Tanah Lot means land in the sea in Balinese. Tanah Lot temple is claimed to be the work of the 15th century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.


This beautiful temple was right next to the Pan Pacific where we stayed the first night.  The views from the resort were stunning and we had fun walking down the beach to explore the temple. 






We were swarmed with kids at the temple all wanting to take photos with us.  It was sweet to watch the kids nominate the bravest of them to ask our permission.  The nominated kid would confidently walk up to us and then shyly ask if we would be willing to take a photo with them.  As soon as we said yes there was an eruption of giggles and some serious jockeying to see who would get to stand closest to us in the photo. All great fun!

Gotta love the surprising similarities with the Starbucks logo.  We didn't stop to see if the coffee compared but the signage was pretty impressive.

A frequent site in many countries - someone with a machete cutting open coconuts.  Its gotta be a dangerous job but I have yet to see anyone with missing fingers.