Bali Tour Guide

Bargaining is a must when you buy something in the art market or traditional market in Bali . How do you bargain for things that you want to buy? Here are few tips to help you better with bargaining skill. - Understand and know the price of goods you want to buy. The price of a wind chime, for instance, varies from one shop to other shop. So, go to few shops and compare the prices, you will have an idea how much the wind chimes cost. But if you don't have time to wander around, you just bargain the price. This leads us to next tip. - Bargain for things you buy . If you say bargaining is hard, it is true for a lot of people, including me. I don't like bargaining, and it is easier to buy things in the super market. But you will almost get better price if you bargain. Here is the rule of bargaining. Bargain one fourth of the asking price, and move your way up below half price. Let say, the price of wind chimes is 5 USD, you start asking for 1.5 USD. And go up to 2 USD. - Don...

On the top of 80 metres cliff above the sea of Pecatu village, lies an ancient temple dating back from 11 century. At the background, the sky is blue with little clouds. Down at the sea, the wave is splashing and you also can see some fishermen go out to begin their work.The reddish sun shines as twilight approaching turning the blue sky into beautiful orange. Uluwatu temple is beautiful temple which you can visit in the afternoon to see the sun set. It is also a very important temple for Balinese. It is one of the  "Sad Kahyangan" or "Six Heaven" or "Six Temples that lies in six direction of Bali island. The temple is located at edge of the cliff. When you are at the site, to reach the temple, you'll have to walk 67 stairs and you will see a winged split gate.(The winged split gate was actually built in megalithic era in about 16 century). You can also see palungan batu or sarcophagus in the left and right of the split gate. Inside the temple there is a sh...

The word Bali which has several meanings was first known in the year of 913 in the era of King Sri Kesari Warmadewa. The meaning of Bali are: to return, offerings (for redemption), truthfully, and exact. This word was probably originated at even the first century when many of Indian traders came to South East Asia, including Bali. At this island, they observed religious activities making use of offerings. And possibly because of what they observe, these traders later called the island as Balidwipa (The Island where the offerings or religous ceremonies are conducted). Bali province as a part of Indonesia consists of five  islands, namely, Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan, Serangan (turtle island) and Menjangan covering an area of 5.6 square kilometres. Located in between Asian continent and Australian continent, Bali is a volcanic island. There are several mountains in this two seasoned island. Two of them, Mount Agung and Mount Batur, are active volcano. We also have four...

Balinese don't have first name and second name. That's the truth. Instead, we have a kind of numbering system. (I feel funny talking about this). Well, the Balinese name consist of two parts, the first part is number or the part that tells us what number is s/he in the family. What I mean, is the child the first born or the second, the third or the fourth? The next part of our name is our real name. As for the numbering, there are four types: Putu, Wayan, Gede, Luh is for the first son or daughter. Made, Nengah, Kadek is for the second child. Komang, Nyoman is the third Ketut is for the last child If there is the fifth child, then s/he will be named like the first born. Ok, I know you are a bit confused. Let me give you an example. Let say, you meet a guy whose name is Putu Arnawa. You know that he is the first born in the family because of the word Putu. And Arnawa is the real name, to differenciate him with hundred thousands of Putus around Bali. So, it is easy, isn't it?...

What is it like? English with Balinese accent? If you've been in Bali or live in Bali, you know what I mean. There are some English sounds that we don't have or normally use in our every day language. What happen is that we usually substitute those English sounds with the closest sounds in Balinese similar to the English sound. So, what are those sounds? Well, we rarely, if not never, use these sounds in our language: "th" as in the or there is replaced with the sound "d" (we say "de" instead of "the"), or worse "ts" (tsing instead of think) "sh" as in shout is simply "s". "ch" as in chair us substituted by "tj" "v" as in variety is just "b" "f" as in felicity is "p" "z" as zen sometimes heard as "j". It is very true, then, English is a very difficult language to learn fo us. It is a struggle for most of Balinese to say the word ...

This is a special treat for you. Now, I am going to take you to Ubud. Ubud is located in land, about 20 kilo metres from Denpasar (the capital of Bali ). It is in the height of 300 metre above sea level that the temperature is cooler here compared to other tourist place like Kuta and Nusa Dua. There are some interesting places you can visit here in Ubud, like: Puri Saren Ubud Local Market Painting Museum: Puri Lukisan Monkey Forest Puri Saren Or Ubud Palace Puri Saren is located at the centre of Ubud at the main cross road. You can visit this palace during the day because it is open for public. At the evening this palace become a centre of art and dance performance by local people. You can see dances such as Legong dances, or Ramayana dances. There is thre building in the outer yard of the palace. One building in the west is a place for storing gamelan (balinese musical instrument), there is smaller building on the northern section that function like an reception of information centre,...

Do you talk to your cat or to your dog? What do you say to them? Do you say” Cat, I had a bad day at work today...” ? Balinese don’t really talk to their pets. I must say, most of us, don’t talk to animal in that fashion. The Balinese only say, “Sit, Go Out, or Eat, or Scram,” to their dogs or cats. But we have different attitude to cattle. There is even a holy day for them. This special day takes place every 210 days. The day is called Tumpek Kandang. On Tumpek Kandang day, the Balinese make offerings (I will talk more about offering in later post) to animal, especially their cattle, chicken, cows, or buffaloes. This is day when we say to the animal or hope for them to grow well or stay healthy. In a sense, this is not really talking to animal, rather it is a prayer to the God for the well being of animal. Nowadays, many Balinese has become aware so that they care for their pets and treat them as their friend. Many Balinese men like to have birds as pets. Yes, they talk t...

Here is a sign board somewhere in Lovina (North Bali) that you may think consist of funny PSA (public service ads). The intended meaning was actually "avoid using drugs or narcotics". And what do you see here?

