The Island of Many Holidays

Today is Tuesday which means that normally students would have been sitting in the class rooms of Udayana University and studying Indonesian language and history. But once again this is no normal Tuesday - instead today is one of the numerous holidays of Bali. This thime there's the national holiday of Islamic New Year although that doesn't seem to affect too much the life in Bali. That's easy to explain by the fact that only 5 per cent of the population in Bali are Islamic and over 90 per cent believe in Hinduism.

As I've already mentioned Bali is the only place in Indonesia where Hinduism is the majority religion. Overall in Indonesia over 80 per cent of the population are Islamic and that's why Bali also respects all the national holidays of Indonesia. During last few weeks there has been so many different holidays and ceremonies that I decided to write a blog post about all of the holidays that are part of the Balinese calendar. That includes all Indonesian national holidays (mostly Islamic mut also some Christian and even Buddhist holidays) and also some special Balinese hinduism holidays. That's why Bali is called the island of many holidays.

National holidays:

- New Year's Day: I'm pretty sure that almos the whole world acknowledges the change of the year in the western calendar even though the country (or the area) would have its own calendar as Bali and Islamic world do. So yeah, New Year's Day is a puclic holiday also in Bali and Indonesia.

- Maulid Nabi Muhammad:This day is the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad so it resembles the Christian Christmas. In Bali Maulid Nabi isn't that significant holiday (same way as all other Islamic holidays) because Islamic people are clearly in the minority in Bali. Overall in Indonesia Maulid Nabi is one ot the biggest holidays. 

- Chinese New Year: Also in Indonesia and in Bali the Chinese New Year is an official holiday because there's significant Chinese minority living in Indonesia. Chinese New Year is a great and gorgeous celebration but unfortunately it isn't celebrated that widely in Bali because there's very few Chinese people living permanently in the paradise island. Still, in some of the temples there may be some happenings.

- Nyepi: Nyepi is one of the biggest holidays in Bali and because of that it's also part of the official national holidays respected in the whole country of Indonesia. Still the influence of Nyemi is clearly the most visible in Bali amongst the Balinese Hindu people. Nyepi is the 'Day of Silence' when everyone in Bali stay home silently and meditating. During Nyepi all stores, public places and even the airport are closed down. From 6 AM until 6 AM next morning no one (execpt the official traditional security man) is allowed to leave their home and walk around the streets. This tradidion is followed by also the tourists and the visitors. In your home you aren't allowed to light any lights, have loud noices or have any kind of celebration. After Nyepi comes the new year in Balinese calendar that is celebrated widely. In 2014 Nyepi will take place in 31st March.

- Good Friday and Ascension Day of Jesus Christ: Although over 80 percent of Indonesian people are Islamic, even over 10 per cent of the population are Christian. That's why all the main Christian holidays are also part of the official holidays in Indonesia and even in Bali although only 1 per cent of Balinese are Christians. So yeah, Bali truly is the island of many holidays.

- Waisak: As I already mentioned above, Islamic, Christian and Balinese Hindu holidays aren't even enough because there's also one Buddhist holiday in the Indonesian calendar. It's true that only 1 per cent of the Indonesian population believe in Buddhism but that 1 per cent means more than 2 million people. So yeah, it's easy to understand why the Waisak, celebration day of birth, enlightment and death of Gautama Buddha (all in same time) is also an official holiday in Indonesia. In Bali it's pretty unnoticeable but in other parts of Indonesia there's huge groups of monks celebrating the Waisak.

- Ascension Day of Prophet Muhammad: As the name already propbably tells you, the main reason for this holiday is pretty much the same as the one for Jesus Christ in Christian calendar. And as I've already told you, the Islamic holidays aren't that significant in Bali although in other parts of Indonesia they are.

- Ramadan and Idul Fitri: Indonesia makes no exeption for celebrating Ramadan. The ninth month of Islamic calendar is Ramadan, Muslims worldwide observe this as a month of fasting. Of course the whole month of Ramadan isn't an official holiday but Idul Fitri (the end of Ramadan) is.

- Indepence Day: Indonesia got its independence from the Netherlands in 1949 and that great thing is celebrated every year in 17th August. This is of course really big holiday all over Indonesia.

- Idul Adha: I think I already mentioned Idul Adha in this blog as it was celebrated in Indonesia approximately one month ago. As most of the Indonesian holidays it is connected to Islamic religion: it is celebrated because the Prophet Ibrahim was ready to sacrifice his own son. I can tell by my own experience that Idul Adha is quite unvisible holiday in Bali.

