Bali Tour Guide

Hari itu, kebahagiaan Gondappa tak dapat dilukiskan dengan kata-kata karena pertama kali ia bisa melihat anaknya mampu bertahan hidup sampai merayakan hari ulang tahunnya yang kelima. Sebagai ucap syukur, Gondappa melakukan handwalk (berjalan dengan kedua tangannya dengan posisi kepala di bawah dan kaki di atas) dari rumahnya di Desa Thesgora ke kuil setempat. Tahukah anda bahwa dua juta anak meninggal setiap tahun tanpa bisa merayakan hari ulang tahun kelima akibat diare dan Pneumonia? Penyebabnya karena kuranganya pengetahuan dan kesadaran akan pentingnya kebersihan, seperti mencuci tangan dengan sabun. Kegiatan sederhana hanya dengan mencuci tangan tangan dengan sabun mampu mengurangi resiko diare sampai 42-47%, tetapi hanya 2% ibu-ibu yang tinggal di desa Thesgora membiasakan anak-anaknya mencuci tangan untuk menjaga kesehatan. Menurut Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) di Indonesia sendiri, 100.000 anak Indonesia meninggal tiap tahunnya karena terjangkit diare. Padahal resiko ini da

So, you think you have visited all the places in Bali? Okay, let uslook at the map of Bali map again, and your adventure will continue at Lovina beach. But what is it like there and what will you do there.? Lovina is  a beach located in north Bali. It has far less visitors than that of Kuta beach but it has its own uniqe beauty. The main access of Lovina beach is called Bina ria where you will see a statue of dolphins. The statue indicates that this black sandy beach has its own attraction, dolphin watching. If you want to see dolphins, you must come early in the morning to the beach. You will start going with local fisherman at six o'clock. Then you will engage on a voyage around the beach looking at the dolphins hoping on the sea. The dolphins are quite fast that it is not easy to take photo of them. And the fact that it is early in the morning make the lighting not so suitable for photography. You will end up getting blurry photos. As the sun comes out, the light will aid your p

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