Nevyn recently had a post labelled “Snake Porn” and it was about her catching a couple of pythons in her garden being “very loving” towards each other! I don’t like snakes, I’ve had nightmares about them since I was a small child. If I see one up close it makes me shudder and almost feel sick. I have never touched one but did allow my then seven year old son have one draped around his shoulders on a school trip to somewhere. I did not want to pass on this phobia of mine to my offspring.
So when we were out with our Balinese host family on the second to last day at Puria Tanah Lot temple and this enormous snake was there for the photographing/handling, I stood well back. This is not me either in the photo or taking the photo – I’m somewhere behind a trillion people at the back of the crowd that you can’t see! And that wasn’t far enough away.
So when we wandered down to the beach and saw the sign to visit the cave with the “Sacred Snake” inside, I thought that I might also give it a miss. I could hear women squealing and laughing but resisted the offer to go and look. I envisaged another long, long, fat python. As it turns out it was a very small black and white striped snake. What amused me to watch was the fellow at the front of the cave counting all his money that the onlookers had “donated” towards a peep at the holy snake. It kind of took the gloss off somehow.
I also resisted paying to go into the cave with the “Holy Spring Water” too. It was actually starting to sound like an episode from Batman.
I think every tourist on Bali was at Puira Tanah Lot that day'; it’s known for its beautiful sunsets over the temple.
That was as good as it was going to be as there was so much cloud, so there were quite a few dedicated camera enthusiasts packing up their tripods and disappearing in the dark!
We had decided to visit this temple as it is very significant to the Hindu family that was looking after us and they had not been there for over twenty years. And little baby Komon who is twelve months old had never seen the sea before. There are lots of fish ponds around the villa and he loves to watch the fish but when he saw the sea – wow! It was an absolute delight to see this precious bundle of joy just look and keep looking….. I thought I had a photo of him on the beach but no.
We later all piled into cousin Butu’s car and after one quick stop for some fried bananas arrived back at the villa as the rain started – torrential rain. We still sat outside under the Bale at the side of the pool as naturally it was still hot. Watching the rain dance on the water in the pool, with a cool Bin tang beer in hand, saying goodbye to all the frogs and lizards that had entertained us for two weeks was the best way to spend our last night in Bali
Jan
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