The name Candidasa came from this temple. Candi means temple, and dasa means ten. So Candidasa means 10 temples. Candidasa and environs have matured and today offer accommodation from the most basic to 5 star resorts (complete with helipad) and everything in between. In addition to the fine dining at the resorts there is now good to excellent food to be had at a number of boutique hotels and a few of he many restaurants lining the main street.

Take a wander along the street and while deciding where to it tonight browse the shops to see what tickles your fancy. Don’t expect discos or clubs as that’s not what Candidasa is about. Here you are living in a village and quickly connect with and fell part of the local scene.

Apart from reading there are plenty of the other things to do – many associated with working off those extra holiday calories. East Bali is rightly famous for it’s dive sites and Candidasa is no exception with good snorkeling and diving in the bay and around the nearby rocky islands. The locals can take you fishing, trekking in the hills or drive you to nearby beaches or other parts of this fascinating area.

There are three distinct hotel areas in Candidasa: east, west and north. A trip to Candidasa from the Denpasar area is a relatively short one. This makes the area attractive to visitors staying in the more heavily populated areas of Kuta and Sanur.

A few years ago Legian was a small village situated a short distance from Kuta, b ut has spread out so much that Legian is now part of the greater Kuta Area. Legian is a quieter alternative and has a mire sophisticated nightlife scene focusing on dining-out and socializing rather than full-on partying.

A little more sophisticated than Kuta , the pace is slower although there is everything the visitor could wish for shop, galore, restaurants, night clubs, bars, boutique hotels, hotels as wel as villas and private homes. Legian becomes a little more residential with many expatriates also living in the area.

Legian stretches from Legian Beach Hotel to Jayakarta Hotel on what is still known as Jalan Rum Jungle. All types of accommodation, including villas, hotels and home-stays, are available along with some good eating and few interesting bars, most of which close by midnight. Most of the popular hotels such as: Bali Mandira and Padma Bali Resort at Legian, are on the beach along here

There is no proper road in front of the hotels, but there is paved pathway between the hotels and the beach which is only open for authorized vehicles when a ceremony is being held. This pathway acts like a boulevard and gives guest in this area the advantage of being able to stroll along this stretch to a number of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs at the end of Jalan Double Six. Many of the bars and restaurants found along this stretch of the beach are foreign owned, but locally run. Due in part to this fusion there is a great choice of culinary diversion from which to choose.

While nightlife is not so frantic, Legian does have its own entertainment scene. Close to the action but far enough away for some down time, Legian still retains something of its village atmosphere and is easy to walk around with good shopping scattered everywhere, tempting you to come.

Beachside, Legian have more laid back beach style-less hustle, fewer vendors, but good facilities. Surfing is popular with surf schools to help those in need, as well as volleyball, Frisbee, Bungee Jumping, and racquetball. Here you can also try to hop on boogie boards and surfboards hired from the beach. Have manicure, pedicure or braid your hair while relaxing under your umbrella.

Seminyak area has more traffic outlets than Legian with the opening of two wide short-cuts from Denpasar to northern Seminyak. Seminyak has the best hotels and villas-many five and four star hotels and exclusive villas- as well as an active night life and fine dining.

The beach is a lot more peaceful, and many of the top end hotels, and boutique hotels area found in this area, as well as some amazing private expatriate homes. It is for very reason that it has most expensive real estate of the island, with now, very little land left to develop.

This is the place to relax and chill, but with higher budget in mind. There is virtually no backpacker accommodation in this area. The main choices are villas and star-rated hotels.

World-class boutiques, restaurants, bars and clubs make this a place to be seen, and when night falls it is Jalan Laksmana, also known as Eat Street, that attracts the crowds looking for varied cuisine. This is a scene of open bars and night clubs, where a relaxed, unassuming crowd moves from one place to the other as the night passes. The loud bars get frenetic in summer, when European tourists pack as much fun as they can in this inexpensive, tropical alternative to Ibiza. The bars are more sophisticated with Ku De Ta now becoming legendary, Laluciola the classic beachfront restaurant eatery serves modern Italian food, Hu’u Bar for the vibes, Metis and Living Room.

Whether you’re an experienced or a novice Asia traveler, you’ll find Bali a bewildering array of color and sound.

The days when Bali was off the beaten path are long gone. Just a few hours by plane from northern Australia, it has been an Aussie playground for years. The wild popularity of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir “Eat Pray Love” and the film adaptation that opened Aug. 13 are likely to make it a U.S. playground as well.

In some ways, there are two Balis.