- Islamic New Year: This is celebrated today and I can't say that it would've affected my everyday life here in Bali any way. Still, it's part of the official holiday calendar here and in other parts of Indonesia it is of course really important moment.

- Christmas Day: Same way as Eastern of course the biggest moment of the Christian year, the Christmas is also part of Indonesian holidays. I think it will be interesting to see how much the Christimas is really promoted in Bali because only 1 per cent of Balinese people are Christian but on the other hand Christmas is nowadays very global phenomenom. At least until now I haven't seen any Christmas buzz in Bali which is (in my opinion) a great thing. Let's see.



Balinese holidays:

- Saraswati: Saraswati is the Balinese Hindy holiday to celebrate the day when knowledge is given by gods. The day is celebrated by traditional Hindu rituals, which include traditional dancing and singing holy songs. The day is named after the beautiful goddess Saraswati. I can't say anything concrete about celebrating Saraswati in Bali because I haven't had chance to see that in person.

- Pagarwesi: Pagarwesi is one of the main holidays amongst the Balinese Hindu people. Balinese people believe that giving really special gifts to god can save them from evil and unluckiness.

- Tawur Agung Kesanga: The day before Nyepi (look above). The big ceremonies are held, people wear traditional costumes, everyone's playing music and so on. This is the 'The Day of Great Sacrifices'.

- Ngembak Geni: The day after Nyepi. After the period of 24 hours of silence has ended, familys and friend reunite and spend the day together.

- Galungan and Kuningan: Galungan and Kuningan are clearly one of the biggest holidays in Bali. There are big ceremonies and huge decorations (look the picture above) can be found everywhere. Galungan and Kuningan are one of those few times during the year when it's much more difficult to find an open store or restaurant (even though it's not impossible at all). Balinese people believe that Galungan is the day when the spirits of deceased people return to their homes. 10 days later comes Kuningan when the spirits return to the heaven.

The End of Mid Term Tests

Yeah, that picture pretty much sums up the agenda of this week. It's a picture of my Indonesian test that I took basically just to check if I have learned anything about Indonesian during last two months. As I've already mentioned many times, I don't study in Udayana University (I'm just hanging there to observe the everyday student life and of course try to help the students) so it's no use for me to do the actual test because I'm not going to get any credits from the courses.

The situation is of course completely different for our exchange students who had in overell six exams during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They really had to try their best during the exams because the results of mid term tests are a big part of the grade that they're getting from their courses. Of course the other big part are the final tests that take place in the end of the semester in December. So yeah, studying in Bali isn't just partying and surfing: students have to show that they've also learned something. There were two exams in Indonesian language and one in other courses (literature, tourism, Indonesian history, business law and economy). I heard that especially business law and economy were quite though but many students seemed to be quite satisfied with their answers.

Anyway, there were a lot of happy faces around campus area on Wednesday afternoon when the mid term test week was over - especially because there was no excursion or workshop on Thursday so the students had an exceptionally long weekend ahead :) On top of that there was also some pretty nice Halloween pool parties on Thursday (even though Balinese people dont celebrate Halloween, the culture has arrived here because of the Western tourists). There's even more pool parties coming up during the weekend so yeah, I have to say: studying in Bali can be pretty fun even though sometimes you have to put some effort on your studies.

Accommodation in Bali, Part 1

Hi! It's time to post few videos once again :) Before the holiday week I had an opportunity to meet both and Farah and Chris who are probably the two most popular estate agents among the students here in Bali. Farah and Chris are helping over 100 students per semester to find their dream housing in Bali.

The most usual way to live here is to share a villa with your friends. Villa is a very luxurious and huge building that normally includes some special services like a swimming pool and own staff. I've been living in a villa for the last two months and this is undoubtly the coolest place where I've ever lived and probably where I ever will.

I'm going to write more about living in Bali later. This time I just want to introduce Chris and Farah to you so that all the new students would know whom they should contact. I can recommend both of these great guys: they will find the best possible place for you :)





Chris's web site: http://www.auslandssemester-bali.de/
Farah's web site: http://www.bali360.com

Holiday Week, Part 3

Although the holiday week is already over and the exam week began today, this post still says 'Holiday Week' because I promised to post this already yesterday but because of my own holiday I was able to write this just today. But here this text is now: information about traveling around Indonesia!

