WELCOME TO BALI TOURIST INFORMATION

Bali is one of the province of Indonesian archipelagos, which is divided into 8 districts Gianyar, Klungkung, Karangasem, Bangli, Buleleng, Tabanan, Jembrana, and Badung regency, plus the city is the provincial capital of Denpasar.

Bali province itself is an island called Bali and has other small islands namely Nusa Penida, Nusa Ceningan, Nusa Lembongan, and Menjangan Island.

Bali is famous for its cultural tourism, has grown since the arrival of Dutch merchant ships led by Admiral Cornelius de Houtman in 1679 in order to set sail in search of spices, when he got in Bali, it became obvious there were no spices at all but many unique inhabitants with completely different life style from those of any other islands they had ever seen. Finally Houtman sailed back to his base-port of Batavia, in Java, with nothing but a bundle of reports about a “new” island he had found, the island which was called by its habitants : “Bali !” and from then on the name of Bali spread rapidly throughout Europe, and the world.

Today, Bali, which is still called Bali, lives in the 21th century along with other parts of the world. Nearly three and half century after it was “found” by Houtman its requirements probably are not too much different from the needs of any other region but Bali today is not the same as the Bali Houtman had seen three and half centuries ago. There have been improvements made by the progress of modern technology for the comfort of Bali’s guests. However, what so called changes have been made are not more than an outward appearance, just gratifications to comfort the guests’ outward life, while inwardly the culture of Bali itself is still the Bali of centuries ago.

The ceremonies the people perform for their deities, and the customs the people retain, or the traditions they protect among the fast stream of technological developments, all are kept up as is the life style itself.