Temples, Bali

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Penglipuran Village is a Balinese village that follows unique social and cultural traditions. The almost identical houses are built in neat rows and apart from the family bedroom, they are identical inside. The village has largely resisted modernisation and as a result has become a tourist attraction. For a small entrance fee, tourists can walk through the village. Locals will show you into their homes, and hope you buy some of their produce. There is a large ornate temple in the village along with towers containing drums for sending messages. A visit to Penglipuran village is often incorporated into day trips from Ubud or the south Bali region. Well worth a visit to see something quite different.

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In the beautiful mountain country area of Central Bali is the impressive Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, located on small islands in Danau Bratan, just one kilometre from Candikuning. The temple complex is dedicated to Dewi Danu, the goddess of the waters. Many ceremonies are held here and attended by people from all over Bali who pray to ensure there is a good water supply for farmers all over the island. Along with classical Hindu thatched roof 'meru', there is an impressive Buddhist 'stupa'. When I visited, I travelled across the lake with friends and entered from the back - a great way to view the Hindu 'meru', and also allows you to dodge the hawkers at the entrance (althought they were in no way as pushy as hawkers at other places of interest.) There was a small ceremony being held when we arrived and some beautiful Balinese music being played in one of the pavilions. Definitely worth the visit!

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The area around Sideman in east-central Bali has some spectacular walks around and through rice fields. There are vews of Gunung Agung along with temples perched high up in the hills. There is a range of accomodation options in Sideman - they can give you directions or you can hire a local guide.

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Puri Candi Dasa is a large temple complex with several areas for offerings and praying. Tourists are welcome to enter the complex while ceremonies are being held, but must be dressed appropriately. Both males and females should wear a sarong and shoulders must be covered. Candidasa lagoon, a large picturesque pond full of lillies is opposite the temple. If you are heading north to the Amed area, it is worth a stop to view both the temple and lagoon.

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Ulun Danu Temple is a very unique Hindu Temple set on a small island on Bratan Lakeside.

They look like two structure floating on the lake and has a multilevel temple building.

It is now a famous sightseeing spot in Bali and on the itinerary of many visitors.

It is worth the traveling from bali downtown to Bedugul.

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Here you will find 3 sacred temples, and lots of monkeys. Monkey are sacred here as the Balinese Hindu tradition saw them as holy, mans ally. You can purchase bananas and feed these little guys. There are wardens / keepers about to help out if you dont know how. It's not hug and wont take a long time to visit, but it's a good place to stop.

Open 8am - 6pm there is an entry fee.

As for touring around, we had a couple of options. Grey Line Bus Tours had standard packages that you could purchase and it was relatively simple to reserve from the hotel. We chose a slightly different route. We were extremely lucky with the cab driver we hired to take us to the hotel from the airport. When our reservations at the hotel were lost and they had no room for us, he drove us around and helped us find a suitable alternative. The next morning he went back to the hotel we wanted to stay at originally, made sure they had room and came to our temporary hotel to let us know we could check in. He waited for the kids to finish swimming and helped us get them and our luggage to the hotel of choice. He was very polite and never once held his hand out for a tip. I held onto his card and called him the next day to see if he would mind driving us around. Using the Grey Line Brochure as an example, we told him what we wanted to see and he agreed to pick us up at the hotel. The best part about this was that we were 4 travelers instead of 40 and we were only on our schedule. When it was time for lunch, he took us to a restaurant in the mountains that had a view clear out to the ocean and the food was outstanding. Our day tour lasted about 10 hours and ended up costing me $35 plus lunch, which I had to convince him to eat with us. The driver was in his fifties and spoke English very well and was very polite and, due to the amount of pictures in hi car, very proud of his family.

While on this little tour, one of the places my wife wanted to go to was a silver store. The store he took us to was in a small village outside of Kuta. The things they can do with silver is amazing. She spent a good 90 minutes looking and buying and the driver was glad to translate. I am sure the driver gets a cut for bringing in buyers, however, after a little negotiating; you could not beat the price. I think she may have spent $200 in the one store and had more gifts for the family than she could carry.

During our tour...we also visited a temple where the children could feed some monkeys. Additionally we visited a small town that where they did a lot of wood crafts. Very colorful stuff.

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This is a beautiful place ,these ancient Hindu Temples are on the edge of some seriously high cliffs. Aparently Uluwatu is some new discovery for surfer`s but I`ve checked it out and it does`nt look too safe to surf here as the waves is excellent just you have a problem of the rocks. One major problem here is the monkeys so please take care of your stuff. I would defintely recommend for you keep you sunglasses safely away. I saw one monkey biting someones sunglasses and when he found out it was not edible after it was broken ,the monkey just through it away.
Definitely worth the visit as the view here is spectacular.