Time has stopped at Lake Tamblingan

Lake Tamblingan is one of the least visited lakes on Bali and its remote location gives it a spiritual feeling. Most people go to Danau Batur or the widely advertised but rather developed Danau Beratan. The 3 lakes, at ca. 1200m elevation, are often shrouded in clouds. The hikes around the area are wild and mostly require local knowledge as there are no marked trails. This reports describes an afternoon trip traversing the smallest of the 3 lakes by arcaic wooden paddle boat, witnessing a remote temple ceremony on the lake shore and finally a hike through the jungle. A beautiful outing off the beaten track, a rather rare feature on Bali!

I arrive at noon at the Tremblingan Guide post. Several jungle hikes are possible. A map exists of the area but trails are not , so a local guide is a must; it also gives some money to the locals who depend on this income. I chose the one crossing the lake and hiking to Danau Buyan, the other slightly larger lake, where someone will pick me up after the hike. The whole thing takes 3-4 hours. 

My guide and I start at the small fishing village where he grew up, near a beautiful temple, and we get ferried across the lake by a old fisherman. In the middle of the lake, amidst total silence and the sounds of paddles in the water, I hear the sound of gamelan coming from a temple and ask the fisherman to take me there.  I am able to witness an important  rural temple ceremony for the full moon in July (probably the most important of the year I am told), its ritual cock fight and the real cock fight outside in the forest with very high illegal betting galore. There are people praying on the shore and the atmosphere is incredibly festive and peaceful. Quite different from what we are used to! I could stay here forever, and there are no other westerners, but we need to start the hike. After one hour we visit another forest temple nearby and then start the hike through dense forest towards Danau Buyan. If you have been to rain forests before, the forest hike is nothing special, but the hike along the shore of lake Buyan is stunning...when I get to the end of the hike I meet 3 students who are just back from a 5 day expedition trhough the impenetrable jungle craters of Gunung Batukaru and its surroundings, bagging all major peaks there. Impossible without machete and extremely good jungle navigation skills (PM me if you need to know more).

Time seems to stand still in this place..