The 20-somethings flock to the beaches near Denpasar, Bali’s capital. The best-known beaches are Kuta and Seminyak, the latter being the more upscale. Kuta feels a bit like Rocky Point or Cancun at spring break. Lots of young people, lots of booze, lots of surf. U.S. chain restaurants and hotels are present in great numbers. You can grab a McDonald’s burger or KFC bucket or eat at the Hard Rock.

Art, culture

We headed inland to Ubud, a small town surrounded by rice fields in the countryside about 25 miles north of Denpasar’s international airport. Ubud is considered Bali’s cultural and artistic capital. Its streets are lined with galleries and restaurants, and music fills the air.

It was a great choice. Our hotel, the Sri Bungalows, was in the middle of a rice paddy on Monkey Forest Road, one of the main streets. It cuts through a sacred monkey forest and is lined with hotels, galleries and restaurants. Some travelers have reported monkeys slipping into rooms and stealing food or shiny objects, but we didn’t have any problems.

The setting was serene – each morning the sun rose over the paddy, and in the evening we watched the farmer harvest his rice and wrangle his ducks.

One of the wonderful things about traveling around Ubud is the number of religious festivals. There are Hindu temples on every street and in most family compounds. Every 210 days, people hold a festival to honor their temple’s “birthday.” With so many temples, there are lots of birthdays and lots of festivals to attend.

Travelers who have visited Buddhist nations in Southeast Asia might find the temples on Bali a little underwhelming. They are not as grand or ornate as temples in Thailand or Laos but they are just as important, so it’s important to show respect. Appropriate dress consists of proper Balinese attire: sarongs. Larger temples will have sarongs available for rent; smaller, less visited ones do not. You will have to rely on the kindness of strangers or your tour guide to make sure you do not offend local sensibilities.

A resourceful guide

We hired a local guide and driver, which was a great decision. He took us around the island, found festivals and ceremonies (including a wedding and a funeral) and gave us a view of the island that self-guided travelers wouldn’t get.

Our guide, Sang Made Merta , charged 600,000 rupiah per day (about $65). It was a little above the norm, but worth it. Sang’s English is perfect, and he understands the needs of photographers. If you want to spend less, the streets of Ubud, especially Monkey Forest Road, are lined with men holding signs that say “Transport” and offering taxi or guide services. They can be hired for $40-$50 per day (depending on your bargaining skills), but their English may be lacking.

From Ubud we traveled across much of southern Bali. We told Sang what we wanted to do, and he made it happen.

One day I wanted to photograph rice farmers and Sang found some, harvesting rice in their paddies. (Rice is grown year round in Bali, so if they aren’t harvesting or planting on one part of the island, chances are good that they are busy in the next valley over or just down the road.)

There’s something captivating about Bali rice fields. They are iridescently green. The volcanic soil, nearly constant rain and light combine to create an intensity you don’t see in many places. Farmers use ducks to help grow rice. Their guano is used as fertilizer, their webbed feet help till the fields and they eat the pests. Many farmers keep large flocks. Every morning they turn the ducks out and then round them up in the evening.

Another day we told Sang we wanted to visit a market, but not one of the many tourist markets. We set off well before dawn for the small town of Payangan to visit the “wet” market. (A “wet” market is one that sells fresh foods; a “dry” market has dry goods and clothes.) In a courtyard behind the market building, people were selling fresh piglets and fowl (fresh as in still alive), local fruits and vegetables and some clothes. Inside, using kerosene torches for light, old women sold shallots and spices. There was not another tourist in sight.

A cremation

When we made plans to visit Bali, one of our goals was to attend a cremation. Balinese cremations are very formal and cost thousands of dollars, but they are not somber events. They are a celebration of the deceased’s life, and a great street party. They are rarer than religious festivals and ceremonies, because not every family is wealthy enough to afford a full cremation event.

Cokorde Gede Raka, a member of Ubud’s royal family, died a few weeks before our arrival and was cremated while we were in Ubud. (Indonesia is a multiparty democracy. Royal families in Bali have no official power but a lot of influence in local civil affairs. The royals in Ubud are especially well-regarded and influential.)

Thousands of Balinese and tourists lined the street. The cortege was led by about 50 men carrying a huge hollow bull built on a bamboo frame and wrapped in black velvet. This was followed by a funeral tower bearing the body, then priests, musicians and members of the royal family wound through the streets accompanied by a Balinese orchestra and lots of merrymaking. The closest comparison I could make would be to a New Orleans jazz funeral, only with gamelan music and fire instead of jazz and po’boys.

