Lake Batur

The origin of the Batur area was the collapse of an ancient volcano. In the more than 100 sq km caldera left from this disaster, a new volcano cone was formed, namely Gunung Batur (Mount Batur, 1717m). Next to the mountain, a new lake (Danau Batur) came to existence. The volcano is still active and its latest eruption was in 1999. The village Penelokan is situated close to the lake. There's an amazing view from here of the lake and the volcano. However, the viewpoint is simply crowded with Indonesian people all trying to sell you the same stuff. We were the only tourists around at that time, so it was a terrible experience. Normally in Indonesia people leave you alone when you say tidak (no) a few times, but the sellers here were very persistent.

In the village of Penelokan, you can find the beautiful temple of Pura Ulun Danau Batur. Apparently, the temple was spared by a few eruptions of the volcano. This was considered as a message from the gods of course, but to me it was more of one of those lucky stories. I've heard quite a few of these stories, like a church spared by an avalanche, or a mosque saved from an earthquake. There are places like this all over the world, in each culture. Dotted around the lake are a few other nice temples like the one in the pictures. I don't remember its name, but it was a short drive from the village through a strange black lava landscape, witness to one of the Batur eruptions. There was a small lake nearby, and no annoying sellers to find.