10 Days in a Tropical Paradise

The island of Bali forms, together with a few smaller islands, the Indonesian province of Bali. This beautiful island, situated between Java and Lombok, gets its main income from the tourist industry. Most visitors come here on a package tour to one of the southern beaches. At times, the island may look like a cheap Australian version of Ibiza, with bars, loud music, nightclubs, hookers, McDonald's, and other stuff that comes with that. But there is still time and space to get away from these things. When we were there, tourism was taking a break, still recovering from the 2002 terrorist attack on the island and the 9/11 aftermath. Currently, tourism is picking up where it left off, meaning more people and higher prices than before. But as long as you can get a decent room for 10€ and a nice meal for 3€, who would complain?
Principal sights on the island include many Hindu temples, like the temples by the central lakes, the sea temples of Tanah Lot and Ulu Watu, and, of course, the "mother temple" of Besakih. Other tourist favourites are the beaches, mainly in the south, but others are around, like Lovina in the north or the black beach in Amed, and there's the more centrally located gorgeous town of Ubud. The highest mountain is Gunung Agung, reaching more than 3,000m

Quick Tips:

Unique in this Muslim country, the majority of the population on Bali is Hindu. Only 5% of the population are followers of Mohammad, and there are small Christian and Buddhist minorities. The locals, especially in less-visited areas, might get offended if you don't follow certain rules: wear the local sarong, actually a big scarf that you drape around yourself, when visiting temples; all animals are considered sacred, so don't tease them; and last but not least, stay calm and don't loose your temper on the locals, as it will get you some awkward looks and will have a contrary effect.

Best Way To Get Around:

We toured the island with a rental car from Kuta for 6 days. This is a reasonably priced alternative to the tour buses that cross the island, and you can go other places or stop whenever you would like. The island is small enough to see in a few days with the car, taking in a few of the temples and beaches along the way and watching the gorgeous landscape with rice terraces and high mountains.

The beach town of Jimbaran is a little more upmarket than Kuta, but it is much quieter here, with only a few bars with loud music, no nightclubs, and less hassle. But, no matter where you stay (we didn't stay here), be sure to come to the beach of Jimbaran at least one time. In the evening, the locals set up tables and chairs on the beach, and then the feast can start. A few beach booths open up, and you go choose from lots of fresh seafood. The people offer the catch of the day, namely clams, shrimps, fish, and even lobster or crab. They will barbecue or cook whatever you've chosen and bring it to your table with vegetables, plain rice, and some chili sauce. The food was really excellent and the price was very reasonable (a couple of dollars per person). Plus, the setting was amazing; imagine watching the sun go down over the sea while you're having a great seafood dinner.

Kuta is a very famous beach resort on Bali. Its decent surf beach, cheap accommodation, and great nightlife attract tourists from all over the world, but mostly from Australia. It's located only 5km from the Ngurah Rai international airport, even closer than the capital of Bali, Denpasar. People, many of them Australian, come here on cheap hotel deals, like a 14-night beach holiday. There are large hotels on the beach catering only to this kind of tourist. Nevertheless, it's easy enough to find a good room for a reasonable price (100,000 to 200,000 Rp) coming here by yourself.

Everything in the small town is focused on the demanding western people: there are surfboard-rental shops, a McDonald's, a Hard Rock Café, live music bars, discotheques, bikini beaches, massage parlours, etc. As such, it will probably resemble more Ibiza or Surfers Paradise than a normal Indonesian village. Local resentment with bikini tourists showing off their wealth was probably one of the reasons of the October 2002 bombing of the Sari Club discotheque, leaving 202 people dead, an incident that most locals, also the Muslims, will disapprove off as much as most western people.

The beach is decent and clean but lacks a bit of atmosphere. Be warned that the sun can burn your skin even when it is cloudy, which is mostly the case here, as it is a tropical climate. So use a high-factor sunscreen and get dressed or keep in the shadows.

Close to the more upmarket resort town Sanur, you can find the Bali Reptile Park, where you can find many of Indonesia's indigenous reptile species, including monitor lizards, different snakes, turtles, and the huge prehistoric Komodo dragons, which can reach lengths up to 3m (10 feet). It's an amazing sight to see this animal, which only lives on the Indonesian archipel the Lesser Sundan islands, mainly on Komodo island and its small neighbour Rinca, and on Flores island.
There is a cage where you can enter and walk right between the ugly iguanas. You can even hold them if you would like. Tickets cost a hefty 70,000 Rp. This is not cheap for Indonesian standards, but the visit is worth it. Next to the reptile park is a bird park for fans of our feathered friends.

