Guest post

Bali is one of the world’s most popular destinations for a beach holiday and although this Indonesian island, one of around 18,000, offers plenty of options for sunbathing by the sea, it also has plenty more to offer.

Gitgit Waterfall: As well as the beautiful water surrounding the island, Bali has its share of pleasant waterways within as well. The Gitgit Waterfall, although it sounds like it was named by an angry man with a stutter, offers one of the most relaxing and refreshing nature spots on the island. The falls are visited by locals as well as tourists who are happy to make the 10km trip south from Singaraja.

This spot is ideal for lazing around, photography or swimming in non-chlorinated waters without the hassle of cleansing yourself from an abundance of salt.

Botanical gardens: The idea of going to Bali is to have a relaxing break but sitting on a beach all day can get a bit tiresome. To change things up, without getting too energetic, many opt to stroll around the island’s botanical gardens. Nature lovers flock to see the vast array of plants, with more than 2000 specimens from across the globe on display.

Safari and marine park: If you’re into nature but more interested in animals than plants, Bali has that covered too. Its safari and marine park has hundreds of animals from more than 50 different species, including some endangered ones. Although you might not think it, Bali has the space to house elephants, tigers, leopards and cheetahs, as well as some animals such as the Komodo dragon which requires a lot less room to live. The park holds animal shows to teach visitors about the animals beyond the small plaque by each enclosure.

Tanah Lot Temple: Bali isn’t all about nature and history lovers will find plenty to explore during their stay. The Tanah Lot Temple is a favourite of many, dating back to the 15^th century. It is one of seven sea temples, each built on a rock completely surrounded by sea and provides impressive pictures at dusk and dawn. Snakes live at the base of the temple’s rock, some poisonous, and these are prominent in folklore as guardians against intruders and bad spirits.

Every year thousands of people book cheap flights to Bali to make the most of the sun-drenched island, whether it’s to make the most of the beaches or to take in all the island has to offer. After all, there’s no reason why you can’t head to the beach after you’ve seen the other island attractions. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

Variety is the spice of life, and holidays to Bali will surprise you with how much there is to see and do. Here are five of our favourite Bali experiences:

1) Catch some waves
Surfing in Bali began in the 1930s, when it was very much a ‘frontier’ surfing destination, and well off the beaten track for most surfers. Much has changed since then, and the island boasts 20 or so top quality surfing spots, mostly around the southeast and southwest coasts of the Bukit Peninsula. Stay in a plush resort hotel near the Kuta and Legian beaches, where it’s only a short stroll before you’re in the water catching some quality breaks. Surf parties abound in the season, which runs from April to October. The sandy beaches are kind to beginners, and Bali is the perfect place to learn to surf, with relatively small waves and a distinct lack of crowds. Exotic locations and ideal conditions are complemented by great facilities and a friendly social scene.

2) Get a little deeper
For those that prefer their adventures sub-aquatic, Bali has a wealth of dive sites set against picturesque backdrops of looming volcanoes or lush rice paddies. The season is year-round, and most of the best diving in Bali is to be found around the east and north west of the island. One of the most popular spots is the Lombok Strait, a fast-flowing channel that attracts a spectrum of unusual fish, including the spectacular sunfish. During April to September, you can see friendly reef sharks, as well as pygmy seahorses and parrotfish. Again, the conditions are ideal for beginners if this is your first time with scuba gear. More advanced divers can see the Liberty wreck, a World War II cargo ship that is one of the most famous wreck dives in the world.

3) Keep the faith
There are close to 10,000 temples of one description or another in Bali, all of them facing the mountains, the sunrise or the sea. They usually lie in a serene, undisturbed state until the various festival times, when they are transformed into a riot of colour, music and dance. Many are unremarkable local temples, but there are some iconic, unmissable places. Besakih Temple on the slopes of Mount Agung is more than 1,000 years old, named after a dragon god and with 18 altars for worship. The Elephant Cave is just outside Ubud, a huge demonic face carved into the rock, protecting the inner temple, which dates back to the 11^th century. The Goa Lawah Temple is in a cave filled with bats, or else descend the 300 steps to Gunung Kawi, with its ten, seven-metre high memorials. Whether you’re looking for peace or adventure, there’s a temple to suit you.

