Nusa Lembongan
Nusa Lembongan is an island located southeast of Bali and part of a group of three islands that make up the Nusa Penida district, of which it is the most famous. Nusa Lembongan has the vast majority of the tourist infrastructure within the islands and is a popular side destination for visitors to mainland Bali. A drive with a speed boat to the island or back to Bali takes about 30 minutes from Sanur.
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Kerobokan, Umalas & Batu Belig
Host of some of Bali’s best restaurant, boutiques and Nightclubs is Kerobokan – Petitenget with its Batu Belig Beach a seamlessly transition from Seminyak. Small cafes and warungs placed between private villas and rice fields offer a beautiful alternative to more touristic area of Seminyak and Legian.
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Tanah Lot & Balian Beach
Further west of Canggu is the black sand coastline of Tanah Lot and Balian beach. A popular destination for surfers and all Bali visitors looking for a more quiet and relaxing holiday experience. Yet it is also hosts the famous Tanah Lot water temple and one of the world’s most beautifully located golf courses overlooking the pacific ocean.
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South Bali
Home of golden sand beaches, raff limestone cliffs, world surf breaks and Bali’s top notch luxury resorts. Private villa estates and Beach Clubs build on the cliffs placed next to affordable backpacker hostels and beach shacks. Bali’s south has for everybody something to offer.
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Canggu & Batu Bolong
The area of Canggu between earned more and more popularity over the last years. More laid back than Seminyak and Kuta and with cozy restaurants and bars with views over lush rice paddies. The Batu Bolong and Echo Beach area is well known for its more challenging surf breaks and its beach bars.
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Ubud
Considered as the cultural and spiritual heart Bali’s, Ubud is also the centre of crafts and art studios. Surrounded by lush green rice terraces and along beautiful river beds you find superb restaurants, luxury villas and 5 star resorts.
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Sanur
Sanur’s long stretch golden sand beach with shallow water is appreciated by families and young visitors alike. The lush green landscaped grounds and a paved cycling path along cafes and restaurants create a beautiful atmosphere.
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Seminyak
Home of luxury world class hotels and private villas. Numerous fashion boutiques and exquisite restaurants. The beach hosts some of the best beach clubs Bali’s and numerous surf breaks and is famous for its beach bars. Seminyak is considered the most fashionable part of Bali.
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East Bali
The large east Bali region, including the seaside resort Candidasa and the well known dive area of Amed in the far east, is increasingly popular. The charming coastline with its lush forests and small fishing villages is the perfect location for a more relaxing holidays.
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Best Travel Quotes
1: “Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop
2: “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
3: “Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
4: “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin
5: “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
6: “The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton
7: “No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” – Chuck Thompson
8: “I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
9: “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert
10: “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous
11: “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau
12: “To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
13: “The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” – Anna Quindlen
14: “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
15: “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide
16: “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
17: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine
18: “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca
19: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain
20: “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Anonymous
21: “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” – Anonymous
22: “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley
23: “Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” – Ray Bradbury
24: “Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.” — Peter Hoeg
25: “You don’t have to be rich to travel well.” – Eugene Fodor
26: “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
27: “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
28: “When overseas you learn more about your own country, than you do the place you’re visiting.” – Clint Borgen
29: “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson
30: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller
31: “Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” — Lawrence Block
32: “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” – Babs Hoffman
33: “He who would travel happily must travel light.” – Antoine de St. Exupery
34: “Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure.” – Irving Wallace
35: “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
36: “The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine
37: “I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” – Caskie Stinnett
38: “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
39: “Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman
40: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
41: “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley
42: “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
43: “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag
44: “Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.” – Wendell Berry
45: “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” – Chief Seattle
46: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost
47: “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner
48: “Oh the places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
49: “It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville
#50: “Investment in travel is an investment in yourself.” ~ Matthew Karsten
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Bali – Diver’s Paradise
Bali is truly on of the best places in the world to dive. A huge diversity of underwater seascapes are breathtaking. Deep lushly covered walls; black sand slopes crawling with rare, bizarre and wonderful creatures; impossibly gorgeous, multi-colored coral reefs; exotic white sand beaches and coves; heart-pumping drift dives past other-worldly undersea cliffs and legendary big fish dives. Bali has everything you could need!
