Right, Nyepi. I flew in on the 21st because I had no idea the airport actually shuts, and by the time I looked properly the 19th was gone and so was the first flight on the 20th. Everyone in the dorm who had been here for it said it was the best day of their whole trip, sitting up on the roof with no planes overhead and nothing moving on the road below. I missed it by two days. Plan around it or land straight into it, just do not do what I did. Anyway, the useful part. Four of us out of the same dorm split a car and driver for a full day, about 250k rupiah each for ten hours. That is roughly what a seat on a group tour costs and we went where we felt like going. If you are in a hostel just ask at breakfast, there is always somebody heading the same way on the same morning. The Ayung after a week of rain is a different river. Brown and quick, grade two and closer to three that week. Nine kilometres or so, two hours in the boat. Then there are the steps back up out of the gorge at the end. Somebody said three hundred. It felt like more and I stopped twice and pretended to look at a plant. Rain came in at about half three every afternoon that week, which at least made it easy to plan around. Tegalalang at half eight in the morning was wet and nearly empty, and the mud on those paths is properly slippery. By eleven the car park was full and there was a queue for the swing. Small donation gates all along the paths through the terraces, 10k or 20k at each one, so bring small notes or you will be handing over 50s all morning.
