Mount Agung trekking , towering over 3000 metres above sea level, has a huge spiritual significance to the Balinese people and is home to the mother temple of Besakih. According to a Balinese legend, Agung was created when the Hindu God Pasupati split Mount Meru and formed Mount Agung with a fragment.
Climbing Mount Agung is the “royal” discipline of climbing in Bali and is, in my opinion, not for those who are after a “leisure” climb. Trekking to Mount Agung requires a much higher level of fitness and mental discipline than Mount Batur for example.
You do not need to be one of the greatest mountain climbers in the world, but complete amateurs or those who already get out of breath climbing the stairs up to their flat should think twice before going on this adventure trek.
How the sunrise trek started
Trail 1: You can leave from Puru Pasar Agung in the South and your climb would start directly at Pasar Agung Temple at the altitude of 1.700 metres and brings you up to 3,000 metres. The trail would take between 4-5 hours to reach the summit.
Pura Pasar Agung (Photo via mountain-forecast)
Trail 2: The other starting point is from Besakih, close to the temple. Keep in mind, trekking from this starting point is really demanding and it took us 6 hours (we did not take a lot of breaks, so I would say count between 6-7 hours) throughout the night to reach the summit.
We took this starting point for two reasons:
1. A ceremony taking place at Pura Pasar Agung and the area being closed for that period (always check with your agency when booking the sunrise trek)
2. We had big ambition and thought that all the comments we read by other travellers on forums, TripAdvisor, etc. were a little exaggerated, but most reviews we read before the climb were actually very accurate, it was a tough climb and especially the descent was surely not a walk in the park to say the least.
We were picked up from Sunset Road near Kuta at 10.00 pm (pick up points can be from anywhere, but we arranged it from a spa, we planned to go to straight after the climb the next day. The lovely Balinese spa girls waved us off with a kind of “They are crazy” look in their eyes) and reached the starting point by midnight and were “handed” over by the driver to the guide.
write by : seoyandira.com & seomoz.id