4) Shop til you drop
Bring your bargaining trousers too – because at most souvenir stalls in Bali, haggling is the order of the day. Most markets are a treasure trove of local handicrafts, with the most popular souvenirs being wood and stone carvings, hand-woven fabrics and hand-crafted jewellery. Kuta beach has many of the mainstream stores that international visitors may like to visit, as well as smaller stalls down the back alleyways, known as ‘poppies’. There’s a host of local art galleries to be found at Legian Beach if you’re looking for something colourful for your walls at home. Meanwhile, Ubud is surrounded by villages that specialise in different types of handicraft, and acts as a hub for the local gold and silversmiths, wood carvers and textile workers. You’ll find the prices very reasonable – even more so if you can bargain them down.

5) Fill up on fine food
The literary phenomenon of Eat, Pray, Love has seen a healthy stream of visitors to Bali, all looking for a gastronomic – and perhaps romantic – adventure. Indonesian food is spicy, colourful and best of all, ridiculously affordable. In Kuta, the restaurant Ketupak is something of an institution, dishing up local classics for around a few dollars a dish. In Ubud, the lines start early for the speciality at Ibu Oka Warung, where they serve up to 30 roasted suckling pigs a day. Pork fans will be in heaven. Along many of the beach resorts, small seafood stands have sprung up, where the fish will have been caught that very day and are cooked in front of you. If you crave sophistication and high dining, then head to Nusa Dua, where many of the country’s best gourmet restaurants are located, with international favourites mixed in among the local delicacies. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

Good news! Travel photo wallpaper calendar for May 2010 is now available here to download! If you still haven’t got the March and April 2010 wallpaper calendar, Download it first. As usual, 2 sizes are available here: 1920 x 1080 px for Full HD wide screen LCD and 1280 x 1024 px for conventional computer screen (or neither size is fitted nicely on your computer screen? Please let me know…). Choose either one to fit your LCD and download it here for FREE. Or you may want to download both. No problem.

Download this widescreen version 1920 x 1080px

Download this standard version 1280 x 1024px

This travel photo was taken in Kuta Beach, Bali. I love this photo as the deep blue sky and vibrant setting evening sun had created such a beautiful scene for photo hobbyist like me. Kuta Beach has one of the most beautiful beach that I’ve ever been to and it reminds me of Patong Beach of Phuket. Both beach towns have many identical characteristics such as long sandy beach, happening nightlife and also shopping heaven. Read my series of posts on my travel experience in Bali for more interesting stories of Kuta Beach.

Again, this travel photo wallpaper calendar is free to download from here and there are more wallpaper calendars for other months coming up next. If you like it, please support me by dropping a note to say ‘hi‘ in the comment section of this post, or preferably, subscribe to this travel blog feeds via RSS or email for free updates, or, you may buy me a cup of coffee! – Travel Feeder – the ultimate travel photo blog.

This is my experience of booking an Air Asia flight from my recent Phuket travel. Air Asia is the best budget airline in Asia or perhaps the world. No question asked. How to get the most out of it is the question. In most happened occasion, Air Asia flight is just an carrier to send a person from 1 airport to the other. No transit, airport transfer or on board entertainment are provided. The published fares, unless otherwise stated, are usually air fares only without other airport taxes, fuel surcharge or service charges whatsoever. What are non-inclusive since January 2009 are your checked-in baggage, on board F&B as well as change of flight and so on. Whatever is it, as long as you stick to their rulas and regulations, you will have the cheapest fares to fly to your desired destination, as long as Air Asia flies there.

However, many times and many passengers do get caught, frustrated or confused over some of their special conditions, flight postponement tactics or hidden surcharge applied. So, you need to understand how Air Asia works and let it works for you, not the other way round. Based on my previous experiences with them to our trip to Bali, Langkawi and Phuket, I’ve put down here the Top 5 tips to book an Air Asia flight in order to have the least hassle travel: -

