About Bali Island

Demographics about Bali Island

The population of Bali is 3,151,000 (at 2005).

Religion
Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 92% of Bali’s population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (5.7%), Christianity (1.4%), and Buddhism (0.6%). These official statistical figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

Language
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and many Balinese people are bilingual or even trilingual. There are severeal indigenious Balinese languages, most widely spoken is modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is becoming part of history.

English is a common third language owing to the island’s large tourism industry.

Culture
Bali is famous for dance, as well as painting, scuplture, and woodcarving. Balinese gamelan music is highly developed and varied. The dances portray stories from Hindu Epics such as Ramayana. Famous Balinese dances include Pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, and Kecak (the monkey dance).
Bali’s culture is facing many challenges today. National education programs and prevailent mass media as well as it’s own tourism industry are strong motors of Change. Mass immigration (transmigrasi from other parts of Indonesia, mainly from Java, will change Bali forever. More than 1 million immigrant guest workers, predominantly muslims, live permanently on Bali today.

Bali Useful Info

Bali Useful Info

Bank
Banking hours are from 8.00am to 3.00 pm Mondays to Fridays. Banks in hotels usually stay open longer hours while Mon...

Consulates in Bali
Australia
JL. Prof. Moch. Yamin 51, Renon, Denpasar, Phone 235092, 235093, fax: 231990.

Goverment and Tourism Office
GOVERNMENT AND TOURISM OFFICE
All these offices can offer assistance and information about their...

Medical Center
SANGLAH PUBLIC HOSPITAL
Jl. Kesehatan, Denpasar - Bali Phone...

Visas
Overseas, you can contact the Indonesian embassy or consulate, or one of the following Indonesia Tourist Promotion Board...
Climate and Time Zone
The climate in this archipelago on the equator is tropical. In the lowlands, tempera...

Flight Schedule
Delta Air, Merpati, British Airways, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Thai Air, Continental Airlines, Air New Zealand

Health in Bali
Check with your physician for the latest news on the need for malaria prophylaxis and recommended vaccinations before...

Traveller Tips
Passport & Visas
A 2 (two) month tourist visa will be automatically issued for visitors f...

Bali Beauty And Spa

Most women would agree that beauty is not just a matter of outer looks but also inner beauty. This is what is usually referred to as the holistic approach to looking at beauty. A lot of local or imported cosmetic brands may help women look younger, but recently there has been a growing trend of many women turning to traditional treatments that use less chemical materials. Chemical materials are often found to have longer-term destructive effects on the skin rather than making one's face fresh.

Indonesia has been famous for its spices for hundreds of years, originally for culinary purposes, but more recently for maintaining health and beauty. These traditions are cultural heritages handed down from one generation to the next. Natural ingredients such as cloves, cinnamon, potent leaf, roots and many others are the main material of Indonesian traditional cosmetics. Mustika Ratu and Sari Ayu are two well-known brands that offer a plethora of traditional herbal recipes.

Recently, a number of spas have sprung up also offering a wide range of health and beauty treatments. A spa is a beauty and health centre that uses water as the basic ingredient and source of energy, offering rejuvenation of both body and soul. A spa can be pampering, rejuvenating, nurturing, caring, and calming. It also can be so relaxing, both physically and more importantly, spiritually. A spa can help you improve fitness, detoxify, commune with nature, and learn about nutrition. At a spa, you can regain your inner balance and manage stress, enhance feelings of tranquility, well being and heal.

There are approximately 200 spas scattered across Indonesia, the second largest number of spas in any one country after the US. The best-known Indonesian spa treatment is traditional massage or aromatherapy. Indonesian massage usually uses traditional herbal cosmetics, for example: luluran. The purpose of this kind of massage is to lighten the skin and make it look much fresher.

Indonesian spa treatments normally offer also traditional drinks made of herbs and roots, known locally as "jamu". Most Indonesians believe that jamu is a powerful remedy to alleviate light ailments such as fatigue, headaches, aching bones or chills.

Spa in Bali
Most hotels on the island offer health treatments. Massage with various techniques, body scrub with traditional ingredients, Jacuzzi indoor or outdoor with natural or 'machine' hot springs are offered everywhere.

