This is one of Bali’s Sad Kahyangan temples. Goa Lawah squats behind the beach gazing sullenly out toward the island of Nusa Penida. Its three chunky meru stand at the entrance to a deep cavern, their tiered roofs of black palm fiber stained with the dropping of the thousand of bats which dangle from the rocky overhang. The bats flit out at night to feed on pollen and nectar. Regarded as the guardians of the temple, they are protected by the Balinese and quite easy to approach. They are not the only sacred creatures in Goa Lawah. The priests are happy to show visitors the large rock phytons, which coil luxuriously near the shrine and feed on fallen and wounded bats. Nobody knows, how far the cave extends, it being taboo to venture to deep, but one story claims that it tells that there is a submarine tunnel to the powerful temple, Pura Peed, on the facing coast of Nusa Penida.