Interesting Places at Bali

Bali is a beautiful island, surrounded by a marvelous white sand beaches (compared with Ancol Beach – Jakarta which is dirty nowadays). It has a lot of pura – Hindunese temples, and a lot more historical monuments, makes Bali attracts tourists, both domestic and overseas ones. People said, in Bali you might find people from any nations, French, US, Aussie, Japan, Korean, Taiwanese, Arabic, any kind of nationality.

There are interesting place that you can visit while you at Bali:

Ground Zero. This is a memorial of 1st Bali bombing. We can find this memorial at Legian street to Kuta beach. The memorial bears the names and nationalities of each of those vistim. It is flanked by the national flags of the victims. The monument is well-maintained and illuminated at night. Let’s pray no more tragedy happens in Bali, since (we got the information from local people there) Bali’s tourism was dramatically down after 1st and 2nd bomb attack. Number of overseas tourists was down and many shops were closed down, whereas the tourism is the dominant business of Balinese.

All the way to Kuta Beach there are many bars, resto, hotels and shops selling clothes, pictures, art, handicraft, etc. We suggest you to bargain when buy things at the shops, because they sell with a bit higher price. Why? Because the rental fee in this area is very high,
as well…

Jalan Pantai Kuta

Kuta Beach. This is a must go place for tourists. This beach has a nice high wave, so many surfers can be found here. This beach is very crowded by local and overseas tourists, usually they swim, sun bathe, surf, or run on the beach. To enter this area is free of charge, you only need to pay your parking fee. At the beach, you may find easily the street massagers, hair plait helpers, temporary tattoo makers, beach chairs rental, well, it’s surely a busy beach over there.

Pantai Kuta

Hardrock hotel, here, you can swim in a very big and cozy warm water pool, so you may swim until late at night. At the pool center, there is a sandy area, quite unique because the sand is clean and doesn’t make the pool dirty. There is a waterfall, children pool with the sliding bar, and even they have a big screen with projector showing the movies. The changing room is nice, towels and bathing sets provided. But the admission is a bit expensive, Rp.100.000 (US$ 11) per person for domestic tourist. Besides the swimming pool, they have spa, gym, café and the Hard Rock Bali radio channel is located in there, so we may see them on air directly.

Hardrock hotel

Usually, tour agents would combine below places in 1 tour package :
Benoa Cape (Tanjung Benoa), Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK), Dream Land Beach, Pura Uluwatu (Uluwatu Temple) and last but not least, sunset dinner at Jimbaran

Benoa Cape (Tanjung Benoa)

At the beach, we can do water activities, such as jetski, parasailing, banana boat, flying fish (firstly I thought nothing special about this game, but after saw it myself, it’s pretty cool), diving, bottom glass boat. You may rent the glass ‘see through’ bottom boat, so you can see through the sea. Be careful when renting, the price offered will be very ‘crazy’. Fortunately before going there, I browsed the website and looked for the price for those activities.

Below is the price that I got from the internet, updated on July 2008:
* Parasailing : Rp 55.000 (US$6.50) / person
* Banana boat : Rp 50.000 (US$6) / person (min 2 persons)
* Flying fish : Rp 120.000 (US$14) / person (min 2 persons)
* Water skiing : Rp 110.000 (US$12) / person for 15 menit
* Snorkeling : Rp 90.000 (US$10) / persons (min 2 persons)
* Diving : Rp 235.000 (US$26) / person
* Glass bottom boat : Rp 250.000 (US$ 28) / boat (max 10 persons)
* Dolphin tour : Rp 500.000 (US$56) / person / 4 hours

But this price applied for domestic tourist, for overseas tourist might be more expensive. But you can use this price for your reference.

When I asked the boat operator, they proposed Rp.500,000 (US$53) / boat, fortunately I knew the price before, so I bargained and ended at Rp. 250,000 (US$26) / boat.
Using that boat we can see through the sea, feeding the fishes with bread provided by the boat operator, as well as visiting turtle breeding (there are some places). There, we can take picture with reptiles, snakes, birds, bats and turtle, of course. At that island, they have a nice handy craft stores, and also we can drink coconut. Entering fee is Rp 2,000/person (US$0.25), the money will be used for wild animals feeding.

Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK). Located at Jimbaran area, south Bali, here, will be built a great statue of Visnu sitting on Garuda. In July 2008, this great status which built by I Nyoman Nuarta, was still in partial, Visnu part, Garuda (the bird) part and also Visnu’s hands part. This great statue would be the icon as Liberty in NY, USA. Located high up the hill, with a great view surrounding. GWK also has theater to perform Balinese traditional dances (depends on schedule). At the front gate, you would be welcomed by 2 Balinese’s dancers.
There are kiosk, food center and bargain shops.
Some tour agents choose GWK as dinner point with the sunset view.
Admission Fee is Rp.15,000 (US$1.6) / person and Rp.5,000 (US$0.6) / car.

Dreamland Beach. It’s on the same way to GWK, at this area, you may see a star hotel and resort is under construction. This area was built by Tommy Soeharto (former Indonesian President’s Son) but then abandoned after their era went down. The beach looks cleaner compared to Kuta Beach, and more overseas tourists, but in my opinion the location is quite far and in a remote area (probably those are the reasons why oversea tourists find it exciting). After the hotel and resorts ready for public, this beach would be more crowded. To enter this area, you only need to pay parking ticket Rp.2000 (US$0.25) per car.

Pura Luhur Uluwatu (Hindunese temple). This temple is location in West corner of the cape hill, that’s why it’s called Ulu which means corner and watu means stone/rocks. The temple was built at the rock goes to the sea. The view is amazing. I’m recommending this place. Before entering the location, visitor is requested to wear a rope (and additional sarong to visitors wearing short pants – above your knee) to respect the elders of this place. This temple is surrounded by woods with the monkeys live there, once said the monkeys were the loyal followers of the Priest, the sacred temple keeper. Be careful of your belongings : hats, glasses, camera, necklace, earrings, to be in a safe place since the monkeys can be annoying and take those things away from the owners. Many would take sticks to self defense, but please don’t harm the monkeys.
There is Kecak Dance performance (with additional fee) located at the corner of the cliff. Every visitor will be overawed visit this place.
Admission fee is only for Rp.3.000 (US$0.35).

Will be continued…