Bali

Tourists who want to visit Bali, had been warned not go there on March 7, since Nyepi will be celebrated by Balinese (Hindunese). On that day, no one will do activity anywhere in Bali, since when celebrate Nyepi, they will do amati karya (not working) and amati lelungaan (not traveling). It means, the airport and other transportation public facilities will be paralyzed.

It’s better to go to Bali today (March 6) or the day after Nyepi (March 8).

The public transportation will be closed since 06.00 am on March 7 until 06.00 am on March 8. Ngurah Rai airport will be closed for all flight, domestic or abroad. The harbours, which connected Bali with other islands, are also will be closed. At least 40 ships will not operate during Nyepi day.

Bali will be such a dead island on Nyepi because dark and silence will be spread on every region since all Balinese will stay at home, do nothing, and will not turn on the lamp.

Once again, happy Nyepi!

During January 2008, statistic recorded foreign tourists who came to Bali were increasing more than 27%. It’s about 140,275 tourists meanwhile in January 2007 there was only 109,875 tourists.

Target for this year, more than 1,7 million tourists visit to Bali since Bali is in condusive situation even some bombs exploded couple days ago.

Japanese are still the biggest number of tourists since more 28,398 Japanese enjoy their holiday in Bali. The second is Australian with 20,564 tourists. Taiwan tourist was placed in 3rd with 11,466. Korea, with 10,541, ranked 4th.

Chinese, surprisingly, unseat Malaysian to the 5th with 10,425 tourists came to Bali on January 2008. On January 2007, Chinese tourists was only about 4,604, so this is the biggest tourist number increment.

In the next couple days, Balinese will celebrate Nyepi, the famous event in Hindu. On Nyepi, Balinese (especially the Hindunese) will do none activities all day, since the night one day before Nyepi until the midnight on Nyepi.

For this event, especially on March 7, Bali Head Tourism, Drs I Gede Nurjaya, announced and hoped the tourists give respect to Balinese who celebrate Nyepi, by staying at the hotel and not disturbing the holiness Nyepi.

For your information, in Nyepi, Hindunese will do 4 things, amati geni (not turn on the light/lamp), amati karya (not working), amati lelungaan (not traveling), and amati lelanguan (trammeldesire and passion).

The tourists are also prohibited to go to beach. Well, maybe this prohibition is quite hard for tourists since they came to Bali to enjoy Nyepi atmosphere.

Happy Nyepi day!!

One of Balinese traditions is Mesuryak, an event which will be held after Balinese (which Hindu is majority) after they celebrate Galungan, one of holy day in Hindu. In Mesuryak, many people will get the money which are spread by.

Balinese celebrated Mesuryak not only try to get the money. They also provide sesajen (ritual offerings) for their ancestors. They put the sesajen in the front of their home, hoping their ancestor’s soul back to the heaven happily.

You can see the noisy this event by looking to the picture. The pic was taken in Tabanan, Bali, when the Balinese celebrate the Mesuryak.

*the pic was taken from here*

After bombing incident couple days ago, some people, especially who work in tourism, felt worry about the effect because they know since after Bali Bomb 1st and 2nd, many tourists canceled their flight/holiday to Bali. Of course, this is not a good news because many people depend their living from tourism.

But now, it’s changed. Since the police department announced about the background of bombing incident is no related with terrorism, the tourists are still targeting Bali as their destination for vacation. Read the rest of this entry »

Since Friday, Peb 15 2008, heavy rain occured in Kuta and Legian, the most destination target for tourist in Bali. The effect, of course, there was flood around this tourist destination, moreover in some points the height of water was about 30 cm.

Traffic jam also became other problems that happened since many vehicles broke down.

Some owners of restaurant and cafe complained about this disaster since the traffic of visitors, to their restaurant, was decreasing significantly. Tourists prefered to stay at their room/inn rather than faced the flood that ruined their journey.

Hope the government handle and prevent the same this disaster in the future.
*the pic is taken from here*

Three explosions happened in Bali for couple days. The last explosion happened in a restaurant in jalan Teuku Umar, Denpasar on Sunday Peb 17 2008. Before that, on Friday Peb 15, it happened in jalan Kebo Iwa Selatan, Denpasar. Meanwhile, the first happened in a travel tour, in Gang XVII Jalan Gatot Subroto I Denpasar.

Police had investigated the three explosions and are still trying to find out the mastermind.

This incident can effect the tourism situation in Bali, since 2 big bomb blast happened which are well known as Bali Bomb 1 and 2.

We hope police can find the actor to calm the situation. The astonishing thing is this event still can be happened even Kapolda (Head of the provincial police), Irjen Pol Paulus Purwoko had increased the security standard.

*the pic is taken from here, and of course, the explosions weren’t terrifying as the pic*

Bali has a big potential as healthy tourism destination since number of tourists who came to Bali for aesthetics treatment are increasing. This can be proven by many spas and healthy clinis had been visited by tourists, both domestic and foreign.

The tourists choose Bali rather than Singapore, Thailand or other countries because Bali has an unique attractive charming. Maybe the other reason is the price is, relative, cheaper than other countries meanwhile the result is almost the same.

We hope the government aware about the market potential, so Bali will have many options to be visited.
*the pic is taken from here*

Luxury Travel Magazine from London gave award to Bali as a best tourist island in Tourist Category. The award was given to Bal since the readers of the magazine, from 27 countries, had elected and also agreed that Bali is the best place to be visited.

The award was officially given to Indonesia Embassy in England.

On 2007, Bali had achieved 3 similar awards, 2 from Asia magazine and 1 from American magazine. Meanwhile on 2005, Time gave award to Bali as the best tourist islan in the world.

Congrat for Bali government official and the staffs whom made efforts to make Bali comfort to be visit.

Recently, Russian tourists who visit Bali are increasing quite significant. As we know, Russia climate is snowy almost every month even in the summer. So, we can understand why many Russian tourist come to Bali since they want to relax and sunbathing in Bali beach.

The problem is there is a small number of guide that can speak Russian. From about 7039 certified guides, only 41 guides who can speak or understand Russian. Therefore, the large number of guides can speak English and Japanese fluently. They are 2586 English guides and 2160 Japanese guides. Read the rest of this entry »