BALI PARADISE

The island of Bali is blessed with the line of beaches surrounding it.

Sanur.
On the southeastern side of Bali, Sanur beach is easily reachable from Denpasar, about a 5 to 10 minute drive. Sanur is an excellent site to watch the sun rises, as you jog along the white sandy beach. Being one of the first resort developed in Bali, Sanur maintains its traditions. Only a stone thrown away from the beach, ancient temples stand as solemn as they have been in centuries past.

Kuta and Legian
Practically on the opposite side of Sanur, the beaches of Kuta and Legian stretch on the southwestern side of Bali, again only about 5 to 10 minute drive from Denpasar or the airport. Surfing is a major activity in these beaches. Shops, Kecak dance performances, pubs, and other facilities make Kuta a tourist mecca.

Jimbaran
Jimbaran is directly south of the airport, on the way from Denpasar towards Nusa Dua. The village of Jimbaran is the narrow neck of the island of Bali, and thus it has two remarkably different beaches. On the west, Jimbaran Beach faces the Jimbaran Bay, recently lined by new luxurious resorts. On the east, the beach faces the body of water sheltered by Benoa Harbor.

Nusa Dua
Nusa Dua is a new luxurious resort area where the world's most sumptuous hotels gracefully integrate into the beautiful white beaches. Crystal clear water provides excellent snorkeling and diving site, and the waves on the northern and the southern part of Nusa Dua allow for great surfing opportunity.

Soka Beach
Further northwest from Denpasar, on the way to Gilimanuk, the ferry port town that connects Bali and Java, there is a small quiet beach called Soka Beach.

Medewi Beach
Continuing along the path towards Gilimanuk, near the village of Pulukan, the beach of Medewi is another beautiful beach.

Lovina Beach
Near the northern tip of the island of Bali lies a stretch of villages by the Bali Sea. Lovina Beach is the name. It is well known as an excellent site for sunset watching, snorkeling, and diving. Night life activities are also abound, as well as chartered boats to go out into the sea. If you like what Kuta offers but do not like the crowd, Lovina Beach is for you.

Bali paradise – tales of affairs by Melina Caruso-Mulyadi of MMC Marketing?

John Millard (AKA Jack) Daniels was thrown an alleged surprise party at a venue part owned by the notorious Suharto family (the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel Bali) recently to celebrate 500 issues of his wobble and lies for Bali's tourism (especially his own) rag, the Bali Update; although he seems more bored than surprised (photo left)! Daniels’ published claims that the “Gala” benefited from “free-flowing champagne” with a small “c” (but not small enough), “live music” and “delicious food” seems at odds with the photos taken of the event which clearly show an apparently unpopular red plonk, olives on sticks and a cake made in the shape of a PC, adding yet further evidence to speculation Jack is totally and pompously delusioned. Sad too perhaps was Daniels’s statement that “close friends from Bali tourism industry and local government” accounted for the people who attended. Recent revelations that Daniels locks himself away at weekends to publish his weekly Bali yarns and yawns (The Bali Update) plus this apparent admission that he has no “friends” outside the travel industry, where so called "friendship" is generally about self-serving nodding heads, “Oh reallys!” and don’t leave your back unguarded. We had to wonder which person in the photographs is Jack’s pet bent police officer “friend” Tri Kuncoro, or if the rumor is true that Bali’s Cyber Crime detective, who thought you had to visit a business’ premises in order to see their web site, had enough sense and some might say class at least to avoid this rave!

THE BEAUTY OF SUN SHINE IN KUTA BEACH

No one argued when considered as a center of Kuta tourist activities in Bali. When the afternoon we can enjoy the beautiful white sand and warm sun. Among the Kuta tourist also known as the best place for evening activities. Hundreds of discotheques, restaurants, hotels and other tourism facilities spread over this place.

All kinds of tourism facilities in this place and spread in some way such as Jl Legian, Jl Dhyana Pura, Jl. Kartika Plaza, Jl Raya Pantai, and so on. There are hotels with prices ranging from Rp 75,000 per night and into the millions per night. There are also games such as bungy jumping, Slingshot, and Waterbom. If you want to enjoy travel to other places, there are also travel agents and car rental motorcycles. The point, however you want to enjoy a holiday in Bali are all available in Kuta.

The Bali Arts Festival is a full month of daily performances, handicraft exhibitions and other related cultural and commercial activities during which literally the whole of Bali comes to the city to present its offerings of dance, music and beauty. On display are trances from remote mountain slopes, forgotten or recently revived village dances, food and offering contests, classical palace dances, stars of Balinese stage, odd musical performances, "kreasi baru" (new creations) from the dance schools of Denpasar, as well as contemporary choreography and dance companies from other islands and from abroad.

It is a month long revelry that perhaps no other place in the world can put up on such a low budget as the Balinese. Not only is their traditional culture alive and well, but they have a tremendous pride in it.

It begins in the villages, where the seka or cultural groups are selected and organized at the regency level, vie with each other to perform the Arts Festival and thus display in front of a large audience the uniqueness of their village of birth and resting place of their ancestors.

The Bali Arts Festival is the Denpasar cultural event of the year, perhaps it would no be too far fetched to suggest that it is the cultural event of Indonesia. The festival is thus a unique opportunity to see local village culture both "live" and at first hand. Tourists are warmly welcomed.

The Beaches
of Bali