I've already written one long blog post about traveling in some of the biggest cities/places in South East Asia (Bangkok, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur). Although there could be numerous blog posts about so many different places where to travel in Asia, this time I want to focus on just Indonesia. That's because it's really good to remember that when you're living in Bali you have plenty of opportunities to do some amazing domestic traveling which isn't possible in your home country.

You don't always have to go to Singapore, Australia, Cambodia, etc. while you're living here because there's over 10,000 islands in Indonesia itself so you wouldn't get bored here even if you didn't leave Indonesia even once while staying here. So, this post is just about some different locations in Indonesia. Of course there's even more than these I'm writing about but unfortunately I can't write about every island in Indonesia (and no one would write blog post that long). So here's some of the most well-known destinations in Indonesia. These are in order from the western Indonesia to the eastern Indonesia.

Sumatra

Okay, let's start with Sumatra where I just were during last week's holiday (unfortunately only three days which is way too short period: you would have to be there at least one week). Sumatra is the biggest island of Indonesia and it's located in the western part of Indonesia. It's impossible to give some great overall impression of whole Sumatra in a couple of sentences because the area is so big and there's so many different parts in Sumatra. You can't see and do everything there in one stay. Although I was there only three days, I loved Sumatra. It was a really great place.

Most of the flights to Sumatra land in Medan which is located in Northern Sumatra in which is the main city in Sumatra. I wouldn't recommend staying in Medan (at least not for the days) because I don't think it was that interesting place: although it's one of the biggest cities in whole Indonesia so you have great chance to see there the local way of living in a big city. For me Medan was a good place to stay for few days because I wanted to see Lake Toba and Bukit Lawang and it's easy to go to both places from Medan.

Lake Toba is the world famous volcanic lake. There was a huge volcano eruption in Sumatra hundreds of thousands year ago and that's how Lake Toba was born. Unfortunately at the same the eruption destroyed most of the humans at that time so Toba is really important place for the history of mankind. Lake Toba's area is huge: it's even bigger than whole Singapore. There's an island (called Tuktuk) in the middle of Lake Toba and it's a very popular paradise island to for a vacation. It takes 4-5 hours by car from Medan to Toba.

Bukit Lawang is even nearer to Medan than Lake Toba. It's a big jungle area which is one the few places in the world where you can see wild orangutans. The visit to Bukit Lawang and the trekking in the jungle was one of the best experiences I have had while staying in Indonesia. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something like that. Of course Bukit Lawang is nowadays a kind of touristic place and there's even more wild jungles in Sumatra.

But yeah, Toba and Bukit Lawang are the most well-known tourist attractions in Northern Sumatra and those places were also the ones I was most interested about while staying there for few days. Toba because of the historic meaning and Bukit Lawang because of experience in general. Still Northern Sumatra and those two places are only tiny scratch of the wholes surface of Sumatra. The nature and the culture of Sumatra is so diverse and so interesting that I can't say that I have any clue about the island in general so far. I've just heard that almost anywhere you go there, there's some great places to see. You should also remember that Sumatra is one of the most Islamic places in Indonesia which of course affects to the local way of life. While staying in Sumatra you can from north to south (or from south to north) for example by train.

Java

Java is the main island of Indonesia when you look at the amount of population. There's over 124 million inhabitants living in Java (approximately half of the whole population in Indonesia). The capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, is located in Java and so are many other big cities like Yogjakarta, Surabaya and Semarang. So it goes without saying that Java is also a huge place with numerous different parts so it's impossible to give any overall impression of it. Especially it's hard for me because I've only been in Java for a couple of hours when I changed my flight from Denpasar to Medan. Anyway, Java is a very popular trip destination.

Jakarta is a real big city and many locals do have strong opinions of the capital city of Indonesia. Some say it's chaotic, horrible and even unsafe because there's too many people in too little area. Others say that Jakarta is significantly no different compared to other Asian big cities. I've heard that especially South Jakarta has great nightclubs. I hope I'll have chance at some point to visit Jakarta and actually experience the life there. Of course it's important to remember that Java is so much more than just Jakarta. As I already said, there's many other big cities but in comparison there's also some peaceful places and great beaches for surfers. Yogjakarta is famous of its amazing temples.

Kalimantan

Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of Borneo which is one of the biggest islands in the world. Most of the northern part of Borneo belongs to Malaysia - only exception is a small part of the island which belongs to Brunei. The whole southern part (Kalimantan) belongs to Indonesia. Kalimantan and Borneo in general is world famous of the rainforests which are one of the oldest rainforests in the world nowadays. The flora there is really amazing. Because of the rainforests Kalimantan is pretty densely populated and there's not many tourist attractions. That's of course the reason why Kalimantan seems to interest so many travelers. Although you can also dive in Kalimantan the main reason for traveling there is to see the rainforest that you can't see anywhere else. I've understood that the Malaysian part of Borneo is even more popular among the travelers but Kalimantan isn't bad opinion at all when you're living in Indonesia.

