Inglorious Gunung Agung
Photo by Dendy Darma on Unsplash 01:00 AM the alarm wakes us up after barely 2 hours of sleep, with our stomachs still processing the 3 courses delicious dinner of the night before, washed down by a couple of pints of Bintang . Still in a lethargic state, we meet our driver in the hotel lobby in Candidasa . He will take us to Pura Besakih where our adventure is going to start. We ask him if he has ever climbed Gunung Agung and he says he has done it a couple of times. This is a holy volcano and for the local people climbing it is a very spiritual experience. It takes almost an hour to arrive to destination where we meet a 21 years old woman that is going to be our guide. I look at her little thin body and make the first wrong assumption of the day: `If she can do it, it can't be that difficult`. After a few steep flights of stairs I’m already out of breathe when the guide stops at a little shrine for some offerings and then gives us two flashlight headlamps: it’s pitc...