Diving on the USS Liberty: Tulamben, East Bali

by Barrie | November 21st, 2010   Tweet

On 11 January, the USS Liberty was torpedoed by Japanese submarine about 10 nautical miles (19 km) southwest of the Lombok Strait. Two destroyers took the damaged ship in tow attempting to reach Singaraja, at that time, the Dutch port and administrative centre for the Lesser Sunda Islands on the north coast of Bali. However, the USS Liberty was taking too much water and so was beached on the eastern shore of Bali at Tulamben so that the cargo and fittings could be salvaged.
In 1963 the tremors associated with the eruption of Mount Agung caused the vessel to slip off the beach, and she now lies on a sand slope in 30 to 100 feet (9.1 to 30 m) of water, providing one of the most popular dives off Bali. This shipwreck is probably the easiest wreck diving in the world.

Bali is a fabulous place to visit for snorkelling and diving and for scuba divers the east coast of Bali is a big drawcard. One of these hot spots is the wreck of the USS Liberty (as mentioned above). Located on the beach at Tulamben the Liberty wreck sits in water 15-30m deep, 30m offshore and is very close to shore. This makes the Liberty wreck Bali’s most popular dive location. The best time to dive this wreck are between the hours 11am-4pm as these are the most popular with anything up to 50 divers down there at one time. You might want to avoid this busy period. Apparently the night dives are excellent here as well.
The landscape around Tulamben and a large portion of the east coast is dry and boulder strew. The rice belt ends and the corn-belt begins further to the south-west and there is not much going on heading up the coast. In Tulamben there are several losmens, a few places to eat and, plenty of dive shops!

Take a Walk Through…Sangeh Monkey Forest

by Barrie | November 20th, 2010   Tweet

The most popular place on Bali for simians is, without a doubt, the Sangeh Monkey Forest and a place that is inundated on a daily basis by hordes of camera toting tourist. The monkey forest at Sangeh has a mischievous clan of monkeys and now it will cost you a Rp20,000 entrance fee. The monkeys here are friendly, to a point, downright thieves and can be aggressive especially if there is a baby monkey in the vicinity. It’s a cool place to go but has more to offer than just monkeys. Inside is a temple.
Being set within a large growth of nutmeg (pala) trees, Pura Bukit Sari was built in the 17th century as a meditation temple by the son of the King of Mengwi but now it is an irrigation or subak temple. It is definitely an eerie temple and especially at sunrise when the monkeys come down to feed as the streaks of early morning light filter through the trees canopy.

The grey-stone and weather-beaten temple is in a square compound with stone-carved reliefs and a thatched meru. Although not as appealing as many of the temples in Bali are, it is simply constructed and is a fine example of a subak temple and is important to the area. The main feature you will notice is the large garuda statue seemingly guarding the temple whereas in fact it is the monkeys that are the guardians of this peaceful place.
There is an intriguing local legend attached to the monkey forest: The forest was created when Rama’s general, the monkey king Hanuman, attempted to annihilate Rama’s enemy Rawana and his army by squashing them between two halves of Mount Meru. In the process of doing so part of the mountain fell to earth at Sangeh along with hordes of Hanuman’s army monkeys just left clinging to the nutmeg trees and the result being the creation of Bukit Sari.
Intriguing as this legend is, if you retain this in your mind as you walk the path that runs clockwise through the forest and down to the river then it is your imagination that could re-create the legend for you.

Travel Insurance IS a Prime Necessity

by Barrie | November 18th, 2010   Tweet

More so than ever travel insurance should be a priority and organised for you and your family even before you leave for Bali. It’s no good saying “I’m healthy and have nothing to worry about. Besides, it’s only for a few weeks” The problem with that attitude is that bad things DO happen and the spiralling cost of medical attention in foreign lands would put a hefty dent in your budget not to mention the anguish caused.
Only idiots travel anywhere without insurance. Walk down any street in the tourist strip on your holidays in Bali and sooner or later you will notice somebody in a plaster cast or a limb bandaged in some manner. Travel insurance is a necessity. To give you an example of cost for medical care, earlier this year I suffered an extreme bout of food poisoning and was hospitalised for two days. The cost was heavy at Rp6 million.
Fortunately, Bali has a good selection of hospitals and clinics. The Clinics favoured by tourists include SOS International and BIMC, both located in the Kuta area. Obviously if you have medical / travel insurance you would want to go to a western standard clinic but if you don’t have insurance those places are very expensive.
There are many good travel insurance companies and one that I would highly recommend is the one provided by BootsnAll. There are other travel companies and also your own medical insurance company in your home country can assist you.
With travel to Bali it is imperative you are well covered and especially for medical evacuation and this can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. There are too many strange bugs ‘out there’ that are more than willing to spoil your holiday.

