Bali the Beautiful
This is a travelogue of my two day trip to Bali on August 29 & 30, 2008.
There are many facets of Bali. There are the beautiful beaches. Bali has wild-life parks, has beautiful birds. There are also interesting landscapes from paddy fields to beaches with black sand to beautiful lakes to volcanos. Then you can look at Bali from the perspective of a culturally rich Hindu island with lots of connections to India. Two days are inadequate to enjoy all this even though Bali is perhaps about 250 Kms x 120 Kms.
In this travelogue, I have tried to capture a bit of landscape and a bit of culture. It will be interesting to know that I had not spent even an hour at the beach. I could not even find time to enjoy the Sunset at beach that I really wanted to see. Hope there is another time.
Bali Landscapes
Bali has immensely beautiful tropical
landscape. Sizeable part of Bali lives in villages and are dependent on agriculture ranging from rice to spices to fruits. Since Bali does not have a flat landscape in most places, one will get to see Paddy being farmed in stepped fields. For us in India, this may not be new. I was lucky to get a good evening back light on this field. You can also find plenty of coconuts and banana being grown throughout Bali. Much of the agricultural fields are in the center of bali towards the South.
Most of the north is full of hills followed by a drop to sea level in the north.
Paddy fields require lots of water. Bali
seems to have abundance of water
resources. There are many large lakes
that provide good drinking water and
water for farming. Here is a beautiful lake
that you must include in your itinerary
when you are visiting Bali. This called
Bedugul Lake. This is a beautiful large lake
with a beautiful lush green mountain. This
looks beautiful in every season. The
monsoon clouds seem to be enhancing the
beauty of the lake. Blue skies behind the
mountain during winter (March-May) should
equally be enticing. Locals spend a whole
day here.
Of course, it is impossible to return from
Bali without seeing the Mount Batur,
an active volcano that had erupted thrice
in the past 50 years. You can get a
beautiful view of the mountain from the
crowded Kintamani village and even better
views from the road to the north of
Kintamani village. The black patches towards
the foot of the mountain are really lava. This sand
is mined to be used for construction of buildings
that adds black/brown color to most ancient
buildings in Bali.
If you have time you can also visit "Git Git" the only
water falls on Bali. A bit of walking must be done
to reach the top of Git Git. If you have time to kill,
you can walk all the way down to the foot of the water
fall and even take a dip in the water. With such a
height, it should definitely offer an interesting
experience to take bath under the water fall.
Bali Culture
Bali seems to have a magical connection with India.
70% of the population in Bali follow Hinduism. Lots of
names are similar to Indian names. Our driver has
named his son Vishnuwardana. There are palaces of
Kalingas. We met Vermas, the blacksmiths in Bali.
Gajah Muha (Ganesha) is worshipped to remove all
obstacles. Names like Goa (pronounced as Gua)
means cave. They chant Sanskrit slokas.
I was lucky to be in Bali during the 10 day festival
at Bali much similar to the Dasserah festival in
India. The 10th day marks the win of good over
evil and on the 10th day all Hindus visit temples and
offer prayer to the Gods. The 10th day is called
Kalungan.
Bali has an interesting way of owning temples. Bali
has a joint family system and each family lives in a
common compound. Each compound has a temple
complex that is owned by the family. The big
temples were owned and run by families of Kings.
The biggest temple complex in Bali is at Besakih.
Visitors are not allowed in most of the temples.
You will hardly find deities in Baisaki temples. They
worship the Mummorthies (three Gods) Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva. All are depicted as lingas or cones
and you will find the three cones in every temple
in the open. When we went to Besakih,
Kalungan celebration was in progress.
People at Bali
People at Bali, though Hindus have shadows of the
Mangolian race. White dress is the predominant color
during festive seasons. Here are some pictures of the
people taken at Bali. Bali is famous for wooden masks.
I cannot think of a use fior it, but they can be found
everywhere. I shot the picture of the Mask seller with
a similar face at Goa Gajah. The snake charmer below
his picture was also shot at the same place.
Next to the mask vendor is a village boy from Bangli, a
model village tourists visit. The other pictures were shot
at Taman Ayun, one of the best looking temples in Bali.
More pictures on my Picasa Album:
- Murali Santhanam