At the cemetery, an orchestra played while the body was moved from the tower to the hollow bull, offerings were placed into the bull with the body, and the whole thing was set ablaze. Soft-drink and souvenir vendors worked the crowd while people stared, transfixed, as the flames consumed the deceased.

Because cremations in Bali are so expensive but vital to giving the decease a proper farewell (followers believe without cremation, the deceased’s route to reincarnation is cut off), they usually are scheduled collectively. A village or community will have one cremation every four or five years, and all the people who died during that period will be cremated at the same time.

In between the time of their death and cremation, people are buried in cemeteries. They are exhumed (or a part of the body is exhumed) for the cremation.

It’s not unusual to have 40 or 50 people cremated at the same time, in a ceremony similar to the one we attended, only much bigger. The exact date of the mass cremations is something of a moving target, but they generally happen across the island in the same year. The last ones were in 2009, so the next ones should be in 2014.

Many people have asked us how we got the name ‘Bebek Bengil’,well here’s the story.. When we were building the restaurant, we thought long and hard about a name. Many good suggestions came from our friends, but none seemed just right.

We knew we wanted a Balinese name that translated well into English. However, for a long time the metaphor eluded us.

One tropical monsoon morning, when the restaurant was very close to being finished ( we had the concrete floor down, and the tables in ), a flock of ducks from the rice field across the road ( yes, there were rice fields all around us then ) ran quacking and squawking into the restaurant and across the floor and tables.

They left muddy webbed footprints all over the place. They were our first guests – those dirty ducks !

Pemuteran

Some medium Pemuteran hotels and deluxe Pemuteran hotels are listed and on-line above. While small Pemuteran hotels or simple Pemuteran hotels and Lovina hotels do not specifically offered to traveler, unless we got a real guarantee that traveler can accept the physical and facility conditions. Central Lovina has the most various and big number of simple hotels.

Important note is that both Lovina and Pemuteran have higher temperature and higher moisture level. Pemuteran area has more luxurious hotels such as Matahari Beach, Mimpi Resort, and Aneka Bagus Hotel, while Lovina has only Puri Bagus Hotel.

In Pemuteran there is no shop or restaurant nearby the hotels unlike along the area of Lovina where shops, restaurants and some night life are available just meters from hotels

Below is detail what the information you need for exploring the Paradise Island such as :

1. The easy way to go around of Bali is get your private transport by booking with Travel Agency. That will make charge you same like normal taxi meters or charter and you will more convertible and easier to make a stop any where you like.

2. Exploring with Public Transport or Local transport is a bit difficult because it will be taken more time and must be stop many times for change to the another transportation. In Bali, our Public transport is have only one or two direction but its quite cheap.  20.000 rupiah for around  100 km or Usd.2 – 2,5 / Person.

3. If you expert to used vehicles like motor bike, it also will be easy for you going around in Bali and you also can save your money cause is only Usd.5 / 24 hours renting a motor bike and also cheap for but petrol. Petrol station in Bali you can get any where and is like every 10 kilometers you can find and only 4500 rupiah for a liter of petrol where you can used for 45 kilometers per litters. But, we not recommended if you not many time used Motor bike in your country and it will be difficult for you on the street because people is Bali drive really crazy.

4. Easy options is find your transport on the transport association on the street (you will easy to find if you stay in Legian). The will charge you cheap but you must be careful cause many local transport not have a tour license and the will charge you again for pay the police if the police catch him on the way.

That our option  and hope will can help you for exploring Bali Island.

Let’s talk about rain first. We have two seasons in Bali, the dry season and the wet season. The dry season is “scheduled” from April to October, while wet season starts from October to April. So, if you don’t fancy rain in your holiday, best time to come is between April to October when the dry season is “on”.

The wet season, however, is not really really that wet. If you think rain is pouring down on our island for six months every day, that’s not quite the fact. It only starts to rain, usually in December, and January. And occasionally we’ll get a little bit of rain on February, March and it vanishes into thin air in April.

So, it is more chance through out the year you will see sun shine compared to rain.
But the number of visitors visiting Bali is also determined by other things, i.e. public holidays. That’s why July and August is the peak season here since it is school holidays. Many families with their children spend their holidays in Bali during this time.

When there is a holy celebration throughout Indonesia, such as end of Ramadhan, the Bali island will be full of domestics tourists from other parts of the country. Mostly they come from Java. During the holidays, there many tour groups from Java which come to Bali on 40 seat busses. They go will go to the popular tourist spots such as Kintamani and Tanah Lot Temple. This is the time when Bali can be a little bit crowded.

