Kuta beach, one of the most favorite tourist sites in Bali, started to look packed on Wednesday, November 12th 2008, after quiet for the last few days. Even tough the number of tourists not as crowded as before, but tourists already started to surf or sun bath on the beach.

In the repository of Balinese knowledge, there is a way to identify the nature of any day - evil and beneficial, ala ayuning dewasa. It is called wariga, and not everyone can master it since it involves spiritually and physically pure conduct. No wonder then that mastery can...

Coffee usually always starts your day in the morning and accompanies meals or for breaks at a meeting. Why? Because meetings at all times, are completed with a ‘coffee break’ and also accompanied by a ‘tea break’ as an alternative. It does not only indulge the tongue but also relieve...

Graha Wicaksana, the head of Community Development Institution of Kuta, Bali’s famous beach resort, announced the return of Kuta Karnival, scheduled for nine days from 18 until 26 October 2008. Initially, this event was established and organized as a response to the terrorist blast that devastated the island of Bali...

In Bali there is a lot of home farming. Most of the people have cows, pigs, and chicken at home. The cow is usually fed by the farmer, the pig by the housewife and the chicken by any family member. In this article we focus on the cow; which is...

Most rituals in Bali are held in open and public arenas where visitors can easily observe but there are also ritual activities held frequently in domestic spheres which are observe by and participated in by only immediate family members. Although these are not closed ceremonies, they are not usually observed...

Can you imagine community of three million people, men and women, only adopting four available names, Jack, Jill, John or Jean as their first name? Easy to remember maybe, but would not it be very confusing? It happens in Bali. How often have you experienced this: You can’t differentiate one...

Kuta’s ‘in-your-face’ style does not appeal to every shopper, but fortunately Bali caters to all parts of the spectrum. Those who do not feel up to facing the Kuta jungle can opt instead to patronize the village-style markets in Ubud and Sanur, the up market boutiques in Seminyak, or the...

The Bali Tourism Board (BTB) in a working meeting suggested that the government extend its visa to 3 - 4 months, and increase numbers of countries enjoying a temporary visa as an attempt to lure more foreign guests and tourists to Indonesia as well as Bali. The proposal is one...

The arrival of foreign tourists in Bali still depends on air transportation. Based on the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Bali, there were 99.83 percent of foreign tourists who traveled to Bali in April 2007 by using air transportation. Meanwhile, only 0, 17 percent of foreigners used...

It wasn’t for the big sign announcing its presence as you come up over a rise, driving west along the Jembrana coast, you’d never know it was there. Medewi lies in the middle of Bali’s most sparsely populated and least developed district, the far-off regency of Jembrana 75 kilometers from...

The barong that bushy-tailed, bulging-eyed beast is one of Bali’s greatest cultural hits. As a jet-set visitor to the “island of the God”, you know to creature as the winsome hero of the barong dance or as the confounded cause of some interminable traffic snarl. Indeed, you should be most...

They say the three most important aspects to as sure the success of a new business are “location, location and location”. Well if indeed that was true back in 1991 then the construction of the Bali Golf and Country Club right in the heart of the luxury five-star resort area...

The ngaben, or cremation ceremony, is central to Bali Hinduism. The Balinese believe that burning the remains of the deceased in a cleansing fire will both return the elements of the body to earth and release the soul to enter heaven. An ngaben so vital to the well-being of the...

Distinctive Chinese coins with a small square hole in the middle have been the basic unit of currency in East Asia for almost two thousand years. In Bali these “pennies” took on an integral role not only in trade and commerce, but in true Bali style they became an indispensable...

According to the Asta Kosala Kosali manuscripts, all architectural structures, as microcosmic units, should reproduce the tripartite order or both the world and the human body. Every building and compound thus has a head, a body and a lower body (genitalia, bowels and legs), corresponding to the gods, humans and...

Stone-carving is as much a part of Bali’s culture as temple festivals and gamelan. Much of it is produced in this village just north of Denpasar. Batubulan is where the Balinese come to shop for a pair of demons to guard the threshold of their temple, hire a...

Balinese society has no reason to worry about the future of its arts and culture because, nowadays, many Balinese children like to learn the performing arts; particularly dance, traditional gamelan music, literary chanting, Balinese pop songs, and shadow puppetry. Rather than a method of opening the way to become professional...