The famous Bat Cave Goa Lawah lies just 3 km northeast of Kusamba and about 9 km east of Klungkung on the left side of a dramatic road paralleling the sea with uninterrupted views of Nusa Penida.

The holy cave begins at the foot of a rocky cliff and is said to extend all the way to the base of Gunung Agung. The ceiling is alive with thousands of fluttering, squeaking, vibrating, long-nosed fruit bats. An awesome sight. The wheeling, squealing bats are drawn again and again into the deep and dusky cavern. The noise is deafening.

A thick layer of slippery, sickly sweet bat droppings carpets the cave floor, through which bat-gorged pythons ooze in a state of surfeit. Bat excrement also covers the small shrines of a Shivaite temple guarding the cave's entrance. It's believed Pura Goa Lawah was founded in 1007 by the peripatetic holy man Empu Kuturan.

The cave and temple, one of the great sad-kahyangan state temples of Bali, are both associated with religious rites surrounding death. The locals believe the cave harbors an enormous snake, Naga Basuki, the mythical sacred serpent of Gunung Agung and the caretaker of the earth's equilibrium. Homage is paid to this deity in the pura.

In 1904 the princes of Bali held a historic conference in this cave to plan action against the encroaching Dutch armies. Oral tradition says the cave leads by way of an underground river to Pura Goa ('Cave Temple') within the Besakih complex some 25 km away.

A tale is told of how a prince of Mengwi actually entered the cave and emerged at Besakih, but his feat was never duplicated-entering the cave is now forbidden.

If traveling by public transport, don't arrive at Goa Lawah later than 1700 after that 'bemo' to Klungkung or Denpasar (55 km) are scarce.