Posts

Around Kuta Square and Beyond

Image
Kuta square is a popular area in Kuta for shopping or just for hanging around and taking a stroll for windows shopping. It is about fourteen kilometres from Denpasar the capital city or five kilometres from the Ngurah Rai Airport (the only airport in Bali.) Many shops selling branded names of varieties of products ranging from clothes, shoes, bags or jewelry. There is a popular shopping centre around Kuta square called Matahari where you can buy all your daily needs and souvenirs. There is also a Timezone to relax. Next to Kuta square there is the traditional market which consists of hundreds of shops selling varieties of products. Mostly they sell T-shirts, pants, sarongs, mats, baby clothes, paintings, cushions, all tagged with Bali. This place you can bargain. (Many Balinese sellers now complained about how clever the tourist nowadays in bargaining. I think because those tourists have read my blog ) Next to the Kuta market is a DVD stores where you can try before buy. And finally ...

Calm pieceful village of Penglipuran

Image
Traditional Bali Village Penglipuran Village is located in Bangli regency, about 60 kilometres from Denpasar the capital city. It has about 170 families living in this village, and their house have same layout. All stretched from north to South. The northern part of the village is where the village temple is located. If you go further behind the temple, you will reach the bamboo forest. They use bamboo as tiles for their house roof. They also make other things from bamboo such as walls, wind chimes, chairs or pavilions. At the back of each house, you will see their garden. They plant coffee, snake skin fruit, jack fruit or spices. They also have pig sty with a couple of pigs. When you visit the house, you can see their houses are not a single buildings. But it is divided into several buildings of different functions such as main family building, kitchen, and pavilion which serves like a living room since this is where they have their visitors to sit. The kitchen is a higher building, a...

Bali Driver Tour Guide with bigger car

Image
This is just a quick post about my friends, Nyoman Wiratha and Wayan. They are both driver and tour guides. They have experience taking tourists around Bali, taking people to many interesting places like Kintamani, Bedugul, Tanah Lot or Karang Asem. If you come to Bali in group, say 10 people, Nyoman or Wayan would be happy to take you around with their Suzuki Elf. It can hold to maximum 11 people, depending on the size of the people you are going tour with. The mini bus has airconditioned and comfortable to travel with. It is a private tour, so you can go whereever you like and spend time in places more you are interested in. No need to hurry. The price is 600,000 per full day. That's about 10 to 12 hours. It has included driver/tour guide and petrol. So, if you are interested, feel free to contact me at putu30@gmail.com , I will write to you back.(Nyoman or Wayan will probably will answer your email if I am not able to reply your email). Thank you.

Meet Komodo Dragon at Singapadu

Image
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...

Rice Field Terraces at Tegalalang

Image
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...

Visiting Bali from April to October

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...

Why You Should Not Miss Kecak Dance?

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...