Post Bali review
it is an island, where the northpart are the highlands, and the south are the beaches and flatlands.
What to do in bali can be easily divided into
1 art & culture
this is where you can put yourself up front as a audience to watch several of their traditional dances such as Barong, Kechak and etc, which is on displayed mostly at Batubulan. For display art, the home of it would be at Ubud, where lots of paintings and great wood craft can be seen. The market puts all those great artistic craft on sale at cheap dirt price, but mostly are imitation and reliable stuff can be available at reliable shop. Yet to find out which yet. As for great art, the best artist was alleged to be Suki, where I was told, he is the sifu of the sifu of a lots of Bali painters. His work is really marvellous.
Batik, gold, and silver were other forms of art which had became the boring part of most tour package available, probably earning themselves the commission if there were purchases made.
2 heritage and religion
The whole bali is full of temple, they called as family temple, which have unique architecture, looking like at narrow base tall triangle splitted in the middle. These temple can be found almost everywhere, even amid the most modern places, while their prayer item, the square box with flowers and josssticks were placed almost everywhere as prayer to their Hindu gods. Those prayer items, one can get it at the price of Rp 1,000 for four.
We visited 3 heritage places during this honeymoon.
Goa Gajah: the meditation cave for fellow meditators, Hindu and Buddhists. To them Gajah had 2 meanings, it could be elephant as what we fully understood, it could also mean the meeting of 2 rivers.
Besakih: the largest temple in Bali. what a walk! The whole place is really full of spiritual power and pagodas.
Kerta Gosa: the old justice place and palace for the government of Klungkung. Great heritage place to go for a short visit. Painting of various stories, and the punishment at hell and heaven vividly drawn to the ceiling of each building.
Yet to go for the sunset tour of Tanah Lot, where one can view the sunset and the temple on the water.
3 beach and island
Famous beaches in Bali are the Kuta, Sanur, Legian, Jimbaran, and Benoa.
In general, the beaches are famous for their waves, the semi nude sun bather, the relaxing evenings, the romantic dinner, but infamous for lots of unwanted irritation from the peddlars, who offer various items, from drinks, sunglasses, watches, to art pieces, and also offer lots of services such as braiding, manicure, pedicure, massages and etc.
Kuta is the most famous, with lots and lots of shopping places, branded items, and art items, plus the historical bombing. Personally, Kuta is like Gold Coast, but busier and more crowded.
Sanur is more laidback and relaxing.
Jimbaran, we had our lovely sunset dinner there with the great seafood at Warung Ikan Bakar - Pandan Sari
Not been to Benoa yet, but I believe it should be a more relaxing place.
For my next trip, we are certainly going to Nusa Penida or Nusa Lembongan, sisters island of Bali, where the beach there are more exclusive and less of those annoyance at the famous beaches.
4 Shopping
For the branded stuffs, I believe Kuta is the place to be, as for the good local stuffs, Kuta as well as other local markets offer great selections of items. But most of them were overprice even if you looked like Indonesians.
Be prepare to be awed but their selling price, which they casually tell you 'I give you best price', 'Very cheap', 'Morning price', 'I give you cheap price, for good luck', and 'I give you local price, not foreigner price'. Yet you'll be awed how much less you can bargain.
Their initial price will usually be Rp75,000 which made even buying a simple slippers sounds like buying a pair of Pierre Cardin leather boot. Anyway, my initial price will always be Rp 15,000 and if they disagree, I will walk away, then they would agree for my initial price.
5 volcanoes and lakes
If you are totally into Lord of the Rings, you may have a preconception that volcanoes are burning hot, and darn uncomfortable. But for the dormant volcanoes of Bali, the sight of them are really truly marvellous, not to mention an escapade from the hot weather of Bali. The sight of Kintamani, Mt Agung and Lake Batur as me and my dearest had buffet lunch are the best events in the whole day tour. Truly recommended to everyone, beats any sunset dinner or cultural itinery.
