tanah lot

I knew I could end up staying in kuta for the rest of my time in bali, and be perfectly content…checking email, looking for jobs, laying on the beach, watching movies in cafes, going for walks, etc…I’ve gotten better about ignoring the touts, even though they’re everywhere…howeva, having been to bali five times now, I wanted to see more of the island…so I decided to leave again…howeva, before leaving the kuta area, there was a temple I’d always wanted to see, called tanah lot…it’s on a lot of postcards, almost always in a sunset scene…it’s just off the west coast of bali, and the sunsets are beautiful…

Howeva, I’m not one for driving at night on a scooter…I’m also not one for seeing a sunset with a gbillion other people…and I figured the lighting would be good in the morning for photos anywho…so as soon as I woke up, I started getting ready to go, instead of laying around which is what I usually do…

According to the map and directions in lonely planet, it should’ve been easy to get to tanah lot…but for me, it wasn’t…when I finally got there, I realized I’d taken the long way around…basically going to far, then circling back around to the right place…whoops…at least my detour was prettyJ

The main part of the temple can only be reached at low tide…otherwise it’s cut off by the water…this main part of the temple is also the most photographed par, though I didn’t think it was the most photogenic part…the day I visited there were some higher waves, and I loved seeing the waves crash into the rocks all around…there were multiple altars, and multiple viewpoints, and I loved them all…not surprisingly, there were cafes designed to give you the best views at sunset, and a gbillion souvenir stalls…of all the places I’ve seen in bali, this temple has the most tourist stalls…it’s crazy…there are so many of them that after I parked I wasn’t sure in which direction I should walk…all I could see in any direction were souvenir stalls! howeva, as i was threading my way through everything back to my bike, i passed this procession of folks on their way to the temple:)

Driving back to kuta was a lot easier…I followed the signs heading back toward denpasar until I saw signs for kuta…phew…I stopped and got oreos and postcards at a supermarket close to where angie’s family lives…double stuffed oreos, of course…they’re my favourite…I also got a map, I’m fed up with lonely planet being terrible…later that afternoon, after more beach time I packed up my stuff and took my pack to the clark household…I planned to take off the next day on another bali adventure, and didn’t need to take everything I had…I could’ve, but I didn’t want to…