Bali : A visit to Tanah Lot

This day was suppose to start at 4am as we were suppose to go watch the sun rise in Bali. Unfortunately because fo the Nyepi Day the day before, no one can be out until past 6am, after the sun rises from its slumber.

Instead, we got up, get ready, had a heavy breakfast buffet and finally started our Bali-day-out at almost 10am. Moving in Indonesia is rather impossible with public transport. Especiall when you are going to the outskirts of the city. It is very common to hire a Supir which is a chaffuer to bring you around. It does'nt cost as much too. We had our supir for a day and it costs us 300,000 Rupiahs (about Rm100). That's the standard pricing for the service of a supir. Some do put their prices higher.

We started off going to Tanah Lot, 20km away from Denpasar which is almost an hour ride going through small tiny roads sweeping through tiny villages. The way they bring their vehicles in the village area scares me. It's so dangerous! They bring 3 people on their bikes, some four, some have kids standing on the seats, all without safety!

I never knew this place was called Tanah Lot. I know it as the snake temple. Tanah Lot is a famous place for tourists and locals alike in Bali. Tanah Lot is famous for its Temples which are built on rocks. The temple had significant Hindu influence and was built by a priest as a holy place to worship the sea gods. It is believed that poisonous sea snakes guard the temple from evil spirits.

It was a good day. The first day of the year for the Balinese. A lot of them were out enjoying the time with their families and having a picnic in yards. That particular family in the picture even brought one big tin of powdered milk. LOL. Think positive. Maybe they just bought it on the way. I would'nt want to carry a 2kg can of powdered milk on a picnic.

The place was crowded with lots of people coming to see the temple on the rock. There were also people taking business opputunities and offering photo taking services. It's no Polaroid business. They carry around SLRs including one that I saw a Nikon D300. In their bags include a portable photo printer and frames you can choose. They would go around showing their photo samples and asking if you would like to have your photo taken.

Some came in their traditional best for blessings in the temple.

Blessing for the new year.

They have lots of stalls selling local delicacies, drinks and titbits here. Some sell kuihs and rojak. There was one stall that sold drinks and some titbits. When me and my sister were picking out drinks from the cooling box and wanting to pay, we saw a cockroach lingering around her neck. We had to hold each other back and squint our eyes at the horror we saw. We quickly took the bottle of mineral water and walked away. *fainting*

Don't despise this rojak mangga. It could cause me gastritis on the spot. Delicious but their level of hotness is way above my mild level. The lady only grinded one piece of chili in it and I was already burning like mad. In the end I had to throw it away. Would be better if it was not so spicy.

The tides were high on that day. I was raining so much the day before. During low tides, you can walk to the temple which is on the rock island. We went to the shores to take some pictures but the water was dirty and there were rubbish all over. They should clean the place up and take care of it properly. It's such a waste to see it polluted. 

Outside of the Tanah Lot, on the way to the carpark, lots of shops and stally are opened. Theres also a photo session with an immortal albino python. Shops here includes Billabong, Roxy, Crocs, Ralph Lauren and such. It's not subjected to only normal shops. They also have a row of boutiques here.

Awwhh look! Pretty kites!