Bali Tour Guide

Here is a sign board somewhere in Lovina (North Bali) that you may think consist of funny PSA (public service ads). The intended meaning was actually "avoid using drugs or narcotics". And what do you see here?

One of most popular tourist place in Bali is Mount Batur which you can see from Kintamani village. The village is located somewhere in the middle of Bali , about 2 hours drive or 65 km from Denpasar to the north. Mount Batur has erupted a couple of dozens times since 1800. The first eruption was on 1804 and the last was on July 2000. (Well, I was on a tour to Kintamani at that time, but it was only small eruption. Only some smoke puffed from the top.) The biggest eruption was in 1963 with three flows of lava. Anyway, it is a great panorama. You can see the trace of black lava on the volcano and shimmering Lake Batur beside the volcano. On a clear day, it is really fascinating to watch this there-crater volcano. You can see only those three craters when you are at the top because the smaller craters are located in the main crater. You can hike to the top. People usually do it in the morning; and so you can start your journey at 4 am . After two hours hiking you will arrive

Do you have any question about Bali? Well, here are some questions asked to me by tourist when I did the tour in Bali. Where is the most dangerous place to cross the streets in Bali? The zebra crossing. Most Balinese will not stop in the zebra crossing unless it is located in the traffic light, and the red light is on. So, don't try crossing the street because the zebra crossing is there, but look around, if the coast is clear you can cross the street. I see there are many yellow liquid in bottles for sale by the street. Are they some kind of beer? Nope. They are petrol. You can buy petrol in petrol station and resell it for profit in bottles. How many people are allowed on a motor bike? I don't know. Maybe five. Son at the front, next father, then little sister, and last mother with baby in her hand. I don't count the puppy the son holds. Why is there a black and white checkered cloth around statues or big trees? The statues are actually shrines, not merely statues. The cl

There are many ways to enjoy your time in Bali . If you like cooking, why don’t you try cooking some Balinese food? There are many programs you can participate where you canlearn Balinese cooking. One of them I will present here in this blog. Now, I will tell you about few recipes that you can try when you visit Bali . This cooking program is conducted in a village, at asecluded area surrounded by rice fields. Nothing like classroom. With niceview, and cool rice field breeze you have beautiful memorable experience ofcooking the Balinese food. There are some ladies that assist you with your cooking. What you do is observe them whilethey are doing it, and next try it your self. In that way you can learn how todo it yourself and can apply your new cooking knowledge at home. Okay, here are the recipes that we will try: Yellow Rice. Chicken Satay. Tumis Kangkung (Water Spinach). Tum Be Pasih (steamed Sea Fishwith spices wrapped in banana leafs). Yellow Rice, the first recipe, which actu

When you walk in the streets of Bali , you probably will encounter people that greet you with, “Hello, Sir/Madam, where are you going?” This question may seem very strange, because you don’t know those persons, yet they ask a personal question. You are perplexed, you don’t what to say and think why these people want to know where you are going? What is their business asking the question? There is nothing wrong with this question and the people you meet. This is because in Bali when we meet friends, we usually say in Balinese” kija?” which means where. Or where you going? We don’t say “how are you today?” but rather “where are you going?”. I don’t know why we do this, but maybe to show that we are interested in other people or care about them (well, in a different way). That’s the case, we just want to show our friend that we care, because we don’t really expect an exact answer. We don’t expect people to say, “I am going to X.” or “I am going to go to Kuta because I want to meet someb

In east Bali, a village called Dauh Puri, close to Besakih Temple (Bali’s mother temple) lives a man who has a special skill. He can cure people who suffered from broken bones, or sprained injury. Here is the interesting fact: he is not a doctor nor he ever attended any medical education. All he learnt, he believes, he got from the gods and by self learning. Now, why I tell you about this man? Well, I want to show you that Bali is not merely a holiday place. There is a lot more you can explore in the life, cultures, arts and the beliefs of Balinese. This man, for example, believes that all his skill of fixing broken bones is a gift he got from the god. And his mission is to cure people that come to him as best he could. He is in the mid fifties. About 1 metre 60. When he treats his patients he always wears his traditional uniform: the sarong, shirts and a kind of head cloth (called destar in Balinese language.) Before starting his service, he usually prays to Sang Hyang Widhi (the Hind

I was on tour yesterday to a place called to Kintamani. It is where you can see beautiful 1717 meter high mount Batur as well as lake Batur that lies at its bottom. On the way to Kintamani, we stopped in a fruit stall because one of the tourist wanted to know a kind of fruit called durian. Do you know this fruit? This fruit has caused me to think and ask my self question I never can answer.  Durian is a fruit is a popular fruit in Bali or Indonesia. It is also popular other asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore or Hongkong. It "tastes" delicious. But you can not eat much durian since it can raise your body temperature. Well, you can't have fever having durian, just kind of unpleasant feeling. But still it is one of popular fruit in Bali. I think about ninety percent of the population like durian. So, that's why you will find its price is higher than any other local fruit. What's Durian look like? Well, it is about the size of melon and has spikes aroun