Bear Spiritual Wellness with Bali Sacred Bathing Places

Famously known as the fabled “Island of the Gods”, Bali is full of temple sights and cultural rituals. Found in every village - from the simple house temples to temples in every rice fields, by the sea and in places of natural wonders, even in village intersections - these temples are consecrated, purified and blessed to retain its sanctity by the holy rituals - which are performed to balance the energy of good and bad.

To the Balinese, water has always had ritual significance as an agent of purification. “Tirtha” or holy water has been the key ingredient in performing the Hindu rituals being the principal means by which forms of impurity from the people, places and sacred objects are cleansed.

Locals, from time to time, even perform self-cleansing rituals such as “malukat” - bathing in sea or natural springs - praying to the ancestral shrines and performing various self-restraining acts.

Moreover, some temples or the Balinese called "Pura" a holy place for the Hindu Balinese worship the God - are also sacred bathing places, which also includes the rivers, springs, lakes and the sea whose waters are highly recognized to have magical and curative qualities. This sacred baths in Bali are where Balinese cleansing rituals are also performed.

Bali Villas Sacred Bath

These cleansing rituals are the inspiration upon which some of Bali’s luxury villas and Bali villa spa share the experience of Balinese beliefs and feel the union of serenity inside and out. Some of these Bali villas offer health and spa wellness services similar to the sacred bathing ritual.

These Bali villas sacred bath are members of Bali Spa and Wellness Association (BSWA) - a non-profit organization representing Bali’s spa and wellness industry.

• Villa Yudhistira at Pandawa Beach Villa And Spa

           Pandawa Beach Villas & SPA showcases villa style living accommodation while you experienced the benefit of a spa services.

          Villa Yudhistira, one of Pandawa beach Villas 3 bedroom unit boasts of a private pool, manicured garden, spacious living and dining area with a deluxe suite downstairs as well as 2 ocean view suites with balcony upstairs will provide you a superb view and sea breeze.

• Villa Simona Oasis Spa

          Villa Simona Oasis Spa is a 5 bedrooms luxury villa that is a dramatic Balinese gateway of carved stone and double doors, leading into an entrance garden bordered on one side by a Palimanan stone wall showcasing a magnificent carving in the design of tropical leaves.

          Conveniently set with a spa that sits on the triangular piece of land at the point where the two rivers meet which is accessed via a little bridge under a pergola dripping in cascading thunbergia, bounded by torch ginger, giant taro leaves and frangipani trees.

          Staying and experiencing the sacred baths in Bali Island will surely bring positive effects and healthy advantages to their guests.

          Health wise - with the traditional Balinese treatments that include Balinese massage, foot baths, body scrubs or masks and flower baths would surely create well-being for your body, mind and soul.

The Secret Charisma Of Ricefield Views In Bali

Bali tourist attractions is not only about its endless sandy beaches, wild forests - with its exotic fauna and flora, rich surrounding coral reefs around the coast - that provide good waves to the wildest of waves that will challenge even the most experienced of the surfers, luxury resorts, spas and Bali villas - private and villa for rent, but also, Bali features charming and picturesque ricefields.

Ricefields in Bali have been an enduring part of Balinese religious life, as seen in their veneration of it in a special Hindu-Balinese temple called Ulun Swi or Pura Ulun Siwi temple - the principal temple in Bali dedicated to the welfare of both wet and dry rice fields, and the spirits, which live in the temple, are thought to control the mice and insects such as grasshoppers that periodically infest the fields.

According to the sacred Kutara Kanda Dewa Purana manuscript, the word “Ulun Swi” is derived from the word “ulu” which means “center” or “source” and the word “swi” which means ‘rice field” or “water” - so Ulun Swi temple is the center of rice fields in a certain area - with every ricefield has its own Ulun Swi temple.

An Ulun Swi temple is a place for farmers to ask for fertility and successful harvest - by paying homage to the deity of the land - Ida Bhatara Bhaka Bhumi - so the earth will yield good harvest and insects, mice, birds as well as to prevent other disturbances in damaging the crops.

Balinese rice terraces go back over 2,000 years where it had been carved on steep hill sides and broad, steadily descending mountainsides and constantly extended generation after generation, making these Balinese rice terraces meticulously shaped out of necessity but showcasing a natural scenic attraction to the visiting tourists in Bali.

One of the villas in Bali boasting this ricefield view feature in their villa location and design is Villa Bayad.

VILLA BAYAD

An Ubud Bali Villas, Villa Bayad a spacious, luxurious 4 bedroom villa set in the middle of lush green rice paddies, boasting the magnificent view of Bali’s mighty Mount Agung. The villa is just conveniently located ten minutes north of Bali’s cultural center, Ubud - providing its guests easy access to shops, restaurants and galleries.

