Tanah lot Bali

I’m glad to be back, Bali is one of my favorite places on earth! I love everything about Bali. Cultures, people, beaches, shopping, clubs, etc. It is like paradise. My sister is too excited! She is excited about the place we stay, the view, the beachES, and shopping she is excited about everything. She has never been on vacation on her life other than Jakarta – big city. We rent a moppet for $6/day, the day when we arrived i took her to Kuta area, showed her hectic Legian street, clubs and cheap hostel to stay, good places to eat  (where me and Shea likes to eat) in case if she wants to come back etc.

First day in Bali I took her to Tanah lot, it is an hour bike ride from Kuta. View was beautiful, we passed villages and rice field. $3 ticket in, the place wasn’t that quiet. Apparently there was a ceremony going on. Balinese come and pray in the temple. They wear white traditional cloth called Kebaya, each has a bucket of offering (flowers, rice, Pandan leafs, etc) and the women has flower on their ear, which is so Balinese.  I love it. I came to Tanah lot few times but never have seen something like this. This kind of event happens every 6 months and we were so lucky to come at the right time. The temple was close for public. The temple is like on top of a huge stone or cliff (I’m not sure how you call it in English) it was low tide so we still could walk around.

There is restricted area where only for Balinese who prays. We tourist had to wait and walked behind it. There is a group of the priests (not sure what they call it in Hindu) who gives the holy water after they finish praying. There is a priest who says the prayer, a priest who bells the ring while they are praying. Balinese prayed in a group; men, women, and children. It holds for 5-10 minutes… then each will get holy water which they drink or just wipe in on their forehead. When they finish then they will go uphill temple to pray or get another bless (I’m not sure what’s going on up there since we can’t enter) they all come down with uncooked rice stick on their forehead, in between their eyes and chest. I guess it is like India people who put the red thingy in their forehead.  I really don’t know what it is and I’m just trying to explain thing I have seen. If I have known little bit about their religious I would have been able to explain more.

The praying was still going on when we left, it held for 3 days. Balinese from all over Bali will come and pray. my sister was busy taking hundred pictures. It was beautiful ceremony and beautiful day. They also have this they called it “holy snake” we can take some picture but we also have to give some donation for the temple. My sister did take the picture. Tanah lot is as beautiful as ever. We stayed for 2-3 hours then did little bit shopping. Things are way cheaper than Kuta. I guess it is because Kuta is too touristy… what I dislike about shopping in Kuta; they kind of ignore us as Local since we know the price and we usually bargain a lot unlike Bule (western). And they also might assume we local have less money than tourist. Which makes sense.. lol.