A temple by the sea

We enjoyed a lazy morning today, having a lie in and relaxing watching episodes of a programme on YouTube. We're not enjoying the touristy area we are staying in so even though today is our last day we had no desire to rush out. When we were ready to start the day if had to begin with a Starbucks of course and a bit of brunch before waking around trying to find a bank. Many ATM machines in Bali have been tampered with apparently and my friend had her card cloned from a ATM machine here so we wanted to find a genuine bank to use their ATM and not risk the ones on the street. After getting some money we caught a taxi to the temple Tanah Lot, a temple that has been built on a rock on the sea. We didn't realise how far away the temple was and it took us over an hour to get there. One of us might have had a little nap in the car that kept being interrupted by our crazy taxi driver who didn't understand breaking softly and insisted on beeping at everyone who was even vaguely near him. Eventually we arrived after what felt like a lifetime. We walked through the abundance of tourist aimed stalls until we climbed down the steps to the temple area. At high tide the sea engulfs the rocks around the temple but luckily when we went it was low tide so we were able to walk around over the rocks and see the many rockpools left behind. The temple wasn't that impressive but we thoroughly enjoyed the surrounding rocks and sea front. We spent a good couple of hours exploring and sitting on a rock just taking in the sound of the huge crashing waves. Because it's such a large tourist hub with so many visitors there it did ruin the whole atmosphere of the place a bit. As the sun set we headed back in the taxi to our area in Kuta which again was another death defying trip. After walking and looking at many resturants and even in a mall for somewhere cheap to eat we ended up back where we ate on the first night having burgers again. All the resturants are so western aimed that we are pretty sure that we won't be trying any Indonesian cuisine here. We leave to head to the Gili Islands tomorrow so it was back to the hotel to pack up our bags once again ready for our 5:30am alarm tomorrow. Definitely not looking forward to that one!Read more