"When is the best time to visit Bali?" I often got this question asked to me. Not just once, but a lot of time. When you ask this question, I know what you mean is more than this simple question. You want to know when to visit Bali so you can have great times in Bali without any disturbance, for instance, rain or peak season. Rain seems to be the main concern for the visitors. I can understand that because rain can "ruin" your holiday. It is hard to enjoy Bali when rain pour from one morning to the next morning. Let's talk about rain first. We have two seasons in Bali, the dry season and the wet season. The dry season is "scheduled" from April to October, while wet season starts from October to April. So, if you don't fancy rain in your holiday, best time to come is between April to October when the dry season is "on". The wet season, however, is not really really that wet. If you think rain is pouring down on our island for six months ev...
Pura Tirta Sudamala is located in Bangli regency. It is a place for the Balinese to do a purification ritual or spiritual cleansing. The Balinese believe that there should be a balance between physical and spiritual body. When the body is dirty, we can wash it with water and soap. When the spirit needs cleansing, the Balinese would perform a ritual called melukat or spiritual cleansing. In this temple, the ritual is started by praying to the God led by a pemangku in a little temple close to the holy spring. Next step is to go down to the river and wash oneself. Finally, going to each of the fountain located just by the river. After being blessed with holy water by the pemangku, the ritual is done. Here the Balinese will wear their dry clothes again and once again go to the main area of the temple to pray. Finally, it is done. They will go home feeling spiritually cleansed. Here is the map where the Pura Tirta Sudamala is located.
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...