I was originally pretty blasé about visiting Bali, but Mr. Selfish was quite persistent. He really wanted to visit Bali. Eventually, I started googling images of Bali. This was when I discovered all of the beautiful temples in Bali and was persuaded into including Bali in our itinerary.
Bali is known as the “island of the gods” due to the numerous temples all over the island. While we didn’t make it to the Mother Temple (I figured we could save it for the next trip), we did go to Tanah Lot Temple, which is the gorgeous temple set on the water. Tanah Lot actually means “Land in the Sea” and is one of the seven sea temples in Bali.
Tanah Lot was built in the 15th century by a priest who decided to rest on the rocks after a long journey. Although I longed for blue skies that day, Tanah Lot was still quite lovely – especially with the gigantic waves splashing everywhere.
Nearby is the Temple Taman Ayun, which was built in 1634. Taman Ayun means “garden of the mind,” and you can see from where the temple derives its name. The gardens are beautiful.
Finally, we visited Tirta Empul, which is known as the Holy Spring Water Temple in Ubud. In this temple, we had to cover our legs with cloth. It was a lovely temple although it did start to rain as we were leaving.
Although not really a temple, we also visited some rice fields that were quite epic. We didn’t spend too much time there for fear of mosquitoes but we enjoyed the views briefly.
There are many, many more temples to visit in Bali, so Mr. Selfish and I will surely return. This time, he won’t have to do so much convincing.