When you have spent your day sunbathing, heat sensation and burning skin cannot be avoided. But do not worry, just visit the spa at your hotel and ask for after-sunbathing treatment. You can find out more resources on spa in the following websites:


Bel-Air Spa
Bel-Air Spa offers a wide variety of massages and body treatments. A great place to indulge oneself.
Ubud Bodyworks Centre
The original Bodywork centre in Bali is dedicated to spiritual healing in all aspect of its functions. Whether you are passing through as a guest for massage and beauty treatment or a staff member, this sacred space is a place to rebalance the positive energies in you and the universe.

Jamu Traditional Spa
Jamu Traditional Spa leads the opening of Spa in Bali, Java and Malaysia. Each featuring unique, traditional and therapeutic treatments for both beauty and health, and committed to using only pure and traditional techniques and ingredients.
Secret Garden
Secret Garden offers a high quality range of hair and body services, affordable and offering real value for your holiday money, with prices in Rupiah. Friendly well-trained staff dedicated to your special salon experience. Massages and traditional body treatments, facials, reflexology & foot massage, manicure & pedicure, a luxury cream bath - scalp, neck and back massage, hair styling and treatment and more await your indulgence.
Ayutaya Spa
The Ayutaya Spa is a place where you can experience process of healing through varies rituals that will work all through your body, mind, and soul which lead you to achieve harmony and proper balance.

Bali Museums Guide

Everything you need to know about Bali's Museums

Most of Bali's museums and galleries are centred in Ubud, but culture and history rich Bali is peppered with museums and galleries - all individually interesting! These museums and galleries offer paintings, wood carvings, textiles and all kinds of souvenirs for viewing and also purchase.

The Museum Puri Lukisan in centre of Ubud, the Neka Museum in Campuhan, Seniwati Gallery and Agung Rai Museum in Pengosekan are a must, to see the difference between creative art and more commercial products.

Central Bali
Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud
Founded by Rudolf Bonnet and Cokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, Ubud's Museum Puri Lukisan houses a permanent collection of Balinese painting from the turn of the century; displaying fine examples off all schools of Balinese art. This museum has a collection of 150 painting and 62 pieces of sculptures. The first fine arts museum in Bali, it has a valuable aim of culturing Bali's very aesthetic art and culture for its next generation.

Museum Neka, Ubud
The superb Neka Museum, in Campuan, is another excellent museum, with marvelous collections of traditional Balinese paintings by local artists and foreign artists who lived in Bali; and items of modern Balinese art. The museum stores art from the Kamasan style of the 16th century to modern 20th century paintings. The whole collection is displayed chronologically, to provide an overview of Bali's history of fine arts.

The Neka Gallery on Jalan Raya , and the Agung Rai Gallery in Peliatan are some of Bali's largest and most important.

Museum Nyoman, Ubud
This three storey museum in Mas village follows the conception of Tri Angga, that is, the three parts of human body; head, body, and legs. The museum's art collection is a mix of works of painters from the olden days of the ancient Klungkung Kingdom to this very day.

Museum Agung Rai, Ubud
Sprawling all over six hectares, the Museum Agung Rai was built based on the concept of a "living museum". It displays paintings and holds stage presentations for various art forms; and is a place for karawitan. It comes complete with an arts library and book gallery, hotel, restaurant, cafe, and coffee shop. One of the museums main specialty is its terrific views of Ubud, with rice fields and trenches integrated into part of the museum.

Seniwati Gallery of Art by Women
This gallery was established in 1991 by Mary Northmore, the very personable wife of famous painter Abdul Azis; with the aim of helping Balinese women to be accepted as artists; and also to expose the long hidden and unrecognised brilliance of women artists in Bali. The gallery also serves to motivate, train and encourage young talented Balinese girls achieve their full potential in the world of arts.

Southern Bali
Museum Negeri Propinsi Bali, Denpasar
This museum in Denpasar was founded by the Yayasan Bali Museum in December 8, 1932. It has interesting exhibits of traditional tools, crafts, masks and costumes from all over Bali; and displays archaeological items and a collection of ethnographical exhibits.

