Goa Lawah Temple – One of the Few Authentic Moments I Remember in Bali

Bali is beautiful, no doubt about that. But sometimes it can feel like every temple, beach, rice terrace, and waterfall has already been turned into a photo stop. You arrive, take the same picture as thousands of people before you, move on to the next “must-see” place, and somehow the real Bali feels a little hidden behind all the tourism.

But this moment at Goa Lawah Temple was different.

Goa Lawah, often called the Bat Cave Temple, isn’t really a place people spend hours at. Many tourists stop here on the way along Bali’s east coast, take a quick look at the famous cave full of bats, snap a few photos, and continue toward Candidasa, Amed, or the water palaces. It is a well-known stop, but it doesn’t have the same overwhelming tourist feel as some of Bali’s more famous temples.

On the day we visited, the temple was actually closed to the public because a funeral ceremony was taking place. That already made the visit feel completely different. This was not a performance for visitors. It was not organised for cameras. It was a real Balinese ceremony, part of daily life, faith, family, and tradition.

Our driver was determined to take us to the temple and the bat cave, which we appreciated. Lizz unfortunately had to stay outside since women experiencing menstruation aren’t allowed inside the temple. At first, I felt a bit uncertain about it because I didn’t want to intrude. A funeral is a private, sacred moment, no matter where you are in the world. However, observing from a respectful distance became one of the few truly authentic experiences I had in Bali.

People were dressed in traditional white ceremonial clothing, sitting together in the temple courtyard. Offerings were everywhere — flowers, palm leaves, incense, fruit, and small handmade baskets placed carefully around the temple. There was that typical Balinese mix of color, devotion, and calmness. Even though it was a funeral, the atmosphere did not feel dark in the way funerals often feel in Europe. It felt spiritual, communal, and deeply connected to something much older.

Goa Lawah is one of Bali’s important temples. The name means “Bat Cave,” and the cave itself is right behind the temple shrines. Thousands of bats live inside, hanging from the ceiling and flying in and out of the dark entrance. You can hear them before you properly see them — a strange, restless sound coming from inside the cave.

The temple is believed to date back to the 11th century and is often associated with the Hindu priest Mpu Kuturan, who played an important role in shaping Balinese Hinduism. Goa Lawah is also considered one of Bali’s key directional temples, built to protect the island from spiritual imbalance. According to local legend, the cave may even have a hidden tunnel leading all the way to Besakih Temple near Mount Agung, Bali’s most sacred volcano. Whether true or not, it adds to the mystery of the place.

What makes Goa Lawah special is also its location. The temple sits between the mountains and the sea, with the ocean just across the road. In Balinese belief, this connection between mountain and sea is powerful. The mountains are sacred, the home of the gods, while the sea is connected with purification and the spirits of the dead. That is one reason why ceremonies connected to death and cremation are often linked to places like this.

Standing there that day, watching the funeral ceremony unfold quietly, I felt that I had accidentally stepped into the real Bali — not the Bali from postcards, travel brochures, or Instagram reels, but the Bali that still belongs to the Balinese people.

There were no staged dances, no souvenir sellers pushing for attention, no tourist crowd blocking the view. Just families, priests, offerings, incense, and the sound of bats coming from the cave behind the temple.

It reminded me that the most memorable travel moments are often not the ones we plan. They happen when something interrupts the normal tourist route. A closed temple. A ceremony. A driver who says, “Come, I show you.” A moment where you are no longer just checking off a sight, but quietly witnessing a culture that is still alive.

For me, Goa Lawah was not about the bat cave alone. It was about that funeral, that atmosphere, and the feeling that for a short moment I saw Bali as it really is — spiritual, mysterious, and still deeply rooted in tradition.And that is something I remember much more clearly than many of the famous places everyone talks about.