Bali Tour Guide

Thank you to Isis, Faye, Kalu (house wife) and Yenting from Malaysia. These ladies are very kind and keep calling me Mr. Pudhu instead of just Putu. Most of the time I can not follow their conversation because they spoke Mandarin (especially Faye). They also taught me a few mandarin and Hokkien. For example, chii sao may (pig smell) kafe (coffee), taa (tea) suwey (water) and lu chu (piglet). Once Faye said that Bali is a "beyootayfoo" island which according to her it is just simply means Bali is a beautiful island. It is hard to believe this because they laughed secretly behind me. Isis said to me "remember to say Bali is a "beyootayfoo" island to your other Malaysian client." ( I will discuss about this word meaning later) Tour with these ladies were very exciting. When we arrived at Kintamani and was about to check in the hotel they booked from the Internet, the reception said there was no vacant room. But they insisted that they have paid and booked a...

Meet a friend of mine, Gobang, a fisherman in Lovina beach. He would be happy to take you to "hunt" for dolphins around the sea near Lovina. The dolphins can be seen mostly in the morning. You need to start early to catch them jumping and flying in the air. Meet Gobang at the "Dolphin Statue" in front of the beach, and he would walk you to the beach to his boat. Hop in to his boat, and sit down while he starts his boat's engine. And off you go. And so you will voyage around the sea with Gobang. He will show you where the dolpins are. Just look around, the dolphins can appear at any time. Sometimes you can see them at the distance, but sometimes they jump up by the boat. If you bring a camera, you need to switch on so it will be ready to take photos of these beautiful creature. They are very fast for amateur photographer, so get your camera ready all the time. Especially when the dolphins are on sight. Final words, you can contact Gobang at +62 81 353 220 202.I c...

Interview with the Uluwatu Monkey: Me: What do you think of the sun set in this place. Monkey: the sun set is always beautiful to see. But don't expect to see it everyday. Mind you, though it beautiful just as people think, we don't really care about it. We just care about food. We like fruits, peanut, sweet potato, cucumber, mineral water, coke and anything tourist bring here. Me: Okay, sounds interesting. So, basically, you are here for the food? Monkey: Of course. We have a lot of food supply as long as tourist coming. Me: Pardon me, is that a sunblock in your hand? Monkey: Yes, it is. Me: That's for blocking the sun shine to get into you eyes, I presume. Monkey: Of course not, you idiot. Pardon my language because we used to use harsh language with other fellow monkeys. That shows our intimacy. Anyway, this sun block I got from snatching a tourist who came here just now. You see, this is how we get our delicious food. We steal people property, but we don't inten...

Warning: you may feel nausea after reading this post. Mr Lim was very interested to try the kopi luwak or the animal coffee which was available in Seribatu village. He was sitting with his wife (Fang), his sister, and his brother in law (Chiat Hau) on a bench in a plantation while trying different coffees available in Bali. I thought he became interested after I explained how the coffee was made. If you want to know, I will tell you briefly. The animal; the civet, or locally known called Luwak or Lubak, eat the coffee. But the coffee beans eaten is not broken or harm at all when they go the Luwak esophagus. It is said that the coffee remains in the stomach for 12 hours and mixed with enzymes from the Luwak body. Then, here is the most dramatic moment: the Luwak go to toilet! The coffee farmers collect the droppings of the luwak with joy filled their heart knowing that they will be able to produce one of the tastiest coffee in the globe. The dropp...

I was standing in front of Wayan's house somewhere in Ubud with Richard and Vicky (from US) thinking. Waiting. A lady descended from the upper floor through a stairs in the house in front of us and looked straight to Vicky. "That's Madam Wayan." one of the staff said. Hmm, it's show time now! Now, why was I here? Vicky read a supposedly a best seller book in US (unknown here) called "Eat, Pray, Love" written by a lady Elizabeth Gilbert, telling her own journey from Italy, India, and Indonesia (including Bali) in this case Ubud. Ibu Wayan was mentioned there, in one page. "Give me twenty minutes, I can read your body and tell you what your body needs, and what your body need less, and what your body don't need." I heard Wayan saying this. So, Vicky decided give it a try. As Vicky and Richard sat on the chairs, and Wayan did her spiritual healing, I looked around. The place was small, maybe 4x4 meters, but it had two floors. There were two ta...

Rare may it seem, but you can get the luwak coffee here in Bali. Okay, now what is luwak coffee? Luwak is a kind of nocturnal animal which resembles a cat and consumes fruits like papaya, or banana. But wait, it also eats coffee beans. This coffee beans travel to the animal eschopagus, and passing through intestines, bowels, and finally comes out as droppings. Here is the strange thing. The coffee beans is still in perfect condition (intact) when it comes out as dropping. The coffee farmer eagerly wake up at down to hunt for this droppings in the forest or gardens. Feeling ecstatic, they will dry the droppings, and extract the coffee beans. They know this is the most wonderful coffee in the world, and most expensive too. What? No, you are kidding. That's the respond I got from Charlene ( an Australian tourists). So, I took her and two other tourists Mike (from California) and Joan (from England) to Seribatu village where they can see the animal called the civet. When we arrived the...

I met Mr Garcia, from Mexico, who told me about his experience just when he got out of the plane when arriving in Bali. He and his wife was looking for his luggage but coould not see them at the airport. They look for their luggage around the airport for about half an hour but still could not find them. Finally, they see this group of people (porters) standing in circle. They were there all the time, but Mr. Garcia did not pay attention to them, until they saw that their bags were behind those porters. "Look, there is our bags." Mrs. Garcia said as they realised that their bags were hidden behind those porters. That's why they could not find their bags all this time. When they try to take their luggage, those porters said, "No, no, no" "We carry your bags." "No, it's okay, we can carry them ourselves." Mr. Garcia said. "No, no, no, we carry." The porters insisted to bring their bags outside into the parking area.. And when they ...

If you buy something in Bali in most shops and markets, you need to bargain. Bargaining can be difficult if you are not used to it. Some of the people that I talked to told me it is quite embarrassing to bargain, because they rarely, if not never, do it in their life. In Bali the sellers expect you to bargain when you want to buy something. If you don’t bargain, you might pay too much for something you buy. So, how do you bargain? When you walk accross a shop, let say a T shirts shop, the seller often shout loudly to you in their Balinese accent, "Come ya, just have a look. Not buying is okay." You walk in and see something you like and take it. You try it and the seller give a price. Tell the seller that the price is too expensive, shake your head, and give the T-shirt back to the seller. Then the seller will lower the price or ask you to name your price. Normally, people bargain fifty percent of what the price is offered. Let say, the price is 10 bucks, then you bargain 5 b...

You probably have heard the not nice experience of exchanging money in some unauthorized money exchangers. People get less of what they should have got from exchanging their money in these so-called money exchangers. I have not met tourist or my clients who have been ripped off by money changers, but still I am going to pose here some tips on how to exchange money safely when you travel to Bali. Well, the first thing to do is to ask for recommendation from people whom you trust, you can ask the hotel staff where you are staying, or your tour guide, or travel representative. They know, and will tell you where the good place to change your money. Maybe you also have friends or relatives that has traveled to Bali before, you can ask them. Next, make sure that you go to the authorized money changer. How do you know that a money changer is authorized? It is not that easy, because all money changers, both good and bad, have "Authorized" sign in their sign board. So? Well, go to th...

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...

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,...

"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...

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...