Bali Tour Guide

I still remember when I first went to Ubud marrket in early 2000. This was before it was renovated. Now everything has changed. In the past, once you get into the market you would see the sellers were everywhere, they would lie down their merchandise in the ground. As I walked around the market, you walk down path where you need to walk carefully at certain point so you don't step into any merchandise for selling. Most of the sellers just lie down their sellers in the open. Can you imagine what happen to them if it was raining? They would probably packed up their merchendise. I enjoy watching those merchandise for display everywhere. It was colorful. They were mostly souvenirs. You could see wood carving, wind chimes, table decoration, fans, wall decoration, painting, ash tray, bottle opener (which usually very obscene, but it is a different kind of sense of humor).They were all differet in colours and it is a real treat for the eye, and walking in the forest of souvenir mak

Maybe you come to Bali for not just holiday, but you want to learn about the local culture. One way to do it is learning Balinese dance. There are many studio where the Balinese kids learning to dance. They are scattered all over Bali. One that I would like to present here is Sudi Dancing School in Blahbatuh. Every afternoon boys and girls from 4 to 15 years old come to the house of Mr. Sudi. Mr. Sudi and his wife, Made, were both dancers. They call their home Sudi Dancing School. But it is not like a formal school where you see many children studying in class room. This is very informal way of learning. The idea to start this school, according to Mr. Sudi, more than ten years ago, was to prepare the Balinese local children so they can perform dancing at the temple ceremony at their village. That's the main reason. In Bali, there are three kind of dances: dance that dedicated for God or sacred dance, next the social dance, and the last is public performance dance. As you can see

This morning I went to Nusa Dua from Denpasar.  I drive via the toll bridge. That will save me about 45 minutes. Instead of going for one hour drive, I could cut it into 10 minutes. If you are in Bali, you may want to use this toll bridge to save time whenever you go on tour provided that your hotel is located in Nusa Dua or Jimbaran.  If you stay in Kuta, Legian or Seminyak, there is no need to use this toll it does not connect to that places. Going on the toll, you can see quite beatiful scenery of the Benoa harbor and the mangroves along the toll. In certain area of the sea, you can see fisherman boats, and people going fishing on small boats. Maybe there is no time to capture that with your camera, because you can not stop. But this scenery is great alternative to the traffic jam you may encounter when you drive through the normal route. Besides Nusa Dua, one end of the toll bridge is the Ngurah Rai statue which is close the airport. This means if  you're just arri

Do you know that Balinese eat cooked bee hives? Have you this in your country? Cooked bee hives can be very tasty that many Balinese like eating them. In one occasion on a tour, I have a chance to take my clients to a local market in Denpasar in Kreneng village. It is a quite interesting market, because you can learn more about how the Balinese live. In the market, you will see people selling daily needs, such as fish, meat, vegetables, fruit and cakes. Going further into the market you will find different things, perhaps, than what you can get in your market at home. In a Bali market, you can find many  people who sell many different things. For example, one most interesting is people selling bee hives. Be hives are sold in the fish or vegetable section.  When I asked the seller, how much it was a kilogram of bee hive (at the time of I wrote this post), she said, “it’s eighty thousand rupiah or about USD 8”. So, how do Balinese you eat bee hives? No, the Balinese don’t eat the

If you like monkeys,  it's great news.  There are   plenty of them in Bali.  Some of them are luckier than other because they live in tourist area that they are well fed by locals. Some may need to steal glasses,  hair clips,  or sandals before they can eat their lunch.  Most of them live in the wild and occasionally can be spotted as we drive through forestry area. One of the place you can stop is an area near Lake Buyan. This is the street that leads to North Bali. On the way to your tour, especially touring to Singaraja, you can stop at this place. You don't have to go touring just for stopping here. If your hotel in Lovina, for instance, you can stop here during your ride to your hotel. Usually there is a lady who sell banana or peanuts that you can feed this long tailed macaques. But she will not be available all the time selling banana. If she is there, it is  a good idea to buy banana from her to feed the monkey. You can just take photos, if you are a photographer

Consider it's  a treat when you can take photos of the Balinese ladies going to the temple carrying offering on their head. Not every day you can witness such scene.  It only happen during major temple festival. A temple festival take place every 210 days.  A festival in one temple does not necessarily mean a festival in other temple.That means during your visit to Bali, you probably find some ladies bringing their offering to the temple. There are many temples in Bali, and one or two temple have their festival times. You may see these ladies. You can ask politely to take photo with them. Usually they do not mind when tourist take their photos. One thing to remember is that the offering can be very heavy. So, they would not like to stand still for long time or it is going to be hard for them to pose other than what you can see: one hand holding the offering. If you think, you would like to try to carry the offering, let me tell you, it's not a good idea. Because it is h

Here is the photo of Mount  Batur on a bright day with clear blue sky.  I took it on my recent visit with my clients. I was amazed by how beautiful it was with no clouds around the mount. We went to restaurant to have lunch overlooking the view of the mount Batur. There were many restaurants around the volcano.  You also can stop here and have lunch while looking at the view.  Most of the Restaurant serves buffet for lunch.  But you can order ala carte as well. Mount Batur, in Kintamani, is a must see place when you visit Bali.  It's located in Bangli regency, 2 hours drive from Denpasar.

So,  you have tried the fried rice,  the chicken satay,  sate lilit, or the babi guling. You have eaten in restaurant that serve Indonesian buffet,  you have had sea food in Jimbaran, and tried most of the Balinese food and beverage including the rice wine and luwak coffee.  Now, it's time for you to get back to what you used to eat.  McDonald. This is what my client said.  When they need a rest of eating the local food,  then they can go back eating western food.  One of the many options available is McDonald. There are different item in the menu in you can find there which is not available in western countries. Beside hamburgers, fried chicken,  they serve steamed rice.  This is because many Balinese also fond of having their meal at McD, especially children. Something else you might like to know,  they serve delivery. 

Ceking Village in area of Tegalalang has become a must stop for rice teraces view. The village is located north of Ubud. Driving for about 15 minutes, you will arrive at the border of of Ceking Village. The people who is in charge in the village will stop your vehicle and ask you if you would like to stop and take photos of the rice terraces. If you plan to stop, you then need to pay 5000 per person donation to the village. If you just want to pass by, without stopping and taking photo, then you don't need to pay anything. Why pay for view?? You may ask and think that the village has become to commercialized. In the past, let say 5 years ago, people did not need to pay. But since there were so many people stopping in this place, the street became so congested. Soon, there was traffic jam.  Now, with the local helping to direct the traffic and helping to park the vehicles, the traffic does not turn bad. People can enjoy the view and not bothered by traffic. So, that's wha