Designed by Popo Danes, one of the most renowned architects in Southeast Asia, Villa Bayad is traditionally laid out as a compound, with the 4 bedrooms being in separate houses beside the main house, all connected by flower-covered pergolas. Every room showcases a beautiful vision of the surrounding rice terraces to Bali’s sacred volcano in the horizon.

Boasting of 4 private luxurious bedrooms, two swimming pools - surrounded by an 8000 m2 garden of sweet smelling flowers, lotus-ponds and waterfalls, Villa Bayad guests would surely enjoy the tranquility of nature and the local countryside as well as providing them a chance of experiencing the real Bali aesthetic from the inside - with friendly staff that is guaranteed to cater to their every need.

Villa Bayad in Detail

The 4 spacious air-conditioned bedrooms are all separate houses - differently styled and named after four distinguished locations in Bali: Tenganan, Klung Kung, Ubud and Singaraja. Two of these houses share a private open kitchen and dining bale as well as a private spring water fed plunge-pool and pool deck.

Each house provides a furnished veranda and bathroom complete with shower cabin and a small walled garden with outdoor shower. All bedrooms are equipped with cable-TV and DVD-player, and the beds are dressed with the best quality of cotton bed linen.

The main house likewise boasts of an air-conditioned media room / library with the best of audio- and video-equipment. The spacious living- and dining area opens up to a large veranda, surrounded by flower covered, multi-level fishponds and flanked by two comfortable bales, where you can relax, listening to the sprinkling water and enjoying the beautiful view.

An open, fully equipped kitchen is ready for the staff to prepare your meals on your request - or you can use the kitchen yourself, if you prefer to cook your own meals.

How Bali Inspires Most House and Resort Designs

The panoramically exotic Indonesian island of Bali has always been closely associated with the word "paradise". Its close association is not without reason for Bali is famous for its diverse and classy magnificently visual culture infused with spirituality --- particularly displayed in its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts and its countless uniquely designed Hindu temples, with all of these art forms sporting a unique exotic Balinese designs.

Aside from its art forms, these unique exotic Balinese designs have also influenced Bali lifestyle and its house designs as well as its Bali villa designs –-- of which Bali has become famous for, with its large collection of private villas in Bali for rent, complete with staff and top-class levels of service.

Balinese House Designs

Balinese designs --- be it decorative or structural --- displays a well-considered function which may be of an earthly or spiritual nature. It combines the peasant liveliness with the refinement of classicism of Hinduistic Java and the new vitality fired by the excitement of the demonic spirit of the tropical primitive.

Overall, just like any other traditional Asian designs, Balinese designs are uniquely exotic but basically simple and down-to-earth.

There is some house designs that are Balinese influenced such as:

The Bali T-House by Tony Gwilliam

Gwilliams’s T-house design celebrates Bali’s colorful fusion of Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Designed by Tony Gwilliam, the T-House showcases the interdependent “living system” model inspired by traditional Asian architecture -- the bale, which is the pavilion structure in Indonesia compounds where Balinese families lived.

The T-House is built with simple rustic materials, designed to work with nature, as in Asian tradition. It is rafted in sustainable natural materials-ironwood, alang alang, and bamboo-harvested from forest in Indonesia so it is good for the earth.

These T-House designed houses are displayed in a village of T-houses located on a rice plantation near Lodtunduh --- which was said to be an experiment in “minimalist impact living,” where Gwilliam and his partner, Marita Vidal, an architect from Argentina, developed the pilot project Bali T in the Rice.

Bali Villa Designs

As Bali’s unique exotic Balinese designs, both traditional and modern, are everywhere in Bali and impossible to miss, these Balinese designs have also greatly impacted Bali villas with regards to its designs and architecture.

Though usually the traditional Balinese designs combines the colorful fusion of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, in today’s era of the glamorously provocative, edgy and high-tech modernistic designs, Balinese designs daringly departs from the traditional to the boldly avant-garde, with all its blings.

One example of these modernistic–inspired Balinese designs Bali villas is the W Retreat and Spa Bali.


The W Retreat and Spa Bali

Overlooking Seminyak’s strip of sand, The W Retreat and Spa Bali, is designed by Ed Ng, of Hong Kong-based AB Concept. It showcases a big on its façade brazenly dripping in bling.

As one enters the space-age airport terminal looking lobby, one can observe that the silver and granite finish artistically blends with splashes of fuchsia, lilac and gold. Moreover, fanning out above the lobby are the lower-category rooms, each of which has a view over the multi-level WET area and Indian Ocean from their balconies.

