Bali Tour Guide

It was a drive from Ubud on Eka homestay at Sriwedari road, Evelyn and Khem were my clients. We were about to encounter the road with the worst traffic in Bali, with lots of 10 wheelers passing by, reckless drivers, one or two who would end up in the ravine or river by the streets with the all the wheels facing up. I drove them to Balian beach, the so called surf beach, where there are many farms and where there are more cows than people. Both these ladies, in their early thirties, were so kind and and down to earth. Treating me as friends, they begin to tell stories about themselves. Khem worked for the series US "Survivor" with two Australians friends who work for the same series. They said they were in logistic and designing challenges for the twenty participants for the Survivor series. As for Evelyn, she is on self discovery. It may sound like a "cliche", she commented, but she has visited some countries before Bali to find herself. "My visit to Bali wa...

So, you want to know the cheapest way from Sanur to Nusa Dua? And you want a good quality transport too? Well, although the saying "cheap but good" will arouse enough scepticism for some of you, but hold on. I will tell you this, instead of paying taxi fare of Rp 100,000 or around USD 12, you can pay only Rp 3500 or just USD 4. Are you interested? Introducing The Trans Sarbagita The Trans Sarbagita transport connect villages or towns along the main street called By pass Ngurah Rai. Some of these villages are Batubulan, Sanur, Nusa Dua, and Kuta. The transport is very reliable and comfortable since it operates every day. And it is very easy to spot one of the transport vehicle. It is a big air conditioned bus with 40 seats. The bus is blue in colour with yellow stripes. But it has the words " The Trans Sarbagita" painted on its body. If you are in Sanur, just head to the main street of Bypass Ngurah Rai, look for the bus stop area (halte bus) and wait for the ...

It's very easy to lose your way in markets in Bali. Kuta market is no exception. Just like pioneering your way to tropical forest, the market in Kuta has lots of little shops that sell "everything". For a starter, you can bargain for t-shirt and pants. The most popular are the ones with word "Bintang" (Indonesian beer), and "I Love Bali" printed on them. Others have funny words, or mildly obscene words. But, all those words are only printed in the spirit of being funny. Nothing serious or offensive. These are not the main things available in the market. Here are some of them: sarongs, bags, shoes, thongs, glasses, belts, hats, lady's accessories, neck laces, lady's dresses, and lots of other things (must I mention them all?) And once you finish with your shopping, you can walk along the market until you find Kuta beach. You can relax a bit here.

So, I put funny story on the title to tease you to read this post. Ok, it is really funny. Well, some of you may think is quite scary. But anyhow, read on. Winnie (changed the name a little bit) has exchanged emails with me a couple of times and really looked forward to go to Bali. The first tour would be half day tour to Uluwatu temple to watch Kecak Dance and go to Jimbaran bay. On the day of the tour, I was ready at the hotel lobby waiting for her. It was 3.30 PM, and I walked around the hotel lobby to look for her. There was hardly anybody there except the receptionist. There was no sign of her. It was already passed 15 minutes from the time we agreed to meet up. I began to scratch my hair and decided to talk to the receptionist. The receptionist smiled as he looked on the names on a computer. "Would you like to call to your clients room?" he asked. I nodded and said thanks. I put the phone on my ear and only hear the beep sounds and then somebody saying"...

When we arrived at his house, there were some people outside Ketut Liyer house waiting  for their return. Ketut Liyer is a traditional healer and a palm reader.  He has become popular after the book and the movie Eat Pray Love. This is also the reason why I visited him that day. My client wanted me to take her to meet, Ketut Liyer, the palm reader. After waiting for about two hours, then my client, got her turn. So, there she was sitting cross legged before the traditional healer. I sat by her side, my job was to translate what the traditional healer said to her. The palm reader looked at me and and asked, "who are you?" I said to him that I was the tour guide. And my clients ask me to translate what he said to her. To my surprise, he spoke English quite fluently. But there were some instances that I needed to translate. Ketut looked at her face, taking into details of the shape of her eyes, her eyebrows, and then went on saying, "you are a very beautiful lady and...

Here are some photos from trekking around Tamblingan post. We started tracking down into the tropical forests. Descending from Banyuatis village, we walked down on the slippery stairs leading to the forests near Lake Tamblingan. Some beautiful trees that we encountered along the way. There are many more huge trees,and some of them fell down because of strong wind. we stop for a rest and taking some photos in Pura Dalem Tamblingan (the temple located near the lake). we finish resting and we continued our way back riding "catamaran" through the lake. The paddler was a little girl and his father. the view of the lake, the forests, the Hills, taken from the boat.

It was a cloudy day in Bali. Rain poured down lightly from the sky. I went with Mr Lim and his family (his wife and his two children, a 17-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son) to go trekking in the tropical forest of around Lake Tamblingan. We arrived at Munduk village at around 11 AM. Munduk village is located in a higher land from where we can look down in the distance, the two lakes. Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan. Our trekking plan was to start walking from Munduk village down to the tropical rainforest. There was a trekking post, a small building, where my friend, Kadek, a professional trekking guide, was waiting for us. I said hello to Kadek and then we started descending through the stairs into the thickness of the tropical jungle. At the beginning of our trekk, it was a bit easier. Since there are a few stairs built along our trekking route, from where we were, at the top of a valley, descending approximately about 90 m. But we had to be careful because the stairs are a...