Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bali Butterfly Park (Taman Kupu Kupu)
Wanasari, on east side of road opposite village football pitch • Daily 8am-5pm, last entry 4pm • $8.50, children
$4.50 •
0361 894 0595 • No public transport; try chartering a taxi or bemo from central Tabanan or Pesiapan
terminal
Located 5km north of Tabanan, in the village of Wanasari on the way to Gunung Batukaru,
Bali Butterfly Park
houses a good variety of butterflies (plus insects and spiders) from all
over Indonesia in its small pretty garden. Look out in particular for the impressive birdwing
butterfly with a wingspan of around 30cm. The butterflies are at their most active in the morn-
ing - expect a few to land on you.
Yeh Gangga Beach
Heading west from Tabanan, nearly every minor road south leads to the coast, a barely de-
veloped stretch of black sand notable for weird rock formations offshore. The most appeal-
ing (and developed) section is at
YEH GANGGA
,
10km southwest of Tabanan, which has
emerged into something of a luxury hideaway in recent years. The currents make the sea too
dangerous for swimming, but it's a dramatic scene, punctuated by huge rocks, and the
beach
stretches for kilometres in both directions. If you're really keen, you could walk along the
coast to Tanah Lot in around two hours. Yeh Gangga and Pantai Gangga is signposted off
the main road about 4km west of the Kediri junction, or can be reached via back roads from
Tanah Lot.
Pura Tanah Lot
Signposted 19km west of Seminyak, 9km south of Tabanan • Daily 7am-8pm • Rp30,000, plus Rp5000/Rp2000
parking for a car/bike • 0361 880361,
tanahlot.net
Marooned on a craggy wave-lashed rock just off the southwest coast,
PURA TANAH LOT
exists simultaneously as one of the island's holiest temples for the Balinese and one of its
most famous sights for tourists. Fringed by white surf and black sand, its multitiered shrines
are an unofficial symbol of Bali, appearing on countless souvenirs. It's a huge tourist trap,
of course, particularly at sunset. The volume of coach tours and sprawl of tawdry souvenir
stalls and warung around the temple does nothing for your sense of spirituality (and let's not
even go into the sight of golfers on the Pan Pacific Nirwana course). Then there's the fact that
more than a third of Tanah Lot's island is artificial, a product of a Japanese-funded renova-
tion programme in the 1980s. So, perhaps the greatest surprise is that Tanah Lot remains a
striking sight if you arrive early enough to avoid the coach tours. It might be best to skip the
sunset, however.
Pura Tanah Lot is said to have been founded by the Hindu priest
Nirartha
, who sailed to
Bali from Java during the sixteenth century. Legends describe how he was drawn to the site
by a light that beamed from a holy spring. A local priest was less impressed and demanded
this rival holy man leave. In response, Nirartha meditated so hard that he pushed the rock he
was sitting on out into the sea, creating Tanah Lot “island”. They say he dedicated his new
