Pendawa Beach Bali Island

Pandawa Beach will be one of another tourist destinations in the southern part of Bali, you can combine your travel from Pura Uluwatu then to Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) and end to this beach till sunset.The beach can be accessed by driving down through an enormous human-made quarry-like canyon. With a mesmerizing natural landscape, ancient religious structures and multiple cultural activities, the list of things to do and places to go on the world-famous island of Bali is almost endless.

road to Pandawa Beach

Concealed behind high cliffs and overgrown shrubbery, Pandawa beach had long remained secluded from the crowds of tourists, due to the less-than-easy path that had to be taken to access it. Pandawa Beach has a stunning panorama with serene and quiet atmosphere.  located in Kutuh Village, South Kuta District, Badung Regency, it is only around 3 km from the famous Nusa Dua area.

 beautiful panorama from high cliff

Entering the beach, you will be amazed by beautiful panorama of high cliff, flanking the road along 1.5 km. The road is purposely built through limestone hills, similar with the hills in Garuda Wisnu Kencana. Along left side road to beach, there are enormous niches excavated out of the limestone cliff face that will hold massive statues of Yudhistira, Bima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadewa. These are the Panca Pandawa, five brothers who are characters in the shadow puppet theater, from which the beach takes its name.

 Panca Pandawa Statues

Pandawa beach is often referred to as the Secret Beach Pandawa Beach boasts white sand, quiet and serene atmosphere which is combined with a background of turquoise sea. The ambience is still quiet, serene, and clean. 

Pandawa Beach

Pic credit to http://galareal.blogspot.com/

The wave and current is not so strong, suitable for swimming or other beach activities like playing sand, sunbathing, canoeing, surfing, sailing with small boat and others. Some vendors rent their canoes or boats there for your adventures. Nonetheless, complete your experiences with the phenomenal sunset panorama from the greatest angles.

Rocky beach at Pandawa

This beach is also well-known as one of the landing locations for paragliding tours. A few kilometers from Pandawa Beach, at Timbis Hill you can adventure with paragliding. you will experience the true beauty of Pandawa Beach from the height. Instructors at training center are available for newbies and a first-timers.

canoes at Pandawa Beach

Tips:

• Bring your own transportation here, no public transportation to bring back you. You can rent a car or a bike at your homestay or hotel.
• we can also observe the activities of the seaweed farmers along the coast directly. Because of its shallow contour and short wave, Pandawa Beach is very suitable for cultivating seaweed. No wonder if lot of the local residents choose to be seaweed farmers.
• While you’re around the shore, try their Barbeque Sweet Corn. Taste is really good. Go for chilies flavor as well, it’s yummy

by  Google +Febzakri

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Tanah Lot Temple - Bali Island

Pura Tanah Lot is one of the favorite destinations among Bali Temples followed by Pura Bedugal and Pura Uluwatu. the temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the Indian ocean tide makes this a special attraction. Tanah lot is one of the closest to Seminyak, Legian or Kuta where most of the tourists would stay. It is just within 1 – 2 hour travel depends on the traffics.

Pura Tanah Lot Bali

Tanah Lot temple is also one of the scenic spots in Bali not-to-be-missed. Your visit to Bali will not be completed without a visit to Tanah Lot temple. The best time to visit the place is sunset when the sun colors the sea and sky beautifully with reds, yellows and oranges. Sunrise can do in a pinch but won't be as spectacular as sunset.  It is also one of the most popular spots for photographs of beautiful silhouette of the temples during sunset over the ocean.

Tanah Lot Bali

This place has to be visited in the afternoon if you want to enjoy the sunset and that makes this attraction part of second leg of your day trip with morning session spent at a location on the northern mountains. You can start your adventure to Pura Taman Ayun at early morning, Candi kuningan, Bedugul temple, and on the way back stopped at Alas Kedaton 'Monkey Forest' and arrived at Tanah Lot at around 4.30 PM, usually sunset is at around 6.00 pm.

the rocky island of Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th-century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.

Tanah Lot

At the base of the rocky island, poisonous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders. A giant snake purportedly protects the temple, which was created from Nirartha's scarf when he established the island.

Holly sea snakes cave at Tanah Lot

If you are lucky you can witness the Hindus people with traditional dress for the ceremonies or festivities at this temple. Hindus people doing pray at Tanah Lot Temple for special day like: Purnama (full moon), Tilem, Buda wage, Anggara Kasih, Saraswati, Siwaratri, Kajeng Kliwon and others.