Besides tour groups, there are also families traveling with private cars from Java flocking in tourists are, mostly Seminyak. They also want a piece of sun set in Kuta, and that’s why Kuta beach is full with people who eagerly staring at the reddish sky in the afternoon. Cars are parked along the way, I know they shouldn’t, but they do. (Note: If you stay out from Kuta at these peak times, you’ll be able to enjoy your quality time holiday, if you stay, for instance, in Sanur, or Nusa Dua and even Ubud.)

So, those are only things you need to pay attention when visiting Bali. Conclusion?? When is the best time to visit Bali? Should you avoid wet season? Should you avoid peak season? I am sure that there will be also other considerations you will have to make. And the decision is yours.

There’s a thousands choice that you can have even you’re just searching for it on the net! For example, if you are looking for cheap hotels in the most famous beach in Bali, The Kuta Beach, you can easily find it by just walking around there, there’s hundreds of cheap hotels lies in Kuta Region, such as The Poppies Lane I, II, and III.. Price? Don’t be surprised, it’s only between US$ 10,- to US$ 100,- per night.. Very cheap right? And you must know that your money don’t lie, the price will always describe what you will get, it depends on your budget.

But hey? maybe you can get a comfortable place to stay with just small amount of money to spent if you are lucky and willing to spend some time to walk around. So why don’t you have your fun holiday by walking around and see the unique life of Balinese People meanwhile you try to find the hotels you want.. Remember to keep the hotel’s number if you already find one that suit you, so you won’t be difficult to find another one on your next holiday in Bali.

In Seminyak Region, including Petitenget Region, you will find a lot of villas which offering you a new experience of staying for your holiday where you will get a complete house that you can rent and mostly it’s designed with beautiful Balinese artwork. Seminyak and Petitenget is a region near Kuta Beach which has some beautiful surfing spots and and lots of restaurants. It’s also close to the capital of Bali province, Denpasar City, so you won’t be difficult to have some walk around the city. Most tourist won’t do this, because you don’t want to see a crowded city life aren’t you? Of course you don’t, now you’re on a holiday!

There’s also some expensive choice which offering you many luxury and exotic experiences of holiday in Bali, as it have very good locations, luxury rooms, some exotic views of Bali nature, free traditional dancing and music shows every night, and other first class facilities. Mostly this kind of hotels lies in Nusa Dua Region, and some of them in Tanah Lot Region. Nusa Dua and Tanah Lot are two place that have so many tourism objects and surf spots which will suit you who wants a quite holiday with a marvelous nature view. One more time should I remind you that your money will never lie to you, so if you are having more budget for your holiday, why don’t you try to stay in some sophisticated hotels in Bali, comfortable place are guaranteed.

Then if you are looking for a traditional Balinese culture, you should stay in Ubud Village, where you can find a lot of hotels and villas, from cheap to expensive, a lots of Balinese paintings, carvings, jewelries, and art shops, live performance of Balinese traditional music, and some unique traditional Balinese dancing, and outbond activities to explore the Bali Island’s nature such as Elephant Riding, Bycicling, Rafting, and many other fun activites.

Secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations

There are thousands of hotels and resorts out there promising you to offer a once in a lifetime  secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations. But how many resorts offer you the perfect secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations? Surely you wouldn’t want to spend thousands of pounds on planning and booking your secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations only to discover that your secluded romantic island honeymoon vacation is far from secluded and romantic.
Secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations in the bali

Secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations accommodationOne of the resorts offering you a secluded romantic island honeymoon vacations in the bali

It is just the two of you in perfect bliss in this romantic resort offering sophisticated barefoot luxury, reached by a magical seaplane flight. You are now a million miles from the nine-to-five. You awaken to the sounds of the ocean caressing your doorstep, and watch the sun as it slowly rises over the horizon.

Relax in your private Jacuzzi, or go for a dip in your villa’s pool and enjoy the glorious tropical paradise. Relax in one of the resort’s 2 spas and indulge in a soothing aromatherapy massage. In the evening, enjoy a private barbecue on the beach, or savour the finesse of fine wines and tantalising cuisine in any of the 7 world-class restaurants. Spend time unwinding in the over-water Spa Retreat, a secluded ‘resort within a resort’ with spa, water villas and restaurant.

A secluded romantic island honeymoon vacation in the bali is perfect for the couple who has a bit more money to spend and really wants to be alone. If you really want to be alone with your loved one and are willing to pay extra for it, spending your honeymoon or wedding anniversary in one of these exotic island resorts in the bali can be just the honeymoon you are looking for.