A Tirtayatra Trip to West Bali

Direction to go to West Bali can be found at the end of this article.

June 28 – 30, 2012 was a special couple days for us. On those days, we took a time off the office to have a Tirtayatra holiday to the West Bali Park. First of all, the trip was amazing, and we didn’t expect that the trip would be that fruitful. In the morning of June 28, 2012, we prepared ourselves to be ready for starting the trip. We packed our belongings and departed from home at 9 in the morning. We expected that the trip to our destination site would take about 5 hours.

However, things were not going very well on that day. There was an accident happening at the only road that we could use to reach our destination. There we have waited and waited, stopped and moved forward a little by little, and passed through the packed traffic till our first stop. It took about 5 hours. By this time, we actually expected that we have already arrived at our accommodation. But anyway, our first stop was Pura Rambutsiwi. It is a temple near to the beach and located at Pekutatan area. Fortunately, the Pemangku of that temple was still there, so that we could pray led by the Pemangku. Despite of the road accident, it was still a kind of luck following our trip. After finishing the pray, we took our time a little to visit our uncle, Om Bawa, who lives at Penyaringan Area. We heard that Om Bawa was sick, so that we visited him at his parents’ house.

Then we continued our trip passing through the Negara City, toward the Pemuteran village, to check in the hotel we’ve booked. We stayed at the Adi Assri Hotel, an hotel at the Pemuteran Beach. The hotel is near the sea, and is the type of villa hotel. It was very nice hotel, and we felt that we would enjoy staying there. We arrived at the hotel at around 21:30 at night. We felt relieved after a short-trip-but-took-a-very-much-long-time journey. We took a deep rest, before continuing our journey to other temples early in the morning as well as enjoying snorkling.

The next day we started very early in the morning to go to the Labuhan Lalang seaport, a departing port for the Menjangan Island. From Labuhan Lalang to Menjangan Island, it took about 30 minutes. The wave was not so high at that time. We prepared ourselves with a number of pejati, since there are a number of temples to visit at the island. These were the temple we visited at that time: Pura Pingit Klenting Sari, Pasraman Agung Keboiwa, Dewi Kwan Im, Pendopo Agung Gajah Mada, Sang Hyang Pasupati, Ida Betara Lingsir Airlangga, Ida Betara Dalem Waturenggong, and Ganesha. Following are pictures we have taken, including a picture with a deer (menjangan) which passed before us during our pray journey.

After the pray was finished, we then got into the boat again ready for snorkling. We prepared ourselves with life saving tools and were ready to see the Nemo. The Menjangan Island snorkling was very exciting. The view under the sea was spectacular. The fish and all living things there were still maintained well, and very natural. From what we have heard, the sea of Menjangan Island is protected from investors, so that all aspect of environment at and around the island can be protected securely. It was a good experience to see such a rear view, and to see something that probably only a number in the world, is also something special.

After we finished enjoying snorkling, we then got back to the Labuhan Lalang seaport by taking a trip around the island once again. We then saw that the island was very beautiful with white sand, and also can be recognised that the island was really protected, since there was no one to be seen to live there.

After got back to the hotel, we still had time to enjoy the swimming pool as well as the beach in front of our hotel. As always, we also enjoyed these activities very much.

During our visit to West Bali, we also enjoyed some of the culinary offered by the place. We ate our breakfast at the hotel as provided. We took our dinner at the Warung Pakis Ayu, Pemuteran, a small restaurant at the resort area. The food there was very nice and we have enjoyed our dinner together. To pay our curiosity, we have also visited Warung Betutu Men Tempeh, for lunch, at Gilimanuk. Altogether, this trip has also given us around view of culinary that West Bali has to offer.

On the way home, on the last day of our trip, we have also visited the Pulaki temple, Jaya Prana temple, and Segara Rupek temple. We didn’t take any picture at the Pulaki temple, since the monkeys there were so aggresive, even for praying we have to take care of our belongings. The Sesajen that we brought to the temple, had also be protected, so that it was not taken or eaten by the monkeys. Jayaprana temple is a temple located at the south part of the Labuhan Lalang seaport. The temple was built to commemorate the love story of Jayaprana and Layonsari, which is a legend story that a man can love a women everlastingly until he died. We had to climb a little bit to a small hill to get to the temple.

The last temple we have visited was actually the most intriguing place that we have actually visited. The temple is said to be placed at the area which is the closest place to the Java Island. It is an interesting place to visit, we thought. However, the road to go to the place was not really maintained. It was a bumpy long road and we ended up arrived at the temple exhaustively, we even didn’t find anyone there, but monkeys. The pemangku also was not there, so we prayed at the temple, a bit in a hurry, because it seemed that the monkeys looked at us, as they were waiting us to go to get our Sesajen. It was a bit scary experience. But above all things, we also experienced that we have visited the most closest place in Bali to the Java Island.

Direction: Untuk mencapai Taman Bali Barat dengan mobil, dapat dilakukan dengan menuju ke arah barat dari Denpasar, melewati jalur Denpasar Gilimanuk. Sebelum sampai di pelabuhan kapal laut Gilimanuk, akan ditemukan pertigaan. Anda perlu berbelok ke kanan di pertigaan tersebut. Pemuteran berjarak sekitar 15 km dari pertigaan tersebut. Letak Taman Bali Barat dapat dilihat pada peta, nomor 16.