Bali beaches

After 'the caves' yesterday, today I post an article about beaches. Beaches in Bali ... great places to relieve you stress or energize yourself during your holiday. There are many beaches in Bali, around 8 beaches if I am not mistaken. I have gone to some of them, Nusa Dua, Sanur, Kuta and Jimbaran beaches.


Sanur beach

Sanur beach is a white-sand quiet beach that is located on the southeastern part of Bali, about 5-10 minutes drive from Denpasar. You can have a beautiful sunrise view here. Other things that you can do here are sunbath, watersports or snorkeling. Nightlife here is not as lively as in Kuta. If you have spare time, spend half day to come here just to walk along the beach or to enjoy the tranquility.


Nusa Dua beach

Nusa Dua is an exclusive and quiet beach. It is located in the most prestigious and luxurious area in the southern part of Bali. There are many expensive International five-stars hotels in this area such as Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, Westin etc, and the beach is located at the back of those hotels. It is a nice beach, but I do not really like it as the beach is really really quiet. It is suitable for you if you want to enjoy the peace and relax with your family.

The last one is Jimbaran beach. Jimbaran beach is located close to the airport. If you come to Bali, I suggest you to come to Jimbaran beach in the evening and have candle light dinner with your loved ones at the edge of the beach. There are many seafood restaurants lining up near the beach. The food itself is not so special, but still you can enjoy the romantic dinner and the sea breeze.

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Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot is a sea temple located in the Beraban village, 30km from Denpasar, the capital city of Bali. It is one of the unique temples in Bali. The temple stands on a big offshore rock. In Balinese language, Tanah Lot means 'land in the middle of the sea'. Some call this place as Tanah Let, meaning 'the ancient land' or Tanah Lod, meaning 'the land to the south'
The temple is one of seven sea temples. The seven sea temples formed a temple chain along the Bali south-western coast.

There is a story related to this place. Back to the 15th century, there was a Hindu priest, Dang Hyang Nirartha, who came to Beraban village. He preached and had many disciples from the village. Then, the villagers abandoned their village priest, Bendesa Beraban. When Nirartha walked along the south coast, he found this beautiful huge rock and started to meditate on the rock and pray to the God of the sea. Bendesa was irritated because he lost lots of his followers, then he disturbed Nirartha's pray and meditation. To avoid Bendesa, Nirartha moved the rock into the sea with his spiritual power. It is believed that he also created lots of snakes and one big giant snakes from his scarf to protect and guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders. It is also believed that the snakes are still there until now and they reside in the caves nearby the temple to guard the temple.


The temple

The temple is only accessible when the tide is low. When the tide is coming in, the rock looks like a large boat floating in the middle of the sea. If you visit Tanah Lot, it is best to come in the afternoon just before sunset, so you can see the temple and take the picture clearly before sunset and also enjoy the beautiful sunset view in Tanah Lot.

Kuta beach

Kuta beach

Kuta is in the southern part of Bali. It is 15 minutes drive from the Airport. Kuta is the most crowded area in Bali, because this area has the best beach with its beautiful sunset view and lots of hotels. It is also the centre of entertainment... there are pubs, bars, restaurants, dischoteques, live entertainments, shopping centres etc. The nightlife in Kuta offers a thrilling range of activities with plenty of clubs and bars.

The white-sandy beach, Kuta beach, is the main tourist attraction in this region. I love this beach. It is beautiful. You can walk along the beach, sunbath, surf, or swim within certain area of the beach. Do not miss the sunset. I like to walk along the beach and usually just sit down, enjoy the wind and see the surfers surfing the waves. Do not forget to bring and apply your sun protection lotion. Bring extra clothes if you want to swim in the beach.


A temple in Kuta beach

Other thing that you can do is walk along Kuta, Poppies and Legian streets. You can find lots of shops around this area. They sell clothes, handicrafts, jewellery, shoes, music CDs, paintings or exotic wood carvings. It is more expensive though to shop in this area. If you want to buy clothes, paintings, statues or other art works, I suggest you to go to Sukawati market. And again, you need to bargain to get the reasonable prices.
You also can visit the 2002 Bali bombing memorial on the site of Paddy's Pub on Legian street. My deepest sympathy to all the victims and their families.
There are lots of budget/ low cost accommodation located in Poppies 1 & 2 streets. Along these streets, there are many small restaurants or cafes offer local or western cuisines.

Well, you should not miss Kuta beach if you come to Bali...Hmmm... I think nobody will miss it as it is a very popular beach!

Bali ... The paradise island

I bet you must be agree with my title. Yes... I want to write about Bali this time. Bali is very famous and I think nobody in the world does not know Bali. May be Bali is more well-known than Indonesia. I love this island. I have been to the island for many times and still want to go again.

Bali is half hour by plane or 12 hours drive from my hometown, Surabaya. Going to Bali is very easy. Lots of domestic and international flights arrive in or depart from Denpasar. Denpasar is the capital city of Bali. The airport is Ngurah Rai International airport. I Gusti Ngurah Rai is the famous hero from Bali. Everytime I arrive in Bali, I always feel different. The island's atmosphere is very very special... it is difficult to describe how I feel in words, you better go there and feel it yourself, ok?!

The population in Bali is about 3 million and the majority is Hindu. They have many religious ceremonial events in one year, namely Kuningan, Galungan, Saraswati, etc and the biggest one is Nyepi. Nyepi is Balinese New Year according to Caka Calender. On that day, there will only be silence and no activities in the island for the all day. The Balinese should stay at home and they do reflection on whatever they have done in the past year.