Balinese Dance

by Barrie | November 17th, 2010   Tweet

Bali is renowned the world over for its arts, culture and in particular, dance forms. It is a part of the culture the Balinese take seriously. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence.
Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows. As a great admirer of the arts you will often find me at any dance or cultural performance, and, I am always on the lookout for places that stage these beautiful and mesmerising performances.
The other day, by sheer accident, I came across a website that is full of detailed information on places you can see dance performances. Bali Dance is chock full of info about dance. One in particular I have yet to see – Catur Eka Budi. According to the site, this performed in the village of Kusiman in Sanur.
Seeing a performing arts on stage is one experience that you must add to your travel list when next you visit Bali. Believe me, you will adore it!

Big Increase in Tourist Fees for Kintamani

by Barrie | November 16th, 2010   Tweet

You will notice that just about anywhere you visit in Bali whether it’s a temple, museum or other cultural attractions a fee has to be paid before you can enter. In fact, there are very few places in Bali that are tourism-related that don’t incur a fee.
If you intend visiting Kimtamani to see Gunung Batur then you are in for a bit of a rise in the fees. There are several roads up to the mountain to try and get around these scoundrels and on my last three trips using different roads but they seemed to have covered those as well. The latest situation is that there is now a 200% increase in tourist fees at Kintamani.
The article I read regarding this was in the Bali Discovery and according to the article: In an effort to increase tax revenues earned from its tourism sector, the regional government of Bangli have suddenly decided to increase by more than 200% the “tourism retribution fee” charged to visitors to area tourist attractions from Rp. 3,300 (US$0.35) to Rp.10,000 (US$1.09) per visitor.
This might seem trivial to some folk but when you have watched over the years how prices have increased just to ‘make a buck’ out of tourists is erring on greedy. At one time, decades ago, visiting Kintamani for a relaxing lunch was a great day out. Now, it’s costly hassle.

Feeding Squirrel Named the Best Photograph

NUSA DUA as a luxurious tourist resort in Bali turned out to have tremendous appeal. Do you want a proof? Simply have a look at the photograph contest held in the series of Nusa Dua Fiesta (NDF) 2010. A lot of uniqueness remained to be hidden in this tourist resort. They were ranging from natural beauty, beaches, water sports, activities of seaweed farmers, sea birds, community activities on the beach, local animals up to clean-up the environment and so forth.

From the photograph contest, 63 participants were recorded to present their best photographs whose number reaching 229 pieces. Such amount increased from 31 participants last year. They perfectly immortalized a variety of objects around Nusa Dua area. Participants were from the circle of students of photography and pupils. “These participants were from various photography community, general public, students and pupils. It is remarkably encouraging,” said the jury panel of the photograph contest in the series of NDF 2010, IB Putra Adnyana who is familiarly addressed Gustra.

Proximity of wild squirrel to foreign guests in the resort hotel was also captured by photographer as an interesting object. The photograph by I Made Gede Suherman entitled ‘Feeding the Squirrel’ won the first winner. Meanwhile, the second and third winners were respectively achieved Made Adi Darmawan entitled ‘Going Home’ and I Putu Gede Ardi Dinanta with the work entitled ‘Environmental Conserver.’ (BTN/bud)

View the original article here

The Sasak of Lombok

by Barrie | November 15th, 2010   Tweet

There were many interesting aspects with the culture of Lombok that I wanted to experience on my last visit to the island. As with the Bali Aga in Bali, you will also find the almost equivalent on the island of Lombok; the Sasak people. Although the Sasak are predominantly Muslim while the Balinese are Hindus, they are related to the Balinese in both language and race. It’s interesting to know that 85% of Lombok’s population are Sasak.
Very little Little is known about Sasak history except that Lombok was placed under direct rule of the Majapahit prime Minister, patih Gajah Mada. During the late 16th century to the early 17th century the Sasaks converted to Islam under the influence of Sunan Giri and the Muslim Makassarese. Thus, basic Islamic beliefs and Hindu-Buddhist beliefs were ‘merged’ creating the Wektu Telu religion.
The term Wektu Lima is used to distinguish them from the Sasaks who are practitioners of Wektu Telu or three times who only pray three times a day. Orthodox Islamic teachers generally instruct adherents to pray five times a day. Large numbers of people adhering to the Wektu Telu faith can be still found throughout the island, especially in the village of Bayan. This is where the religion originated. A small minority of Sasaks called the Bodha – an estimated population of 8000 – are mainly found in the village of Bentek and on the slopes of Gunung Rinjani.
There are a few Sasak villages set up for visitors to the island wishing to see this fascinating culture and I was fortunate to see such this at a place called Desa Wisata Dusun Ende. It is fascinating to see the Sasak going about life as they have done for centuries and I was most impressed by their outgoing attitude to visitors. If you do get a chance to go to Lombok then having a visit to a Sasak village must be on top of the list.