Museum Le Mayeur, Sanur
This memorial museum immortalizes the memory and enduring love of a pair of lovers - Le Mayeur and Ni Polok. All displays and exhibits are from the collection of Le Mayeur's paintings.

Museum Manusa Yadnya, Taman Ayun
Just as its name implies, the Museum Manusa Yadnya details items regarding the process of a human's life from the womb to the tomb.

Northern Bali
Museum Gedong Kirtya, Singaraja
This wonderful museum in Singaraja is a display of thousands of ancient Balinese letters in chronological order; the kakawin, or old Balinese poetry; and the geguritan which written on the palm leaf. All these and more are stored in the original building that was built in 1928 and still standing tall today.

Western Bali
Museum Subak, Tabanan
Tabanan is a region popularly known as Bali's 'rice warehouse'. Hence, it is no surprise to learn that Tabanan is home to the Subak Museum, which houses a vast collection of, what else, but agricultural items. An interesting display to take note of is Bali's typical watering system, called Subak, the museum's namesake.

Museum Gedong Area, Gianyar
Located in the Bedulu Village, this museum's collection is dedicated to archaeological items reflecting the history of Bali's cultural development.

Eastern Bali
Museum Seni Lukis Klasik, Klungkung
This museum is owned by the talented Nyoman Gunarsa, and is used as an outlet by the man himself to exhibit his masterpieces, completing the museum's collection, which documents the classical paintings of Bali. The Museum Seni Lukis Klasik is located in the village of Banda village.

Museum Manusia Purba, Gilimanuk
The Museum Manusia Purba, at the western end of Bali, was established in 1990s. It all began with an archaeological expedition of Dukuh Cekik in 1962, by R.P. Soejoeno from the Bali Archaeological Service. The expedition estimated that approximately 2,000 years ago, the stone age man dwelled on the site of the museum.

The Village

The capitals of the princes' districts, the seats of the regencies, are commercialized half-European, half-Chinese towns like Denpasar and Buleleng; but the true life of Bali is concentrated in thousands of villages and hamlets. With their thatched roofs they lie buried under awnings of tropical vegetation, the groves and gardens that provide for the needs of the villagers. Out of the chartreuse sea of ricefields they surge like dark green islands of tall palms, breadfruit, mango, papaya, and banana trees.


Underneath the cool darkness, pierced only by the shafts of sunlight that sift through the mesh of leaves, are the houses hidden from view by interminable mud walls that are broken at regular intervals by long narrow gates. All the gates are alike: two mud pillars supporting a small roof of thick thatch, giving access to each household by a raised doorstep of rough stones. In front of every gate is a stone bridge, or, simpler still, a section of coconut tree trunk to ford the deep irrigation ditch that runs invariably along both sides of the road.

A simple village consists of family compounds, each completely surrounded by walls, lined on each side of a wide well built avenue that runs in the direction of the cardinal points; from the mountain to the sea, the Balinese equivalent to our " north and " south." The villages grew as they spread in these directions, and the Dutch bad only to pave the main streets and extend them through the rice fields to obtain the five hundred mile net of automobile roads that covers this small island.

The Balinese, being still essentially pedestrians, took good care to shade the roads with large trees, and every morning and every evening one sees the people in the streets, men going to work, nonchalantly beating rhythms on their agricultural implements, or returning from the fields overloaded with sheaves of rice heavy with grain. Poised women come and go with great loads or shin black clay pots on their beads. If it happens to be market day in the village, at dawn the roads are crowded with husky people from the nearby villages who come to sell their produce - piles of coconuts, bananas, or vegetables, pottery, mats, baskets, and forth - carrying on their beads even the table that serves as stand. If there is a feast in the village temple, the people parade in yellow, green, and magenta silks with fantastic pyramids fruit and flowers, offerings to the gods, in a pageant that you have made Diaghilev turn green with envy.

