The Bat Cave - Wednesday, March 1

The Bat Cave. No, Batman and Robin don't live there. To explain the Bat Cave, I need to explain about religion on Bali.

The Balinese are not muslim, as are most Indonesians. Their religion is closer to Hindu. Each and every day, they place "offerings" out (and woe to the unsuspecting tourist who bothers the offering). Each house has its own temple, and each village has three. I don't remember why, but each one represents something to the villagers. The Bat Cave is one such village temple. It is, actually, a temple built at the mouth of a cave where bats live.

Unfortunately for the families that happened to be there at the time, we tourists happened to visit the temple during a two funernal services. It felt kind of strange to be at a religious place during a funeral service, but the people didn't fuss or anything. Actually, one of the optional tours available to us was to attend a cremation service (no, I didn't go but some in the tour group did). The family of the deceased will "sell tickets" to outsiders, as it were, to finance the service.

But back to the Bat Cave. Yes, there were bats. And bat guano (I think that is the correct word). And it smelled. According to my notes, the bats chattered loudly as well. And, of course, the ever present hawkers were outside the temple (they are not allowed inside), trying to get the unsuspecting tourists to buy there wares.