Breathtaking Temples To Explore On Bali Holidays

~ Whilst on your Bali holidays take some time out to visit the beautiful temples of the region. Whether you're exploring Hindu temples located in bat caves or a temple dedicated to the dragon god of the mountain, you'll be blown away by the myths and legends that surround these sacred places of worship.

The hotels in Bali may be opulent, but they have nothing on the decadent temples of the region. Of all the Bali temples the best known is the Besakih Temple, which is also known as the Mother Temple. The temple is located on the side of Mount Agung, with the mountain peaks giving it an almost mythical quality. On your Bali holiday take a tour to this temple which is perched at 1,000 feet up the mountain and named after the dragon god that is said to inhabit the mountain.

The Besakih temple is the only temple in which a Hindu of any caste system can worship, and this is due to the eighteen separate sanctuaries housed within the Besakih . The three main shrines in this temple are dedicated to the Hindu gods: Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma, and on your Bali holidays you will see a number of Balinese people who have made the pilgrimage to lay yellow marigold flowers upon their deities' shrines.

A popular temple with tourists on their Bali holiday tours is the 'Goa Lawah' which literally translates to 'Bat Cave'. The temple is not only a popular visitor attraction but is also a place of religious importance to the Balinese people. It is one of the nine directional temples that protect Bali from evil spirits, with the Goa Lawah protecting from the evil of the South-East. The temple is not for the faint-hearted on their Bali holidays, as it is located in a temple filled with thousands and thousands of flittering bats. If you're not keen on bats then you probably won't want to hear that the bat cave is also considered the home of the giant legendary snake, Naga Basuki, who was thought to be the caretaker of the earth's equilibrium.

If you're after a temple that's a little less sinister on your Bali holidays then why not take a trip to the Pura Luhur Temple? This temple is considered to be one of the best places in Bali to catch a sunset. Pura Luhur is located in Uluwata, which is also home to some of the best hotels in Bali, and with the Indian Ocean located nearby this is an ideal place to visit on your Bali tour holiday. The temple, which is dedicated to the spirits of the sea and made exclusively from black coral rock, is also considered to be one of the country's archaeological wonders.

Another temple located next to the Indian Ocean is the Tanah Lot Temple, situated on a huge rock in the middle of the ocean. It was built in the 16th Century by one the last priests to come to Bali from Java, and like the Pura Luhur Temple, is also dedicated to the guardian spirits of the sea.

When you take a Bali holiday tour to the Tanah Lot Temple, you may want to watch your footing on the way up as the sea is littered with poisonous sea snakes. These are believed to be the temples guardians standing vigil against any evil spirits, or any would-be intruders who may want to visit the spectacular temple during their Bali holidays.

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Claire Bryant is a Bali holidays specialist for key2holidays, an online tour operator specialising in Bali hotels, as well as holidays to Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean, Italy, the Far East, the Maldives, Mauritius Sri Lanka and the Seychelles, and Dubai. key2holidays has a dedicated team of experienced travel consultants to share their knowledge and help you to plan and book your ideal holiday.

Besakih Temple image courtesy of Photobucket…

These Boots Are (Not) Made For Walking

~ Yesterday afternoon I went for a long walk, and in the process discovered just how incredibly unfit I am.

I walked down Military Road to Cambridge Terrace, then down to the Esplanade, before walking back along the beach path and up Semaphore Road to home. I mapped the route on Google Maps today and found the total distance is eight kilometres/5 miles (click image to view route full size).

By the end of my walk I was tired and sweaty, and almost limping. In fact, my calf muscles are still aching today.

It occurred to me last night (in what had to be the understatement of the day), that I am not as young as I used to be. In fact, when I go travelling again next year I will be pretty much exactly two years older than I was last year. Then, I was a mere lad of 59. Next March when I set off, I will be 61, and as far as the government is concerned – a Senior Citizen. Not an old aged pensioner, mind you – just a Senior. I still have some years to go before I officially become an OAP – not that I’m in a hurry to reach that landmark.

However, just as I wanted to improve my overall fitness levels before I travelled in 2008, so too do I want to improve my ability to walk reasonable distances before I again set off next year. Given that I spend far too long sitting in front of a computer, and given too, that the amount of physical activity I undertake each day is quite frankly minimal, I have a lot of work to do before the end of March 2010.

Ok, ok, it’s time to be brutally honest. I currently weigh around 105 kilograms, which translates to around 231 pounds! For a person of my age, that is clearly too much, and whether I travel or not, I have to try and reduce my weight by at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds). It’s a big ask, as they say, and I don’t know if I am going to be able to achieve it, but I have to do something, otherwise I know I will be struggling next year.

The obvious reason I write about this today is because if I am going to enjoy the travel experience as much as possible, I have to be reasonably fit and healthy to do so. Yes, I could take a tour and spend 80 percent of my time sitting on a bus taking in the sites, but if you have read more than one entry on The Compleat Traveller, you will gather that I am not the type of person to engage in that form of travel.

The good news is that down here in the Southern Hemisphere spring is just around the corner, and the long hot days of summer are on the way. This means I can look forward to six months of fine hot weather, and lots of walks along the beach, and even the occasional dip in the ocean. If I have some success in the area of weight reduction and increased fitness – I’ll report back via these pages. Wish me luck.

The Week That Was #9

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Welcome to my weekly collection of The Odd, The Useful, and The Downright Bizarre.

The Odd: Rhyolite, Nevada Bottle Building - In 1906, in the old ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada a saloon owner named Tom Kelly, built a house out of bottles because lumber was scarce at the time. Reportedly he used some 50,000 beer, whiskey, soda and medicine bottles to build the structure which still stands today. Mr. Kelley was 76 years old when he built the house and it took him almost six months to complete. Read more here…

The Useful: The Rule of Thirds. Ned Levi is a professional photographer who points out the rationale behind the “Rule of Thirds”, the concept that the most eye-pleasing photographic compositions split the field of view into roughly equal thirds, and that the scene’s important compositional elements are placed along these lines or their intersections. It doesn’t matter whether you are using a typical consumer-level, point-and-shoot camera, or the most expensive professional digital SLR, the ‘rule’ has been in use for hundreds of years by generations of artists and photographers, and for a very good reason. It works. Read more here…

The Downright Bizarre: The Illegal Border Crossing Tour in Mexico. Yes, you read it right. This tour apparently lets you the experience the drama and the adrenalin rush of being an illegal immigrant trying to cross the Mexican border in the United States. According to a New York Times reporter who tried it, the locals want tourists to understand the experiences and traumas that illegal immigrants face. During the night-time guided hike you’ll be chased in the dark, shot at by (fake) police, and you may or may not make it under the fence. But you’ll definitely have an interesting story to tell the folks back home. Read more here…