Naked children play at the gates by the bell-shaped bask where the fighting cocks are kept. Each morning the baskets a', lined out on the street so that the roosters may enjoy the spectacle of people passing by. Small boys wearing only oversize sun-hat drive the enormous water-buffaloes, which in Bali appear in colours, a dark muddy grey, and a pale, almost transparent pink albino variety. A water-buffalo will not hesitate to attack tiger; their ponderous calm and their gigantic horns are awe inspiring to Europeans, who have been told that their evening bath. the buffaloes. They have often charged white people for no apparent reason, although the smallest Balinese boy can man handle the great beasts. They love to lie in the water and be scrubbed by their little guardians, who climb all over them and bang from their horns when they take them for their evening bath. The buffalo tolerates the children perhaps as a rhinoceros tolerates the birds that eat the ticks on its back.

The Balinese raise a fine breed of cattle, a beautiful variety of cow, with delicate legs and a long neck, that resembles overgrown deer more than ordinary cows. Ducks are driven in flocks to the rice fields, where they feed on all sorts of small water animals. Their guardian is a boy or an old man who leads them with a little banner of white cloth on the end of a bamboo pole topped by a bunch of white feathers. This he plants on the ground and be can then go away for the rest of the day, sure that his ducks will not wander away. At sundown the trained ducks gather around the flag waiting to be taken home. When the duck guardian arrives, the flock is all together, and at a signal from the flag, they march home, straight as penguins and in perfect military formation.

All Balinese domestic animals are rather extraordinary; chickens are killed constantly by rushing automobiles, but their owners make no provision to keep them from the road except the low bamboo fence that bars the house gate, and that is intended, perhaps, more for the pigs, which in Bali belong to a monstrous variety that surely exists nowhere else. The Balinese pig, an untamed descendant of the wild bog, has an absurd sagging back and a fat stomach that drags on the ground like a heavy bag suspended loosely from its bony hips and shoulders.

The roads are particularly infested with miserable dogs, the scavengers of the island. Most dogs are attached to the house they protect and keep clean of garbage, but they reproduce unchecked and there are thousands of homeless living skeletons, covered with ulcers and mange, that bark and wail all night in great choruses. The Balinese are not disturbed by them and peacefully through the hideous noise. The curs are suppose frighten away witches and evil spirits, but I could never disco bow our neighbours knew when it was an ordinary mortal not a devil that the dogs barked at; they always awoke when stranger came into the house at night. Such dogs were undoubtedly provided by the gods to keep Bali from perfection.

The Balinese make a clear differentiation e dwelling-grounds and the " unlived " parts of the village, for public use such as the temples, assembly halls, market, cemeteries, public baths. The village is a unified organism in every individual is a corpuscle and every institution and organ. The heart of the village is the central square, invariably located in the " center " of the village, the intersection of the two-A avenues: the big road that runs from the Balinese " , South " and a street that cuts it at right angles from " east west " Consequently the crossroads are the center of a Rose Winds formed by the entire village; the cardinal dir mean a great deal to the Balinese and the crossroads are a spot of great importance.

All around and in the square are the important public. places of the village; the town temple (pura desa) , with its assembly (bale agung) , the palace Of the local feudal prince , the market, the large shed for cockfights (wantilan) , and the tall and often elaborate tower where hang the alarm tomtoms (kulkul) to call to meetings, announce events, or warn of dangers. Also important to the village life is the ever present waringin , a giant banyan, the sacred tree of the Hindus, planted in the square. Under its shadow take place the shows and dances given in connection with the frequent festivals; market is also held there in villages that do not have a special market enclosure. In ancient villages the waringin grows to a giant size, shading the entire square and dripping aerial roots that, unless clipped before they reached the ground, would grow into trunks that unchecked might swallow up a village. A beautiful village waringin is an enormous rounded dome of shiny leaves supported by a mossy, gnarled single trunk hung with a curtain of tentacles that are cut evenly at the height of a man; but in the waringins that have grown freely outside the village, the tree spreads in every direction in fantastic shapes. The aerial filaments dig into the earth and grow into whitish trunks and branches emerging at illogical angles and filled with parasite ferns, a dreamlike forest that is in reality a single tree.

