Bali Travel Articles

Bali was my vacation trip. If I were to sum up the entire trip, I would describe it as a series of sunsets and sunrises. I left on a Wednesday afternoon, thereby missing quite a lot of class; but I ask myself, “how often am I in SE Asia?” That is how I justify skipping out during the middle of the week.

Anyways, I traveled with two Americans (one being my roommate), two Scandinavians, and a Canadian. Bali is an Island that is part of Indonesia; the people down there are primarily Buddhist. They’re economy is based on tourism if you’re by the beach, or rice farming if you live inland. The currency in Bali is the Indonesian rupiah, 1 USD=10,000 INR.

Nusa Lembongan Island - by Nyoman Sudiadnyana

Lembongan Island is situated just 23 kilometers of Bali 's East Coast. Renowned for its marine life, the waters of Lembongan are crystal clear and the warm and friendly locals are always happy provide tips on best surfing, snorkeling, Village tour and diving locations.

With relatively few tourists on the island, visitors can enjoy un-crowded and white sandy beaches and relaxed atmosphere as the island greatest asset. 

On 14th October 2009, the Balinese Hindu will be celebrating Galungan Day.

Galungan Day is one of the Hinduism biggest ceremony in Bali which is celebrated in every six month according to the Balinese calendar. At the Galungan Day the Balinese celebrate the victory of the good conquered the bad.

In every villages in Bali, we can easily find line of decorated bamboo pool called “Penjor” which plated and stand beautifully in front of each houses.

On Monday 22nd June 2009. Floressa’s staff did a trekking trip which start from Jatiluwih and end up at Lake Tamblingan. Our group which consist of 15 person arrived at the starting point at around 10.00 am.

We slowly walk on small path leading to the forest. Start from the forest, for the next 2 hours we followed a small, sometimes slippery path, with dramatic upturn and downturn.

In general the trekking routes are very interesting especially for nature lovers and the adventurer type of clients. It is a hard trekking, an exciting opportunity to discover rain forest. At around 1945 or possibly earlier, the forest trail going through the mountain range from Jatiluwih to Tamblingan Lake was the unique way for Jatiluwih farmers to trade their rice surplus to the North coast.

Since long time ago Bali is known as one of island with rich culture and tradition. This is one of reason why travelers come to Bali and enjoy when they are in Bali. In many parts of the Island we can easy to find of ritual, creativity and culture activities Bali as center of music, dance and visual arts. In order to manage sustain and uphold all the legacies inspiring the Local Government of Bali conduct by late Prof. Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra to hold an event called Pesta Kesenian Bali - Bali Art Festival in 1979.

The dedication or inauguration day of a temple is considered its birth day and the celebration always takes place on the same day if the “Wuku” or 210 days calender is used. When new moon or full moon is used then celebration always happen on new moon or full moon. The day of course can differ.

The religious celebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some temples celebrating for three days while the celebration  of Besakih, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and most of the time it last for 11 days, depending on the importance of the occasion.

What the Balinese do not understand or what is strange to them, e.g. a spring or big tree, is holy. As a holy place it has to have a temple or at least a shrine. A Banyan tree, because it is so large and awes the people, is holy and one sees always a shrine under it, where people can make offerings to the spirit of the tree. Near a spring there is always a shrine and more often than not such a spring becomes the place where the deities go for a cleansing bath.

A whole temple is built around the holy spring of Tirtha Empul at Tampaksiring, a spring of fresh water bubbling up all the time that awes the people so much.

A Balinese compound has always the house temple inside and a guardian shrine outside. The Bale Banjar (community hall) has a temple, a bathing place has a temple or at least a shrine.

On 20 February 2009, I and some staff of Floressa Bali Tour have done site inspection to Taman Sari Bhuwana which is located at Banjar Beng Utara, Tunjuk Village - Marga, Tabanan. We depart from our office in Denpasar at 8:00 AM. After driving for 1 hour finally we arrived in Banjar Beng Utara located of Taman Sari Bhuwana. The scenery of this village is very beautiful with background of mount Batukaru in North as well as it fresh air.

It is not surprising that Bali is called the island of the thousand temples. Everywhere one sees a temple. There are so many temples that the Government does not bother to count them.

There are small temples, very small temples with only a very few shrines; there are large temples, very large temples with more than 50 shrines, such as the Temple of Besakih , the mother temple of Bali. There are even lonely shrines on the oddest places where one does not expect them at all.