Bali News / Island’s News Updates

The green island with its lakes, paddies and temples is a sight to behold, writes Tamanna Mahtani. The serenity that Bali has can best be enjoyed minus the trappings of Kuta. The latter, a busy district, is where the principle that commercialisation corrupts, has taken root and thus destroyed, predictably. So my mother and I stayed at the Bali Padma Hotel at Legian Beach, far away from it.

Bearing in mind the myriad temples and daily celebrations on the Balinese calendar, there are always processions taking place somewhere. One comes across beautifully dressed women carrying fruit offerings piled high on their head, filing slowly along the road, or large groups of women and men walking with a noisy gamelan orchestra, sometimes with the sacred Barong in tow. You have to stop on the road and just observe the colourful frenzy.

To add to it are the kites that come out when the strong winds blow from February to August. Some of them are even as big as a house!

Our local guide takes us to the village of Batubulan, which literally means ‘stone moon’, it’s famous for stone workshops and then to the artists village of Ubud. It’s lovely to see the quaint Balinese villages consisting of compounds where whole extended families live. Their streets are decorated with bamboo poles, or ‘penjors’.

A long drive brings us to the most important temple complex of Bali, the Pura Besakih. The Pura Besakih consists of various temples that are scattered over the slopes of the sacred volcano Gunung Agung. Our guide informs us that this active volcano is the largest on Bali and plays an important part in the lives of the local people, because they believe that the spirits of the ancestors dwell here.

The nicest part of the trip was a visit to Lake Bratan. It had just rained and the temperature was about 17° Centigrade. The clouds seemed to touch the water and a few individuals were fishing there too.

The Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple has three niches, one for Hindus, one for Muslims and one for Buddhists. Perhaps this is why Bali is called ‘Island of the Gods’. It’s something to learn from, one realises.

news article by dnaindia.com