With the gratitude and satisfaction of achieving a long-term
dream of seeing the unknown worlds under water, I jumped on to my scooter-without
any plans where I was going, in a country, that I have never been before, with no
friends around, with no maps. I was in fact starting to love this strange anonymity
– just to be a human being, away from all the known worlds and the illusions of
identity. Even more, I was getting into the adrenaline of exploring what’s next
rather than committing to a pre-booked itinerary with everything pre-known.
After an hour or so – (I had stopped refining of time by now-
they all exist in only developed world. For anonymous, they are in hours and
often just morning-evening and night! )- I found one shop which had a logo
different from a chicken’s head and a name that didn’t have ‘C’ in it - definitely,
this was the most probable one. I reached the counter only to see the menu
where everything was combinations of various dead meats. “Well, just some fried
chips and a thick milk shake. That should do for now. Thanks.” I stretched a
bit and sat back on the quiet dining area to book my stay for the night. Mt Batur
- 2 hours away from me - if I could reach there tonight, that will be a huge
lead for my trip! Since it was past 6 in the evening most places were booked
out, though I managed to get a hostel dorm somewhere near the Batur – with great
reviews!
It was already dark and I was
riding my scooter through unknown forests - Or maybe just remote regions and
not forest forests – not in a position to wait for the lights of morning to
confirm - all I could see now was the road ahead of me and all I could hear was
the sound of night. Poor network and un-trustable GPS maps. “Ever seen The Wrong
Turn?”. “No.” “Good”!
 |
| The unknown forest roads - Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash |
Time to distract my thoughts - :p – ‘now is the time to
remember our great ancestors and colonial invaders- they didn’t have a road, bike
or a commonly understandable language even’. I am certainly in a much better
position. Same time, I admired the courage they had to start off sailing into the
infinite oceans and to ride their horses through unknown jungles to ‘explore’!
Darkness was teaching me a new skill now – to look up and
find the directions using the stars. I had only heard about this possibility – but
I tried to fix the hunter constellation to mars (may be Venus or Mercury – who
cares the names! The bright white non-blinking big star - hence a planet) and
defined my “east”. That was a great lead – I had a much reliable compass now to
confirm the direction I was heading. I followed the stars more than I followed
my unreliable GPS from then. Another tip I had learned from my first solo night
drives through New Zealand forests – ‘If you hit a junction that
you didn’t expect, pick the widest road
- that has more probability to take you were you want and take a U-turn
as soon as you start seeing the roads narrow down.’
One of the best things was that my power bank was fully
charged which fed the phone already twice today. From estimates, I should be
now 2 hours east from the last checkpoint and there should be road to left,
probably a narrower one which should then - in 30 mins or so -take me to my hostel.
Only one U-turn this time! Rest was almost correct – stars never lie.
Up hills,
steep down hills, hair pin turns the ride was on and on with only one or two human encounters every hour. It was now in complete darkness that I saw
there was no red - shade following me. The tail lamp was not working – hmm!
Seemed like that’s an extra fitting in Bali. I took a break in some area which
pretended to be safe (nothing around, street lights visible) to take a snapshot
of this thrilling and chilling night, and paste that somewhere in the walls of my
deep heart – I was on top of a mountain with the cold night around
me, hugging me tight and a few small towns far away like a bunch of fireflies romancing
at night!
 |
| Gravel roads in forest - they most often bring surprises at night |
The last 500m before
the hostel was a bit scarier than the rest 70km forest ride, because, there was
no road. Just a tiny arrow mark like that in one of the Hollywood psychopath movies
and a narrow gray gravel path – like a trekking trail. Detours! They always
have something for us – a surprise or a blood boil! But I didn’t have a choice
by now – so took that turn! Sharp uphill and slidable dusty gravel road. Extra conscious
now, with goosebumps all over!
A small, slightly elevated bike-parking and a board with my
hostel name on it in the middle of nowhere. Yes! Looks like I made it!!! Though,
the backpack was extremely mysterious in the first glance: An amazing, traditional
wooden construction with a whole lot of emptiness, and a solo receptionist waiting
for me at 11’o clock with a nice smile on face! Pebble floors on bathroom with
hot water and an 8-bed dorm just for me, all for $10! A bit unbelievable – but I
had no option to not trust! In fact, it now felt like all the risks were worth
it. He showed me the room and asked if I wanted to join the 3 am sunrise
trekking. I had read about it before on the reviews– The mesmerizing sun rise
sight from the Mt Batur volcano! “I would love to! But I am afraid I can’t!”. I was
told I had nitrogen bubbles in my blood – the gases dissolved in blood while I
did my dive – and that could cause nitrogen sickness if I went to low pressures
in 24 hours. And moreover, I was feeling a bit tired to commit to wake up in three hours! I had to say No to something I really loved and wanted to do – but
yeah! Life is not a wish granting factory – sometimes the wants just will not
work.
After a hot shower I came back to my bed – in the biggest
room I have ever slept – to wake up as a stranger again, in a completely new
place, with the new name.
To be continued...
