Day 12 - Tanah Lot og Uluwatu - Excursion
At noon, Dewa picked us up for the day's excursion. We drove to the west coast of Bali and the Tanah Lot Temple located close to the city of Tabanan. A total of 35 km from Nusa Dua, but due to chaotic traffic and lots of scooters, the trip took 1 hour and 20 min.
Tanah Lot is a Hindu temple dedicated to Dewa Baruna, one of the gods of the sea. Tanah Lot means "Land in the Sea" in Balinese. The temple, which was built in the 16th century, is located on a large rock out in the sea, which has been shaped over the years by the tides of the sea. It was low tide and we could almost go out to the temple, right next door is another Hindu temple, Enjung Galu - though not as famous as Tanah Lot.
We now drove back towards Nusa Dua through the tourist towns of Seminyak and Kuta to Uluwatu - a small 11th-century Hindu temple. The temple is facing the sea and located high on a cliff.
The temple is inhabited by monkeys notorious for snapping visitors' belongings, so we had to make sure to pack both glasses and hats if we didn't want to lose them. From the temple, two paths go high up the cliffs - we walked on both of them to see the temple at a distance and the great location high on the cliff.
Overlooking the temple is an amphitheater built where on select evenings a traditional dance show is performed, as it is performed in many temples in Bali - Uluwatu Kecak Ramayana & Fire Dance. A religious dance taken from the mythology performed by many male dancers.
The name Kecak derives from the hypnotic and repetitive rhythmic song that the men sing: "chak-ka-chak-ka-chak". The performance began at 6 pm - a fascinating experience accompanied by sunset over the sea and overlooking the temple on the rock.
By the time the show finished at 18:45 it had become completely dark. - Going back to Nusa Dua took an hour.
Back at the hotel we had dinner - Nasi Goreng - which we had had before, but it tastes very good. Our last day of excursion in Bali was over.
