Bali - Pura Luhur Batukaru

During our second day in the island - actually the day when I got reunited with my beloved suitcase - we did a route with a personal driver. This is extremely common in Indonesia, for the record, when you are sent to Jakarta on project, you are assigned a driver to take you to the office and back or anywhere you like. The roads are just too crowded, polluted and dangerous to drive by yourself. Hence, as a tourist, it is also quite common to get hire a driver for the day. Bali is a large island (even though the traffic is a lot better than Jakarta, the city of three-hours-to-the-customer-office), it does help a lot to have your personal tour arranged as the day passes by. I can give you guys the number of our driver, which was great... Just not 100% comfortable leaving his number right on the post.

Pura Luhur Batukaru was the first stop of the day. One of the island's holiest yet most underrated temples. Imagine an extremely spiritual spot where the masses of Chinese tourists don't come, located near the base of Gunung Batukaru, Bali's second highest mountain (2276m). The atmosphere is cool, misty and quiet. There are (at most) three couples visiting the area along with some locals praying. The temple is dedicated to Maha Dewa, the mountain's guardian spirit but it also has shrines for Bhatan, Buyan and Tamlingan lakes. I am not sure if it is because of being the first major temple we explored or because it is really that special, but the fact is I keep the memories very vivid. Pictures don't lie. It is really that amazing!

The staircase leads to a lake which is surrounded by holy fountains where people leave offerings that include both rice and flowers, into a mini-box made out of banana leaf.




Moss covers everything



Back view of the feminine version of the full adat, note that tourists are not allowed to enter prayer areas.

This temple is not as important as Taman Ayun, so the roof count ends on 5.



Both men and women entering the temple shall user sharong, typically tied by the staff creating interesting volumes through the use of a front knot - mental note, leverage this next summer.