Bali General information : Location, Land, Climate, People,
Tradition and Culture, Visa and Formalities.
Welcome to The Island of
Paradise!
Bali -where religion is the
source of traditional customs in everyday life. A vibrant culture,
unique arts and ceremonies, a gentle and friendly people and
spectacular scenery make Bali one of the premier travel destinations
in the world. Come to Bali to learn for yourself how beautiful
it is. It needs more pages to describe the wonders and magic
of Bali in words. Here is a glance info about Bali:
The Island, Where, Width
and Population
Bali
is one of the 17,000 Islands of Indonesia, located between 8
and 9 degree south of the Equator. It takes 3 hours flight from
Singapore or 5 hours from Sydney or 4 hours from Hong
Kong and 8 hours from Tokyo, those closest cities
in the pacific. There are direct and some connects flights from
Europe, North and South America as well as Africa. A very narrow
strait, called the strait of Bali, joins the Indian (Indonesia)
ocean and the Java sea, separating Bali from Java. Bali’s total
area is slightly more than 2000 square miles. According
to the latest census Bali’s population is three million
five hundred thousand people.
Topography, rice fields, mountains and
beaches
The mountain range is from Batukaru in the west and Gunung
Agung in the East while in the center there are lakes which
divides Bali into two plains, the Northern and the Southern
plains. The Northern plain is much narrower, hilly
and dry so that there is no much wet rice culture possible and
yet the people here like in the rest of Bali live from agriculture.
The mountain in some places comes right to the sea, the
coast is swampy in the West, alternately sandy and full of pebbles
in the center and rocky in the East. There are few beaches here
good for swimming as well as snorkeling and diving.
The Gunung Batur is very active volcano. In this century it
erupted in 1905, 1926 and 1963 when it kept erupting till 1974.
One of its many craters once in a while emits smoke. The highest
Volcano - Mt. Agung was quite for more that 150 years, but it
was certainly not dead yet. It erupted suddenly in 18 February
1965 when Bali was about to have a big purification ceremony,
called Eka Desa Rudra, which is to be held every 100 years.
The previous eruption must be 1811, because this was mentioned
in the book, the history of Java, written by Raffles, when he
was Governor General of Indonesia.
The center part of Bali are most fertile
and in these regions the tourists can see the most beautiful
rice field terraces. This part of Bali is, no wonder, called
the rice belt of the Island. The South part lies white sandy
beaches where mostly hotels are located such as : Nusa Dua,
Jimbaran, Kuta, Legian and Sanur area.
To the South-East of central Bali lies the arid island of Nusa
Penida, Nusa Lembongan which used for snorkeling, beaching by
most of Cruises company.
Flora and Fauna
Bali is though to be the last island of Wallace line that separates
the flora and fauna of Mainland Asia and Australia, but in Bali
there are no kakatoe birds, but one finds plenty of them in
the islands East of Bali, e.g. in Sumba and Flores. A very few
are found in Nusa Penida. There are more snakes and beautiful
myna colored birds. The Australian flora and fauna are supposed
to begin in Lombok, the island just East of Bali. In Nusa Penida
one occasionally sees the white kakatoe and the Horned bill;
a bird with very large beak, too big in proportion with the
head, and the body. .
Religion
Most
population of Bali (90%) are Hindu and the others are Catholic,
Protestant, Moslem and Buddhist. The Hinduism in Bali mixed
with local tradition and culture, thus almost everyday you can
find ceremony or festival.
The Balinese will be accompanied by rituals from birth to death.
The birth is celebrated through the "penyambutan" ceremony,
The three Month ceremony when the child is allowed to touch
the ground an given the name. Every six month celebrate otonan
(birth day), after the adulation they have 'tooth filling' ceremony
then wedding ceremony.
As we are Hindu we have also Cremation ceremony, if some one
died we will cremate the death body. Common people said that
through cremation the soul can go the Heaven.
Temples, houses and other building are celebrated every 210
days (6 month) as the anniversary ceremony. You can easily find
ceremony almost everyday. This is one of the main reason why
travelers come to bali.
Let's join us and explore Bali!-
Visa and Formalities.
Click here!
Should you have any question, inquiries
or suggestion, please click here!