Bali Tour Guide

Traveling to east Bali is another exciting experience. You will have to get prepared, you should be fit and take sarong with you. You're going to hike to the biggest and oldest temple in Bali: The Mother Temple of Besakih. Before we go to Besakih, it is worth also to visit Klungkung. There are monument of Puputan Klungkung (as a remembrance of fight until death between the local kingdom of Klungkung against the colinialist Dutch), Hall of Justice or Kerta Gosa and the Museum. The Hall of Justice served like a court in the early 1900. It is a small hall of approximately 4x4 meters with wooden chairs in the middle of the hall. These were the seat of king, priest, and Dutch controller who decided what would be the punishment for the convict? On the hall ceiling you will see many Balinese traditional painting with Kamasan style. The theme of paintings are mostly life after death (especially scene of hell with many types of punihsment given to the sinful souls according to the bad t

Do you know Bali well enough that you've tried this food before? The food that I am talking about here is called lawar. It is made of mixture of spices and sliced and minced pork. But there is another special ingredient that is going to blow your mind; it is raw pig blood. Lawar is a special food for Balinese. People make lawar on special occasion like holy day or temple festival. (There is a Holy Day coming next week called Galungan, I will write about it in a few days). It can also be found at wedding feast, or tooth filling ceremony. You can buy lawar at food stall all over Bali, especially those selling suckling pig. Is it really raw blood? Before we go on to that discussion, let see what are the ingredients needed to make lawar. First, we need a complete combination of spices (called Basa genep ). The Basa Genep consists of onion, garlic, pepper, turmeric, chili, salt, ketumbar (I'll have to check the English translation later), fried onion, shrimp paste, and ginge

Here is the second series of my post Care For A Little Adventure? I will update this post as many times as it is needed as there are more info I can collect about each activity. I will also put more things on the list because there are maybe new activities available in Bali. Surfing: Bali is well known place for surfing. One of the popular site where you can surf is in Kuta beach. This is the place for both novice and expert to surf. There is even operator or company that offer learn to surf program. They claim they can make you stand on your board at the end of the day. Other places for more challenges are in beach of  Suluban, Padang-padang, and Dream Land. The places are closed to Uluwatu temple. Bungee Jumping, you don't have to go very far to have a bungee jumping. Kuta is the place. It is a great excitement, but not really a life changing experience, if you ask me. It is as exciting as riding motor bike in Denpasar, but bungee jumping is much safer. Wate

Touring to Kintamani village to see the Mount Batur has become the most popular tour for visitors coming to Bali. This is a tour where you can have a taste a bit of every thing: art, culture, scenery, rice terraces, and temples. So, what do you actually experience in this introductory tour? Let's have a look. Your first destination is at Batu Bulan Village to witness Barong Dance. It is as a story of  an eternal fight of Barong (a mythical lion representing good) against Rangda (an evil witch). First, two Balinese man underneath Barong costume appear on the stage along with some monkeys depicting a scene in the forest. Next, two Balinese beautiful girls dance accompanied with the sounds of gamelan (Balinese traditional musical instrument played by a group of people usually man). The story continues with the scene in a palace where the prince Sahadewa is expelled by his mother (the mother is under the spell of Rangda that she becomes evil), his trip to forest, the meeting with Civa,

Not many tourists go to Denpasar. It less popular compared to Kintamani (volcanic panorama in middle Bali) or the spectacular sun set at Uluwatu or Tanah Lot or any other tourist destination. But if you want to experience the suburban Balinese life style, Denpasar, which was defeated by Dutch in 1906, is a perfect example. Here you can go to the Kumbasari or Kreneng market and see for your self how a Balinese haggle over price on their daily needs. Not only that, you can visit Bali Museum which will present you information about the Bali culture, history, and daily life as well as religious festival in Bali society. All right, now I will take you to Kumbasari market. The market is located on Gajah Mada street and is divided into two by a river. In this market, you'll see various things for sale ranging from daily needs such us rice, fish, meat, and vegetables. You can find this in the eastern part of the market, in the east of the river. The western part is where a lots of art and

There are lots of things you can experience while you are in Bali, instead of just sipping beer by the hotel pool. You can have many types of water sports, white water rafting, sailing, fishing, dolphin watching and elephant safari, a visit to Bali bird park, cooking lesson, learning surfing and even bungee jumping. Well, are you ready for a little adventure? Elephant Safari Ride through Bali rural area. One of the biggest elephant  park in Bali located in Taro village, it is about 30 kilometres drive from Denpasar (the capital city). You can take photos with the elephant, watch them playing football (well, soccer!), paint on a canvass, or bathing in the pool. There is advertisement once that makes me smile, "you can buy elephant manure here in the park". They claim that elephant manure is one of the best in the world. Well, if you are interested,  you can try it for your garden at home. There is also an interesting museum about elephant, and even there is a skeleton

"Sorry, I can't go to the temple this full moon. I have my period," that's what Made, a friend of mine, once said to me when we talked about going to a temple. In Bali, women talk openly about their menstruation especially when it is related to temple activities. There is nothing embarrassing about that. But instead of saying in period, they merely say that they have their "monthly guest" coming. When you visit a temple in Bali, you must not be in your period when entering temple complex. Why is that? People, especially the lady tourists, ask with inquisitive and accusing look at me that we don't treat our Balinese women fairly. Okay, let me tell you, that is not the case. There some reasons why people are not allowed to enter the temple, this is called cuntaka (pronounced chun ta ka). If there is a mourning because of there is a death in one family, they can not go to the temple. Because it will cause the temple "leteh" or dirty. The woman wh