The tallest and holiest mountain on the island and I were more intimately acquainted than I was willing to share with my friends as we began our journey up it at 1am. I didn’t want to worry them. After spending 8 hours on my 21st birthday scrambling around in the dark on Mt. Agung (I still can’t decide if that was the greatest or stupidest way to enter my 21st year), I felt at home trekking up the narrow footpath in utter darkness up, and up, and up. It was great to have four friends, schoolmates from Thailand, trekking with me.
Previously that day, I had driven across the island from the east tip, Amed, back to Canggu to meet my friends for our trek. (I was tired of driving) Paige, my roommate from Chiang Mai and I had a fun reunion, she’s one I’ll keep in touch with after. There were four of us and we piled into the car at 10:30pm for a 2 hour drive back to the east coast from which I had just arrived from! Ha! We arrived in the dark at 1am, met our guide, were given our headlamps, watched as our guides lit incense and prayed to the temple, and were on our way.
Climbing mountains, even at 1am, gives me energy. My friends were less enthusiastic at the early, dark, steep start but pushed through. I felt more alive the farther up we climbed. This was one of my natural ways of being. That and I had some balinese coffee and fried bananas so the sugar and caffeine might have played a small part!
I liked trekking in a group. These girls were the gang to climb with.
We made it to the top before any other tour. 
To be expected, it was fucking freezing at the top, 1000+ meters. Apparently, the other three didn’t assume that and so we had a cuddle puddle for an hour as the rest of the 30 or something people arrived and found a perch.
We watched the other tours below on the mountain, caterpillars of bobbing headlamps winding their way up the steep slopes towards our outcropping. When they arrived it became a party.
The sunrise was beautiful. The light creeped slowly across the rocks behind us before the orange globe rose above the crag in front of us.
We could see Mt. Rinjani on Lombok, the island to the East. Epic. I was glad to have done it with a guide and people just for the comradery at the top as we waited and watched the sunrise together.
We also had a fun time taking some memorable shots:)
Happy to have climbed Agung again. I could climb that mountain twice a week for the rest of my life and feel great.
the trek down was the worst part for my friends. I led and went very slowly.
we sat down fro lunch at the base of the mountain. here’s a pic of what we climbed a few hours ago:
all by 11am:)
