Bali Tour Guide

Singapadu Village has a different attraction for visitors. Besides the stone carving area, it is also where the Reptile Park are located. Here is your chance to learn about all those slimy animals since many varieties are presented here. Many kind of snakes can be seen in their glass cages. There are the phytons, cobras, rattle snake and lots of other snakes. Lizards, from the smallest gecko to the big crocodille also joined in in the park. Frogs from different size, colours and types look at you from behind their cages. Not just from local area, but from all over the world. The setting of the park which imitates forest is also another plus point. When you walk around the park you will feel that you've been transported to a remote and wild tropical forest. There is an ancient temple like building in the middle of the 'forest' to make it more believable. Soon, you will begin to feel like Indiana Jones. At a certain point of the park, you can see the Komodo dragon. So, you do...

Tegalalang village, beside the Jatiluwih, is a village you can stop to admire the view of rice terraces. Located just north of Ubud, the rice field can be easily spotted from the main road. It spreaded to little hills and valleys by the main road. Depending on the season you come to visit Bali, the rice terraces have different colours. It's black because of mud when farmers plough the fields. It's green when the paddy is already growing, and yellow when it is due harvesting. The farmers build terraces to grow rice so they can better manage the soil. It is not suitable, if not impossible, to grow rice on a slope because rice need still water. Tegalalang village is quite busy during the days because there tourists bus stopping just take pictures of rice fields. If you want to stay longer, there are local cafes, or small restaurants where you can sit and enjoy the food and the view rice field. There are also street vendors who try to sell you pencils, bone statues, postcards, chop...

You can say that there are more visitors coming to Bali from April to October since this is the dry season. You probably think twice before coming to Bali in the wet season (October to April), at least you will think whether you are going to have bright days if you come on the wet season. If you would like to make sure that you will see no rain (at least 99.99% chance to see bright days) than you can choose to come to come during this time of the year. There are few other things to consider. For example, the celebrations and local holidays. The Silent day can take place on between March and April. Everything will be closed on that day that you will have to stay lock up in your hotel. June, July, and August is the busiest time in Bali because it is school holidays. The popular tourist areas are mostly flooded by tourists from our neighbouring island, Java. But there are also many visitors from Australia, Europe and Asia who come and bring their kids to enjoy the warmth of the sun in Bal...

At the beginning of this dance, if you hear the dancers shout," chuck, chuck, chuck" they don't mean to call a guy named "Chuck". The dancers makes sounds like these (or in Balinese language it is cak, cak, cak, since we read the words as it is written) in order to imitate the Balinese musical instrument. This dance does not use any form of musical instrument. Instead it uses sounds combination which is made by all the dancers. (The number of dancers can be fifty to one hundred ) It may appear like a choir. Kecak dance was created by Wayan Limbak in around 1930 with Walter Spies, a German painter who lived in Bali. The dance was ispired by Sang Hyang Dance (a kind of trance dance where the dancer is possesed by achestral spirit). The Kecak dance alway tells a story of Ramayana. It is a journey of Prince Rama and his wife Sitha, along with his brother, Laksmana, who together go to the forest. In the forest, Sitha sees a golden deer, and pleaded Rama to capture th...

The problem of goodness versus evil is never really finish in this world. Many stories, legends, even the Hollywood movies set this theme as their focus in their stories. In Bali there are also many stories about good and bad. Barong story which is presented in the Barong Dance performed daily in Batu Bulan village is no different. It tells the story is about fight between good and bad, only this time the good does not win... Barong is a an animal which looks like a lion. Since no one has seen it in reality, it is safe to assume that Barong is a mythical character just like the leprechaun. Where do you see the original Barong? If you tour around with your tour guide or driver, you might have a chance to see a religious procession. You will probably the local Balinese who dances Barong dance on the prossesion. The function of Barong is believed to expel the evil spirit away, or neutralize negative energy (if this make more sense to you) so it will not interfere the temple festival. Ther...

A friend of mine, Dar, a Bali tour guide, thought he could "summon" the monkeys at monkey forests any time he needed just by shouting loudly. Well, he is surely right about calling the monkey but he forgot something else. He was no Tarzan. And the monkeys didn't like people shouting at them disturbing their privacy. So, Dar was going to get a surprise he would never forget for all his mortal life. This is a story about my friend who took a client to a monkey forest somewhere north Denpasar, Bali on one afternoon. Dar's client was a very important client because he owned a travel agent in US. Therefore, my friend was on special mission to give the best service in order to impress this VIP client. "Make the client happy," his boss reminded,"we count on you." The client was happy touring around Bali, admiring the rice fields, beautiful temples and the friendliness of the Balinese. At midday Dar took the VIP client to the Kedaton monkey forest. They we...

"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...