Be a star for the day – Tanah Lot Temple

Today we went to the Tanah Lot to visit the temple there. Tanah Lot is located in Tabanan, about 22km from Kuta. The temple is one of Bali’s most important landmarks, a very popular tourist destination and an iconic photo spot. The name Tanah Lot can be translated to ‘Land in the sea’.
The temple, which you won’t be able to actually enter, sits on a large offshore rock. Instead of the temple you get to enter a little ‘cave’ in the bottom of the rock where you can wash your face and hands with holy water, get some rice stuck to your forehead and a Frangipani flower behind your ear, receiving a blessing. Looking at the rock, you can tell that it has been shape by the tides over the years.

When you arrive in Tanah Lot, you are going to be blown away by the amount of tourists that are there, it’s really crazy. Heaps of tour busses and people arriving with Uber, Taxi, private cars etc., school classes, tour groups, families,… Simply a whole lot of people.

In case you are female and blond – that’s where your ‘star for the day’ starts. On the way to the temple, but especially in the area around the rock and the temple, you are going to feel like a star, well at least sort of. People (just one, two, or even entire groups and families – this can actually get a little bit scary depending on the amount of people suddenly standing in front of you) are going to ask you for photos. At the beginning this seems like fun and you are going to say yes to the first handful of photos, but honestly, at some stage this just gets really annoying. After some sneaky photos which people took of us (they probably thought we wouldn’t realize that they’re actually taking a photo of us), and two group photos which we took with school classes, we decided to don’t have any further pictures of us taken, otherwise we would probably still be in Tanah Lot, because people literally lined up to take photos with us. Oh and be prepared that people show no understanding whatsoever for you saying no to them taking a photo with/of you, and they are going to insult you in their language. Just something you have to ignore I guess. An other thing you have to keep in mind though is, that even though you say ‘no’, people are still going to take photos of/with you – they are just going to find there way. One lady was actually quite creative: she walked towards us with her selfie-stick in her hand, and just before she stood right in front of us, she turned around, smiled and click, took a picture of herself – with us in it – accidentally of course. 😉

Not paying too much attention to all the tourists (in the end you are one of them) and ignoring the ones taking photos of/with you, Tanah Lot is a really beautiful place to see. Not only the rock with the temple on top as such, but also the area around the temple, which includes several other, smaller temples, a beautiful rock shaped like an arch and a small area which you could nearly consider a park, are beautiful to look at. When you are there, don’t leave after seeing the temple, but take you time and have a look around, at what else there is to see.

One thing that is really important to keep in mind before going to Tanah Lot are the tides. There is no way for you to walk across to the rock with the temple on top during high tide, so take a look at the tide charts before you leave. Depending on whether you want to actually enter the ‘cave’ you have to visit Tanah Lot during low tide! Besides, it’s really important that you always take extreme care and obey all the warning signs that are around because the large waves near the rocks really are hazardous.

After the temple, we spontaneously decided that we want to visit the ‘Big Tree Farms Bamboo Chocolate Factory’. This part of the blog post definitely is for all the chocoholics out there. ❤
The Chocolate Factory is not too far away from Tanah Lot, around 40 mins by car and it really is a must do for everyone who not only loves chocolate just as much as I do, but who also wants to lern something about chocolate production and all the incredible products you can make out of the cacao bean. Tours run daily at 2pm – just an advice, book in advance (just by sending an email) because this is going to save you IDR 20,000 – money you can spend on chocolate. 😉

Have you ever tried a cacao bean before it’s been fermented, or a roasted cacao bean? No? Well I guess it’s time to do the tour.

We were lucky enough to have a private tour, just the two of us, which meant we could ask all sorts of questions and we got to try more chocolate because we didn’t have to share with anyone. 😉 The tour is really interesting. You learn about all the different steps and how chocolate is actually being made before going down to the factory where you see people actually doing what has been explained before. One of the most impressive things about the chocolate factory, besides the fact that all products are 100% organic, is the fact, that every step is actually made by hand, no machines whatsoever which replace manpower. The best before date is printed on the packaging by hand, the label is applied by hand, the coconut sugar for example is being weight and packed by hand,… Everything by hand. Our tour guide told us that the people working in the factory are really like a family (some of them are actually family because they all come from the village near by) – they work together, appreciating the fact that they have this job. How beautiful is that. Besides she told us, that the owner of the factory isn’t considering replacing the workers for machines, because in the end the high quality of the products also has something to do with the fact that it’s sort of ‘handmade’ and not made with fancy, expensive machinery.
After and/or before the tour, you get to buy the products you loved most in their little shop – it’s going to be a hard decision, let me tell you. 😉

That’s it from me – tomorrow I’m off to explore Bali’s beautiful north – I’ll keep you posted of course. 🙂

Love,
Kyra

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Tanah Lot Temple

Entrance fee:
domestic: IDR 15,000 / IDR 20,000 (children / adults);
foreigner: IDR 30,000 / IDR 60,000 (children / adults)

Click here to get to the website.

 

Big Tree Farms Bamboo Chocolate Factory

Piakan, Sibangkaja, Abiansemal, Sibang Kaja, Abiansemal, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80352

Daily tours at 2pm. IDR 40,000 booking in advance; IDR 60,000 drop in.

Click here to get to the website.

 

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All information is subject to change.