Monday, December 31, 2012

Best Activitiess in Bali and Lombok- Lonely Planet Indonesia

The meagre mention of ‘Bali‘ evokes thoughts of a paradise. It’s more than a location: it’s a feeling, an aspiration, a tropical state of mind.Yes, Bali has sandy shores, surfing, diving, and holiday resorts large and little, but it’s the essence of Bali – and the Balinese – that makes it so much more than just a fun-in-the-sun withdraw.

It is possible to take the cliché of the grinning Balinese too far, but in truth, the inhabitants of this small island are indeed a bountiful, genuinely warm persons. And there’s an awful lot to do in paradise:
Balinese Dance
Balinese dance is amazing how people who relish lounging in bales (open-sided pavilions) can furthermore produce art that demands entire methodical precision. A performer of the Legong, the most beautiful promenade, spends years learning minutely choreographed movements from her eyeballs to her toes. Each movement has a meaning and the dialect flows with a grace that is hypnotic. dressed in fine thread and ikat, the dancers tell tales wealthy with the very essence of Balinese Hindu beliefs and lore.

A festival of carnivals
There you are sipping a coffee at a cafe in, say, Seminyak or Ubud, when there’s a smash into of the gamelan and traffic screeches to a stop as a mob of dignified clothed people comes soaring by bearing pyramids of crop, tasselled parasols and a furred, masked Barong or two. It’s a temple procession going away as abruptly as it emerged, with no more than the fleeting sparkle of gold and white silk and hibiscus petals in its wake. Dozens occur every day over Bali.

Snorkelling
bathe a short expanse from shore and glimpse the eerie ghost of a sunken freighter at Tulamben, or hover a few metres over the marine life teeming round the attractive reef wall at Pulau Menjangan. Bali and the Gilis have oodles of places where you can fall on fins and mask and enter another attractive world. The mangroves of Nusa Lembongan are a smorgasbord for a rainbow of fish that gather in profusion. Or easily slip into the serene waters off a sandy shore such as Sanur and see what darts off into the distance.

Sunrise over Gili Trawangan, Lombok
If you believe Gili Trawangan is a stunner by daylight, you should see it at dawn after a evening of promenading to some of the hottest electro, trance, reggae and dwelling melodies in the region. You won’t find slick decor, flashy visuals, doorwaywayway employees and stiff entrance charges in Gili Trawangan, where the parties begun as raves on the beach and still have a raw, unorganised essence. Local DJs commonly rotate hypnotic tribal noise and superstar DJs have been renowned to turn up and play unannounced groups. Parties are held three nights a week but are curtailed during the month of Ramadan.

Pura Luhur Ulu Watu, Bali
Just watch out for the monkeys. One of Bali’s holiest temples, Pura Luhur Ulu Watu is sat on on big cliffs in the southwest corner of the island. In the 11th years a Javanese priest first pleaded here and the location has only become holier since. Shrines and sacred sites are strung along the edge of the limestone precipice. You’ll swear you can glimpse Sri Lanka as you gaze across an sea rippled by swells that arrive with metronomic precision. Sunset promenade performances great pleasure while those monkeys patiently await a banana – or maybe your sunglasses.

Trekking on Mount Rinjani, Lombok island
glimpse at a chart of Lombok, and virtually the entire to the north half of the island is overridden by the brooding, magnificent presence of Gunung Rinjani (3726m), Indonesia’s second-highest volcano. Hiking mt.Rinjani is no picnic, and engages planning, hiring a direct and porters, stamina and sweat. The path winds up the edges of the large top until you reach the rim of a huge caldera, where there’s a jaw-dropping outlook of Mount Rinjani’s sacred crater lake (an important pilgrim site) and the fuming, highly active mini-cone of Gunung Baru underneath.

Surfing Lombok island
From Lombok to the Antarctic is effectively half the globe – that’s some expanse for the azure rollers of the Indian sea to construct up speed and impetus, so it’s no shock that the island’s seashore has some really spectacular waves. wasteland issue is the most well known of these, an unbelievably long travel that tubes over a pointed, shallow reef. If that noise a little too hard centre, head to the village of Kuta lombok, where you’ll find dozens of challenging surf breaks a short expanse away, encompassing Mawi and Gerupak.

Seminyak, Bali
People ramble round Seminyak and ask themselves if they are even in Bali. Of course! On an isle that standards creativity like couple of other locations, the capital of glitz is where you’ll find inventive boutiques run by local designers, the most eclectic and interesting assemblage of bistros, and little boutique hotels that break with the isle clichés. Expats, local people and visitors alike idle away the hours in its cafes, at ease with the world and protected in their enjoyment of life’s pleasures.

Tourism on Bali started here and is there any inquiry why? The clearing arc of sand bends from Kuta bali into the misty horizon northwest. Surf that begun far out in the Indian sea crashes to shore in long symmetrical breaks. You can stroll the 12km of sand, enjoying a base massage and freezing beer with thousands of your new best friends in the south, or revel in utter solitude up north.

Surfing Bali
If it’s a month encompassing the note ‘r’, proceed east; throughout the other months, proceed west. ease itself. And on Bali you have dozens of great breaks in each direction. This was the first location in Asia where surfing took off , and like the perfect set, it displays no signs of calming down. board riders buzz round the island on motorbikes with board racks, looking for the next large break. swell blown out? Another location is just five minutes away. The view at classic surfer hang-outs like Balian Beach is untainted funk.

Bukit Peninsula beaches, Bali
Bukit Peninsula beaches, Bali
A little plume of white sand increases out of the blue Indian Ocean and fills a cove below limestone cliffs clad in deep green tropical attractiveness. It noise idyllic, and it is. The west coast of the Bukit Peninsula in south Bali is dotted with beaches like that, such as Balangan sandy shore, Bingin and Padang Padang. Families run funky surfer bars constructed on bamboo stilts over the tide, where the only outlooks are the breaks metres away. catch a lounger and be lulled by the swell.

Diving in Bali island
Diving in Bali island
seem small as a manta ray blots out the sun’s blaze overhead, its fluid movement initating scarcely a disturbance in the surrounding waters as it glides past. And there’s another, and another. Just when you think your dive can’t get more dramatic, you turn to find a 2.5m sunfish hovering motionlessly, ascertaining you out. Nusa Penida is but one of the many dive sites buzzing Bali. The legendary 30m partition at Pulau Menjangan thrills, one tank after another.

Underwater Gilis or Gili Islands
Taking the plunge? There are couple of better places than the Gili islands / Gilis / Gili Eilanden, encircled by coral reefs teeming with life and visited by pelagics such as cruising manta rays. Scuba diving is a gigantic draw – there are some professional schools and all types of courses educated (from unconditional beginner to nitrox specialist). With very simple get get get access to to to from beach to reef, snorkelling is superb too, and you’re very likely to glimpse turtles. Want to take snorkelling to the next grade? Try freediving – Trawangan is dwelling to one of Asia’s only breath-hold diving hubs.

Ubud, Bali
Famous in publications and videos, the creative heart of Bali exudes a convincing spiritual apply. The roads are bordered with galleries where artists, both humble and large, conceive. Beautiful performances showcasing the island’s wealthy heritage grace a dozen phases nightly. Museums respect the works of those motivated here through the years, while people stroll the rice fields to find the perfect location to sit in lotus place and ponder life’s endless possibilities. Ubud, Bali is a state of brain and a beautiful state of being.  
source and image by : www. lonelyplanet. com