Places To Visit In Bali

Apart from visiting the beaches in Bali there are many other attractions available all over Bali to visit depending on what the interests are. If it is night life that is of interest, there are many night clubs with live shows all over the town. If it is the culture and the arts that are of interest there are many art studios, cultural shows and dances, wood sculptures, stone sculptures, silversmith, goldsmith and so on. If nature is the fancy there are zoos, gardens, forests, beaches (public, private and also secluded ones), hills and mountains to go to. Sports activities are mostly the water types, like surfing, snorkeling, diving, and so on and these are not restricted to the Bali island alone. There are, I was told, good diving sites on islands close by that can be visited by boat on a day trip. There are also accommodation facilities on these islands for overnight trips as well.

Ram and I had no specific agenda on our visit to Bali. We were there just to relax and take it easy. Hence we moved around Bali at leisure and as and when we felt like it. We spent time at the beach quite a bit, browse around in the shops and stalls all along the main roads and side roads in Legian and part of Kuta on two occasions, visited the three main shopping malls on separate occasions for each, and hired a car with driver to tour the island, visit arts and crafts centres, the mountains and lake, and other attractions. It was fun and we were not pressured for time like we often encounter in our travels, especially those packaged and conducted tours. The tour organizers will take you only to specific places to visit and the choice is theirs not yours. (These organizers get commissions from the outlets they take us to visit).

For the island tour we hired a car (van actually) with driver for the day at a fixed rate that covers usage of the car, driver’s fees, gasoline and parking fees, and the driver will take you anywhere you want to go. I found that the rate the driver charged was even cheaper than the rate of hiring a self drive car at the airport!! This driver was recommended by one of the hotel staff, and the car he used was air-conditioned, comfortable and in fairly good condition. (whoa, I now realized that I made a mistake by hiring a self drive car at the airport when I visited Bali in January this year!!). I studied the brochures, decided on the places and specific locations that I wanted to visit, and when the driver came to fetch us I sat down with him and charted our course for the trip before proceeding. He was very helpful and made constructive suggestions, like see point B first instead of point A that I originally planned because of the opening times and distance to travel etc. So we had a pleasant trip for the day. He even advised us what to look out for, stopped at some locations along the way to admire the sceneries that we were not aware of in our original plans, avoid spots that throng with petty traders and peddlers and so on and even helped us bargain!!. I think it was money well spent.

In the tour we wanted to see a dance performance and were brought to a Barong and Kris dance performance by the driver. There was a big crowd but we were quite early and had the opportunity to get good seats quite close to the stage. The show was about an hour and we had a written description of the dance and what the various acts represents. Generally it depicts a fight between good and evil, love and sacrifices and similar dramas. It was heavily costumed too and fun to watch as they had included quite a bit of humor in their performance. The dances were nice to watch as an entertainment but were not much of an artistic display except for the heavy and nicely designed costumes, the props and live music. It was like, “there you are Mr Tourist, this is the show, and thank you for your contribution ha ha!!” …………….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya