Rice Field Hike, Bat Cave Temple, and Court Hall (Bali Part 8)

In the morning, we set off for a hike through the rice fields around the village of Kastala. We climbed uneven steps over a slightly wobbly bamboo bridge to get a view of the vast expanse of rice fields.

The path followed along the irrigation canal, which is also used by the residents as a water source for drinking and washing, as there is no water pipeline to the houses.

At some places, we had to balance on the canal wall. Where it ran directly along the edge, there was a railing - which, as our tour guide explained, had only recently been installed.

We drove along the coast to the so-called Bat Cave Temple, which is located right next to a sacred cave inhabited by bats. It is one of the six sacred temples of Bali.

Bats at the Bat Cave Temple

The Balinese believe that this cave has a direct connection to the Besakih Temple. However, since the cave is sacred, nobody can go through it to verify this. Our tour guide told us that during a temple festival, a duck with offerings tied to its legs was sent into the cave. It is said to have been seen at the Besakih Temple afterwards...

  Bat Cave Temple 

Our last stop of the day was the court hall in Klungkung (now Semarapura), which used to belong to the royal palace and was where justice was administered. 

Most of the palace was destroyed during a volcanic eruption (according to the tour guide) or during the war of liberation against the Dutch (according to the guidebook). Today, only the court and assembly hall remain.

The ceiling paintings from the 17th century are particularly worth seeing here. In the court hall, there is a depiction of the ascent to heaven and descent to hell by Bimas, who is searching for his ancestors. There, he sees all the torments that befall people with bad karma.

These paintings were intended to highlight the consequences of evil deeds at the place of justice and to deter criminals. Some of the images were quite graphic: an evildoer who had evil thoughts in his lifetime had his head sawn off in hell...

In the afternoon, we arrived in Sanur, the final stop of our Bali trip. Here, we will spend the last three days in Indonesia before flying on to Australia.