There are many things you can do in Bali. Bali has beaches, mountains, lakes, waterfalls ... all naturally created. You can also visit Hindu temples, museums, art villages. One of the famous beach is Kuta beach. I bet you have heard Kuta beach in Bali. This beach is very beautiful. Surfers like this white-sandy beach because the waves is perfect for surfing. Bali also has fascinating cultures ... the art works and dances. I have wrote about Kecak dance in this blog, and you can find it in Garuda Wisnu Kencana post.

The other unique thing about Bali is the caste system. There are four castes in Bali, namely Brahmana (the priest), Satria (warriors), Wesia (officials and merchants) and Sudra (farmers and craftsmen). Brahmana is highest caste in the society. Sudra is the lowest and represent 90% of Balinese. The caste system, then, affects how parents name their children. For example, if someone is from Brahmana caste, then their names are Bagus (for man) and Ida Ayu for woman, or Ksatria caste - name: Anak Agung Dewa (for man) and Anak Agung Dewi (for woman). As far as I know there are 4 popular names for the majority of the population, Putu/Wayan (1st child), Made (2nd child), Nyoman (3rd) and Ketut (4th). Then, if the Balinese has his/her 5th child, then he/she will be name Putu/Wayan, like the 1st child.

Anyway, Bali is very highly recommended by me. Do not forget to apply sunscreen if you want to sunbath. Then, do bargain at least by 50% if you want to but souvenirs.

Garuda Wisnu Kencana

Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park is about 10 minutes drive from International airport Ngurah Rai. This 25 hectares park is located in the southern part of Bali. The Park is a limestone plateau. In the past, this place was a limestone mining site and the small-scale unorganized limestone mining was done by the local people led to environmental destruction. Then, the GWK concept was created to avoid further destruction and provide job opportunities to the locals. But, there is a controversy regarding this idea. Some religious leaders believed that the giant statue may disturb the spiritual balance of the island.


Vishnu Statue

The initial concepts of the park that there will be a complete statue of Vishnu, one of the Hindu deities, riding his mount a bird, Garuda. This statue will stand on top of a pedestal building. The height of the statue will be 150 metres above the ground and one of Bali's icons. The pedestal building will consist of viewing gallery, restaurant, art gallery etc. When I visited this place, only two parts of the statue that have been completed, the Vishnu statue (22 metres height) and Garuda head statue (18 metres height). I do not know exactly why it takes so long
(the concept of the park has been created since Soeharto era, so it has been at least more than 10 years now) to make the statue and build the pedestal building. Is it because of the controversy, not enough financial support or high difficulties in the art works? I do not know, but I just imagine if the idea of the Park is fully accomplished, this place can be a very very attractive tourist site as you can enjoy the unique Balinese art work here... the sculpture, reliefs, statues.

I visited this park during the day to take some pictures of the Vishnu and Garuda. The park opens everyday and no admission fee. I walked and saw around the place. It is hot, so bring your hat or umbrella and apply sunscreen to avoid sun burning. At night, there are some daily events going on in the festival park. Sometimes, local, national and international concerts are conducted in this open space area. I had a chance to see the Kecak Dance in the festival park at night.


The Kecak Performance

The Kecak dance is a unique Balinese dance. The dance illustrate the Ramayana story. The legend is about Prince Rama saved the life of Princess Sita, who has been kidnapped by the evil King of Lanka, Rahwana. On his rescuing mission, he was helped by the white monkey, Hanoman. Finally, he succeeded to save the Princess and defeated the evil. The dance lasts about 45 minutes.

It is a unique dance and you must see it. The dance has no musical background like other dances you know. The dance is accompanied only by the rhythm which is produced by the melodious chanting of 'cak-cak-cak-kecak' chorus. Hence, it is named the Kecak dance. There are around 100 or more men sitting and making the human circle. They chant while they sway their bodies and wave their hands as well. They chant continuously while the dancers perform the epic Ramayana in the middle of the human circle. I love it. I would like to see it again if I go to Bali next time. It is a highly recommended performance that you must see in Bali.

You can see the Kecak performance in GWK Park. It performs everyday 6.30-7.30pm, so do not miss it ... and it is FREE!!! It is great, isn't it?

Bali Bird Park

Bali bird park is about half hour drive from Kuta. I rented a car with a driver at that time to visit the Park. This park has a collection of almost 1000 birds of 250 different species from Indonesia, Africa and South America. Not only birds, you can also see Komodo Dragon, a giant lizard which is a descendant of the dinosaur, on the display. The park also exhibits more than 2000 tropical plants.


Pelicans on the display

Some birds, including exotic and rare birds, being displayed are the Bird of Paradise from Papua, Hornbill, the Bali Starling, Javan Hawk, Servent Eagles, Pelicans, Cranes, Parrots, Owls etc. The park is designed as natural as possible for the birds, so you can see a bird walking along the pavement.


Look... it is on the pathway!!

The park is also a birds conservation. It protects and conserves the rare and endanger species. You can see some endanger baby birds that are placed in the incubators through observation windows .

Other activities you can do are feeding the birds during interactive feeding time, taking unique pictures with a bird on your shoulder, seeing bird show etc.

The park is open daily from 9am - 6.30pm. The admission fee is quite expensive though for me. For adult is 22,50USD (including service charge) per person. It is a good place to visit if you have plenty of time during your visit to Bali, you like birds or you want to expose your children with many species of birds. Otherwise, it is the least priority place to be visited.