Bali Tour Guide

For Balinese kids, they have to start early to learn dancing. At least, the are already six years old, according to Ketut Sudirawan. Younger than that, he finds it really hard to control them. For older children, he can control them better. If you would like to know how the Balinese learning to dance, you can visit Ketut Sudirawan in Blahbatuh Village, Gianyar. But remember to make appointment with him.

4 Have you heard the word “ sambal ”? Sambal is sauce made of mix of spices such as shallot, garlic, lime, chili, pepper and salt. These ingredient are then grinded with stone pestle and mortar. The paste of that mixture of spices is called sambal. Sambal is like a sauce. We eat it together with rice, fried chicken, grilled fish or any food on our table. It adds up the taste. Sambal bawang matah is a different story. First, the meaning of sambal bawang matah is the sambal of raw shallot. It is indeed made of raw ingredients such as: shallot, garlic, lemon leaves, shrimp paste or terasi, salt and coconut oil. These ingredients are mixed together (just by hand, not in a pestle and mortar like the regular sambal ) and then served with the food. Usually serving it fresh is the best way. We can not keep if for long time. So, whenever going to have some meal in Bali, you can try the sambal bawang matah. It is favorite of many Balinese, me included. And here is a photo of sambal bawan...

Tegenungan waterfall is a beautiful waterfall. It is located only 5 kilometers from Ubud. You can go there anytime, but preferably in the morning or in the afternoon, when the sun is not so hot. The entrance ticket is 10,000. You need to pay that at the ticket booth on the road leading to the waterfall. Then you need to walk for about two minutes from the entrance ticket booth to be able to see the waterfall. There is a shop or little café from where you can look at the view of the waterfall. You can rest, relax, or take photos from here. If you want to get closer to Tegenungan waterfall, you can continue walking. Pass the shop, you will find stairs leading you to the river where the waterfall flows. There are about 400 easy steps going down located between bushes and trees. You will pass three water sprouts near the river. It’s for bathing place. You can bathe here, but I don’t suggest you to. (just kidding). As you arrive in river bank, the path is not solid anymore. It is so...

Flowers are really something that we can not live without in Bali. One main reason is offerings with flowers. Have you seen the offerings made by coconut leaves and flowers? We also create decorate our homes with flowers on special occasion. Have a look at a Balinese house when there is a wedding or tooth filling ceremony. They use lots of flowers to decorate their house. Balinese dancers also use flowers to beautify them selves. They use frangipani, hibiscus , and cempaka .   When you visit a Balinese Hindu temple, you will also see the flowers also grown in the garden areas. Take a look at this picture of flowers plant the Ulun Danu Temple near Lake Bratan.’ Flowers are also grown in the house yard in Balinese compound. One main reason is to prepare for offerings, so the family do not need to buy flowers for their offering especially in the big festival days. For those who have no flowers at home, they can still easily buy them in the local Bali markets. Flowers are als...

Traveling to Bali does not just mean going tour, having massage, and spending time in the beach. It also means to learn about Balinese culture. One way to do it is to try the local food. One snack I would like to introduce here is called klepon. Funny name, but read on. It’s not easy to find the real Balinese snack, especially if you stay in the touristy  area. Going to villages, or towns in Bali, you may be able to find klepon . And If you want to to have Balinese authentic culinary adventure, try it. Klepon is glutinous sticky rice ball with palm sugar inside it. It is usually served with grated coconut. When do we have klepon? Any time, but usually  during the relax time, for example, when having coffee. The colour of klepon is green. Traditionally, Balinese women use a kind of leaf (called don kayu sugih ) to give color to the klepon.  So, green colour of klepon is from the colour of the leaf, not some artificial coloring. Sometimes, klepon can be black, because it i...

This is Richard from US. He told me that he liked to collect gemstone. In every country he visited, he usually bought a gemstone ring for collection. But it has to be cheap, because it is just for collection, he told me. In one of the visit in Bali, we got to visit a house in north Bali. It happened that the host also sold gemstone rings. So, he tried to put them all, just for fun. I took his video, and asked him if I could use this video in my blog. He said yes. So, here it is.. The video where he tried all the rings. In Indonesia, and including Bali, there are gemstone fever at the moment. All important people, artists, and many people collect gemstone. So, it is quite a special moment to find one of my traveler is also interested in gemstone. Do you collect gemstone?

At some point in their life, a Balinese would do a spiritual cleansing ritual. It's the ritual for cleansing their body, mind and spirit. Why do we need a spiritual cleansing? We believe in balance between physical and spiritual. When the physical body is dirty, we can wash it by water and soap. When the spiritual body is dirty, we do it by purification ritual. One of the place for this is the temple of Pura Tirta Sudamala in Bangli. Located by the river with a spring, it is an ideal place for such ritual. The spring temple of Pura Tirta Sudamala. To do this, first we pray to the God or universe for blessing and guidance at the temple. The prayer is lead by a Pemangku or priest. Next we will go to the river, wash our face and body, and then go to each of the water sprout available close to the temple. The water sprouts.  The river just in front of the temple. Some people were cleansing themselves there. The end of the ritual of cleansing is the blessing b...