To the east of the island lies the Lombok Strait, the first deep water trench directly to the east of the Asian continental shelf. Through this channel flows the greatest volume of tidal water on earth. This Pacific Ocean can create some powerful currents and rollercoaster rides that characterises some of the dive sites. It also means regular visits from large and unusual pelagic fish like the incredible mola mola, or sunfish. The strong currents can also clean the water and create fantastic visibility.
Most famous Dive Sites
Amed – The east side of the north facing shallow bay of Cemeluk has dense stands of sloping staghorn corals, teeming with cardinal fish. Here you can see striped convict tangs, sail fin tangs and orange-lined trigger fish quite close to the Bali shoreline.
Biaha – You can be forgiven for questioning the wisdom of diving here as you are thrown around on the surface before descending at this site, close to Candi Dasa. A quick glance into the water below will reveal countless fish being tossed back and forth by the swell.
Candi Dasa (Amuk Bay) – 3 km southeast from Candi Dasa, Amuk Bay, lies the little rocky islet of Gili Tepekong that has some of the most spectacular diving Bali has to offer. Tepekong is just 100m wide, the coral walls are steep, the water is cold, and the current can be strong but, for an experienced diver, drifting with an up to 5 knot current through Tepekong’s canyon is an unforgettable and dramatic underwater experience.
Gili Selang – Gili Selang is a small island lying just off the eastern most point of Bali. Its relatively isolated location make it a popular choice on liveaboard cruises.
Lembongan Island – Nusa Penida – Away from the crowds of mainland Bali, just off Nusa Lembongan, lies Blue Corner where there are common sightings of one of the most incredible and odd-looking creatures of the sea – the sunfish. Spot one here and you can tick off a major diving ‘must see’. Emerge slightly shaken by the changeable currents but with a smile that won’t leave your face for the rest of the day.
Menjangan Island – 8 kilometers off the north west coast in Barat National Park lies Deer Island, or Menjangan, one of the more popular Bali diving destinations. Due to its protected location, waves are rarely a problem and the visibility is occasionally mind blowing.
Padang Bay – 50 meters off shore directly in front of the shrine after which it was named, lies Pura Jepun. The reef starts as a shallow ledge at a depth of 10 meters. Swim further to sea, and a slope will take you down to 20 meters, after which a sandy bottom levels out at 40 meters. The slope is dominated by magnificent anemones, black and yellow feather stars and sea squirts. Oriental sweetlips, boxfish and yellow trumpetfish are common on dives here.
Pemuteran – 2 kilometers to the east of Pemuteran (Permuteran) in north west Bali and a couple of kilometers offshore lies Napoleon Reef. This submerged reef rises to 5 meters from the surface and slopes down to 30 meters to the north, providing some easy paced scuba diving in north west Bali.
Secret Bay – Just to the east of the Bali-to-Java ferry terminal in the small village of Gilimanuk in northwest Bali, lie the calm waters of Secret Bay. Although not in the same league as other muck diving destinations such as Lembeh Strait, this spot has a fair collection of its own treasures waiting to be discovered; it’s definitely worth a dive or 2.
Tulamben – The USS Liberty is a wreck dive of international renown. Just off the stony shore of Tulamben lies the most beautifully colorful wreck you can imagine. Easy access, mild conditions and shallow water mean that everyone can enjoy the splendours of this wreck and interact with the myriad species that call it home.
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Ubud – Monkey Forest
The Sacred Monkey Sanctuary is home to 300-600 spirited long tailed macaques that live in three distinct troupes. The dense forest, one of Bali’s most revered for its Taksu, or spiritual power, encompasses 115 different species of trees, and none more impressive than the colossal Banyon Tree that leads to The Holy Bathing Temple. Actually, the tree and its hanging root system is so large it shelters an ornately carved Naga or Dragon Bridge that spans a deep gorge cutting through the heart of the forest.
There are many additional noteworthy facets of the Monkey Sanctuary. There are three principle temples, the oldest dating back to the 14th century, hundreds of moss covered expressive sculptures, grand trees and plants, and even a primate cemetery.
The mysteries surrounding the monkey cemetery are compelling. It is known that scores of the monkeys pass away each year, but only a small percentage of their bodies are actually recovered. No one is quite sure what happens or where they go. Numerous studies have been conducted with no definitive results. For the departed monkeys that are recovered, the human caretakers thoughtfully create a carved headstone reflecting their personality, their name and year of expiry.
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