Sunrise at Mount Agung and Tirta Gangga

We wake up at 5 am and drive our scooter to the same spot as yesterday evening. This time we drive past our last stop and on up to Lahangan Sweet. There we have a very nice view of the sunrise at Mount Agung, the highest mountain on Bali and an active volcano. At 6 am it is 28 degrees. The summit is wrapped in grey clouds, a band of cloud lies beneath it, and the first light tints the flank of the cone reddish. Nicolas stands barefoot on a wooden platform around a tree and looks across the valley, where the clouds hang, over to the volcano.

Around 10 am we are at Tirta Gangga, a famous water palace in the east of Bali that used to be a royal palace. We barely escape all the tourists. When we arrive at the parking lot we realise that Nicolas left the key to the scooter in the helmet box. Luckily we have a very nice rental guy who brings us his spare key to our location. On the grounds there are pavilions with red tiled roofs, with lawns and paths of pebble mosaic in between. Nicolas stands in front of a staircase flanked by two stone figures with fangs. In a pond there are stepping stones, orange and yellowish white koi swim between them, and Annina balances across them barefoot. Behind her a multi-tiered tower rises above the water.

At 4 pm we are at the Maha Ganga Valley, a rice field in natural surroundings that is really beautiful. It is 29 degrees and the sky is streaked with dark clouds. A small waterfall falls between dense greenery. The terraces climb up the slope, with banana leaves and a small hut with a thatched roof in the foreground. A narrow path leads alongside a stream through a grove of banana plants.

Back in our hotel in Amed we have Italian food in the evening. There is bruschetta, three slices of bread with chopped tomatoes, with a glass of a yellow drink and a slice of lime. There is also a pizza with tomato sauce, cheese, vegetable slices and green pesto.