Bali

Bali is Bali. I've already written pretty much about Bali - wonder why - and I'm pretty sure there's also more to come. So I'm not going to write that much about Bali now but I still have to say that living in Bali gives you a great possibility to sometimes just travel around Bali. Bali indeed isn't one of the biggest islands in Indonesia (approximately 5800 square kilometers) and it doesn't take too long to drive around the whole island if you want to do that. There's so much to see in Bali (you just need to leave the most crowded areas of Bali, which means Kuta, Denpasar, Seminyak, Kerobokan etc.) I suggest that you should at least visit Ubud, the volcano of Mount Batur and in overall the northern Bali which hasn't even been mentioned in Lonelyplanet although there's many great places like Lovina (where you may see dolphins). In the southern Bali there's areas like Uluwatu, Nusa Dua etc. So I can just conclude this by saying that remember to travel around Bali while staying here!

Gili Islands

Gili Islands are probably the most popular or at least one of the most popular places where our exchange students visit while staying here. It's pretty easy to understand because these three paradise islands are really near to Bali: it takes only a couple of hours to go there by speedboat. So it's really easy to go there for a weekend and just relax because you know, relaxing is definitely the best thing you can do in Gili islands - they're like designed for easy living.

Gili Islands consist of three really small island: Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. Trawangan is the biggest and most modern of those three. It's also most touristic and besides relaxing during daytime you have a great opportunity to have some awesome partying in Trawangan during night time. Gili Meno on the other hand is the most peaceful of these three and many consider it a honeymoon place although you pretty well can go there to just take it easy with your friends. Gili Air is something between Meno and Trawangan. Of course you can do other things in Gili islands besides laying on the perfect beaches of the islands: one of the most popular activities there is snorkeling which I can recommend to everyone. Also surfing and diving is possible there. I've been in Gili islands once and I'm going there again at least once.

Lombok

Lombok is the island next to Bali. Compared to Bali it's a little bit smaller although the difference isn't pretty significant. Much more important difference between Bali and Lombok is the fact that Lombok is much more quiet and much less touristic place than Bali - even though there's nowadays coming more and more tourists to Lombok because many tourist have already seen Bali and want to experience something new. From Bali it's really easy to go to Lombok: you can either take a boat or a plane

I have heard only good things about Lombok so I hope I'll have a chance to visit there at some point. In Southern Lombok there's awesome surfing places. The biggest cities and most of the tourist attractions are located in Western Lombok. Still maybe the most famous attraction in Lombok is the huge (over 3000 meters high) volcano. It's possible to climb there (there's a lot volcano trips arranged in Lombok) although it can bee pretty physically pretty rough experience. The trip lasts 3-4 days and every day you're going to climb more than one kilometer. Still I've heard it's worth it because the experience is pretty awesome. The flight from Bali to Lombok lasts only 25 minutes.

Sumbawa-Komodo-Flores (and other Lesser Sunda Islands)

When you go continue to east from Lombok, there's a group of small islands, like Sumbawa, Komodo and Flores. At this moment there's many boat trips arranged to that area. Boats leave from Lombok and sail all the way to Flores. The trip lasts normally four days and the nights are spent in the boat. During the trip you have the possibility to stop at the most interesting islands and you can also try snorkeling and diving - although the latter only if you have a lot of experience of diving because the place is not suited for beginners.

In overall I've heard that these boat trips are really interesting experiences. There may be not much to do in those islands but mostly the visits are pretty short and you just have the opportunity to enjoy the great nature there. One of the most interesting places during this trip is Komodo where you can see Komodo dragons (the largest lizard of the world). Flores is the most significant of these islands and if you want you can travel straight there by plane. There's a lot of hotels, restaurants etc. in Flores and especially divers really enjoy staying there.

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the biggest islands of the eastern Indonesia. It's easy to recognize from a map because of its spider-like shape. Actually from all of the islands I've written about in this post I know the least about Sulawesi because I haven't heard actually anything about it from other exchange students or from other travelers I've met during last two months. So if you know something about this island, send me some information.

