We visited Bali’s southernmost temple, Uluwatu Temple, perched atop cliffs above the warm, wavy Indian ocean.
Bali’s Hindu sea temples are said to form a chain of spiritual protection around the Balinese coast.
At the end of our visit we attended a traditional Balinese Kecak dance performance.
Visitors are fitted with saris and these orange waistbands.Uluwatu Temple is known for its population of aggresive monkeys, stealing visitors’ phones, hats, wallets, glasses, passports, basically anything loose that they can get their hands on! Reviews of the temple are full of sad stories from irritated visitors and tourists. We went prepared, leaving our hats and sunglasses at home, and keeping our phones out of sight.The sea cliffs had some great views, which in some ways were more interesting than the temple itself, which was hard to get a good view of, being restricted to Balinese Hindu worshippers only.This monkey had stolen someone’s prescription glasses, and a local was trying to get one of the lenses off of the roof with a bamboo pole 😱!It’s not looking good for those glasses. Monkeys are a nonstop source of chaos and mischief at these tourist spots.Next we attended a kecak dance, a traditonal Balinese dance performance of the Ramayana, the classical Hindu epic.Male dancers did continuous acapella percussive chanting and singing - it was the propulsive beat and backdrop of the action.Actors portrayed Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, Hanuman and other characters of the epic.During the performance, the sun set into the ocean.Near the end, bundles of straw were lit on fire, and the actor playing Hanuman kicked the firey bundles in all directions, with bare feet!The sunset, cliffs, chanting & fire made for a lively spectacle.
