Annnnnnnnd I’m back with the sequel.

If you haven’t read BALI (KUTA & UBUD) PART 1, go catch yourself up!

We’re going to start this post with my trip to The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. I’m not going to lie, I felt absolutely terrified to see all these monkey’s jumping around. There were so many of them, EVERYWHERE!

They didn’t approach you if you had no bananas (how typical right?), I advise you leave all food at home or in the car that day. Below is a photo of genuine happiness, I really think this is the happiest I’ll ever be because I’ve never been this close to a monkey. I wish the monkey felt the same, but it seems like he doesn’t give a hoot.

One of the best parts of being in Indonesia was ALLLLL THE HEALTHY, WHOLESOME FOOD! Living in Korea I’m used to fried foods covered with thick sauces and spicy kimchi flavoured items so the fact that I can order smoothies, quinoa salad, sweet potato fries, and a black rice burrito made my stomach happy.

I went a little crazy at Dayu’s Warung because I wanted to eat everything on the menu. I don’t think this meal was more than $12 and the portions were huge. If you were wondering, yes I ate all.

The next morning my travel buddy Leni and I woke up at 1:30AM to climb a volcano. Call us crazy, because we are. We voluntarily chose to climb Mount Batur to watch the sunrise because we’re crazy tourists who thought this was a good idea.

Ok, let me rephrase, it was an awesome experience. Truly. However, putting my body through physical exuberance at 3AM when I’m used to being asleep was difficult to say the least. The trail wasn’t smooth, we had to climb and take giant steps around boulders and gaps to get to the peak. Oh, did I mention it was pitch dark AND it started to rain? sigh

When we got to the top, it was freezing. Like, December in Toronto teeth-chattering cold. I was only wearing a small sweater and shaking my bum off. Unfortunately the rain clouds didn’t move for us to properly see the sunrise. Kind of a bummer, especially all we went through to get there.

If you squint, you can sort of see the sun peaking behind the clouds.

Since it was pitch dark, Leni unfortunately twisted her ankle and fell hard once we got to the top of Mount Batur. The face plant left a giant scrape on her knee but she was a champ and still climbed down the mountain despite her injuries. YOU GO GIRL!

Being on top of an inactive volcano that is 1717 m above sea level was pretty cool. The four hour hike up and down was an adventure to say the least, would I do it again? Ehhhhhhh.

The day after our hike, I walked around the markets on Karna Street. Anywhere I go in the world I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to the local markets. It’s where I can see, smell, and hear the bustle of the city and immerse myself in the culture.

At this market they hike prices up like, 200 per cent of original cost. You have to haggle to get a deal. Always cut them down WAY less than asking price. You are not going to pay $35 for a beaded bracelet, YOU’RE BETTER THAN THAT! Cut the price down to like $2 and work from there. You can haggle on a set price and if they don’t budge, perhaps walk away slowly and they might stop you to give what you’re asking.

The vendors are aggressive so you have to stand your ground, this is where your street skills come into play.

I haggled some deals of my own.

Vlog time!! In the video below you will witness how crazy monkeys can be, the adventure that was our hike up the volcano, and a mini shopping haul of all I bought at the market (a lot of cool goodies!).