Bali Tour Guide

I have several emails coming because of this blog. One of them is very unique. It was from a guy in Western Australia. He came through Google searching for "Balinese phrase" or maybe "Indonesian phrase" and ended up in my blog. And he eventually decided to write this strange email to me. (Later I knew he looked up at Google for this phrases to write a letter to a balinese girl) In his email, Ted (not actually his real name) asked if it was possible for me to find a girl named Ketut who live some where in Legian (Legian is located north of Kuta) or got somebody to find this girl if I did not want to do it. Hmm, for a start there are at least 500,000 Ketuts in Bali, but if she live in Legian that would narrow down the search. I replied his email saying,"I'll take the job." After all, I have been always dreaming to be a detective and I would treat this as my first case. Ted met Ketut when he was in Bali. He had a great time with her and her family (brothe...

You can get fast internet connection nowadays in Bali especially in Denpasar and Nusa Dua up to 3.5 Megabit per second. (so, that't what they claimed) This is if you have the so-called HSDPA phone to connect to Internet for example the Nokia 6120C. You can buy the SIM card in Bali if your plan doesnot include international roaming. The easiest way is to get a IM3 SIM card which has Internet connection active already. All you need is just to configure your phone or your modem so it can connect to the service. This one is no sweat since there is a simple manual you can follow. All you need to do is to send sms to a certain number to activate the 3G feature. The price of the data is 1.1 rupiah per kilo Byte, or USD .0001 or so There are also many many hotspot area that will give you free internet. Restaurants and hotels provide wifi area as part of their service. One of the hotels offering hotspots are: the Westin. Other places includes restaurants; like Bali Bakery at Kuta. Hmm, I wi...

Sanur is a tourist area which was a fisherman village, that you can achieve by driving twenty minutes from the Denpasar air port. What's in Sanur? Well, if you'd like a quiter place than Kuta, Sanur is the right place. There are less shops, traffics, or street vendors compared to Kuta. Along the main street of Sanur, there are shops which sell souvenirs, banks, Hardy's shopping centre, money changers, home stays and hotels which range from budget hotels to the internatioanl chain of the Bali Hyatt. To get taxi is also not a big problem, they are just wandering in the streets. If you prefer you can walk along the pavement along the main street at night time, since probably it is a bit hot during the day. From the main street, it is only a few metres to the beach. Most of the hotels are built by the beach with the beach view, so if you stay here, beach is just very close. Many Balinese, during the weekend, spend their time with their families in the certain area of the beach,...

Mas village is a welknown village for the woodcarver. Many of the famous wood carver come from this village. I was lucky to meet one of the wood carver. His name is Pak Tiru. In the photo that I took from my phone, he was working on his wooden statue. It is going to take six months to accomplish such a statue. It was two meters high and the material is local wood called Suar wood. The statue he is working on now depicts the Goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. Indeed, Mas village and surrounding villages like Kemenuh, Ubud, and Tegalalang has many wood carver artists. If you drive to the Kintamani , you will see a lot of them displaying their works by the street. The statues have many varieties, from the classical statues depicting deities, or contemporary theme like dolphin. The material used are mahogany, ebony, hibiscus, and crocodile wood. If you visit Bali, make sure you witness the wood carver in action, if you have time.

This excellent guide book offers a complete and comprehensive information about touring, activities, and accomodations in Bali and Lombok. Written by two great authors who had conducted a 68 days of in-country research, drawing 51 detailed maps. The book also talks in detail about all new outdoor activites with details of diving and surfing information. It also covers many accomodations ranging from budget hotels to five stars hotel as well as detail prices of staying in those hotels. A complete guide for dining also is presented well. The book lists many restaurants from local stall, local restaurants to international restaurants. There is a special chapter dedicated to talk about food, it is called Food & Drink written by renowned Ubud restaurateur and auther Janet de Neefe.

Bali has changed a lot since tourist booming in 1970-ies. Many hotels, restaurant, and villas are built to accomodate the incoming visitors. Many local leave their villages, and their farm lands to go to get better promising job in tourist area. Some are successful in changing their life to a better standard, others are still trying to survive. Apart from that, many visitors who visited Bali before, let say, twenty or thirty years ago, will commented that Bali has a experienced a lot of change. There were fewer cars in the streets, less buildings, but more rice fields. Last time you still could see farmers walked on the main road when going to the rice fields. You can still do it now, but you have to go to the villages, not in big city like Denpasar or Sanur. Is Bali more beautiful thirty years ago? Probably yes. There were still originality, not very much tourists influence you would see. It's really funny the way they advertise Lombok in the media to visitors, Visit Lombok: It...

You have many options for staying in Bali from homestays, budget hotel, star hotel, or villa. Depending on what your purpose and length of stay, or most importantly, budget you can choose any accomodation you need. Some people prefer to stay in villa than in hotel. Here are the reasons to stay in villa. Staying in a villa can be more economical compared to staying in hotel but with the equal luxury. You can stay in a villa with beautiful private garden, air conditioned bed rooms, spacious living, dining area, private swimming pool for the cost less than staying in good hotel in Bali. (It can cost US$100 to US$600 per room per night. staying in the hotel). You can choose to stay in villa that reflect the Balinese lifestyle. For example, floors and wall are made form local wood. Other part of building are natural stone. Large and airy living room, gardens with full of flowers and plants are also part of the Balinese style. This is all private. Many varieties of services are available to ...