Thousands of tourists flock to Bali’s Tanah Lot as high waves add to the experience

An increasing number of foreign and domestic tourists are flocking to the Tanah Lot temple in Tabanan, Bali, to take selfies with the sunset as the backdrop. On Tuesday, high waves were lashing the offshore rock the temple stands on.

Toya Adnyana, the general manager of Tanah Lot, told news agency Antara that the number of daily visitors to the site had risen by around 25 per cent this holiday season to some 12,000 on Sunday.

"We had around 7,000 to 8,000 visitors per day prior to the holiday season," said Toya. "The majority of the Indonesian tourists comes from East and Central Java, while most of the foreign tourists come from China."

He added that the high waves were a safety concern. "We've posed 30 security personnel around the shoreline comprising of police officers, lifeguards and coast guard personnel to avoid any unwanted situations," said Toya.

Toya said his staff were waiting for updates from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), adding that, if the waves reached 2 or 3 meters in height, the area wou