Bali Tour Guide

Almost every time I met tourist from UK, US or Australia, I asked them the question, "What do you like best about Bali?" And although I got various answers like: the weather, the food, or the Bintang beer (you definitely should try this), the surf, and the shopping, but most of the time the answer I got is " the Balinese people ". Why I asked? This time I got similar answers from them. Because the Balinese people are so friendly, always smiling and always happy. That's the answer I got. Maybe you have question in your mind, where ever you go in Bali you will always meet friendly and happy Balinese, how can it be? This is the next question that I got from them. I am going to try to answer this question from an "insider" point of view, as a Balinese myself. Hold on a sec! Here is a disclaimer: I am talking about the Balinese people in general. There are always exception, you'll meet some "not nice" Balinese, especially when we drive car or ...

In the next two days, the Balinese Hindu will celebrate a joyous holy day called Galungan. The Holy Day of Galungan which happen every 210 days, is anticipated eagerly by all the Balinese Hindu. This is the time where people go to the temple, people who live in the city will return to their village to pray in their family temple. Children will wear their best clothes in this special Holy Day. The Galungan Holy Day is celebrated to commemorate the victory of Dharma (good) against A-Dharma (evil). Though I myself don't fully grasp the idea of what victory are we talking about. Many Balinese I ask don't really understand what is the Dharma in this context is about. Some people will say it is connected with the story of Maya Denawa, the evil king who once ruled Bali who is defeated by Lord Indra. To remember this victory the Galungan day is celebrated. However, despite our lack of understanding of Galungan, this is the grandest Holy Day in Bali. You can see in front of every ...

Traveling to east Bali is another exciting experience. You will have to get prepared, you should be fit and take sarong with you. You're going to hike to the biggest and oldest temple in Bali: The Mother Temple of Besakih. Before we go to Besakih, it is worth also to visit Klungkung. There are monument of Puputan Klungkung (as a remembrance of fight until death between the local kingdom of Klungkung against the colinialist Dutch), Hall of Justice or Kerta Gosa and the Museum. The Hall of Justice served like a court in the early 1900. It is a small hall of approximately 4x4 meters with wooden chairs in the middle of the hall. These were the seat of king, priest, and Dutch controller who decided what would be the punishment for the convict? On the hall ceiling you will see many Balinese traditional painting with Kamasan style. The theme of paintings are mostly life after death (especially scene of hell with many types of punihsment given to the sinful souls according to the bad t...

Do you know Bali well enough that you've tried this food before? The food that I am talking about here is called lawar. It is made of mixture of spices and sliced and minced pork. But there is another special ingredient that is going to blow your mind; it is raw pig blood. Lawar is a special food for Balinese. People make lawar on special occasion like holy day or temple festival. (There is a Holy Day coming next week called Galungan, I will write about it in a few days). It can also be found at wedding feast, or tooth filling ceremony. You can buy lawar at food stall all over Bali, especially those selling suckling pig. Is it really raw blood? Before we go on to that discussion, let see what are the ingredients needed to make lawar. First, we need a complete combination of spices (called Basa genep ). The Basa Genep consists of onion, garlic, pepper, turmeric, chili, salt, ketumbar (I'll have to check the English translation later), fried onion, shrimp paste, and ginge...

Here is the second series of my post Care For A Little Adventure? I will update this post as many times as it is needed as there are more info I can collect about each activity. I will also put more things on the list because there are maybe new activities available in Bali. Surfing: Bali is well known place for surfing. One of the popular site where you can surf is in Kuta beach. This is the place for both novice and expert to surf. There is even operator or company that offer learn to surf program. They claim they can make you stand on your board at the end of the day. Other places for more challenges are in beach of  Suluban, Padang-padang, and Dream Land. The places are closed to Uluwatu temple. Bungee Jumping, you don't have to go very far to have a bungee jumping. Kuta is the place. It is a great excitement, but not really a life changing experience, if you ask me. It is as exciting as riding motor bike in Denpasar, but bungee jumping is much safer. Wate...

Touring to Kintamani village to see the Mount Batur has become the most popular tour for visitors coming to Bali. This is a tour where you can have a taste a bit of every thing: art, culture, scenery, rice terraces, and temples. So, what do you actually experience in this introductory tour? Let's have a look. Your first destination is at Batu Bulan Village to witness Barong Dance. It is as a story of  an eternal fight of Barong (a mythical lion representing good) against Rangda (an evil witch). First, two Balinese man underneath Barong costume appear on the stage along with some monkeys depicting a scene in the forest. Next, two Balinese beautiful girls dance accompanied with the sounds of gamelan (Balinese traditional musical instrument played by a group of people usually man). The story continues with the scene in a palace where the prince Sahadewa is expelled by his mother (the mother is under the spell of Rangda that she becomes evil), his trip to forest, the meeting with Civa,...

Not many tourists go to Denpasar. It less popular compared to Kintamani (volcanic panorama in middle Bali) or the spectacular sun set at Uluwatu or Tanah Lot or any other tourist destination. But if you want to experience the suburban Balinese life style, Denpasar, which was defeated by Dutch in 1906, is a perfect example. Here you can go to the Kumbasari or Kreneng market and see for your self how a Balinese haggle over price on their daily needs. Not only that, you can visit Bali Museum which will present you information about the Bali culture, history, and daily life as well as religious festival in Bali society. All right, now I will take you to Kumbasari market. The market is located on Gajah Mada street and is divided into two by a river. In this market, you'll see various things for sale ranging from daily needs such us rice, fish, meat, and vegetables. You can find this in the eastern part of the market, in the east of the river. The western part is where a lots of art and ...

