Mount Batur Sunrise Trek _ OUR FAVORITE THING WE DID IN BALI

Today we will be trekking up Mount Batur for sunrise and this turns out to be our favorite thing we did during our time in Bali, it really is a day for the story books!

Mount Batur is an active volcano and is the 2nd highest mountain in Bali. This is something we have really been looking forward to doing during our time here.

The day starts with a 1:30 AM wake up call and 2:00 AM pick up from our guesthouse. We hire a driver for the day and drive about an hour north to the first meeting point. We have some breakfast and coffee before getting into yet another car to drive 30 minutes or so to the hike starting point.

We meet our guide and she briefs us on the day and off we go. We start the hike up around 4:00 AM so we can make it to the summit before sunrise. The path starts off pretty straight forward and we hike in a pretty long line of the other tourists heading to the summit.

We reach a rest spot and our guide tells us we can either take the "easy" route or the "hard" route. She tells us the "hard" route is incredibly steep but it should be much less crowded.

We decide to go the hard way in hopes of having the trail to ourselves. Our guide was certainly right on both points... there was not another soul on this trail with us and it was SO STEEP!

We hike in complete darkness with the path illuminated by nothing more than our flashlights. In the blackness, we can't tell how far up we have gone or how much further we have to go. All we can focus on is putting one foot in front of the other on the loose volcanic rock.

We reach the top after 1.5 hours and find the perfect spot to await the sun. It is still dark when we first arrive but we watch as the sky turns from black to blue to orange and pink. Only now with the light can we see how far we have climbed.

We sit with our feet dangling over the crater's rim and we watch in total awe and admiration as the sun makes it's way up... the view could not be more spectacular overlooking the surrounding mountains with a blanket of clouds below. We truly feel on top of the world.

Our guide makes us egg and banana sandwiches and we enjoy breakfast #2 while the sun rises over the sea and the clouds begin to burn off.

After around 2 hours up at the peak, it is sadly now time to start making our way down... we elect to go the "long way" which is a different route than how we came up. We make our way along the volcano cliff edge and continue to enjoy the amazing 360 degree views.

Our guide tells us that Mount Batur is actually a small mountain that has been created inside an old eruption. it is clear we are inside a much larger crater and it is hard to imagine the type of eruption it took to create such a huge crater. It takes us around 1.5 hours to make it down to the bottom and we could not be happier with our experience today.

Our driver takes us around 2 hours to Jatiluwih which is where we will be staying the next couple of days. We get checked into our new guesthouse and we are pretty exhausted from our early morning start so we take it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

This is hands down the best sunrise of our lives and arguably one of the most awe inspiring things we have experienced! We cannot recommend this enough to anyone and everyone visiting Bali!