Sunrise at Pura Lempuyang Luhur

May 10, 2018

While I was doing research for Bali, once of the pictures I came across most frequently was from the Pura Lempuyang Luhur temple. Surprisingly, the Lonely Planet book had very little to say about it, but I was really excited to go try for an amazing photo of my own.

Similar to when Shay and I hiked up to Machu Picchu, we got up at an ungodly hour with the intent to see sunrise from the top of the hike.

I had done as much research as I could online, and managed to discern that the whole loop that visited all the temples would take about 4 hours, but going just partway up would be less time. I also knew that the temple with the fantastic view was the first or the second one, so we wouldn't necessarily have to do the whole thing.

So 4:30am rolled around, and we hauled our sleepy selves out of bed and to the waiting taxi, and drove off into the darkness. A half hour later we reached Pura Lempuyang, and started our climb.

Not to scale, this was the map at the bottom with all the different temples labeled on it.

We discovered that the super photogenic temple was not only the first temple you came to, it was only about 10 minutes from the parking lot. And at least an hour sooner than I expected to find it. Since it was still pitch black out, we decided to hike as far up as we wanted, and try to find a nice vantage point to watch sunrise from.

We brought headlamps, and again similar to Machu Picchu, we just put one foot in front of the other in the small beam of light. Endless stairmaster. Unlike Machu Picchu, we had to follow Hindu dress code since we'd be entering temples along the way, which meant we had to have our shoulders covered and wear a sarong. So we were essentially climbing in skirts, through probably 90% humidity (we definitely went through a couple clouds). Needless to say there was a lot of sweat happening. There was a breeze which helped things some.

At least we're going the right direction

After a while, the sky started getting some color in it. We could see more definition in the temples we passed through.

The sun started touching the tops of the gates.

And just a little further up the path, right as sunrise hit, we found a great view out over the ocean off the north side of the island.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the horizon is actually ocean.

We sat on the trail, had a granola bar for breakfast at about 6:30am, and marveled at how beautiful it was. The two hours of stairs were suddenly worth it.

Since Keith was waiting for us down at the bottom temple, we didn't linger too long at the top. We still had a bunch of stairs to get down before our photo op. On our way down we paused briefly to look at the temples in the daylight.

And to take some photos in daylight.

Here was our hiking outfits. Not typical to say the least. 

While the photo is blurry, the feelings are clear

I'm not sure if this number was to the very end, or to the next temple. Either way, it's a big number.

Back down at the first temple at the bottom, we got to see it in daylight, and it was impressive. The three stairways are used for ceremonies.

And the doorway leaving the temple grounds was our photo destination.

If it had been a clear morning, Mt Agung would have been rising to a point right in the center of the door, so it was a shame we didn't get that. There were still striking pictures to be had.

Despite her not wanting to, I insisted that Shay take some pictures too.

Again, I'm not sure why the guidebooks don't say more about this temple. It was one of my favorite places even if my legs hated me a little bit the next day. We got culture, exercise, and some great photos all at once.