GOODBYE BALI

NUSA DUA, SOUTHERN BALI - SEPTEMBER 2005

After some days touring Bali, we settled down in Southern Bali and spent more than a week in Nusa Dua, home to some of the most luxurious hotels in the world. Clear water and stretches of white sandy beach (anyhow not comparable to Algarve; actually the beach deals very badly with the low tide...) makes Nusa Dua a fantastic place for a pleasant holiday!


"ROOM 4035 at the Club Med was our basis. Just behind the Samuh Temple, quite close to the beach, was quite comfortable. The yellow Moleskine from the Van Gogh Museum looks great on this picture..."


"NUSA DUA BEACH HOTEL - The palace, which has welcomed Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers, and other tourists on package holidays, has more than 93 thousand square metres of gardens providing guests and visitors with an oasis of space and tranquillity"


"MELIA BALI is nestled amidst a luxurious garden with a large lagoon style swimming pool. But the top at the resort are the Garden Villas, just behind the wall seen on this picture"


"SHERATON - The Laguna Resort is another of the outstanding hotels in Nusa Dua"



"SUNSET SWIM"



"KUTA BEACH, with its spectacular sunsets, is also the centre of night life in Southern Bali and a huge open air shopping mall, with shops, boutiques, and galleries. The beach of Kuta was one of the first beaches to be discovered by tourists. It's said at Sally's Place that «only a few years ago this was a dismal area of dilapidated stalls selling cheap tourist junk. The smell was then awful, a combination of open sewers and rotting refuse. Today the stalls are still there. But the open drains have become proper underground sewerage lines». At least, I didn't notice it there (don’t mention other sites in Bali). The beach is fenced, on the south side, by the airport’s runway, and stretches as far north as you can see"



"INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL - Not in Nusa Dua, but still a wonderful Hotel with 500 metres of a secluded white-sand beach"



"BIRTHDAY PARTY, with G.O.(s) and G.M.(s): Cake and Speech!"



"ARCHERY - Gold Medal Team!"


"AQUAGYM – Last day, whole group picture"



"FAREWELL PARTY - Blur pictures, as photographers had had too much wine..."




"FAREWELL DANCES - It seems there are over 1000 troupes dancing in Bali, mostly in the villages. It is said that dancers on Bali perform for the pleasure of the gods, prestige, and the entertainment of friends and family. That's what these dancers did on our farewell night!"

BALI - CLOSING THE CIRCLE

CANDIDASA, KLUNGKUNG, RICE FIELDS AND UBUD - SEPTEMBER 2005



"CANDI BEACH COTTAGE is a nice, quiet and relaxing hotel located amidst palm trees directly on the beach of Candi Dasa at Mendira Bay on the East Coast of Bali with great views of neighbouring islands"



"KUSAMBA - The coastal village of Kusamba, whose inhabitants live mainly by fishing and salt production, is one of the embarkation points to the islands of Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. The beach is amazingly covered with the rests of the funerary ceremonies. Don't mention the smell in the nearby fish market..."



"KLUNGKUNG - The Klungkung Palace was built by the Dewa Agung dynasty in 1710. Most of Bali’s royal families came from the old Klungkung dynasty, which ruled Bali from the 17th century through 1908, when a royal mass suicide (puputan) occurred against Dutch invaders. Most of the original palace and grounds were destroyed by those Dutch attacks. The existing palace, called Semara Pura, contains a large square with courtyards, gardens, pavilions and moats. Stone walls with water lilies in the moat surround the beautiful complex"



"KLUNGKUNG KERTHA GOSA - This was the Supreme Court of the Klungkung kingdom. The Hall of Justice, located within the grounds of Semara Pura, is an open sided pavilion with the ceiling completely covered with paintings telling the story of Bhima Swarga. They were originally done on cloth, but had to be replaced in the 1920s as the cloth deteriorated; they were repainted again in the 1960s"



"BACK TO SCHOOL - On our way to the rice fields, we visited a primary school. It was amazing to observe the excitement of the young boys and girls seeing foreign tourists visiting their class"



"RICE FIELDS - Bali has probably some of the most beautiful rice fields in the the world. It's an orgy of green!"


