Adults Day Out in Bali

Day 2 (23 Aug 2008). Hey! What were you thinking…..heheheee….

We checked in the night before to a guesthouse in Ubud of which I (as usual, I failed to take a pic of the name nor remember the link). It was at reasonable price… find! I googled it now! I think it’s called Adi Cottage, the price is around USD30-USD40 per room. OK right…..! Since I split it into 3 person….ehheheh more people less share maah… smart neh! By the way, you guys do know I hyper link most of the places I visited right… I thought it’ll make everyone life easier as my aim if not to just blog for myself but to assist travelers like me (I know how tough it can be at times).

Anywaaaay….. Adi Cottage is fairly nice, nothing to shout about in terms of service or condition, I mean; let’s face it, you pay peanuts, don’t lah expect dinosaurs hor. But I have to admit, it’s cosier since it’s small, and more authentic. Definitely vast different from Le Meridien where we stayed the night before. Oh yah! During breakfast, we heard loud music playing in front of the guesthouse, apa lagi; we quickly finish our breakfast and dash outside to catch a glimpse of what’s going on before Pak Dewa arrives.

Ahh……. It was a group of young kids practicing and showcasing Barong dance. Buat panic jek. This dance is a classic example of Balinese way of acting out mythology, resulting in myth and history being blended into one reality (ehehhe….cam real, actually footen this from website). The kids are awfully friendly and got GUTS man! All the tourist busy taking pics of the kids dancing and "Barong"…(me included ofcos) even more then the adult performance, not because they were good, just CUTE.

Well, Pak Dewa arrived soon after and took use to Ceking Tagallalang and oh yah! We checked out at the same time or morning :p TOLD YOU it’s a weird trip! On Tagalallang; verdict = SCENIC, PRICELESS! Am sooo confuse, which pic lar to include here, almost all are good (perasan as usual lar), disclaimer : pic nice because of photographer NOT the scenary….Hahahah… KIDDING! Hemm…. Apparently my sis have eyesight problem here… definitely need to take her to see dentist, err..GP, err… what do you call them…? Ops
:P

As usual, the drama side of me wanna have tea there lar ie overlooking the terrace paddy field but instead of Breakfast in Tiffany this would be Breakfast in Paddy Field lar…. heehehe…

This is the most interesting part as I have been to Bali few times, I have never come across this festival, thus I thought I should share lar hor… In fact, I have even forgotten what it is called, I have to refer back to my face book on this. Basically it is Balinese Hari Raya ie Galungan & Kuningan, a holiday that occurs every 210 days in the pawukon (Balinese cycle of days) 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. Penjor was hung everywhere, even the Penjor has it's meaning.

What is Penjor you may ask? Penjor is made from a long bamboo pole about eight meter high with curved end, and decorated with palm leaves, rice paddies, corn on the cob, coconut, cakes, a piece of white or yellow cloth, etc. It is the symbol of Mount Agung and also as gratitude for the agricultural produce. The arched top of the bamboo pole represents Mount Agung, the body of the pole is a river that flows from the mountains to the sea, and along its route are the products of the harvest, tied to the pole (read here for more detail).That’s how detail the Balinese is. You will see more in my upcoming pics.

Next… next… next destination… jeng jeng jeng…. Volcanic Mount Kintamani, apparently there’s a package for you to hike to the top, a proper path they said with experience local hiker ofcos, hemm perhaps next time I gave it a try, any takers? One thing I like to tell most of my friend is about a village at the foot of this mount called Trunyan (not sure how far it is true though, you can google as well, there a pics on this). This is recommended by some guides but first hand reports are frequently negative and speak of some problems. This is an isolated community and one which is not particularly welcoming to tourists, despite relying on income from visitors. If you really must go, catch a boat at the lakefront in Kedisan (or you can charter a boat from Toyo Bungkah) and make sure the price is clearly understood before departing and that the entrance donation to the Trunyan villagers is included. When you arrive at Trunyan, the key attraction is the cemetery. Ancient customs retained by the Bali Aga here include the open burial of dead bodies in a pit covered by just some light cloth. If you want to visit a Bali Aga village though, then Tenganan near Candidasa is a far better option. And I asked before would the corpse smells (logically) since they left it under a huge tree (bare in mind that this has been the practice for as long as one can remembers, thus plenty of corpse around). And the answer was interesting, “NO! the corpse won't leave a scent” “Why?”…. Instead of cremating their corpses, the Bali Aga simply places them under this banyan tree. The odor is mysteriously masked by a special arboreal fragrance emitted by the banyan tree or Taru Menyan (Taru means 'tree' and Menyan means 'nice smell'. The name of Trunyan was also derived from these two words [in Malaysia, Malay calls it Kemenyan I think]). Interesting neh….. We were gawking when we heard the story. OK! Next…..!!!

Palipuran…. Not sure you guys visited this quaint Balinese Village before but we got to know that from historical point of view, according to the village elders, the words Penglipuran is derived from words Pengeling Pura means a holy place for remembering their ancestors. And the air is super fresh as it is located at 700 meters above seas level. Hemm…. Sigh….. I was reading the description of this village in Indonesia language which says that they remain its Bali original architecture of the door arch (angkul angkul) and that the government has gazette the WHOLE village for wisata purpose ie tourism since 1992 (Yeah! Am half Indon by the way). And the villagers would welcome you to visit (look see look see) the home and explain to you if need be. Cool huh!

Aaawww…. We finally checked in to our hotel Puri Santrian - which I highly recommend friends to go there just because of one thing - the CABANA or GAZEBO = FLOATING!!!!!!! SEXY!

What else I can share, hemm….spa by the pool, Seawalker point (I tried this too) , nice deck chairs, sea activities, night market just outside the hotel and etc etc etc. How PERFECT is THAT!! By the way, it’s located in SANUR.

Our day was about to get better as we adjourn to see the culture show… I share in the next post!

Credits : Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Adi Cottages, Indo.com, Bali News.com, Baliwww, Bali Star Island, Indonesia Tourism.