Furthermore, W has expensive rooms that are strategically positioned in the different corner of the property, with these gated villas having a private pool and ample living space.

Balinese–Inspired Artists

As Balinese designs has greatly influenced on house designs and private villas, these Balinese designs also has a great impact on artists and designers, with regards to their designs ---- specifically designer fashion outfits.

Alleira

Featuring a collection with vibrant palette consisting of bright colors including red, orange and terracotta, high-profile batik fashion house Alleira has launched its 2011-12 collection which is said to be inspired by the beauty of sunsets.

Combining traditional and contemporary batik motifs in many of its pieces, Alleira’s women’s collection boasted a chic, feminine look with simple, A-line dresses, feminine, long-sleeved blouses and flared tunics and caftans made of delicate Chinese silk.

While Alleira’s men’s collection retained a conservative look showcasing a range of formal batik shirts in a fusion of warm sunset colors blended with cooler hues such as purple and indigo to create a dramatic look.

Must-See Attractions and Nature Views in Bali

Bali, an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east, is well-known as the famed Island of the Gods.

With its diverse panoramic milieu of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides all providing a picturesque vista to its colorful, deeply spiritual and unique culture, the breathtaking island of Bali stakes a serious claim to be paradise on earth.

Popularly known for its world-class surfing and diving, a large number of cultural, historical and archaeological attractions, and an enormous range of Bali accommodation --- ranging from Bali nature parks, villas for rentals, spectacular beaches with great surfing and diving have made Bali one of the world's most popular island tourist destinations and one which consistently wins travel awards.

Bali has something to offer a very broad market of visitors from young back-packers right through to the super-rich, ranging from its magnificently visual culture infused unrivaled Bali tourist destinations such as:

West Bali National Park

This park is the only national park on the island of Bali. It is located on the most north-westerly point of the island. The official area inside the park boundaries is 190 square kilometres, with a further 580 square kilometres of protected reserve in the highlands to the east. In total this accounts for some ten percent of Bali's total land area.

The park boasts of a very varied nature with rainforest, dry savanna, acacia scrub and lowland forests, as well as more montane forests in the higher centre habitat.

Furthermore the park boasts of 160 species of birds, including the near extinct Bali Starling, Bali's only endemic vertebrate species, and a key reason why this national park was created in the first place.

Only a small percentage of the total area of the park is open to visitors, so most visitors to the park arrive along the north coast road from Lovina (about 90 minutes) or Pemuteran (about 15 minutes) while others come from the south via Gilimanuk, which is about 15 minutes.

The park can be explored in 2 ways: either hiking the trails or concentrating on marine aspects. If you want to walk through the trails, you must be accompanied by an official guide from one of the national park offices while boat trips to Menjangan and around Gilimanuk Bay can be organized in advance or by charter on the day you arrive.

Besakih Temple

Known as Bali’s ‘Mother Temple’ for over 1,000 years, Besakih Temple is perched 1,000 metres high on the southwestern slopes of Mount Agung.

Besakih is the biggest and holiest of all the Balinese temples and is surrounded by breathtaking and scenic rice paddies, hills, mountains, streams, and much more.

To get there, from Sanur, take the Kusamba Bypass to Klungkung. Head north through Klungkung and take the right-hand turn at Menanga to get to Besakih. The journey from Sanur shouldn’t take longer than two-and-a-half hours.

Bali Safari & Marine Park

This park is one of the island’s largest and most visited animal theme parks which opened its gates in 2007.

Established by Taman Safari Indonesia, the park’s facility is spread over 40 hectares and shelters more than 60 wildlife species, all of which roam free as if living in their natural habitats.

Ideally suited for families traveling with children for they will really enjoy riding on a safari bus to visit the animals, watching fascinating elephant talent shows, getting cuddly with baby orang-utans, and viewing baby sharks at the aquarium.

To get there, go to Jalan Bypass Prof. Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra, Gianyar

Tegallalang Rice Terraces

Tegallalang offers a perfect Bali photo opportunity with its dramatic views. Set in a vista that sprawls down and away to the rice terraces on the slopes across the valley, ancient valley of Tegallalang has a timeless quality whether there are tourists there or not.

In order to go Tegallalang, go to Ubod. Tegallalang is half an hour's drive north of Ubud. From the main Ubud art market, head east to the large statue intersection and head further up north.

Bali Villas

During your vacation stay in Bali, it is highly recommended to enjoy and stay at any of the villas for rentals found all over Bali.

Bali is known for its famous Bali villa, which boasts of the well-known affordable Bali villas accommodation service.

Make sure to stay in one of Bali villas, villas for rent, then your Bali vacation would surely be relaxing and comfortable.