With an early start and after a long two hours drive from south Bali, we finally arrive at this beautiful scenes, Belimbing, in west Bali. To me this is the most photogenic rice terrace in Bali. The angles are abundant almost at every corner. Not just terrace but also the curve. Well , I will just let the photos to speak the rest.
The beach that has been visited by westerners since the beginning of tourism started in Bali. Still charming and attractive amongst both local and westerners up to these days. For photographers this place is sunrise spots that never make them boring as everyday cloud and the color never be the same.
Some people still called this beach as ‘secret beach’ but now more known as Pandawa beach as they have built statue of Pandawa on the cliff above the beach.
The clear water, the blue sky and the impressive lime stone are the beauty of this place. The still active seaweed farmer activities are the unique of this place. Hope the remain exist even when tourist facilities start to arise.
A day to experience to be a member of Balinese farmer family. Do what Balinese farmer do from farming and gardening, home cooking to offering making.
It is an honor for our family to invite you to our humble family compound to show you the uniqueness of Balinese traditional compound, as well as sharing the stories and philosophies behind it. On our walk to the rice field, you are welcome to help us hearding our ducks and feed our cows. Our beautiful rice terraces are located in a remote place that can be accessed only by foot after crossing small bamboo bridge. Depending on the rice growing stages, you may witness plauguing, rice planting, weedding or harvesting. If you dare, you are more then welcome to help us farm the rice otherwise you can still enjoying the beutifull view and learn about sophisticated traditional irrigation system fo Subak.
After the rice field, we would together picking some vegetables either wild fern, young jack fruit, young papaya, cassava leaves, spinach or others from our organic garden. From the same garden, we will also gathering spices like lemon grass, turmeric, chili, salam leaves and others. We will cook whatever available directly from our garden. For the main dish we then need to catch cat fish from our fish pond. As all ingredients ready then we start our home cooking in our kitchen, located just next to the garden overlooking the beautiful view of Ayung river valley. Our mother, aunty or our sisters will show you how they cook our daily meals using our traditional wooden fire stove. As you are part of the family, you should help them doing the cooking as well. Here are some dishes that we usually make
After finish cooking our dishes and before enjoying our Balinese home lunch, as our traditional custome, we first made our daily offering. We would show you how we make this intricate offering. Daily offering is our way to express thank to the God and hope the food blessed by Him.
The lunch table is set overlooking the beautiful valley of Ayung river. You can enjoy your Balinese lunch in a relaxing atmosphere with the lush green valley view beneath you.
Melasti is a cleansing ceremony to purify the temple amenities and the temple members ( the villagers). It also purposed to obtain the holy water to be used in further ceremony in their temple. Due to these purpose, the ceremony then held either in water springs, rivers or beaches. There will be procession of the villagers in their traditional outfits carrying offering, idols of temple’s God or deities, colorful flags and umbrella. It would also accompanied by cheerful Balinese music orchestra. Many times the procession are passing through beautiful coastal areas, lush green rice field, hilly mountain or dense of the forest. A perfect setting for photos of colorful tradition in the beauty of the nature.
Melasti ceremony is usually done as part of the temple anniversary ceremony or part of the Balinese New Year celebration. Here are some example photos of Melasti ceremony that is part of Balinese New Year celebration under the colorful morning sunrise by the beach.
