Our mini trip to Ubud

Our first weekend away in Bali.

A vacation, in a vacation, if you will.

Bryce and I began the hour moped drive from Canggu to Ubud, excited for the four days ahead in our private villa with Harley and Caedia.

After rain made us pull over and wait it out on our way there, we arrived at our AirBnb, had a quick chat with the property manager about the place and once he and the four or five other people that were cleaning and preparing the villa left, Bryce and I started checking it out.

It was an indoor/outdoor living, two bedroom villa with a nice private pool.

As we waited for Harley and Caedia to arrive we ordered some local food for lunch and talked about what the weekend plans were.

By the time we finished our food they made it to the villa and the weekend had begun.

They checked the AirBnb out then it came time to see where we were sleeping.

Bryce had Siri flip a coin and as destiny had it, Harley and Caedia were in the slightly nicer bedroom upstairs.

Everyone got settled into their rooms and it didn't take long for the boys to start jumping into the pool.

We all talked for a while around the pool until we got hungry and decided to order dinner.

Pizza was on the menu the first night (and again periodically over the next two days because Bryce accidentally ordered six pizzas instead of four).

After dinner we all went to bed early because we had to get up hours before the sun the next day.

The alarm went off at 2 a.m. and it was time to get ready for our sunrise volcano hike.

We got dressed, had a quick bite to eat (of pizza) and were on our way out the door to the car that was waiting to drive us an hour to Mount Batur.

Upon arrival at the base of the volcano we were greeted by our guide, Wayan, who equipped us with headlamps, walking sticks and water.

A quick trip to a bathroom without running water and we began the hike up to the top.

The start of the hike was relatively calm, a cement path at a moderate incline.

It didn’t take long after that for the intensity to rapidly increase.

It was two straight hours of hiking (what I would argue was) a very steep trail that changed between volcanic rocks, loose gravel, sand, and dirt.

None of which were easy to walk on, especially at the incline we were going on.

The whole time on the hike to say I was struggling was an understatement.

It was slightly embarrassing simply because nobody else seemed to be having trouble, which in itself, blew my mind.

In hindsight, I probably would have benefited from bringing my inhaler.

Bryce walked behind me the whole way up to catch me if I fell (which I did), and he kindly carried my water for me.

After two hours, a handful of breaks and a can-do attitude, we made it to the summit of Mount Batur.

Wayan shook our sweaty hands at the top and said “congratulations” to us as we took the last few steps to a bench we sat on to wait for the sunrise.

As we waited, Wayan brought us our breakfasts.

A banana sandwich, an orange, a hard boiled egg, a banana and two little chocolate brownie circles.

Then Wayan took our drink orders and brought out three hot chocolates and a tea as the sun was coming up.

We slowly started to see the lights from the town below us and a second volcano with a lake in between.

The sunrise was pretty but it was very cloudy so I don’t think we got to experience the full potential of what it could have been.

But regardless it was fun to watch everything slowly appear before our eyes.

We finished up our breakfast, Wayan took some pictures of the four of us in front of the view and we hiked up a few more minutes to the very top of the crater.

There, Wayan brought us to a series of holes in the side of the volcano where steam was coming out from inside.

Again, Wayan took some pictures of us at the top.

And some very creative ones may I say. He broke out the .5 lens, the panoramic feature and used his own phone to create a reflection under our camera.

After our photoshoot we began the journey back down the volcano.

But not before I grabbed a small rock from the top as a little souvenir.

Before we even made it five minutes down the trail I had already fallen again.

The people around offered a hand to me as Caedia and I got laughing so hard it was a challenge not to pee.

But we held it together enough to keep it moving.

About ten minutes into our hike down, Wayan presented us with two paths we could take, a longer one that is easier or a shorter one but on a bit of a steeper and tougher terrain.

Bryce made the decision to take the shorter one and we all agreed.

This trail was very rocky and uneven but since we were going downhill and gravity was on our side, we didn’t seem to mind.

And boy gravity was on our side because myself and Harley were falling and slipping all over the place.

I fell so hard and fast one time that my walking stick went flying behind me.

Of course, we all got laughing again.

While I was taking my time going down the steep trail and being careful with my steps, Bryce was far ahead of me just running and jumping around with Wayan.

It was like Bryce had been hiking this volcano everyday with Wayan for years and knew the trail like the back of his hand.

You just had to laugh at the sight.

It took about an hour and a half to make it back to the base of the volcano.

When we got back to the parking lot we said goodbye to Wayan, thanked and tipped him and got back in the car for the ride to the villa.

Immediately when we got back to our place, we ordered lunch (at 10 a.m.), showered all the dirt and dust off while we waited for the food, ate, then we took naps for a couple hours.

The rest of the day we laid low and hung out around the villa.

Later at night Bryce, Harley and I walked to the convenience store down the street, got some mixers then ordered vodka to the villa.

We ordered food, mixed up some drinks and brought them to the tv where we played rounds and rounds of Beerio-Kart on the Switch.

For those that may not know, Beerio-Kart is Mario Kart but you have to finish your drink in 2-4 of the four races in a game (depending on how quickly you want to get drunk) but the catch is you can’t drink and drive. So you’re either chugging in the beginning or pulling over where you can to get some gulps in.

It is a great time.

So we played that for a while, took a dip in the pool and enjoyed the night all together.

The girls called it a night around 1:00 a.m. while the boys hung out for a couple more hours.

They mentioned something about petting cows down the road.

We spent the next day recovering from the cheap vodka.

Bryce and I had a nice morning listening to music in the sun and the pool while Harley and Caedia slept until the afternoon.

Bryce and I had plans to go to the monkey forest that day but it started to thunderstorm and didn’t stop until just before the forest closed so we will have to do that another time.

Instead, we napped again, still catching up on sleep from the volcano hike morning, and woke up in time for dinner.

Which was pizza.

We all went to bed early again, Harley and Caedia were still tired and Bryce and I decided to get up in the morning at 6:30 to leave for Canggu in hopes to beat the rain.

So we said our goodbyes, because that is the last time we will see them, packed our bag and fell asleep.

It was a great weekend with friends and even though the hike was brutal I think it was worth the memory.

Hey, now we can say we’ve hiked a volcano.

This is what I mean when I say Wayan was quite the photographer.