Bali Travel Blog

Saturday was Kuningan, an important holiday in Bali. Kuningan takes place ten days after Galungan, and represents the day when the spirits ascend into heaven. Kuningan takes its name from the fact that special offerings of yellow rice (nasi kuning) are made by coloring ordinary white rice with tumeric (kunyit). 

It is a happy holiday, with everybody visiting the temple dressed in their best finery. Elaborate offerings of food and drink are brought to the temple, as well as placed in the many shrines in homes, restaurants and stores. Everybody is in a pretty good mood; most people have the day off, and kids have been on school holiday for the past ten days. Most stores and restaurants are closed, at least until the afternoon. 

This was also the day I visited the Ubud Palace. While Indonesia is now a republic with democratically elected leaders, Balinese royalty is still viewed with respect. The royal family stills lives in the palace, though with little real power. 

The Monkey Forest in Ubud is mentioned in just about every travel book or article about Bali. It wasn’t far from where I was staying, the entrance fee was modest, and monkeys are cute, right? 

I’d been warned to not bring anything with me into the park. Some things, like plastic bags, might be harmful to the monkeys. Other things, like backpacks, water bottles, and hats, the monkeys might steal from you. I left my hat at the hotel, my water bottle at the gate, and kept my camera firmly clutched in my hot little hand. 

Shortly inside the gate I came across a German woman who had not heeded the warnings. A young monkey had grabbed onto the hanging strap from her backpack and quickly scampered up her back onto her shoulder. That was all well and good until said monkey proceeded to try to eat her hair. (Note to self: When visiting monkeys, do not use shampoo that smells like fruit.) 

The beach in Sanur is nowhere near as pristine as are beaches in the Caribbean, however, they are arguably more lively. There is a paved foot-path the runs the three-mile length of the beach, and along this path you can see the free-enterprise system at its finest. 

There are little cafes and food stalls, some catering to Westerners, some to locals. There are little stalls, some no more than a few shelves set against the wall, with wood carvings, batik sarongs, paintings, kites, shell work, jewelry. You can rent a kayak, a canoe, a bicycle, go parasailing, arrange a tour. One young man even offered to arrange a long-stay visa for me. (What is it about me that makes people want to help get a visa?) This time, though, I declined the offer. 

I'm usually pretty immune to beach vendors; I've met a few in my day. But I met my match in the "Super Sales Ladies of Sanur Beach." 

Bali batiks are famous world-over among those whose quilt, sew, or who are otherwise entranced by fabric. Visiting fabric stores was high on my list of things I wanted to do on this trip. 

Jalan Sulewesi is the street in Denpasar to find fabric, lots of it. For three solid blocks, just about every store on both sides of the street is a fabric store, with the odd motor scooter repair shop thrown in for spice. 

Like Singapore, and I’m sure many other tropical cities, Denpasar’s architecture makes good use of the five-foot way. Essentially this means the second story of a building extends five feet over the sidewalk below, providing much needed shade and protection from torrential rains. It also provides the shops on the ground floor an extension of their stores, and everyone takes full advantage of this extra space. 

I arrived in Bali on the feast of Galungan. Galungan is a holiday that celebrates the

triumph of Dharma (good) over Adharma (evil.)

Wikipedia has this to say about the holiday: "Galungan is a Balinese holiday that occurs every 210 days and lasts for 10 days. Kuningan is the last day of the holiday. Galungan means "When the Dharma is winning." During this holiday the Balinese gods visit the Earth and leave on Kuningan."

I arrived in Bali on a plane full of Taiwanese pharmaceutical reps. They were headed to Bali for a sales conference; they all knew each other, and were in high spirits. I, on the other hand, had been in transit for over 36 hours at this point. I was hot, dirty, tired, and very thirsty. 

On the full moon or Purnama Kedasa, Monday (Mar 29), Hindu devotees will again organize the Ida Betara Turun Kabeh ceremony at Penataran Agung Besakih Temple. As a matter of fact, this ceremony is part of the series which includes the Tawur Agung Kesanga exorcism rite held on the black moon or Tilem Caitra of the ninth month in the Balinese calendar, Monday (Mar 15).

This is the second part of " A Great Full Day Trip to North Bali : Munduk and Pemuteran". Finished inspecting Munduk Moding Plantation, we continued inspected Puri Lumbung Cottages which located at Munduk Village, Buleleng. This hotel has been established way before other hotels are built around the area and it still going strong over the long way journey. Arrived there we were welcomed by drizzling rain big enough to make our shirt wet. Jogging inside the hotel, we were very grateful when one of hotel staff came and offer us more umbrellas. If not, all of us will look like honeymooners with one umbrella for two persons hahahaha. Accompanied by the rain, we started to look round the rooms.

The rooms are quite simple but all are equipped with good facilities. Air conditioned, clean bathrooms, lovely view and fresh mountains air. Enough to satisfy most clients I suppose. Though pretty simple, but this hotel have a friendly and warm atmosphere. Feels like you are greeted by a long lost friend. We feel completely at ease.

On Monday 22^nd March 2010 me and my friends of Floressa Bali Tours travel to western part of Bali, particulary to Munduk and Buleleng. There we inspected four hotels which are : Munduk Moding Plantation, Puri Lumbung, Munduk Sari and Novus Gawana. More details on each hotel will be described more on later posts.

First we were heading to Munduk Moding Plantation. This hotel located at Banjar Asa Gobleg, Buleleng. Arrived at the resort we took a deep breath since the air were cool and very refreshing, unlike hot and humid Denpasar’s air. Stepped into the resort we were greeted warmly by the resort manager, Bapak Ketut Bagiarta. The lobby was nice but it is the main pool that attracted us the most.

It is not surprising that Bali is called the island of the thousand temples. Everywhere one sees a temple. There are so many temples in Bali 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.

Every family, every compound, every clan or society has a temple; you mention a society or organization and has a temple. In the compound where the family lives there is the family temple. The desa or village itself must have at least three temples: Pura Puseh, Pura desa and Pura Dalem

Village or  called Desa in Bahasa Indonesia,  generally consists of smaller units, called the Banjar. A Banjar usually has about 150 members at the most. People do not like a Banjar to be too large because it will become too difficult to rule or organize.  If the membership is more than that, the banjar is divided into two smaller ones.

As with the membership of a temple only married people can be members of a banjar or better said only married men are registered members of a banjar.

The wives are not registered, but they do come to the banjar to help every time there is something to do for them. The young boys form the: sekeha teruna”, youth club, and the young girls are organized into the “sekeha deha”, girl club. They are assigned work in the banjar fit to be done by young boys and girls, such as fetching water from a spring or well when there is a ceremony in the banjar that needs much water.

Every banjar has a Balai Banjar, a community hall where every activity of the Banjar is done, such as preparing a banquette, sewing ornaments for a festival, done by the women, discussions of banjar matters and cook-fights that follow every festival.
More than the desa the banjar is the place where the community spirit shows and more than the desa’s, the Banjar’s function lies in the social field.