Ubud is the self-proclaimed art capital of Bali. It is the most-visited town on the island apart from the coastal regions. Nevertheless, it is still a beautiful town in the midst of gorgeous rice paddies. You will pass some nice scenery on the way from Denpasar. Around the town there are a few sights, like Gua Gajah (elephant cave), that are worth a visit, but Ubud itself remains the region's main tourist attraction. The small town with 8,000 inhabitants is dotted with many historical buildings and puras (Hindu temples). A walk around will bring you to many of them, like Pura Desa or the former royal palace right in the city centre. Visit the palace for sure, as it is beautiful. There are still a few Indonesian people living inside it. An old man living there spoke to us, and we were surprised to find out that he still spoke Dutch. He used to be a servant for a rich Dutch colonial family, which apparently brought him some wealth as well, because his house was amazing. Due to its status as a tourist town, Ubud has lots of accommodation, shops, restaurants, and bars. We stayed in a nice place between the town and the monkey forest. The beautiful double room (it was actually a small house) was only 100,000 (around 8€). You can find much cheaper rooms even, but they will not be as spacious or clean as the one we had. The food around town is excellent. If you are here for a few days, it's a good idea to try the region's excellent specialities, smoked duck. You will have to order it 1 day in advance, and it's not very cheap, but it tastes excellent. If you would like to buy some souvenirs, it is a good idea to visit the Ubud market. Apart from the shops selling food or kitchen appliances, there are a large number of shops selling tourist items. A good investment may be a sarong, as many temples require you to wear one and will sometimes charge a small renting fee for one of their own. A sarong is basically a rectangular piece of cloth that you drape around your legs to wear as a skirt. Normally they have bright colours and contain images of animals or plants. You can use it as a beach towel or tablecloth as well.

This is not the only place in Bali where monkeys are treated as sacred beings, but definitely the most visited one. Due to its vicinity to Ubud, at only 2km, it is easily reachable on foot. In this forest park, the monkeys wander around freely and there is no fence to keep them there. The reason they stay here is the fact that Hindu worshippers offer food and drink to the sacred animals. The monkeys are used to people, so you can get very close or even pet them. Some of them will react rather nastily if they find out that you didn't bring food for them. Be warned, as well, for monkey mothers with small children.
In the forest you can find some nice statues of animals, mostly overgrown with green moss, grass, and ferns. You can easily spend a few hours in this beautiful forest. Remember that all the animals are considered holy, so you should not bother them too much if you don't want to offend the local people.

When you visit the nice town of Ubud, you should stay here at least 1 night and go to a Kecak dance performance. One of the most expensive performances (100,000 Rp) is the spectacle in the royal palace, but there are a few cheaper alternatives around town. Check with your hotel to get an idea of them. Be careful with street sellers, as apparently there are counterfeit tickets around, but do buy your tickets at least a few hours in advance, as the performance might be full otherwise. The one we visited was a short walk away from the palace and cost about 60,000 Rp instead. The dance focuses partly on a circle of men chanting "chak chak" and throwing their arms in the air, and partly on a few nicely clothed men and women playing and dancing a scene from the Hindu story of Ramayana. Do notice the finger movements, especially from the girls, as each movement has a special meaning. The performance we watched also had a group of women singing and a so-called fire dance, where one person runs over and into burning coconut shells in a sort of trance. This was a great sight! The person was dressed as if he was riding a horse.

The small village of Mengwi is a few kilometers west of Ubud. The town's claim to fame is the great Pura Taman Ayun temple complex. These buildings, many of them dating from the 17th century, are surrounded by a moat. It was constructed as the family temple of the royal Mengwi Dynasty, which gave its name to the town. There are many temples inside the complex, most of them having an odd number of roofs made of straw, as is the habit in Balinese Hindu temples. The maximum number of roofs is 11, representing Shiva, whereas nine roofs are given for Brahma or Vishnu and less roofs to smaller deities. You need a sarong to visit Pura Taman Ayun, but if you don't have one, you can get one at the entrance for a small fee. Visiting the temples is free. The temple complex itself is gorgeous, but the location is not very pretty. Other temples on Bali have much nicer locations.