It has to be a pretty interesting place at least some way because Sulawesi is a pretty big islands and there's many tourists going there. There's also some big cities like Makassar. Internet tells me that Sulawesi is popular especially among the divers. Some even say that in Sulawesi there's the best diving places of the whole world. Besides diving you can see big mountains and experience the interesting local culture.

Timor and Papua

The most eastern part of Indonesia are the small island of Timor and the huge island of Papua (also known as New Guinea). Both are politically at least a little bit unstable locations and the tropical diseases are there more common than in other parts of Indonesia. So at least you should think twice before going there (and also plan it well because it's not that easy to go there than to other Indonesian islands). Still it's possible to go there and I've heard that those are great places to see the nature and experience the culture. So of course you can go there if you want to do some 'true traveling'. At least it's pretty different compared to the life in Bali.

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So that's all about traveling around Indonesia. As I already said, there's of course even more destinations but these are the most well known and/or the most popular among our students. So yeah, if you don't want to you don't need to go further from Indonesia to enjoy you stay here :)

Holiday Week! Part 2

As I already mentioned in my previous post, there's no school this week in Bali. Normally the midbreak would be only after the midterm tests but this year they did have to rearrange the schedule because there's Galungan in Bali this week. Galungan is one of the most important holidays in Bali and I'm going to write a little bit more about that later this week. Because of Galungan this week would've been anyway holiday so now the midbreak takes place one week earlier than normally. Maybe students can use this week to study before their exams ;)

I'm also going to write more about travelling in Indonesia (based as much on my own experiences as possible) this week but now I just wanted to publish the video that I've done after interviewing few of our current students here in Bali :) In the video they tell about their feelings about living in Bali and they also reveal their plans for holiday week so maybe you can get some inspiration from the video!




I'll be back later this week :)

Holiday Week!

Yeah, it's holiday time! This week was the last before the midbreak that's taking place next week. As I already mentioned in the earlier post, this school week was a little bit different compared to normal school weeks since there was no school on Monday or Tuesday because of Idul Adha. Hence the school week began on Wednesday and continued until Friday. Normally there's no school on Fridays in Bali.

During a normal school week there's only either a workshop or an excursion on Thursday but this time the workshop was held on Thursday afternoon after the classes had taken place. So it goes without saying that this week was a little bit more intense than a normal school week, but it was still pretty okay :)

After the midbreak there's going to be the midtest so understandably this week's lessions focused on the things that should be remembered in the test. Unfortunately once again I didn't have time (I've been really busy since coming back to Bali because of all kinds of practical arrangements) to take part of any other classes than just the ones that were focused on Indonesian language.

I couldn't skip those ones because I haven't been in Indonesian classes for three weeks so my (pretty poor) Indonesian language skill were already rusted. It was good choice to go to those classes because now I remember at least a little bit more Indonesian. I also learned few new words, like 'sekarang' (now). The only problem is that I don't remember any other time words (like tomorrow, weekdays etc.) so if I have to arrange a meeting in Indonesian, I have to have the meeting immedetiately.

But yeah, during this school week there was something even more fun than my shitty Indonesian skills. I'm of course speaking about the workshop that took place on Thursday afternoon. The workshops are always fun because they're focused on Indonesian and especially Balinese culture (there have already been a workshop of Balinese ornaments and Balinese clothing) but this time it was extra hilarious because the workshop was about traditional Balinese dancing :D So all guys and girls had to practise and learn a little bit Balinese dancing which may look a little bit silly. I have to respect all of the students that participated the class because they at least tried the basic moves.

Here's few pictures from the workshop. After the pictures there's also one video that I made with Heidi from Norway after our trip to Bali Art Centre last week. Heidi has been in the same place already few years ago so she had some pretty interesting points about the place. That's that this time! Have a nice weekend wherever you are! This weekend I'm probably going to visit southern Bali (Nusa Dua). And because next week is the holiday week, I'm going to write more about travelling in Indonesia then.

 

Kuala Lumpur, part 2

I guess this should actually be part 3 because last week I posted two videos from Kuala Lumpur and didn't remember to write the right number in the title. Maybe we can let it slide this time.

Anyway, I just wanted to post quickly here and let you guys know that I've written an article about Santra and Antti who are the first Asia Exchange students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. I think this article is very useful to read if you want to know more about studying in UPM because hopefully there's going to be many more AE students in the near future :)

Antti and Santra have enjoyed their studies in Kuala Lumpur

This is all this time. In Bali we have had Idul Adha (Islamic holiday) yesterday and today so there hasn't been any school this week. The school week starts tomorrow and ends on Friday so I'm going to write more about that at the end of the week :)