Despite having been to Indonesia for quite several times and already visited 3 World Heritage Sites of this country, Bali which is the most famous and popular tourist attraction and possibly the “first” and “must visit” place to visit for every itinerary was logically omitted from my travel plans for many occasions. The reason was I was afraid that one day I would have a chance to attend seminar on this island, so I decided to skip this island and use my times to explore somewhere else. Unfortunately, Bali already lost its status of Southeast Asian premier seminar destination to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, as a result, my expectation to have seminar in Bali has become uncertain. During my recent business trip to Singapore, I added few extra days to visit Bali and its World Heritage Site.

During my three days in Bali, I hired a car with driver as recommended by my friend in Jakarta, a very convenient choice for such a short visit and a driver also acted as a guide who could shield me from those infamous scam and hassle in many temples. From all sites that I have been, 3 sites are recognized by UNESCO, Taman Ayun Temple, Subak Landscape of Pekerisan and Lake Batur. The royal temple of Taman Ayun is famous as the grandest survival of once powerful Mengwi Dynasty’s architectural style. The large complex was surrounded by moat with elaborate palatial main gate that illustrated the glory of the builders. The highlight of the temple was the main sanctum with many impressive and elegant multi-tiered pagodas. The craftsmanship of brick decorations on these pagodas’ platforms were stunning in every detail, and the view of pagodas row of this temple was really one of the most iconic spots of Bali. To be honest I was not sure I truly understood the concept of Subak landscape. For me the concept of landscape of water distribution with religious sites and rice fields looks typical around South and Southeast Asia, the rice terraces of Bali were much inferior from the sites in Philippines, Vietnam or China, although the elements of Balinese’s unique culture made the landscape to be unique. For all sites in the Pekerisan, Pura Tirta Empul Temple, in my opinion, was possibly the most stunning. This temple was totally different from Taman Ayun Temple in terms of design and architecture. The whole complex was built around the sacred spring water well with many shines dedicated to local gods and hundreds of pilgrims who came for bathing in the sacred pool. Watching those pilgrims, and many tourists, did bathing rituals by dedicatedly praying to God and offered flowers to the springs were heartwarming experience and really put Bali to be a special place on earth. The craftsmanship of smaller shrines around the complex were equally stunning with many golds painted details with countless images of Hindu gods. The last element of Balinese World Heritage Site I saw was Lake Batur, a scenic sacred lake. I felt that visiting Lake Batur was a bit of tourist trap because of every tour had to go there for buffet lunch in one of many restaurants in the area. At least the view was quite pretty, and its holy status did remind me the famous five lakes of Mount Fuji in Japan that I hardly accepted their sacredness, but for Lake Batur I felt I could appreciate its religious value more than Japanese site maybe because from Balinese culture on landscape experiences made me wanted to believe!

I really enjoyed my time in Bali, its World Heritage Sites were really good and in terms of architectural and landscape design were really outstanding and unique. Even though Balinese culture is really special like its own universe, I felt that there were more sites in Bali that deservedly to be listed by UNESCO, so the question why other stunning temples such as Besakih temple, Tanah Lot temple or Gua Gajah cave were not part of the nomination. Exclude those sites made the current list to be questionable on its real universal outstanding value but again I don’t think I can make any judgement or comparison; only local Balinese could tell which sites are more special than the others.