Touring Bali in Just One Day

-

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, and his fight against Rangda the root of all his problems, and his transformation into Barong. Well, I think you should see this by yourself.


The village we go next is the centre of gold and silver works in Bali called Celuk village.( Silver is the biggest export of Bali this first semester  of this year reaching approximately eighteen million USD.) Here you can see hundred of artisans at work if you visit silver factory. Well,  you can learn how to make necklace, earring, ring, that you do this at home in your spare time. But if you want to buy something, it is better to visit gallery to factory since they have more collections.


The Village of Mas, the wood carvers village, is our next stop. The skill of carving has been possessed long time and passed down from generation to the next generation. At the beginning, wood carving or any other skill such as stone carving, and painting were all dedicated to temple with the spirit of devotion. The work that you see, instance in temple, are considered belong to the society that you will not know who carved it. Only at the beginning of the twentieth century, Balinese begin to extended their skill, not merely for temple works, but for the sake of art or commercial, especially when tourist began coming to our island.


The Tegalalang rice terraces is the place we head next. Here, you can take picture of the grand scenery of terraces just like the one you see in the post card for sale in Bali. I have talked a lot about rice field in my previous post... this is the good thing about blogging.. :)


The Holy Spring of Sebatu Temple is another beautiful temple to visit. The legend says this temple was created by Lord Vishnu when there was a war between Maya Denawa (an evil King) with Rudra (the war god). There were many innocent villagers wounded because of this war. The Holy Spring temple was the place where all these people were healed. Nowadays you can still see the spring, but there is another special thing you will see. There are lots of coins at the bottom of the pond where the water flows. This is not a Balinese culture where people throwing coins into the pond and make a wish, maybe it is a western thing, I haven't Google it. But if I can make a wish, I hope those people making good wishes here, well get their wishes fulfilled.


Anyway,....


Next, our highlight of this tour, is Kintamani village. A village located 1100 m above sea level that has cool climate. From this village you can enjoy the spectacular view of Mount Batur. There are many restaurants here you can stop while enjoying the view. Try the local dish, nasi campur, chicken sate, and black rice pudding. For Mount Batur, you can read more in my previous post here: The Magnificent Mount Batur.


The Goa Gajah or the elephant cave, our next stop, is where you can become Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. Why is that? Well, you can also see it my previous post here: A Tour to Sacred Elephant Cave.


Our tour is concluded by a visit to painting village in Peliatan or Lod Tunduh in district of Ubud. Here you will see painters at work. See how they do it and compare the Balinese traditional style and more modern style. The traditional style has only two dimensions and has religious theme. The contemporary style depicts every day life and already in 3D.


You can contact me if you are interested in this tour when you are in Bali. 


Tags: , , ,


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swastika symbol in Bali?

-
Swastika sign can be seen in Bali, especially in Balinese Hindu temple. I must say almost all the Hindu Balinese are familiar to this symbol. Besides temple, one can also see it in houses, or community building. Even the 'Swastika' word is used as a person name, for example, Ketut Swastika. But why and what does Swastika mean? It simply means balance in relationship. The Balinese Hindu see the life is ideal when they live a balanced life indicated by three good relationship. The first is good relationship between human and the Almighty God. All the festivals, offering in temples, praying activity that you witness in Bali are examples that the Balinese really long for a great relationship with Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, The Almighty God. Next, the harmonious relationship among the human race. The Balinese values good relationship between themselves. Many activities in villages in Bali involve community of villagers . When one family in a certain village hold a ceremony such as cr...
Read more

Is Cow a Sacred Animal in Bali?

-
The answer you get of this question may vary if you ask different people. The priest may say, yes it is. But many Balinese, although they are Hindu, consume beef. And people in Bali breed cows for meat. You will not see cow wander in the streets, because they are just cattle. Some people don't eat beef because they think they should not eat beef because they think it is a sacred animal. They say they will have a headache if they do so. Well, may be because of the cholesterol or some thing like that. And another thing, we don't consume cow milk or any other milk in the past. We just recently do this, because it is been advertised a lot in the media, that milk is healthy for our body. But many of the older generations, many of our parents or grand parents don't fancy milk. They don't drink milk, they'd rather drink coffee than drinking milk. I can understand that, because milk taste awful sometimes. Oh, did I mention that our cow doesn't produce any milk? Their mi...
Read more

Why Can't A Woman in Period Enter A Temple?

-
Image
"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...
Read more