Somewhere in the outskirts of the village are the public bath and the cemetery, a neglected field overgrown with weeds and decaying bamboo altars, with its temple of the Dead and its mournful kepuh tree, a sad and eerie place. The bathing-place is generally a cool spot shaded by clusters of bamboo in the river that runs near the village, where all day long men and women bathe in the brown water in separate modest groups. Some villages have special bathing-places with fancy water-spouts and low walls of carved stone, with separate compartments for men and women. Tedjakula in North Bali is famous for its horse bath, a special compartment that is larger and even more elaborate than the baths for the people.

Classical Balinese Painting Museum

Nyoman Gunarsa Museum of Classical Balinese Painting where traditional meet modern. Its appearance is similar to a huge apartment. The style is more a prosaic cubistic on a gigantic scale rather than Bali's Traditional Building. But if we look in interior more detail the atmospheres of Bali feel so strong. With its ornamental Balinese structures and decorated with Bali's sculptures and its antiques. Bring Bali as a whole, beauty of arts and culture and the mystic vibrant.

Museum which was opened on the 16th of January 1994, is located in every sacred area (based on Balinese Faith) between Setra Banda and Setra Umesalakan cemeteries, in Gelgel, in Klungkung area, the 15th century art capital of Bali. This area was silent spectator to the "Golden Age" during the reign of Dalem Waturenggong (one of the greatest King in Bali), a time when classical Balinese painting, a tradition which inspires to this day, originated as a separate 'school' for the first time.

Nyoman Gunarsa as the founder of this Museum dedicates it for Bali arts development. Its classical traditional painting collections are an inspiration for to the development of their art and design, known as Post Modern or New Age with combines classic with contemporary. Therefor Mr. Gunarsa gives all of his ability, material and spirit, to collect classical traditional painting from all around the world.

As the first private Museum in Klungkung, Nyoman Gunarsa Museum of Classical Balinese Painting gave a big contribution to promote Klungkung and Bali in national and international relationship by attract many tourist visiting Klungkung.

Bali November

Since the starting of November, Bali has offially entered the wet rainy season. The abvious sign was several days ago, a bad storm with strong wind has damaged some houses in East Bali.

The BMG Bali (Bali’s Metereorology and Geophysics Department) has announced that this year there will be more rain fall than the previous year, and will occurs from October 2007 through April 2008. However the rain will be different depends on its location. Mostly Central Bali such as Denpasar, Tabanan, Ubud, Gianyar will have a high rain level.

For me, there is nothing to be affraid of this rainy season, it is the season for the farmer to start the plantation especially the place like Jatiluwih in Tabanan. Just remember, if you are now in Bali, prepare your self with umbrella wherever you want to go.

Taman Ujung before earthquake 1979

The following article is written by R.Paulin who was in Taman Ujung or Ujung Water Palace in 1979 before the earth quake destroyed The Palace for the second time.

“About a month ago I was searching the web for pictures of the Ujung water palace that were taken years after it was destroyed. They showed the palace derelect and sitting peacefully in ruin. I originally got the pictures off the web, but in my recent search I could not find them, but I did come across the picture of the reconstructed palace on dee-bali.com.

In October of 1979 my brother and I were in Bali and visited Ujung sometime between the 15th and 22nd of that month. I had to find my old passport to check on the dates that I had entered and left Indonesia and I remember that we had spent about a week in Bali. We arrived at the palace late in the afternoon and I remember walking down the hill and around to the entrance gate after taking the picture you see here looking down at the building. They were ready to close and told us we could enter, if we didn’t stay too long. At that time you couldn’t walk out to the main building. We were told by other travellers in Kuta that the palace was occupied by two western academics who had made some sort of deal with authorites which allowed them to live in there, if they restored the building. There were no other tourist in sight while we were there and we saw none on our walk back around the tank and up the hill.



By this time the sun was getting low on the horizon. We made o! ur way back to Legian and were woken early the next morning by an earthquake, which we learned later was centered near Ujung. The pictures I have above are probably the last taken before the palace was leveled”.

The Traditional Art On Bali

The tradition of bali is very traditional, more than 100 years ago...the traditional art still function at now,,so we are very2 want to make it...

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