Goa Lawah Temple

This guide to Goa Lawah Temple in Bali opens with a chase: a prince fleeing enemies runs into the bat-filled cave behind you and, by local lore, doesn't come out here, said to resurface days later at Besakih, Bali's mother temple. It follows the legend of Basuki, the guardian serpent Balinese belief holds lives hidden in the cave's darkness behind a curtain of bats, and one detail from 1963 that keeps the legend alive to this day. Watch for the thousands of bats that still cling to the rock overhead as priests perform ceremonies at the shrines below.