1. If possible, pre-check in your flight – Currently, Air Asia allows passengers to either web-check in within 48 hours or kiosk-check in within 3 hours from your flight time. This is to ensure that your seats are secured. Though you could still check in personally at the check in counter in the airport which is normally open 2-3 hours and close 45mins before the flight time, there is always a risk, if you are late to the airport, let say 10 minutes from when the counter close, that your flight is full!! It happened to me personally in my trip to Bali. As we all know, being a norm in the industry, airlines do over sell their tickets! Because IMHO, some people will not turn up by that time, especially when people book for free few months ago and they have the ‘Book first and see how’ mentallity. So some might decided not to fly. Moreover, you could know earlier your seat numbers if you check in earlier. Unfortunately, the earlier you check in, the worse seats you’re going to get! Nevermind, proceed to 2nd tips… ;
2. Pre-Select your seats – Not many people doing this though. Unlike flights before this year, where passengers are rushing to queue up and rushing on board to fight for good seats, Air Asia currently pre-allocate your seats number. You couldn’t select where you prefer like other airlines. So, for RM5 per seat, you can now pre-select your seats online for window side seat if you love to. Extra Tips: For Airbus A320 with a seat configuration of 3+3, select anywhere at window side, either A or F and avoid row No. 11, 12 and 31 where there are emergency exit ways that those seats are permanently upright and couldn’t be leaned down for more comfort!;
3. Also you need to buy for your check-in baggage now – Try purchasing it online for RM10.00 per 15kg per serson if you have a lot to carry. If not, hand carry your luggage for a maximum load of 7Kg so can save you 10 bucks. Buy at check-in counter will cost you RM20.00. Anything beyond 15 Kg will cost you a bomb for 20.00 per extra Kg! So, pack your luggage carefully and check the weight before check-in!;
4. Bring along MP3,MP4, story books, read the on-board magazine or sleep during the flight. – There isn’t any entertainment, movies and not even information monitor on board. So be ready. Unless you try to pick up those average Air Asia stewardess or stewards on board. Extra Tips: As a rule of thumb, to minimise the jet-lag effect (due to different time zone in your country of destination), sleep as much as you can if you are flying west while stay awake on your flight to the east.
5. Be prepare to pay addtional airport charges when you are to depart from other country. - For some countries, you need to pay their airport charges separately in their airport before entering the boarding gate. They are not inclusive in your air fares! We didn’t pay anything in Phuket, but have to pay RM50 in Bali and my friends told me they have to fork out additional USD25 per pax in Cambodia!! Check the price carefully and add it into your ticket price to compare if your air tickets are still the cheapest!

Despite some of the rules and regulations of Air Asia sounds rediculous, I still could get away from their hand carry restriction of only 1 bag of 7KG in my Phuket trip. I carried a cabin baggage weighing 7Kg, a small backpack for all my travel documents and my camera lenses, as well as my Lowepro Cirrus TLZ15 with D60 on my waist. Hurray! – Travel Feeder.

Better known as the Temple of Holy Water, Pura Tirta Empul is one of the Top most popular temple in Bali, Indonesia. Founded in AD 962, the temple has few pools with crystal clear underground water gushing through the bottom of the ponds. It is the local hinduism belief that this holy water from the god could wash away sins, sickness, bad luck of its followers.

The Holy Water temple is located in Tampak Siring, near the famous wood-carving town of UBUD. We went there during our day-trip in Bali, on our way to Kintamani. Nowadays, most tourists are prefered to visit Besakih Temple (The most significant Hindu Temple in Bali) instead so there were not many tourists when we reached there (or maybe we were late after spending too much time bargaining for a wood sculpture in Ubud ).

After paying a nominal entrance fees of about Rp5,000 (should be around that, can’t remember the exact figure.. ), we stepped into the big couryard and there is an open hall in front of us where supposingly a rest place for the followers. There were only 3 guys sitting in there and were the tour guides.

One of them approached us and took us around. He took us to a ‘donation’ counter where we were given a ‘sarong’ or body scarf, on loan off course, before we could step into their holy place behind the courtyard. You should donate some monies here to the dedicated box on the counter.

Inside the holy compound, there is one big pond where you could see ‘holy’ water gushing through the base of the pond though it was full of water plants and green alga or kelp.

Beside it, there are also 2 bathing ponds with elevated spouts along the pond showering whoever wants to take a holy bath there with holy water.

We only washed our hands and face briefly with the holy water.

We took some photos of the place and also being took by the tour guide ‘cum’ photographer! Yes, he insisted to take photos for us and kept praising himself for such a great shot he took! What do you think? For me, he looked like a professional photographer at least, by the way he posed and took photos

Then was the serious moment…. He took us into their private compound where is supposingly strictly for the followers only… the praying courtyard…. and he stayed outside.

Once we came out, he took a few photos of us again….

There was another pood outside of the courtyard without the holywater but with a cafe next to it. We took a photo of the exquisite twin shrines and split gate, common in most temples in Bali. Before we leave, we struggled for a while before we decided to tip this ‘professional’ tour guide Rp20,000. (Yes, even more than the entrance fees…)

Strangely at first to me why they led us out through the exit at the other side and I realised shortly it was because there wanted us to pass through those 30+ stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs of Bali. Unfortunately, we bought some…. (even worse to know later that elsewhere were selling 30% cheaper! But at least we learnt the lesson well…)

Temple of Holy Water, Pura Tirta Empul perhaps is one of the smaller Hindu temple in Bali but it is still a popular religious destination for many tourists and is an important place for the local followers to wash off their bad fortune. – Travel Feeder.