Travel-Bali, Besakih Temple

During our trip to Bali, we ventured out into the Agung countryside to visit the Besakih Temple, about a two hour drive from our hotel in Nusa Dua.  Dating back to the 14th century, the Besakih Temple is the largest and holiest Hindu temple in Bali.

Unfortunately, it was a gloomy day, but the weather didn’t detour us from enjoying a tour of the temple and taking in all of its history and beauty.

Each year there are at least seventy festivals held at the complex, however, don’t let this fool you into paying more money to enter the temple.  Sadly, the tour guides will lead you to believe there is a festival taking place in order to collect more money as an entrance fee.  Entering the temple is free, but we did give a tip to our tour guide.  Also, remember to carry along a sarong, as is the case when visiting most Southeast Asian temples.  If you do not have one of your own, a sarong can be rented for a small fee.

What a beautiful door into one of the smaller temples.

Of course I brought my Louboutins!  Finding interesting spots around the temple to take pictures with my shoe distracted us from the rainy weather.  Our guide even joined in on the game…although I don’t think he really understood what we were doing or why we were taking pictures of a shoe, ha!  I love the way he is presenting it in this picture, as if it was a special gift or prize.

The rain kept up throughout the morning, but the beautiful, bright-colored umbrellas added such a great pop of color to our otherwise gloomy photos.

On to our next adventure…