There are lots of things you can experience while you are in Bali, instead of just sipping beer by the hotel pool. You can have many types of water sports, white water rafting, sailing, fishing, dolphin watching and elephant safari, a visit to Bali bird park, cooking lesson, learning surfing and even bungee jumping. Well, are you ready for a little adventure? Elephant Safari Ride through Bali rural area. One of the biggest elephant  park in Bali located in Taro village, it is about 30 kilometres drive from Denpasar (the capital city). You can take photos with the elephant, watch them playing football (well, soccer!), paint on a canvass, or bathing in the pool. There is advertisement once that makes me smile, "you can buy elephant manure here in the park". They claim that elephant manure is one of the best in the world. Well, if you are interested,  you can try it for your garden at home. There is also an interesting museum about elephant, and even there is a skeleton ...

"Sorry, I can't go to the temple this full moon. I have my period," that's what Made, a friend of mine, once said to me when we talked about going to a temple. In Bali, women talk openly about their menstruation especially when it is related to temple activities. There is nothing embarrassing about that. But instead of saying in period, they merely say that they have their "monthly guest" coming. When you visit a temple in Bali, you must not be in your period when entering temple complex. Why is that? People, especially the lady tourists, ask with inquisitive and accusing look at me that we don't treat our Balinese women fairly. Okay, let me tell you, that is not the case. There some reasons why people are not allowed to enter the temple, this is called cuntaka (pronounced chun ta ka). If there is a mourning because of there is a death in one family, they can not go to the temple. Because it will cause the temple "leteh" or dirty. The woman wh...

Going on a tour to North Bali can be exciting if you enjoy watching the lush area of Bali with the view of hills and lakes. There are many places to visit to enjoy the scenery and breath fresh air along the road. Your first stop is at Pacung village where you can see beautiful scenery of rice field and vegetables plantation. The farmers of this village plant many kind of vegetables like cabbages, potatoes, carrots, and radish. Along the way you will also find various kind of flowers grown in the farmers field like marigold, or roses. There is also special flowers they grow for making religious offerings. They sell their crops in markets in Denpasar and in Bedugul which is your next stop. Bedugul is a local market where you can find spices, flowers, and vegetables. Well, I don't think you will be doing any cooking on your vacation in Bali, so there is no need to haggle for vegetables. But, it is a very colourful pasar (pasar is the word for market in Indonesian or Balinese). As ...

We don't talk about weather in Bali. That is not the topic that we'll discuss in our conversation. It's because the weather is always nice, so we talk about some thing else; job, politics, news, Oprah or the coming temple festivals. But once it gets so hot,  many people begin to say "It's hot weather to day, isn't it?" It is very hot now in Bali. Even for Balinese people who are used to tropical heat for all their life. We are now in the rainy season (October to April), but normally we have rain on December to early January. That's the time when the temperature cool off a bit. So, this time of expecting the rain, the day can be so hot. It is 27 to 32 degree Celsius, with 70% humidity. If you plan to go to Bali this month, please prepare lots of sun cream to protect your skin from sun burnt. And also, water, you need lot of water to prevent dehydration. Balinese never get worried about sun burnt. But if exposed to too much sun light, our skin will turn ...

For you who are coffee drinker, this is a good news. If you are not, don't go away yet, there is something else that I am sure will catch your attention. Besides rice, Bali grows various kinds of plants ranging from flowers, spices, fruits, and coffee. If you tour to Mount Batur, you will pass a village called Seribatu village (ca 15 kms from Kintamani). The villagers here, instead of planting rice, plant coffee, chocolate, cloves, vanilla, jackfruit (not johnfruit), snake skinned fruit, durian, and pineapple. You can stop here briefly and have a taste of Bali coffee and Bali chocolate. I have found out that most of you coming from UK, Australia, or US think that our coffee is strong. At least stronger than what you're used to. How do Balinese like their coffee? Okay, I know that in the west you need to make seven decisions to have your coffee (is it white or black, late? decaffeinate or not? cream or no cream, milk or no milk? sugar or no sugar? and so on), here we always ...

When you have vacation in Bali, you'll probably have the chance to see the beauty of rice terraces "carved" in hilly areas of Bali. Why terraces? "Necessity is the mother of invention." To use the hilly areas, the Bali farmers have to be creative to build rice terraces so that they can plant their rice. Yet, it is effective and very beautiful to see. Rice is our staple food that we eat rice usually three times a day. And also, there is a wine made of rice called arak . Besides for everyday consumption, and the rice wine, rice is used to make variety of cakes. There are different types of rice: the white rice, the brown rice, the sticky rice, and the black rice. The white and brown are consumed every day. The sticky rice, and the black rice are only for making cakes or pudding. We grow rice normally three times a year. Each cycle last from ploughing, planting, and harvesting lasts for average four months. But sometimes, the farmer grow other plants in between. I...

Whenever I take people to the Elephant Cave Temple, I will always say,"Ok, now it is time to play Indiana Jones." This ancient site always remind me of the movie. So, why is this a special place? Well, first thing first. You will not find any elephant here, only the name is Elephant Cave or Goa Gajah. Why does it call Elephant Cave? The Sanskrit name of this temple is Antakunjarapada. This name can be traced down to a place in South India where there was an ashram located on slope of "Mount Kunjara" called "Kunjarakunja" or "Agastya-malai." Kunjarakunja itself means Jungle of Elephants. Historians believe that this is the origin or the reason why the temple is called Goa Gajah. Even the design of Goa Gajah depicts a scene of an ashram that is located in mountainous area. Before you walk to the cave, you need to wear a sarong or a sash provided at the entrance. After paying the ticket, you will see announcement of the regulation of entering the te...