Bali Tour Guide

I woke at 5.30 am, take a shower and start my car engine at 6Am. I need to be at Amed in Amed 9 AM. I used the main road passing Gianyar, Klungkung, Candidasa and Amed. I stop for few minutes in Tirtagangga for a cup of coffee. I arrive in Jemeluk (part of Amed) around 8.30 AM. Salt makers still busy doing their activities. I also notice there are still numbers of ‘jukung’- traditional wooded boat , with their colorfull sail out in the water. I guess this is fish season.. Many baskets full of fish waiting side of the road confirming my guessing. All the fish were ‘macarel’ type of fih, locally call ‘awan’. Read the rest of this entry →

We started the trip from Ubud at 8AM. Our first destination would be Sideman Village. We drove on the road along Telaga Waja River and make some stop on the way to enjoy the beautiful valley view and rice field. That time was clove-harvesting season so we saw many cloves being dried on the side of the road. There were few coco beans also being dried.

After the turn in Sangkan Gunung, I made another stop in my favorite viewpoint corner. From here, we can see the whole green valley of Sideman below us. Line of hill surrounds the valley with Mount Agung on the Northern side. A river stream flow from the north to the sea in the south, like dividing the valley into two. As the weather is clear we can see the blue of the Indian Ocean far in the south. Read the rest of this entry →

There was another wedding in my village few weeks ago. There was no much different than any other Bali wedding but what interest me was the walk that involve on the wedding.

The house of the groom is about 2 km from the bride house. The couple decided to cover the distance on foot instead of by car, like the old days. Read the rest of this entry →

Few weeks go I got a client for photo shooting. It was their wedding day. The bride is natively from Tabanan Regency and the groom is from Northern regency of Buleleng. Both groom and bride are belonging to ‘brahmin’ family.

We started the photo shooting from the bride house. This day, the groom family will be coming to the bridge house, pick up the bride and bring it to the groom house to do the wedding ceremony. There would also several step of ritual would be done in the bride house before. It took about an hour for the bride to do the make and put on the heavy hair dress and colorful Balinese outfits. The groom and the family come on time. A formal meeting between two families is done after a welcome drink given. The meeting was run smooth and the bride family agrees to let their daughter to merry the groom as it was decided on previous meeting. So far the process was normal. Now, it is time for the family to call the bride to join the meeting. During the meeting the bride was staying in inside the room. Read the rest of this entry →

Taking Pre Wedding pictures is getting popular now amongst the younger couple. They would make a day or two-photo tour to beautiful photo scenes in Bali. Few weeks ago I took pictures of Tony and Herma. We split it into two days.

On the first day, they were wearing on casual modern outfits. We choose some scenes in South Bali around Pecatu area to do the photo taking. The scenes are a combination of dry lime stone hill, a bit of lush green as it was still rainy season, and colorful sunset of
Balangan. Click here to see more photos

On the second day, Tony and Herma were wearing traditional Balinese outfits. We choose the ancient and unique look of Gunung Kawi in Tampaksiring for the photo taking. The greenery along the Pakerisan River also gives some feel to the pictures. Here are the photos.

Congratulation to Tony and Herma.

It is 2007 in Gregorian calendar this year but it is only 1929 in Icaka year. Icaka is the name of the lunar-based Balinese calendar system. Melasti, the purification ceremony is held few days before the new year by almost all of the villages in Bali. Read the rest of this entry →

I need to pick up my regular customers in Amed, East Bali, at noon. I didn’t want to have a boring drive on this 2 hours drive from Ubud. I bring my camera along and decided to start early so get a better light. It was indeed a good day to take pictures. I captured almost every part of rice farming activities with Mount Agung as a background. Read the rest of this entry →

Today, I am planning to take some pictures of a ceremony held in Taro Village. The village known as the site for sacred white cows and presently as Elephant Park Safari. The ceremony is called ‘Mapepada’ where the animals are given a blessing ceremony before they are sacrificed. I imagine I would take pictures of a parade of some animals with pieces of cloths on them going around the village temple. Read the rest of this entry →