Pura Lempuyang

I recently learned about a particularly picturesque temple in East Bali. After viewing the photos online, I immediately knew I wanted to experience it for myself. The temple is called Pura Lempuyang, and it is one of the holiest sites in Bali. Incredibly, despite its Instagram-worthy clickbait credentials, it doesn't attract many tourists due to its remote location.

Today was my splurge day. Because of its distance from Ubud, I knew I had to fork out some dough to hire a car and driver to take me there. I've been trying to keep my expenses to below $50 per day while I am in Bali, including accommodation, but I allowed myself one cheat day to hire a car and driver.

Waking up that morning, I wolfed down my breakfast and eagerly rushed to meet Wayan, my driver for the day. Soon after 8am, we were on our way. The journey to Pura Lempuyang took us along winding mountain roads and it took almost 2.5 hours to get there. I started my walk around 10.40am. I knew that Pura Lempuyang has seven temples on a steep hiking route. Unfortunately, I hadn't researched more, so I didn't know that the entire circuit takes around 4 hours. As luck would have it, I was there on a Sunday and a minor Hindu holy day to boot, so there were a lot of devotees, which in turn meant that I could observe this monument firsthand as a living, breathing temple.

There are seven temples in this complex. I can't recall all the names, so I will refer to them by number. Temple #1 is an easy walk from the parking lot, and it is the most picturesque of the lot. The first thing you see is a gate at the top of a flight of stairs. I think the gate is called The Window to Heaven. The gate looked stunning with Mt. Agung in the background. Behind the gate is an ornate set of three staircases adjacent to one another leading to a gathering area. Each of the three staircases was lined with naga on both sides. At the gathering area, a big group of devotees was praying. Not wanting to intrude, I snapped a few photos and went on my way.

From Temple #1, a steep road leads to Temple #2. The view of the valley below was incredible. this view was shortlived, though, as the clouds soon rolled in. Temple #2 was at the end of the paved road. There, again, were many devotees. After Temple #2, the paved road ended and I had to walk on a rocky path.

Temples #3 and #5 were a blur to me as they both looked very similar. Temple #4 was quite grand with a long naga lined staircase and gates. There were zero tourists past Temple #3. I was alone with the devotees. It was exhilarating.

At Temple #5, I asked some devotees how much further the last two temples were and they said it was 90 minutes each way. I knew I could probably do it faster than that. Nevertheless, I was crestfallen as it was already noon and I had one more destination to go to before the long drive back to Ubud. I also knew that Wayan and I had to wrap up by 6pm as he had to head to the airport at that time to pick up a customer. I cursed my lack of research and reluctantly decided to go back down. The devotees seemed genuinely disappointed too; they were encouraging me to finish it. Ah, the tyranny of time.

I wrote an Atlas Obscura entry for this site: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pura-lempuyang

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