Tips:

• Make sure you take plenty of water, a hat, comfortable shoes, camera.
• You can also find people who will take your photo and with your camera too if you want and give you instance photo with frame for a some fee.
• There are plenty of shops at this temple entrance for shopping almost everything including souvenirs, dress, shoes, sculptures, paintings and crafts and many else. Bargaining is expected everywhere unless the price is clearly marked, in which case it is fixed.
• Pick a sunny day with cloud free to experience seeing the sun hit the water at sunset without your view being obstructed and  make your visit to Tanah Lot Temple is a memorable one.

Pura Batu Bolong

• The views at Pura Batu Bolong are also breathtaking. I understand that this location is also famous for the red sunsets.
• The amazing thing is the holy spring water in the middle of sea water. It is free of charge. 
• Stop over at any of the rice field by By-Pass Munggu roadside at any villages while on the way to Pura Tanah Lot. As the view just simply nicer than Tegalalang Rice Terrace Field
• There are so many restaurants lined up along the mountain edge providing dining with excellent sunset view. As usual, for a prime tourist location

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Wat Arun - a must see Thailand's landmark.

Wat Arun is a must see landmark. It is a very old Buddhist temple.  The local call it as Wat Chaeng. It  is situated on the west (Thonburi) bank of the Chao Phraya River. It is one of the most stunning temples in Bangkok, because the design is very different to the other temples that you can visit in Bangkok. It is partly made up of colorfully decorated spires and stands majestically over the water.

Wat Arun from Chao Phraya River view

The temple derives its name from the Hindu god Aruna, often personified as the radiations of the rising sun. Wat Arun is among the best known of Thailand's landmarks and the first light of the morning reflects off the surface of the temple with pearly iridescence.  Although the temple had existed since at least the seventeenth century, its distinctive prang (spires) were built in the early nineteenth century during the reign of King Rama II.

Wat Arun Bangkok

This temple is one of the tourist destinations when seeing the Grand Place complex.  You can go first to Grand Place then take a walk to Wat Pho and finally go to Wat Arun.   Other tourist attractions accessible from here are the National Museum, Chinatown the Ko Rattanakosin area, and the Banglamphu district.

Wat Arun Temple

Located on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, this temple can be reached either by Arun Amarin Road or by boat from Tha Tien Pier, near Wat Pho. The Tha Tien express boat pier, at the southwest corner of the Grand Palace or Wat Phra Kaew, is diagonally opposite Wat Arun. You can get to Tha Tien on the Chao Phraya River Express boats from any other pier, or take a taxi to it. Plenty of Thonburi canal tours also take tourists to visit this artistic piece of architecture.

Chinese soldier  at Wat Arun

The main feature of Wat Arun is its central prang (Khmer-style tower) which are encrusted with colourful porcelain. This is interpreted as a stupa-like pagoda incrusted with coloured faience. The height is around 86 m. The corners are surrounded by four smaller satellite prang.

The prang is decorated by seashells and bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China. The presiding Buddha image, cast in the reign of Rama II, is said to have been molded by the king himself. The ashes of King Rama II are interred in the base of the image.

You can climb the central prang if you wish, the steps are very steep but there is a railing to balance yourself. Getting up is as tricky as getting down! When you reach the highest point you can see the winding Chao Phraya River and the Grand Palace and Wat Pho opposite. Along the base of this central tower there are sculptures of Chinese soldiers and animals.

Some tips: 

• You can get to try the traditional Thailand dress for only 100 baht at the lower part and take photo like crazy with Wat Arun as the background. 

Tourists with Thai Traditional dress

• At the jetty terminal, buy some fish food and threw them into the Chao Phraya to lure the fishes up, the fishes were huge! 
• Dress properly, off shoulders (spaghetti straps/ sleeveless ) and shorts for women are disallowed. You might ended up buying a wrap arounds on site if you are considered not dressing properly. 
• Climbing up to the steep stair of the pagoda is painful but the view for the top is very beautiful. Don't forget to take some photos with this amazing architecture. 

view from Wat Arun

• There are some stalls along the side of the temple. You can buy some t-shirt here at the outside of temple. The price is fixed.  You can buy 12 pieces for 1000 baht or 6 for 500 baht.  Price of kids size is more lower than that. There are around 10 – 15 seller in here sold T-Shirt and some sold the souvenirs   
• Despite the name, the most spectacular view of the glittering monument can be seen from the east side of the river at sunset, when the spires of Wat Arun make an impressive silhouette against the skyline. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun
http://www.watarun.net/

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