Bali — Danau Kintamani — Batur Caldera and Batur Lake, Bali, Indonesia

Visiting the local volcano

September 2015

This was one of the more odd stops on my tour of Bali — Danau Kintamani — a village giving views across the Batur Caldera and Batur Lake.

Again there was a cost to get in, paid at a roadside shack. It seemed odd to me to pay on an open road that everyone else seemed to be driving down and not paying, yet I had to pay. In this case, it was 35,000 Indonesian Rupiah (£1.80 GBP; $2.70 USD). And basically, what I was paying for was a look at a view. A good view, admittedly, but still a view.

The area was described as a ‘geopark’ and consisted of a mixture of forest, farmland, and small towns, with the volcano and lake dominating the landscape.

The Batur Caldera (the volcano) is believed to have the four main elements of earth (land, water, fire and air), which the people around the volcano worship. Depending on the circumstances, they view the spirits living in the forest, lake, and volcano as magnanimous or malevolent.

In the area around the volcano, several Balinese temples are carved from the andesitic-basaltic lava produced by the volcano. One odd thing about the area is that some local Hindus, the Trunyanese, do not cremate their dead (which is common in the rest of Bali) but instead leave the bodies above ground in a bamboo cage underneath the taru menyan tree.

The lake and the volcano were spectacular.

The shot below is of the main crater.

And a panorama puts the view into context.

As with anywhere in Bali, people were selling fruit, vegetables, and gifts for tourists.

I enjoyed my visit to Danau Kintamani and the Batur Caldera and Lake.

Stunning views and an interesting place. I wish I had more time to visit and explore the village of Trunyan.

FourSquare: Danau Kintamani