What an epic day!

Two days ago, Nick and I took our scooter and drove all the way up to Lake Bratur in Bali to take a sunrise hike up the volcano. Fortunately, after spending the previous day completely lost driving around Ubud, we actually had no trouble getting there and were able to spend a complete day relaxing by the lake before our big hike.

On Friday night, we went to bed nice and early, as we had to wake up at 3:30 AM to make it to the top in time. The sleep could have been better, but the fact that I didn't have a watch kept me from ever actually falling asleep, for fear that we would miss our wake up call.... that combined with the fact that a dog parked himself right outside our bungalow and proceeded to HOWL the ENTIRE night... but I'm not bitter or anything.

(although if we had a gun... this dog would no longer be alive)

ANYWAY, our wake-up call arrived at 3:30 AM and we were off. After a rather uneventful 2 hour hike, we made it to the top just in time to catch a BEAUTIFUL sunrise.

That is another island in Indonesia, seen from a distance

We spent about an hour at the top hanging out, eating breakfast, and relaxing before hiking back down.

Instead of taking a nap (which is what I wanted to do) we decided to take a drive down the coast to our next destination: Libeh beach.

On our way down the mountain, we were driving right past Pura Besakih, Bali's largest temple, so we decided to take a little detour and check it out. Unfortunately, the road was missing huge chunks in some places

and was so steep that I had to get off the scooter and walk while nick drove up with our packs.

We continued on this "road less travelled" for about an hour before we finally asked a local where the temple was.... and of course, we had gone the wrong way.

No worries, we eventually found the temple and it was beautiful.

After walking around the temple area for about an hour we decided to get back on our way to Libeh. We were taking our chances on Libeh, because it was not in our Lonely Planet guide, but we figured it was worth the risk.

A grueling hour or so of driving - including stops for gas:

and a parade crossing the street

and we made it! To a BEAUTIFUL, empty black-sand beach... it was paradise!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a hotel in this town... ok maybe this is why it's not in the Lonely Planet, but that's ok... we kept on down the coast....for another hour and a half driving down every road we could find and ALWAYS finding a beautiful black-sand beach and NEVER finding a hotel!

Until we finally made it to Sanur - a touristy town where we were able to find a hotel,
and, apparently, the "kiddy pool" of Bali beaches... Let's just say after no sleep, waking up at 3:30 am, hiking a mountain, and driving on a scooter for over 5 hours... I was less than thrilled!

But, thus is the life of do-it-yourself travel, right?