Bali Tour Guide

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...

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...

The word Bali which has several meanings was first known in the year of 913 in the era of King Sri Kesari Warmadewa. The meaning of Bali are: to return, offerings (for redemption), truthfully, and exact. This word was probably originated at even the first century when many of Indian traders came to South East Asia, including Bali. At this island, they observed religious activities making use of offerings. And possibly because of what they observe, these traders later called the island as Balidwipa (The Island where the offerings or religous ceremonies are conducted). Bali province as a part of Indonesia consists of five  islands, namely, Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan, Serangan (turtle island) and Menjangan covering an area of 5.6 square kilometres. Located in between Asian continent and Australian continent, Bali is a volcanic island. There are several mountains in this two seasoned island. Two of them, Mount Agung and Mount Batur, are active volcano. We also have four...

Balinese don't have first name and second name. That's the truth. Instead, we have a kind of numbering system. (I feel funny talking about this). Well, the Balinese name consist of two parts, the first part is number or the part that tells us what number is s/he in the family. What I mean, is the child the first born or the second, the third or the fourth? The next part of our name is our real name. As for the numbering, there are four types: Putu, Wayan, Gede, Luh is for the first son or daughter. Made, Nengah, Kadek is for the second child. Komang, Nyoman is the third Ketut is for the last child If there is the fifth child, then s/he will be named like the first born. Ok, I know you are a bit confused. Let me give you an example. Let say, you meet a guy whose name is Putu Arnawa. You know that he is the first born in the family because of the word Putu. And Arnawa is the real name, to differenciate him with hundred thousands of Putus around Bali. So, it is easy, isn't it?...

What is it like? English with Balinese accent? If you've been in Bali or live in Bali, you know what I mean. There are some English sounds that we don't have or normally use in our every day language. What happen is that we usually substitute those English sounds with the closest sounds in Balinese similar to the English sound. So, what are those sounds? Well, we rarely, if not never, use these sounds in our language: "th" as in the or there is replaced with the sound "d" (we say "de" instead of "the"), or worse "ts" (tsing instead of think) "sh" as in shout is simply "s". "ch" as in chair us substituted by "tj" "v" as in variety is just "b" "f" as in felicity is "p" "z" as zen sometimes heard as "j". It is very true, then, English is a very difficult language to learn fo us. It is a struggle for most of Balinese to say the word ...

This is a special treat for you. Now, I am going to take you to Ubud. Ubud is located in land, about 20 kilo metres from Denpasar (the capital of Bali ). It is in the height of 300 metre above sea level that the temperature is cooler here compared to other tourist place like Kuta and Nusa Dua. There are some interesting places you can visit here in Ubud, like: Puri Saren Ubud Local Market Painting Museum: Puri Lukisan Monkey Forest Puri Saren Or Ubud Palace Puri Saren is located at the centre of Ubud at the main cross road. You can visit this palace during the day because it is open for public. At the evening this palace become a centre of art and dance performance by local people. You can see dances such as Legong dances, or Ramayana dances. There is thre building in the outer yard of the palace. One building in the west is a place for storing gamelan (balinese musical instrument), there is smaller building on the northern section that function like an reception of information centre,...

Do you talk to your cat or to your dog? What do you say to them? Do you say” Cat, I had a bad day at work today...” ? Balinese don’t really talk to their pets. I must say, most of us, don’t talk to animal in that fashion. The Balinese only say, “Sit, Go Out, or Eat, or Scram,” to their dogs or cats. But we have different attitude to cattle. There is even a holy day for them. This special day takes place every 210 days. The day is called Tumpek Kandang. On Tumpek Kandang day, the Balinese make offerings (I will talk more about offering in later post) to animal, especially their cattle, chicken, cows, or buffaloes. This is day when we say to the animal or hope for them to grow well or stay healthy. In a sense, this is not really talking to animal, rather it is a prayer to the God for the well being of animal. Nowadays, many Balinese has become aware so that they care for their pets and treat them as their friend. Many Balinese men like to have birds as pets. Yes, they talk t...