Pura Luhur Uluwatu is a beautiful temple on the southern most tip of Bali. Perched at the top of steep cliffs, it’s spectacular location several hundred feet above the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean below, makes it a very popular tourist destination. In fact it’s so popular that the first time that Irishman and I went there a couple of months ago, we ended up aborting our visit just minutes after arrival as the place was teeming with coaches and day trippers and we couldn’t face fighting our way through the hoards. It’s not that I’m anti-social or anything, but I really turn into a moody cow when I’m having to wait for endless giggling women to finish posing in front of whatever it is that I want to photograph. I don’t know what it is but women (never men) love to have a million photos taken of them selves in front of stuff, and the trouble is, that the stuff they are posing in front of, is generally what I want to photograph too. By the time they’ve finished their photo sessions (no doubt only because the battery in their phone has at last thankfully died) I’m well and truly ready to thump them. Irishman rolls his head when he’s pissed off, I do ‘The Glare’.
For our second stab at Uluwatu, we returned with Theo. It was busy, but not so badly that I might kill someone who was standing between me, and the object of my desire to photograph. There are only so many temples that you can expect a young boy to visit, but the carrot I used to lure him there with, were the monkeys. It worked a treat and he loved it. Well, that may be a bit of an overstatement but he certainly ‘liked it’ and I didn’t end up punching anyone and Irishman did some great drawings (which I can’t show you now but will do so in the next post).
And this thumbnail shot was taken at Balangan where we spent the afternoon. (Thumbnail courtesy of Made, a dvd hawker from Lombok)
Lottie Nevin - The Red House Diaries 
That nail!! Amaze! Do you think he went to Diamond? xxxx
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He was pretty proud of it! xoxo
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How did you capture shots without a soul in them at this time of year? Your glare must be pretty darn effective! Great photos!
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I had to use my Glare A LOT that day but it worked, hence the shots being so devoid of any human existence…
Talking of which I am always staggered by those photos that I see of Tanah Lot. How on earth do they take them without any people in the picture?? I went there in June and you could hardly move – it was like a Spanish beach in August!
Hope things good in Ubud 🙂
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The pictures are so beautiful, except for the finger nail. That was just gross! I’m the same way about lines-I can’t stand them.
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Hello Lovely. Yes, the finger nail was totally gross. You see a lot of fingernails like that in Indonesia – they grow the thumbnail long specially for playing the guitar. He was fascinated as to why on earth I’d want to take a photo of it – I was quite honest, I told him that I would be putting it on my blog and here it is in all it’s glory….Made’s thumbnail!
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beautiful photos as ever! No it annoys me that whenever you try to take a photo of something there’s someone stood in front of it posing a million different ways. It’s big in China Chinese seem to like to just get a photo stood in front of everything but have little actual interest in what’s there.
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Sarah, you’ve hit the nail on the head! My sentiments too.
Thanks for your comment and I’m glad you liked the photos.
Hope things are better for you now that you are in Bangkok. You must be relieved to be somewhere other than Guangzhou!
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Nice series of photos. I love Bali.
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Thank you! I love Bali too 🙂
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Here’s what you do Lottie…in the future to speed those other ladies along with their phone cameras make sure you have a tripod with you and take a minute setting it up directly behind where ever there standing at….you aren’t taking a picture yet but they should get the point your a photographer and you mean business….if nothing else you could always accidentally bump them a few times while your setting up just to make yourself feel just a little bit better 🙂
Aaron
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Nice one! Of course I’m FAR too polite and British about these things. Having said that my ‘stiff upper lip’ does start to quiver if I’m kept waiting too long. It’s the incessant giggling, hair brushing, preening in mirrors, checking each photo and then taking more if they are not happy that starts to get right up my nose. As Sarah mentioned in the comment above yours, they really don’t seem remotely interested in what it is that they are being photographed in front of. It’s more like a convenient backdrop for their photos! I’ll stop my rant now and thanks for your comment, always great to hear from you 🙂
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What an amazing place! I’m all about the architecture and being an American from California where buildings from the (19)80’s are considered ancient, I’ve always yearned and am truly fascinated by historic architecture. And who doesn’t like a view of the ocean from a cliff?
Gorgeous photos, Lottie. In addition to the cliff views (awesome!), I particularly LOVE the “steps1” with the lattice of tree shadows, so cool! And the monkeys are adorable.
I’m not anti-social (most of the time) either; however, I’ve never been big on crowds. I think it’s great you managed to visit the temple with your Theo without too much glaring or head rolling.
Lastly, if one is going to grow their thumbnail to such lengths, I say paint it. Red, purple, pink stripes, orange polka dots, or even little green men. Anything would be an improvement over plain, yellowed nail. xoxo
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I know! That nail is just crying out for some varnish, it’s simply terrible. Maybe he could get one of those ones that has a sparkly tip or something as you say ‘anything would be an improvement over plain, yellowed nail’
As for the photos….thanks Sis and glad you liked them. I did have a moment when I nearly snapped and wanted to push the giggling women over the cliff so that I could get my shot but then I decided against it. I reasoned that a little patience was better than the rest of my life spent in a Bali jail.
More on monkeys in the next post…..xoxo
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Whoo-hoo! Looking forward to more monkeys xo
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