To the mountains of Munduk

    A lot less threatening, and a lot greener than the mountains of Mordor. We left Pemuteran on Sunday morning with a driver to take us to Munduk, a small village in the mountains of northern Bali. We stopped along the way to see the monkey temple at Pura Pulaki and, again, at Melanting Temple. Both are fairly small temple complexes but interesting. Pura Pulaki was crawling with monkeys and the worshippers had a difficult time protecting their offerings from these foragers. We spent a short while watching one monkey try to strip a coconut while simultaneously avoiding the assaults of his fellow simians.
     At Melanting Temple we were approached by an old lady who wished to sprinkle us a blessing before we entered the complex. That was a first for us. Usually we’ve just had to wear the sarong. The further we walked into the complex, the more elaborate it got. In the innermost courtyard Doreen was approached by a lady who asked to have her picture taken. She was pleased with the result and Doreen soon found herself in a group of four women and one man. It was a special moment for her.
    We stopped at a supermarket in Saririt to stock up on some essentials before the final drive to Munduk as we weren’t sure what we’d be able to find in the way of ‘goodies’ in the village. We needn’t have bothered. I’m absolutely stunned by the number of small ‘corner stores’ that exist in these Balinese villages. I don’t know how they all survive and make a profit since it seems every second or third house contains a store. Incidentally, I even found one that had plastic ‘water jugs’ so I’m back to boiling water and making tea. (And it cost me about $3 - a lot less than that Austin House kettle.)
    We checked in at Aditya Home Stay. Nice people. The view is outstanding! Hope my panorama works out. Unfortunately we’re back to twin beds and little storage space. The bathroom has an interesting floor with little beach rocks cemented into the floor in a criss-cross pattern (not all of them securely anchored). Makes for a different sensation during a nighttime visit. :)
    We had come to this area to do some hiking so we set off Monday morning to visit two nearby waterfalls. You are encouraged to hire local guides and we had done so for our other hikes which were longer and involved more complex trails. The waterfalls were a short hike and we were told you could do it without a guide. At the time, I believed that. I no longer do.
    We set off with high hopes and a map furnished by Aditya. We actually found the first section of the trail with no problem but, as we ventured further into the forest, things quickly began to go south. You couldn’t tell the trail from the road to someone’s house and people lived in the most unlikeliest of places - and rode their motorbikes to them. We met a couple from Texas (she was originally from Montreal) who were attempting the same trek. Their map was actually worse than ours and it became a case of the blind leading the blind.
    We could hear the waterfall. We could see it through the trees. We just couldn’t find a path that would take us to it. I’m convinced the lack of signed trails is an attempt to ensure that  the guides don’t run out of business. Eventually we found ourselves on a section of the trail that the map indicated would take us to the upper falls so we abandoned the lower ones. It still wasn’t a smooth hike but we finally found ourselves at the foot of Melanting Falls. It was actually worth the trouble.
    Unfortunately, Doreen lost her focus for a moment as we reached the waterfall and  slipped on a bamboo log, jamming her foot so that she found walking on uneven ground painful. So much for our hiking plans. On the way back, we ran into the guide we’d hired, explained the problem and cancelled our hike to the lake the next day. We left the rice field trip open for Wednesday for the moment. Doreen’s foot worsened as the day progressed so it looked like a good decision on our part.
    It looked even better the next morning. I had gone to bed that night feeling fine (Doreen had even tried to convince me to do the lake hike on my own so as not to hang up the guide) but that soon changed. Suddenly I was burning up with fever while my inner core was so cold that I was shivering hard enough to shake the bed and my teeth were chattering. I alternated between fever and freezing all night and got very little sleep. I spent the next day virtually in bed with no energy and little appetite.
    I felt better on Wednesday morning and the guide, Made, and I set out to tour the rice fields we could see from our balcony. Doreen’s foot wouldn’t let her attempt it. Because of my energy level we did only the rice fields and didn’t attempt the hike to the banyan tree which is long and steep. The hike seemed to drain the last of my energy and I spent the next two days drifting in and out of wakefulness. The folks at Aditya Home Stay were wonderfully supportive.
    When we left there on Thursday, we had the driver take us to the medical clinic in Ubud for a consultation. We were afraid I had contracted malaria during our time on Pulah Weh. After a discussion with the doctor and some preliminary prodding, she suggested it was more likely dengue and ordered blood work to be sure. In the meantime she prescribed three sets of medication to fight a mild infection in my throat, to boost my immune system and to fight the fever. When she phoned with the test results on Saturday night it was a relief to learn that it was only the throat infection and not dengue or malaria. For that, the medications were already working. We did, however, lose the best part of a week.