famous restaurant in town called the Dirty Duck. I guess this is how it got its name. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner there.

What does one do during holiday time when you are in a land that doesn’t celebrate your holiday? Apparently, do something quite foolhardy and reckless.
No, we're not Australian for goodness sakes. Our thanks giving was a bit more zen.

Our gang of three decided to hike up a volcano, timing it just right to see sunrise. This is more complicated than it sounds. Actually, I just re-read that and it sounds complicated all on its own. However...

First, this is the volcano.

It is much larger (and more active) than I anticipated. When we set out on the hike it was pitch black, so we had no idea how much climbing would be involved.

We awoke at 1:45am and set off for the volcano. That’s right…1:45am! This is when you are supposed to go to bed during vacation. It is never, ever a time when you should be waking up.

We had read a review of the volcano trek. It was described as terrifying and dangerous. We chose to ignore it.

Thus, we were terrified multiple times during this very dangerous trek. There is a very steep incline for most of the 2-3 hour hike. In itself, this would be difficult, but the volcanic rock breaks away and is difficult to navigate. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we were doing it in the pitch black dead of night. Also, as I neglected to mention earlier, the trail had been closed several weeks earlier due to volcanic activity. Every once in a while we’d come to a hole with steam piping out of it.

We were not ones to give up! Before we knew it we crested the precipice!

It was very cold at the top. It was also cloudy which put a damper on our sunrise plans. Still, the views were stunning.

Standing on top of a volcano looking down at the clouds is a perfect place to reflect on all the things we are thankful for this year. It’s been a good, good year.

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