In November 2022, when the skies of Bali were mostly gray, I found myself standing in the courtyard of a large Hindu temple complex I had never been to before. The island’s tourism industry was still recovering from the nightmare that was the Covid pandemic, but when I went many hotels were fully booked for corporate events that were mostly absent in the previous two years. This was also my first trip to what is arguably Indonesia’s most well-known island in almost eight years, thanks to a client gathering my company arranged where I had to participate as a crew member. Apart from the usual programs including a talk show, a gala dinner, and an awards night, invitees were also taken to different places of interest during the day. And that was what brought me here, to Pura Ulun Danu Batur – the biggest and most important temple dedicated to Danu, the local goddess associated with rivers and lakes – with its peaceful ambiance despite the sudden arrival of our group of 30-odd people.
Obviously, I didn’t bring my camera, and I was assigned with a task which reminded me that it was work after all, not a holiday. But at that time, I promised myself that one day I would return with James when the weather was nicer.
Four months ago, the opportunity to revisit that temple finally came. The day after we went to Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan in Bedugul, we left for Kintamani, another highland region of Bali where the island’s largest volcanic lake sits at 1,031 meters above sea level. But the night prior, as we were reading online reviews of Pura Ulun Danu Batur, we became very concerned. The negative experience many people shared sounded a world away from the tranquility I remember from that trip in 2022. In the end, we decided not to shelve our plan to visit this temple, but we knew we had been warned.
Yana, our driver who’s still in his early 20s, took us to a breakfast place north of Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali. Called Warung Mek Juwel, the local eatery’s humble beginnings trace back to the 1970s when the grandmother of its current owner began selling food at her streetside stall. Business took off for her and the family, as the present-day gate to the house and the restaurant can attest. “It might have cost tens of millions [of rupiah] to make this,” Yana explained to me as I inquired him about how much money would be needed to commission such an elaborate kori (a gate to a Balinese house or temple). This place only does one dish called nasi campur ayam (literally “mixed chicken rice”). When our food came, it was like a party on a plate – there was telur pindang (chicken egg that has been slowly boiled with shallot skins or teak leaves to make its texture denser and the color dark), ayam betutu (steamed or roasted chicken cooked with a mélange of ground spices), fried noodles, fried peanuts with serundeng (sauteed spiced grated coconut), urap (mixed vegetables with seasoned grated coconut), sate lilit (Balinese version of satay usually made with fish or chicken), and the rice itself. I made sure to take a little bit of everything for my first bite, and wow! My taste buds were dancing happily for the bright, delicious, and complex flavors of this dish. This certainly was among the most satisfying things that entered my mouth on this trip.
With happy, full stomachs, we continued our journey to Kintamani. A road trip is probably the best way to see Bali, for the island is blessed with natural landscapes and cultural scenes that will make even the most jaded travelers roll down the window and grab their cameras to capture the beauty. Obviously, I’m not talking about the part of southern Bali where drunk tourists congregate with onlookers filming their bad behavior. As Yana drove further north, we came across a group of locals preparing for what seemed to be ngaben, the colorful Hindu cremation ceremony that is unique to the island. Yana slowed down the car to give me enough time to take a few photos.
A glorious start to the day in Ubud
We marveled at the Balinese traditional architecture at the eatery while waiting for our breakfast to be served
This nasi campur ayam was hands down the best breakfast we had on this trip to Bali
When we arrived at Kintamani a few hours later, we went to Pura Segara via a road that goes down the steep walls of an ancient caldera all the way to Lake Batur. Three times larger than Lake Buyan – the largest of the three lakes of Bedugul – Lake Batur’s location is also the most spectacular, with the eponymous active volcano Mount Batur sharing the space within the caldera. From certain vantage points, Bali’s tallest and most venerated volcano, Mount Agung, can even be seen in the east. In some ways, Pura Segara bore a resemblance to Pura Ulun Danu Beratan as both appeared as if they were floating on the water. However, unlike the latter which is usually packed with tourists by midday, the former emanated an air of calmness when we visited. There were a few groups of families donning Balinese traditional outfits who came to pray at the temple, a handful of quiet visitors observing respectfully, and a gaggle of geese that often broke the relative silence with their honking.
We lingered at the lakeside near the temple for quite some time, admiring the beautiful scenery before our eyes and enjoying a cool mountain breeze. These are both luxuries for us who live in the big city that is Jakarta, and that’s why we didn’t feel the urge to leave this place too soon. Once we had enough fresh air filling our lungs, we moved on. However, since it was already midday, we asked Yana to take us to one of the cafés sitting atop the rim of the ancient caldera before visiting Pura Ulun Danu Batur. We chose one a little further away from most other restaurants and retailers that have made parts of the area a little too commercialized. At the café, we chose to sit on high stools at a corner with uninterrupted views of Mount Batur, the eponymous lake, and Mount Abang on the far side the lake. Traces of Mount Batur’s past eruptions were still visible, a reminder of nature’s unpredictability and how some people have to constantly navigate their lives around it.
After taking the last sip of our drinks, we left for the place I had been thinking about the whole morning because of the bad online reviews we had read about it. Would this visit turn out to be blissful, just like how I experienced it? Or would we regret it?
