Tanah Lot

---

New Years Day 2011

After a brilliant night last night, we both slept in until nine without and problem, arising in time to go to our morning Yoga class.
There were no hangovers in sight, but that didn’t stop the Balinese continuing the party with further fireworks as we arrived a Desa Seni (as Lou has all ready told you) however I did start to wonder if they had indeed stopped at all, or if we just slept through them all night as they continued? One of the mysteries that will never be solved I suppose, like the tree falling over in the woods.

Anyway we both felt rather virtuous being one of only a few to make it to the 10:15am morning Yoga, the first session of the New Year. The class was not the easiest we have been to but we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Indeed although hard work we have enjoyed nearly all of the yoga that we have done whilst here, and it has benefited us both in many ways. I won’t try to preach and convert people to this but we have both found something that we enjoy and we know does us good on many levels and we will be looking to continue our practice when we can in the future.

When we returned home we had planned to head out into Seminyak to do a bit of shopping, but after summoning up the energy to get on the bike and go to look we discovered that New Years day is clearly not a shopping day in Bali as there were many places closed for the day.

This coupled with the drizzle meant that we beat a hasty retreat and returned to our little apartment. With the arrival of the New Year and the change in the calender we have started to realise how soon we are moving on again, and how quickly the time here has passed. We also realised that we have done precious little in the way of actual sight seeing - probably a combination of being settled into our little routines and also having been here before. With this in maind we decided that we really must do some last minute visiting to say we have at least seen something other than insdie of a Yoga studio and our apartment. We therefore decided we would head to visit the temple at Tanah Lot tomorrow.

Tanah Lot is one of the four major temples in Bali, and is situated a little further up the West Coast from us. From what little I know it is the West facing of the four temples at the four points of the compass, Uluwatu being the Southern one. (I have no idea of the other two)

We ate a last cooked meal in the apartment of pasta to use up some ingredients, deciding that we were eating out from now on, and then headed to bed reasonably early for us in an attempt to catch up on some sleep.

2nd January 2011

With no alarm set, it is Sunday after all, we awoke as we pleased, which typically was earlier than we wanted to when we actually tried to have a lie-in. With only one class that we like on a Sunday we decided it would be a day of rest from Yoga, and as suchour planned sight seeing trip was go!

We got ourselves together and headed out into the heat of the late morning. We had been so negligent in checking the weather prior to leaving that before we had got much further than Desa Seni (we were going past it) Lou decided that as she hadn’t brought any sun cream with her nor applied any prior to leaving we must stop soon to purchase some more.

So we stopped at the first store that we could find that we thought would stock some and we are now the proud owners of yet another sunscreen. We also purchased a light snack in the form of some Ritz cracker sandwich biscuits to stave off the hunger pangs until we could reach our destination and grab a proper meal.

This done we headed out again on the bike, through some of the most verdant green landscape we have seen in Bali, and arguably on our trip. The paddy fields were so vivid in the mid morning light that there could have been a giant emerald held in front of the sun especially to shine onto them. The 40km drive was a pleasure with the wind created by our motion helping to take the edge off the heat of the equatorial sun as it climbed to its zenith.

We arrived at our destination after what seemed like only moments, paid our entrance fee and parked the bike up in the bike parking area.

WE got off and headed into the throngs of tourists that like us were visiting today. Before we got down to the beach to see the temple we walked through the “shopping area” where you can buy all kinds of tat, along with some very nice carvings, paintings and all sorts of other “traditional” craft products. Mixed in with the shops are also plenty of eateries and we stopped at one as our stomaches felt like our throats had been cut.

Two portions of Nasi Goreng a Diet Coke and a Pocari Sweat were ordered without even seeing a menu and practically prior to us sitting down. The drinks arrived and the food followed shortly after, and lasted barely moments after that.

With the appetite quenched if not entirely satiated, we headed onwards through the alleys of hawkers towards the beach and the temple. Having been here before with the boys, prior to Lou’s arrival in Bali last time I knew what to expect. I say that as if Lou didn’t know but the reality is this is the most popular postcard in Bali so even before you arrive you know what you are going to be looking at.

We moved on down the path until the vista opened up in front of us, complete with hundreds of tourists, and locals trying to sell something to the aforementioned tourists. Hardly any feel of a holy temple, more a tourist attraction, even if it is a pretty one.

We wandered around the area, trying to avoid the crowds, which we did manage for a few moments at a warung on the cliff top, until we had seen it from all angles. Whilst impressive there is not actually that much to see here, so with some ominous clouds and a few peels of thunder inland between us and home we decided to get back on the bike and head home.

This time we made sure we had the camera available and a few pictures were taken on the journey home. We needed petrol and were very lucky that we got to the petrol station just as the rain started which allowed us to don our fetching raincoat ponchos and keep the weather off until our return home.

An afternoon relaxing in the flat followed by a pleasant meal in the next door warung, rounded off the day, and my last solely Bali based blog.

---

Photos

Second Gateway
Notice the effect of the not insignificant wind

Ship Kite
That was flying all the time we were there.

Headland in the other direction,
In some ways more spectacular

Verdant fields
Although not is bright as on the journey out due to the overcast skies.