One of most popular tourist place in Bali is Mount Batur which you can see from Kintamani village. The village is located somewhere in the middle of Bali , about 2 hours drive or 65 km from Denpasar to the north. Mount Batur has erupted a couple of dozens times since 1800. The first eruption was on 1804 and the last was on July 2000. (Well, I was on a tour to Kintamani at that time, but it was only small eruption. Only some smoke puffed from the top.) The biggest eruption was in 1963 with three flows of lava. Anyway, it is a great panorama. You can see the trace of black lava on the volcano and shimmering Lake Batur beside the volcano. On a clear day, it is really fascinating to watch this there-crater volcano. You can see only those three craters when you are at the top because the smaller craters are located in the main crater. You can hike to the top. People usually do it in the morning; and so you can start your journey at 4 am . After two hours hiking you will arrive...

Do you have any question about Bali? Well, here are some questions asked to me by tourist when I did the tour in Bali. Where is the most dangerous place to cross the streets in Bali? The zebra crossing. Most Balinese will not stop in the zebra crossing unless it is located in the traffic light, and the red light is on. So, don't try crossing the street because the zebra crossing is there, but look around, if the coast is clear you can cross the street. I see there are many yellow liquid in bottles for sale by the street. Are they some kind of beer? Nope. They are petrol. You can buy petrol in petrol station and resell it for profit in bottles. How many people are allowed on a motor bike? I don't know. Maybe five. Son at the front, next father, then little sister, and last mother with baby in her hand. I don't count the puppy the son holds. Why is there a black and white checkered cloth around statues or big trees? The statues are actually shrines, not merely statues. The cl...

There are many ways to enjoy your time in Bali . If you like cooking, why don’t you try cooking some Balinese food? There are many programs you can participate where you canlearn Balinese cooking. One of them I will present here in this blog. Now, I will tell you about few recipes that you can try when you visit Bali . This cooking program is conducted in a village, at asecluded area surrounded by rice fields. Nothing like classroom. With niceview, and cool rice field breeze you have beautiful memorable experience ofcooking the Balinese food. There are some ladies that assist you with your cooking. What you do is observe them whilethey are doing it, and next try it your self. In that way you can learn how todo it yourself and can apply your new cooking knowledge at home. Okay, here are the recipes that we will try: Yellow Rice. Chicken Satay. Tumis Kangkung (Water Spinach). Tum Be Pasih (steamed Sea Fishwith spices wrapped in banana leafs). Yellow Rice, the first recipe, which actu...

When you walk in the streets of Bali , you probably will encounter people that greet you with, “Hello, Sir/Madam, where are you going?” This question may seem very strange, because you don’t know those persons, yet they ask a personal question. You are perplexed, you don’t what to say and think why these people want to know where you are going? What is their business asking the question? There is nothing wrong with this question and the people you meet. This is because in Bali when we meet friends, we usually say in Balinese” kija?” which means where. Or where you going? We don’t say “how are you today?” but rather “where are you going?”. I don’t know why we do this, but maybe to show that we are interested in other people or care about them (well, in a different way). That’s the case, we just want to show our friend that we care, because we don’t really expect an exact answer. We don’t expect people to say, “I am going to X.” or “I am going to go to Kuta because I want to meet someb...

In east Bali, a village called Dauh Puri, close to Besakih Temple (Bali’s mother temple) lives a man who has a special skill. He can cure people who suffered from broken bones, or sprained injury. Here is the interesting fact: he is not a doctor nor he ever attended any medical education. All he learnt, he believes, he got from the gods and by self learning. Now, why I tell you about this man? Well, I want to show you that Bali is not merely a holiday place. There is a lot more you can explore in the life, cultures, arts and the beliefs of Balinese. This man, for example, believes that all his skill of fixing broken bones is a gift he got from the god. And his mission is to cure people that come to him as best he could. He is in the mid fifties. About 1 metre 60. When he treats his patients he always wears his traditional uniform: the sarong, shirts and a kind of head cloth (called destar in Balinese language.) Before starting his service, he usually prays to Sang Hyang Widhi (the Hind...

I was on tour yesterday to a place called to Kintamani. It is where you can see beautiful 1717 meter high mount Batur as well as lake Batur that lies at its bottom. On the way to Kintamani, we stopped in a fruit stall because one of the tourist wanted to know a kind of fruit called durian. Do you know this fruit? This fruit has caused me to think and ask my self question I never can answer.  Durian is a fruit is a popular fruit in Bali or Indonesia. It is also popular other asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore or Hongkong. It "tastes" delicious. But you can not eat much durian since it can raise your body temperature. Well, you can't have fever having durian, just kind of unpleasant feeling. But still it is one of popular fruit in Bali. I think about ninety percent of the population like durian. So, that's why you will find its price is higher than any other local fruit. What's Durian look like? Well, it is about the size of melon and has spikes aroun...

My Name is Putu, you can call me Putu or you also can call me Jun. I got this nickname since I work in a travel agent called Tour East Indonesia. Warning: there are many Putu's in Bali, and sometimes I also get from wrong emails because they think I am Putu Bali Guide that they once knew in Bali. I work as a tour guide in Bali, taking people around Bali showing them places of interest. Sometimes I also drive my self. But often there is a driver who accompanies me. Well, there is a saying, "Bali is a beautiful place... if you are not the one who is driving." Anyway, I am going to write articles in this blog and my experience as a tour guide and driver. I have met many people from Australia, US, Canada, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and many other countries. You can say I have quite an experience because I have been working for quite some time since 1999. Here I will share any information that I think is interesting, useful, funny, bizzare so your visit to Bali next...