"MAS is a village specializing in woodcarvings of any kind. Most of the prominent wood-carvers of Bali dwell in Mas, producing fine woodcarvings and this is where they teach the young generation to carve"


"BATIK - Having my shorts painted"


"GAMELAN ORCHESTRA - According to Wikipedia «a gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. The term refers more to the set of instruments than the players of those instruments. A gamelan as a set of instruments is a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are not interchangeable»"





"UBUD ROYAL PALACE - Ubud, «the global and multicultural» village, is a tranquil town that has been able to preserve its unique and rich natural and cultural legacies, and is considered as Bali's finest example of a culture-based tourist destination. The beginnings of cultural tourism have been linked to the Ubud royal families of Puri Ubud. From the late 19th century to the mid-1940s, the Royal Palace was the seat for the local ruler. It's a series of well-preserved pavilions, many of them decorated with colonial-era European furniture"




"CAFE LOTUS is a landmark in Ubud, the centre of Balinese culture. Located on the main road, is Ubud's most spectacular restaurant, where you may dine the Asian way seated on bamboo mats, overlooking lotus flowers in bloom. The setting is magnificent even by Balinese standards: a large lotus pond framed by ancient flowering trees with one of Ubud's main temple complex, Pura Taman Kemuda Saraswati, serving as a backdrop"


"DRAGON at Cafe Lotus. Twice a week you may dine while watching performances of traditional Balinese dances and gamelan orchestras"

BALI - FROM NORTH TO EAST

WATER AND TEMPLES - SEPTEMBER 2005


"BANANA PLANT - According to Wikipedia, «because of their size and structure, banana plants are often mistaken for trees». Bananas, which are grown in 132 countries around the world, provide you with Vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, and of course Banana Republic(s)"


"GIT GIT WATERFALL in North Bali - 10 km south of Singaraja, the former administrative centre of the islands during the years of the Dutch power up to 1953 - is a more than 30m waterfall that pours into a pool. About 700 meters from the main road, the path will show, further to the banana plants and the bamboos, many stalls with merchants trying to load you with souvenirs from all over Indonesia. You'd better take a swim..."


"LOVINA - We stayed at a hotel in Lovina, took a swim in the pool, and early morning were ready to start discovering the Island"


"KINTAMANI ROAD - On the way to Lake Batur"


"LAKE BATUR, at the feet of Mount Batur and Mount Abang, is the widest lake in Bali. Mount Batur is a small volcano, set in the heart of a huge crater, with the large crescent-shaped Batur Lake surrounded by the high walls of the crater rim, around it. The volcano had a great eruption in 1917, which claimed thousands of lives and destroyed hundreds of temples, and is still active today"


"GUNUNG AGUNG, with 3142m, is the highest mountain in Bali and where the spirits of ancestors are believed to dwell. The stratovolcano - seen on the right hand side of the picture - last erupted in 1963-64 and is also still active today. In the morning, the clouds from the west still left the mountain visible. You may try the nice walk up the hill"

***

BANGLI


"PURA KEHEN, just to the north of the town, was the state temple of the Bangli Kingdom, and occupies the site of an earlier temple which dates back to the 9th century. It is set on a number of levels against the background of a hill forest. A 38 steps stair leads to the meru-shaped gate between rows of statues"


"GATE - Overlooking the gate is the threatening head of Kala, guardian of the netherworld"


"A ELEVEN-TIERED MERU dominates the temple"


"COURTYARD AND SARONG - Almost all of the structures in the temple complex are open bales - raised platforms, open on all sides, with a thatched roof for shade and shelter from rain. No shorts! Men are supposed to wear a sarong to enter the temple... (Ladies a sari! Thanks Cuckoo)"



"FANTASTIC STONE WORK"

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BESAKIH


"PURA BESAKIH, usually referred to as the «Mother Temple» of Hinduism in Bali, with its 35 shrines and halls, is the largest of the island's thousands of Hindu temples. In 1963 Gunung Agung, covered here by the afternoon dark clouds, erupted and destroyed several nearby villages but Besakih was untouched"


"HALL - Besakih is, like most Balinese temples, not a closed building but an open-air temple, full of courtyards with altars and shrines devoted to a number of gods. Besakih is dedicated largely to Siva worship. At the beginning of the 11th Century Besakih became the state temple and it has remained the State temple ever since"



"OFFERS - Balinese are said to worship one god, Brahman, who manifests himself in various personalities. They believe that the gods visit a temple on certain dates when festivals are held to honour the gods. Besakih stands highest in the ranking of temples. It is said to be the only classless, casteless temple on the island"



"WINGS - Of all the temples on Bali six are supremely holy: Pura Besakih, Pura Lempuyang Luhur, Pura Gua Lawah, Pura Batukaru, Pura Pusering Jagat, and Pura Uluwatu"

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PURA GOA LAWAH


"BATS - The Bat Cave Temple, as its name suggests, houses a holy cave that begins at the foot of rocky cliff and is said to extend all the way to the base of Mount Agung. Inside, where it is forbidden to enter, there are thousands of fruit bats"