Pilgrims at Pura Segara
This part of Kintamani was very peaceful and beautiful
Pura Segara with Mount Agung (Bali’s tallest volcano) peeking from behind the caldera wall
As this group of Hindu pilgrims left the temple, another one took their place
I wonder what those tall structures on the left are for
The most noisy creatures this side of the lake
Guardian statues at the gate to the temple compound
Left to right: Mount Batur, Lake Batur, Mount Abang
First established in the 17th century, Pura Ulun Danu Batur was initially situated close to the lake, as is the norm for all other temples on the island dedicated to Danu. However, the violent eruption of Mount Batur in 1926 forced the villagers to relocate and salvage whatever they could from the temple. Eventually, a new location was chosen, this time high on the rim of the caldera further away from the lake and the volcano.
Yana parked his car across from the temple, and as soon as we got off, we were escorted to a building where the ticket booths were located. After paying the entrance fees, a group of local women directed us to their stalls nearby where dozens of colorful cloths were on display. In Bali, it is customary to wrap a traditional fabric around your waist before entering a temple. Some places provide it for free, and some already include it in the ticket. However, when I asked one of them how much renting a piece of cloth cost, she mentioned a price that immediately brought my mind to the reviews I read the night before. It was very steep compared to what you typically have to pay at other temples. But we had no other option, and alarm bells went off in my head, something I wish didn’t happen especially when visiting a holy place that is important not only for the people who live around it, but also for other Balinese.
A slender man wearing a dark outfit who I thought would be our guide then led us to the temple. We respectfully followed him while at times stopping to take photos of the compound. But after a while, I realized he wasn’t really a guide since he uttered no words at all. Maybe he was there to show us which parts of the temple we could visit so we wouldn’t unintentionally wander to sections that were off-limits to the public. The inner compound was more festive than how it was on my first visit, and the weather was much nicer too. However, one particular shrine tucked away in one corner caught our attention the most. At a glance, it looked perfectly Balinese. But on a closer inspection, we noticed some things that seemed out of place: a Chinese incense urn, a wooden plate with Chinese calligraphy written on it, and statuettes usually found at Chinese temples. While we were taking photos of this particular shrine, the man patiently waited for us at a shaded pavilion nearby, and when we signaled to him that we were done, he got up and led us through a pathway that goes behind the inner courtyard.
We kept following him until he stopped at one particular shrine. “You can take photos there,” he told us while pointing at a corner at the back with a supposedly good vantage point of Mount Batur and the lake. We had taken similar photos earlier at the café, but we thought why not get some more shots from a slightly different angle? As we began clicking our cameras’ shutters, another person suddenly appeared and started talking to us. He explained that he works at the temple and a nearby plantation to get extra income, but my mind remained on alert. However, after a while I let my guard down since I felt he was genuinely friendly and curious about us. We ended up chatting for a long time, and when we decided to bid adieu, he showed us the exit and walked with us.
Strangely, the man who accompanied us earlier at the temple compound suddenly reappeared. Just when we could see the main street, the friendly person with whom we had a long conversation dashed to get a box and opened it. Inside were postcard-sized “volcanic sand paintings” created by him, or at least that was what he claimed. We knew right away that he expected us to buy some of them, while my mind was secretly wondering if he really made all of them himself or if he was trying to scam us. We bought two in the end, wishing to end the interaction soon so we could return to the car in peace. But no. Once we paid him, a group of young children mobbed us out of nowhere and loudly begged for money. The man who was with us from the start of the visit did nothing, as if this was something totally normal for him. Luckily, we could escape those kids, and when we were already inside the car, James asked us if we should pay for the parking. At this point, I was so disappointed with what had just happened and all I wanted was to leave.
Entering the main courtyard of Pura Ulun Danu Batur
A flurry of activities in the inner courtyard
A quintessentially Balinese scene
A Hindu priestess with some devotees sitting to her left
One of the most photogenic corners of the temple compound
Chinese architectural elements incorporated into a typical Balinese Hindu shrine
We told Yana what happened, and he was shocked because when he visited the temple on multiple occasions, he experienced none of what we had to deal with. I suspect this is because the locals didn’t see him as a tourist upon which they could prey. It was really sad to find out that the reviews were right after all, and that it was completely different from my first visit. Maybe because everything had been arranged by a tour organizer on that company event in 2022, the participants and I could enjoy the temple without being harassed by those who just wanted our money. Even the sarong-like cloths we had worn were provided for free!
Yana drove the car south back to Ubud, this time to a restaurant James and I went to in 2013, the year he set foot on Bali for the very first time. Bebek Joni is one of many restaurants in this part of the island serving duck as the star in their signature dishes, and that was where we were heading to have our very late lunch. On the way, my mind was still trying to comprehend what happened a few hours earlier at Pura Ulun Danu Batur, one of the temples which together with other sites on the island have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012. But we already arrived at our destination before I could get the answer. The restaurant was much bigger than how I remembered it, a sign that business must have been good for them. What remained unchanged, fortunately, were the rice paddies directly behind the property, providing diners with soothing views that pleased the eyes.
We ordered the same dish we tried many years ago: bebek betutu (duck cooked in betutu style) served with sate lilit and boiled vegetables mixed with grated coconut. I almost forgot how tasty it was until I took my first spoonful of the duck with a little bit of the side dishes. My taste buds were dancing again. And since happiness is contagious, my mind and body immediately felt it too. Gone was my frustration, replaced by a genuine feeling of contentment only good food can bring. This and that delicious nasi campur ayam we had for breakfast were more than enough to keep our spirits high. And thankfully, what happened to us at Pura Ulun Danu Batur was more of an isolated incident than the norm, as no other places we went to on the island let us down. However, if you still want to see this temple, I highly recommend going with a guide who can protect you from all those touts. It was a beautiful place after all.
Bebek betutu for a satisfying late lunch at Bebek Joni
A view that calmed my senses