On the road between Denpasar (65km) and Singaraja (20km), Danau Bratan is a gorgeous lake situated in the highlands of central Bali. It fills an extinguished crater of an ancient volcano and sits at over 1,200m above sea level, making it much cooler than the beach resorts or other places on the island. There is a beautiful 17th-century temple right at the lakeside, Pura Ulun Danau Bratan, devoted to the goddess of the lake. She is worshipped for her fertility by the local population. There are a few animals kept at the temple site, like a lizard and a toucan, that are worshipped as well. They are quite tame, so you can take a picture next to them if you want to.

The origin of the Batur area was the collapse of an ancient volcano. In the more than 100 sq km caldera left from this disaster, a new volcano cone was formed, namely Gunung Batur (Mount Batur, 1717m). Next to the mountain, a new lake (Danau Batur) came to existence. The volcano is still active and its latest eruption was in 1999. The village Penelokan is situated close to the lake. There's an amazing view from here of the lake and the volcano. However, the viewpoint is simply crowded with Indonesian people all trying to sell you the same stuff. We were the only tourists around at that time, so it was a terrible experience. Normally in Indonesia people leave you alone when you say tidak (no) a few times, but the sellers here were very persistent.

In the village of Penelokan, you can find the beautiful temple of Pura Ulun Danau Batur. Apparently, the temple was spared by a few eruptions of the volcano. This was considered as a message from the gods of course, but to me it was more of  one of those lucky stories. I've heard quite a few of these stories, like a church spared by an avalanche, or a mosque saved from an earthquake. There are places like this all over the world, in each culture. Dotted around the lake are a few other nice temples like the one in the pictures. I don't remember its name, but it was a short drive from the village through a strange black lava landscape, witness to one of the Batur eruptions. There was a small lake nearby, and no annoying sellers to find.

The Pura Besakih temple complex is considered as the Mother Temple of Bali, the most important Hindu temple on the island. It is located on the slopes of Gunung Agung (Mount Agung), the highest mountain of the island, at more than 3000m and still an active volcano. In 1963 an eruption of the Gunung Agung partly destroyed the complex, but it has now been restored. Due to its importance there are always many Balinese people present, and there are lots of ceremonies held during the year to celebrate certain events. Probably the oldest temple in this place, it dates back from prehistoric times when it was a sacred place to the local pre-Hindu culture.
The temple complex is very big, giving room for about 30 temples. You can wander around freely on the site, except for a few places only meant for Hindu insiders. If you want to explore the complex, expect some firm walking due to its size and location on the slopes of Mount Agung. From the top end of the temple, however, you have a beautiful view of the complex and its surroundings. You cannot stay at the temple complex, but there are a few basic places (not top-end) in the village nearby.

Lovina is one of the most touristy places at the north coast of Bali. After all, there is a great beach here and it is one of the best snorkeling places in Bali. The coral is not very colourful here, but there are beautiful species of reef fish. When we snorkeled here, we saw a few humphead wrasses together. This huge, ugly fish is a very friendly animal. I had seen them before, but never in a school. On the beach, you may notice the brightly coloured fishing boats. Despite the many tourists in Lovina, it is a much more quiet alternative to the noisy Kuta beach town. There are many cheap places to stay and eat around town. A good way to get around is by renting a bike. But beware, as some steep roads await you!

A small side trip just out of the city can be made to the Daybreak Waterfall (in Indonesian: Air Terjun Singsing). It's only a few kilometers away from the city center, so you can even do it on foot. If you feel sweaty, you can take a refreshing dip in the water. It is definitely not the most gorgeous waterfall I have ever seen, but its location, right between the rocks, is lovely. If you are here with a vehicle, you have to leave it at the roadside and walk the last part to the waterfall. It is still a steep climb up.

Close to Banjar village, and more to the west from the waterfall, is the island's only Buddhist monastery, Brahma Vihara Arama. At first sight it may look like a normal Balinese Hindu temple, but it is more colourful, and then of course there is a golden Buddha statue inside one of the temples. From the site, you have a nice view of the surrounding area and of the ocean. If you come here with a bicycle, it is quite a steep climb up the hills surrounding Lovina. Nearby is a hot spring (air panas), of which the water flows out of dragon heads carved from the rocks.
Lovina can be reached by bus from most places in Bali, and it is a good stop-over on the way to Java. The village of Gilimanuk, where the ferry to Java leaves, is around 80km more to the west.