Bali is one of the most spiritual places in the world and with spirituality comes the richness in temples and architecture that represent the island in the truest light. I wanted to take you on my Bali temples exploration tour and hopefully help you decide to do it yourself.
In this post, I’m sharing a tour of Taman Ayum, and Tanah Lot temples organised via and in collaboration with Musement.com. Musement helps travellers like myself get the best from a destination by offering a vast array of tours and attractions in many locations. They connect you with a local tour guide to make sure you get the best out of the destination you are visiting ahead of your trip. They have many Bali tours available, but I opted for the Tanah Lot Temple tour as it was something I was looking forward to doing since I relocated to Bali.
After I booked my Bali tour via Musement, I have received my pick up information, schedule and tour vouchers. Most tours will start earlier in the morning however the tour I was on began at 2 pm with a 6 pm/sunset ending.
Taman Ayun Temple
The car picked us up at my home address, taking us to the Taman Ayum Temple first. It was a scorching afternoon, and the ACed car and welcome iced bottle of water was the best way to kick start our afternoon of Bali exploration. Taman Ayun Temple, built in 1634, was the main Mengawi royal temple surrounded by lush green grounds and a moat. It was the first temple I visited in Bali, where I felt like I wanted to stay for a while and wander the grounds. The praying area was separated from the public and only open during ceremonies held on specific dates. Foreigners are also welcome to attend the ceremony as long as they dress in traditional Balanise uniform.
Luwak Coffee Plantation
After exploring the temple grounds, we felt it was time for a drink, and conveniently the Luwak coffee plantation located 20 minutes drive from the temple was the nest stop on our itinerary. We hopped back into the car and drove towards it. As soon as we parked, a lady welcomed us with the most radiant energy showing us around the Plantation.
If you arent familiar Luwak coffee is one of the most premium coffee in the world, and it originates here in Bali. Luwak is wild like cat animal that eats coffee beans cherries which later, after the natural digestion process are cleaned from their excretion. The process consists of washing the excretion four times to get the beans out. This process is then followed by hand roasting and grounding techniques which produces worlds most expensive coffee. You can expect to pay over £100 for 1kg at the farm which I can only assume is more expensive in the western countries.
There is information surrounding Luwaks mistreatment around the animals only being fed coffee. I asked about it as soon as I arrived and The lady who showed us around assured us that all of their Luwaks live freely on the farm and eat whatever they naturally crave (fruits, seeds, insects, etc.) and coffee bean cherries. During the day the animal tends to sleep in cages at the plantations showrooms. However, this doesn’t include all of the animals.
After walking around seeing all the trees and plants grown on the farm, we sat down to drink tea and coffee tasters and prepare ourselves for the last and most exciting part of the tour.
Tanah Lot Temple
Positioned on the rock formation on of the Pura Tanah Loft is home to Hindu pilgrimage temple. It’s one of the most interesting locations as the large rock that the temple sits on has been shaped by the changing tide over the centuries. I loved visiting, especially as this is the first time I received a blessing by a holy water source at the bottom of the temple. The sudden energy change and how I felt is hard to describe, but I have a shift in a positive direction and highly recommend the blessing for everyone.
Tanah Lot Temple is one of the seven sea temples here in Bali and used mainly to worship sea gods. Our guide has told me that venomous sea snakes are protecting the temple from the evil spirits and intruders. The snakes can be seen at the base of the island, but we failed to see any. The whole temple has a giant snake as a protector created by Dang Hyang Nirartha believed to be a founder of the temple.
It was a beautiful day exploring and getting to know the island. Most of the spots we went too were touristy but not overly crowded. I highly recommend the tour, especially if you would like to learn more about spirituality and Balinese Hinduism.
You can find more information about the specific tour I took by following the hyperlink.
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve already visited any temples in Bali and if this tour sounded interesting.
Tania xxx
