Thursday March 5th, 2026 Queen Anne, Bali, Indonesia
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 18
- 7 min read
On our last visit to Bali, 3 years ago, the ship had to moor a long way from the port ensuring a very long tender ride. Thankfully today we slowly steamed up the deep water channel with amazing views of the distant mountains and tree lined shores with local fisherman out for an early morning catch in their small outrigger and docked right at the cruise terminal. A local business with the catchy name of “Bali Hai” painted on its roof caught my attention and recalled a distant memory of a rare childhood visit to the cinema to see the musical South Pacific.
Today we took a Cunard tour that included a visit to the famous Water Palace and also to the ancient village of Tenganan. Bali is an amazing place, a tiny island with its own language and culture, predominantly Hindu but included as a part of the vast collection of islands that is Musim Indonesia. The people in Bali are very gentle, quiet and reserved but incredibly friendly. There are many large beach resorts in Bali, and these attract a huge number of tourists, in fact several of the Cunard tours involve resort visits; but we prefer to soak up culture rather than the sun and our tour today was full of promise.
Heading east from the port we skirted Denpasar, the capital of Bali, and soon realized how undeveloped the country was; there are no freeways, no high rise buildings and, outside the capital, very few multi-lane roads. The traffic was a bit of a nightmare, but the backups appeared to be built into the schedule. This is another country where the primary mode of transport is the scooter or small motorcycle and swarms of them surrounded our bus at each intersection. Inevitably the residents become very creative about how much and what they can carry on a scooter; 2 adults and a child were a routine site, as well as boxes and packages strapped to the rear seat and sides, but the funniest thing we saw was a large roasted suckling pig tied across the rear seat of a scooter – sorry but I was not quick enough to snap a picture of this.
Most people in Bali live in a multi-generational “compound”, each with their own family temple or shrine; we passed many of these along the roadside with the dark, intricate, sculptures prominent in the shrines. There is a large number of small scale manufacturers in Bali, with workshops and sales outlets all along the roads; everything from pottery, sculptures, tiles, wood carving and furniture could be seen as we whizzed by on the bus – we could see these in almost every village as we headed into the country. The further out from the capital we went I noticed far fewer people wearing crash helmets, even though the law requires them, their appears to be the belief that less accidents happy in the countryside, or maybe it’s just that there are fewer cops about. I must admit that I found it more than a little disconcerting to see a small child sat right behind the handlebars of a scooter, with a parent operating the machine and another, slightly older child in the passenger seat, flashing passed our bus – none of them wear a helmet.
Rice paddies became more common with most operating on a small scale supporting a single family in a kind of subsistence farming. At a corner in the road we passed a troop of macaque monkeys foraging by the roadside; our guide told us about how “naughty” the monkeys could be, stealing anything they could lay their hands on. I found the macaques to be quite menacing in appearance with their gray coloring, devil-like ears and snaking tails. Although I typically appreciate observing monkeys, in this instance I was relieved that we did not pause for a closer examination.
It took a little over 2 hours to reach Taman Ujung Water Palace on the south-east coast of Bali; despite the lengthy journey, it was worth the wait to see such an awesome sight. Ujung Water Palace was built by the last king of Karangasem in 1909, as a development of the Dirah Pool which has been built by the previous king in 1901 for exorcisms - the construction was completed in 1921. It was almost entirely destroyed by the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963 and the earthquake in 1975. After years of neglect, the place underwent renovations between 1998 and 2001 and is now a popular tourist attraction.
The layout of the site consists of a large rectangular ornamental pool containing the small palace that is accessed by elevated walkways on the northern and southern sides. The pool sat at the bottom of a tiered hillside planted with ornamental gardens and on top of the hill there were several thatched structures accessible by long staircases on the northern and southern sides.
From the parking lot we approached the site over a narrow bridge that spanned a small rice paddy. The palace came into view and quite literally, it was breath-taking. The pool surrounding the palace provided an excellent canvas, reflecting a shimmering image of the beautiful white palace and its connecting bridges like a delicate watercolor, gently rippling each time the breeze brushed the surface. I couldn’t wait to explore, and we took advantage of the relatively deserted buildings while the rest of our group was diverted by the promise of a free snack.
Crossing the northern bridge we entered the palace itself; inside we found beautiful, tiled floors and alabaster white walls and just a few rooms accessed via teak doorways. The king used this building for relaxing with his family and to entertain visiting dignitaries. I climbed the 100+ stairs up the tiered hillside to reach the only original structure from before the volcanic eruption and the earthquakes, the Bale Kepal – a small platform surrounded by partly ruined walls. The view from the Bale Kepal was amazing, I could see down to the water palace and out to the ocean. I could also see another pool to the south of the water palace; this pool had its own open sided pavilion. Finally I made my way back down the long staircase and met up with some of our group at the snack stand where I sampled some typical Balinese treats; fried bananas and sweet potato wrapped in banana leaves – delicious.
The Ramayana Beach Resort was the venue for our lunch, located about 30 minutes from the Water Palace and, being a beach resort, right on the sea front. A path through the beautiful tropical gardens led to the main restaurant where a buffet lunch was laid out for us. The location was fantastic, the food not so much – I’m always wary of dished that are supposed to be served hot but are barely warm. I took the opportunity to look around the resort a bit; nice pool, lush gardens but, as far as I could see, no beach – this I found curious given the title of the resort.
More winding roads, paddy fields and tree covered mountains brought us to the final stop on this tour – the traditional Balinese village of Tenganan. The village is the only place on the island where some of the decedents of the original Balinese live according to very strict rules as to who is allowed to live in the village. Only those born in the village can stay in the village and become full members of the community. There are rules regarding marriage and anyone who marries outside of the village has to leave. A strict protocol regarding marriages among the kin groups have steered the Tengananese through the genetic perils of intermarriage although with increasing contact with the outside world these rules have relaxed somewhat.
Houses in Tenganan village are built on either side of the uphill to downhill concourse with their doors opening onto it. The entrances of the houses are narrow, only allowing one person to enter or leave at any one time. Most of the houses were open and we were encouraged, by our guide, to look inside – many were weaving houses where the special Geringsing fabric was created. Signs indicated which houses were also selling fabric and other items and I took the opportunity to enter one for a look around; I found a bit of a hodge podge layout with a tiled floor, open sides and thatched roof – in one corner was a weaving loom next to the family motor cycle, another corner appeared to be selling baked good, fabric scarves hung on a string from the ceiling. No one was inside except me, I felt like a bit of an intruder, so I left.
Up the center of the village were a series of communal pavilions for formal and informal meetings, and ceremonial gatherings; at the northern end was the temple Pura Puseh, the temple of origin. I made my way up the concourse of the village ahead of the crowd from the bus and found it to be relatively quiet except for the occasion cock crowing; there were many chickens, some wandering “free range” but most in single bamboo cages – many had their feathers died bright colors. I found the village to be a bit creepy – quiet, run down, almost no one around and those I did meet were not interested in chatting, though they were not unfriendly. Maybe that was the point of the visit to this ancient village, showing how things used to be with people not really interested in tourists.
I found out later that the Geringsing fabric is very important to the people of the Tenganan village, used in all of the life changing rituals like birth, coming of age, marriage, tooth grinding (of course) and death. Curiously in death the fabric is placed across the genitals of the deceased and this fabric is later sold to tourists – phew, glad we didn’t buy any!
Although the bus ride was lengthy, our second trip to Bali was truly enjoyable. The locals were very friendly, the attractions we visited were captivating, and the breathtaking scenery made the experience unforgettable.
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