Go Around Bali Tours: North Bali Tour

Hi there....how are you? Sorry for not giving updates on Go Around Bali Tours activities lately. Now, we would like to share our tour to the north last week. The tour started at 08:00 and we were heading from Ubud to the first destination, Mengwi Royal Palace (Taman Ayun). It was a little early arriving there and there were not too many visitors filling the site. It was very nice there in the morning (the green yard, the temple, and the river looked so charming). However, we did not spend much time over there only taking some photos, and then we went up north to Candi Kuning market. It took about 30 minutes to get there as the road was not so crowded in the morning. Arriving at the market, we found that not all shops were open. We stepped out our car and had the first look to a shop near our car parked. The shop sold lots of interesting things and they were quite cheap. Our guest, Mr. Orinov decided to buy some for souvenir. We took a look to another shop and go caught to a fruit shop. Mr. Orinov loves fruit and he bought some for his breakfast. After shopping and wandering around for 30 minutes, we decided to continue our trip and drove further north to Beratan Temple.

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When we first arrived, there were not many people there. But after 15 minutes looking around, throng of people were coming in to the temple together with their arca and other holy attributes for purification purposes. I (the driver) got no surprise as I understood that on that day most of the villages in Bali held a purification ceremony. Only In one blink of an eye the site was filled up with people in white and yellow accompanied with musical instrument of ‘Beleganjur’. Beratan Lake is common water resource used by nearby local village to do purification ceremony to welcome the Balinese New Year (Nyepi holy day). We enjoyed the crowd and witnessed the whole procession until finished. After spending about 40 minutes there, we moved on to our next destination. We were then heading up further north to Gitgit Twin Waterfalls. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the spot and was quite smooth as the road was not too crowded. When we arrived, local guides were approaching and offered their service. However, Mr. Orinov decided not hire anyone of them and preferred going down alone. I highly recommend the visitors once you visit this place to hire a local guide in order to have complete information about the site. There are three different waterfalls in Gitgit, so it is a must for you to see all of those. After spending about an hour there, under heavy downpour we drove further up north to Lovina. Our tour finished in there and Mr. Orinov checked in a villa nearby Lovina beach. It was a nice tour, but a little tiring. Book your tour with us and see all part of Bali in just one day. See you soon.

Go Around Bali Tours: Spring Water Temple Tour

Last Sunday, March 9^th, 2014 was a holy day in Bali. It is called “Banyu Pinaruh”. That was the day when Go Around Bali Tours had a sightseeing to one of the most famous places where people do a holy bathing or purification activity; that was the ‘Holy Spring Water Temple’ in Tampak Siring. Yes, that is right. This place is very famous among tourists who have been in Bali. Its location is not too far from Ubud centre, and it’s very easy to get there. Well…that Sunday morning Go Around Bali Tours picked up guests in the hotel and left at around 09:00. We visited some places (like watching Barong dance performance, taking a look to Batik and sliver shops) before heading up to the temple. As what we had planned, we arrived there at 11:30. When we got on the spot, the first word coming out was ‘Wooow’. Not because of the stunning site, but throngs of people and crowd of vehicles around the temple area. Looking at the situation, we had to carefully guide our guests and led them all the way around. Our planning was doing a holy bathing, but it seemed it was very difficult as there were lots of people queuing in the pool. There was almost no space to jump in it. “Oh my goodness…when do we have a chance to be under the holy fountain? Should we wait until the sun goes down? Or join the crowd and be in the water until our skin gets pale?” I was talking to my self. It was a hard choice really. We had a discussion to each other and decided not to do the bathing, but only took some photos and took a look to the temple in the main stage. Unfortunately, there were also many people pay homage in the main temple that made us difficult to get passed and look around the temple. Therefore, we eventually changed our plan and spent only a couple of minutes in the temple and decided to leave the place. I tried to explain this situation to the guests and assure them to come back again another time, if possible, come a bit early to avoid the crowd.

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Every holy day in bali, Balinese like to go to the temple and do self-purification. The Holy Spring Water Temple seems to be the main choice to do it and people (Balinese) believe that purifying our selves under the holy fountains of the Spring Water Temple makes our body and sour fresher and serene. For those who have a strong and deep spiritual understanding will feel the different and they will have willingness to come and experience it. Come and plan your tours with us and fell how it is like to be under the holy fountains. See you there.

Go Around Bali Tours: Saraswati

Another precious day is coming up soon. Yes, it falls on Saturday, March 8^th, 2014. This special day is called ‘Saraswati’. Coming once in every 6 months, Saraswati has always been a special day especially for school students (of any level) in Bali. I remember how curious I was when the day was coming closer. At school, there was a social activity right one day before the Saraswati day and all my school mates including teachers and staff worked together preparing for the ceremony of the following day. If you happened to be there, could you imagine how awesome it was?

Saraswati day is a commemoration to the descent of knowledge down to earth. It is a holy day where the God of knowledge ‘Dewi Saraswati’ is blessing her gift to the people (Balinese) who believe; therefore, having knowledge through education through schools is kept going and improving. On this day, teaching and learning activity is off as an appreciation to the goddess of Saraswati. In every house, Saraswati Holy Day is conducted by stacking books, dictionaries, and other knowledge resources and put an offering on them.

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Go Around Bali Tours will be very happy to assist you if you would like to attend the ceremony. The ceremony in schools normally starts around 9 in the morning until finished (around 11:00). In some family temples, the ceremony takes place until evening. The Balinese who conduct the ceremony in their temples include high priest, fortune tellers, and/or healers. Their followers will come and bring offerings to have blessing from the god.

Come and see the festivity, I am sure you will get amazed with it. Book your tour now, and we will see you there.

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