Bali Tour Guide

Spending evening with your loved ones in Jimbaran Bay is worth a try. Jimbaran Bay, or Kedonganan Beach (15 minutes drive south of air port) is a very popular site of sea food restaurants or cafes. Located just by the beach, these restaurants have unique setting. Many visitors enjoys the taste of sea food prepared with both local and international recipes. One of the restaurant that I recommend is the Sea Side Cafe which is owned and managed by the local Balinese. The perfect time to come to this restaurant is in the evening, during the wonderful sunset. You can have table on the white sand waiting as the sky turn orange and the gentle breeze wipe your face. There are many selections of fish you can try. They will give you the menu offerings what is available there. Usually you will be asked to go to the front of the restaurant where they grill the fish. This is where you can choose what kind of fish you'd like to have. A few of the selection available are: fresh lobster, prawns, r

Nusa Lembongan island is a very popular place because of its marine beauty and landscape. Besides lying on the white sandy beaches, on the island, there are many kind of water sports and inland tour you can do. The island is has great places for fishing, diving, surfing, trekking, exploring caves, or cycling around the island. To reach the island you can join one day cruises available in Bali that depart at 7 in the morning from Benoa Harbour in Bali. It takes about an hour and a half to sail to Nusa Lembongan, but it is worth it. Some of the Cruise operators are Bali Hai Cruise, Bounty Cruise, and Sail Sensation. All offers many activities for a memorable time on the island. The island, located 12 miles south east of Bali, can also be reached by 30 minutes on a speed boat. Nusa Lembongan which stretches 4 km long and 2 km wide, has a lot of sea weed farm. The sea weed is cultivated and harvested in various parts of the island and exported to many countries, I have been told. Other in

Jatiluwih, a village in the middle part of Bali, is a very popular village that has a unique and beautiful scenery. The scenery is made up of rice terraces after rice terraces that spread around the village. Situated in approximately 1100 meters above sea level, the temperature is a bit cooler compared popular tourist place like Kuta, and Nusa Dua. Standing in the highest point you can see as far as you can rice fields spreading forming little hills. Coconut trees are also present in the background along with cocoa, coffee, and different plantation with the blue sky in the distance. You can walk on the rice field path and watch from a closed distance the Balinese farmer plough their land with their cows. In another part, you can see other groups of farmers plant the rice one by one into the wet soil. Still in this village, there are farmers who already harvest their rice and load them into trucks to bring home. Jatiluwih is about one half hour drive from Denpasar. To reach this village

On your way traveling to Ubud from Denpasar you will pass a village called Singapadu.(It takes about one hour from either Kuta or Nusa Dua). Singapadu has become quite popular because the Bali Bird Park is located here. Many visitors who love observing birds both local and tourist will happily spend hours strolling in the park. It is quite a big bird park with collection of over 250 bird species from all over the globe. The Taman Burung, or the Bali Bird Park , was built in 1995 and has collected exotic birds from Bali, Lombok, Indonesia, Africa, Asia, Australia and America. The endangered Bali bird, the white Bali starling can also be seen some where in the tropical Bali bird Park. To name a few birds, there are the Bird of Paradise from Papua, Australian Cockaburra (did I spell it right?), Australian Pelican, Major Mitchels, many kinds of Owl, Parrots, Crowned Pigeon, Flamingo, Scarlet Ibis, Toucan, Golden Pheasant (colorful bird), Cockatoo, a varieties of eagle from different places

Elephant Park in Taro village has been always a great place for me to visit. Located about 50 kilometers north east of Denpasar, you can reach it in about one and half hour drive from major tourist place like Kuta or Nusa Dua. If you fancy riding elephant while enjoying the lush area of Bali villages, you should not miss this adventure . Opened officially in year 2000, the park covered an area of 2 hectares in the middle of national forest. It has quite a facilities, such as information centre, and museum with a numerous collections of elephant memorabilia and the only Mammoth Skeleton in South Asia. You can also visit gift shop in one of the corner of the park that stand besides a 200-seat restaurant where you can watch the elephants. There is a basket ball field where you can see the elephants shows off their intelligence by drawings or paintings (not a really nice picture, though). Close to this field is where you can have photos with them and next climb one of the elephant to st

A magnificent view of Bali can be seen from upper area of Lake Tamblingan and Lake Buyan. As you stand in looking down you will see the shimmering lakes reflecting the sun light. The air is much cooler compared to Kuta or Nusa Dua, and much fresher too. As you gaze around, you will see many mandarin trees, hydranger, tomatoes farm, vegetables farm, strawberry farm, as well many trees. Birds singing in the air, and butterflies wandering on beautiful flowers. Located somewhere in the middle of Bali island, the two adjacent lakes is about 50 kms from Denpasar, the capital city of Bali. To reach this area, you can go to a village called Munduk. Even during the journey to Munduk village, you can already beautiful views of the forests and these lakes. From Munduk village which located in the upper area of the lakes, then you can drive down into the lakes. The tourists, that I know, don't usually go down to the lake but only viewing the wonderful panorama and taking a few snaps before hea

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

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

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

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

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