You might have seen the first offering when you stepped down in Bali: at the airport. Offerings play important role. You will find it in almost every Balinese house, in the store, in the market or in the restaurant and of course also in our villas. They are colourful and beautiful, the form and the materials can vary based on their functions but they usually consist of flower arrangements, leaves and fruits, all with symbolic values. Philosophically speaking, the making and giving of banten is a selfless act; a kind of self-sacrifice. It is part-meditation, part-escape from the humdrum buzz of everyday life; it’s a gift of gratitude to the Maker, and a supplication to the lower spirits that they do not disturb the living. The smoke of the incense carries the sari – the essence of an offering – to heaven.

Rindik is twelve-keyed xylophones tuned to a fairly even-tempered scale. The delicate humming sound produced by these instruments conjures up images of breezy rice fields and sunny days; considering that both the instruments and musical repertoire were the creation of early 20th century rice farmers. Like most other Balinese gamelan instruments, rindik are tuned in pairs, one being tuned slightly higher than the other. This is what produces the characteristic humming sound. A rindik is played with either two or three beaters, one held in the left hand and one or two in the right. Normally, the left hand carries the melody and the right plays a pattern that creates interlocking configuration between the two right-hand parts. Although it may look effortless, playing rindik is a masterful skill that takes many years to learn. Hundreds of compositions have been composed for rindik, and each region—even each village—in Bali reveals different styles and repertoire. Most of the compositions were inspired by nature and have been named after flowers and animals.

Balinese dances is a very ancient dance tradition that is part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people of Bali island. Balinese dance is dynamic, angular and intensely expressive. Balinese dancers express the stories of dance-drama through the bodily gestures including gestures of fingers, hands, head and eyes.

Jembrana is the highest fish producing regency in Bali with its 604 km2 sea region, therefore most of the villagers are fishermen. They produce 56.947 ton marine fisheries resource per year. The resources are mostly sardinella lemuru, mackerel tuna, lobster, squid, grouper, etc. The fishermen usually use modern motor boat, motorized jukung, or traditional non-motorized jukung. A jukung or canoe also known as cadik is a small wooden Indonesian outrigger canoe. It is a traditional fishing boat essentially of Balinese origin. The double outrigger jukung is but one of many types of Pacific/Asian outrigger canoes that use the crab claw sail traditional throughout Polynesia. Whilst this sail presents some difficulties in tacking into the wind, actually requiring to jibe around, a jukung is superb in its reaching ability and jibe-safe running. They are usually highly decorated and bear a marlin-like prow. You will see some local fisherman boats. The starting point is right on the beach in front of the garden. You can ask our staff to borrow or join the local boat, you will need to pay a little amount for fisherman then you will be sailing along with native fisherman and traditional boat, get an amazing experience as a local fisherman.

Enjoy a leisurely bike ride through the rural village of Melaya, rice paddies in the neighboring villages or picturesque beach view during your biking. This fascinating rural area set among the brilliant green landscape of interior of Bali, is best explored on bikes, allowing you to absorb the region’s laid-back rhythms and diffusion of Balinese and Javanese culture up close.
At the moment we have two bicycles in the villa. You are able to rent it for your own bike tour. However, reservation in advance might be needed when we have full house.

International TV channels including films are available in the villa. An array of DVD films for family are also in the villa for the guest entertainment. The staff will be happy assist you getting the DVDs.

Jump on the bike with our staff and explore the variety of Indonesian grocery in the traditional wet market. Our home cook is not a professional chef, but she is excellent in cooking, especially Indonesian foods. She will be happy to show you how to cook. You are more than welcome to join her: cut some vegetables, mix some of 2,3,4, 5 or even 6 different type of spices and be amazed what you have done. It’s delicious!

Menjangan Island is one of the best diving site in Indonesia and has a great visibility under the water. The closest crossing point to Menjangan is Labuan Lalang, which is only 10 minutes from the villa. The package from the tour operator will include the boat, entrée ticket and equipment for snorkelling or diving. Most of the time, departure at around 08.00am and back to the crossing point at 14.00. You will have lunch on the boat, with the great view of corals and crystal clear water in front of Menjangan Island.

This dive site is located in front of the docking area of Gilimanuk Harbor, it’s only 7,5 km from the villa. Be prepared – you are diving on fine black and gray volcanic sand and rubble and not on a coral reef! This place is a great place for the rare and unusual. With depths ranging from 3 to 8 meters, you find frogfish, special nudibranchs, ghost pipefish, the rare picturesque dragonet and gobies, several species of sand eels, stonefish and devilfish, mimic octopus and even the Ambon scorpionfish crabs and shrimps and many other critters that like to live on sand. Actually a new species was introduced somewhere between 2005 and 2006, the endemic beautiful fish Banggai cardinal fishes. You can also charter a small boat and visit one of the dive sites further inside the bay. Ask the boat driver to show you the place for the rare picturesque Mandarin fishes. The night dives are really good too. The dives are very shallow (no more than about 9m) and visibility is not always that good (5 to15 m). The best time to dive is around high tide or on the incoming tide when visibility can sometimes be up to 20m. The water is always very cold (about 23 to 25°C) so use a 5mm wetsuit, hood and gloves. This dive site is similar to special dive in Sulawesi (Indonesia) and the Philippines.

You can easily find Balinese wearing traditional clothes everywhere in Bali. Yes! they are about doing the ceremony. Ceremony as well as offering are a part of their life: baby ceremonies, puberty rites, weddings, cremations, temple festivals, full moon, Silent day, etc. Every ceremony is unique and can be different from one to each, therefore it is always interested to see how they held the ceremony.
If you are lucky, you can attend the ceremony during your stay in the villa. Balinese are always welcome to the new people; they would be happy to see you on their ceremony. Please do not hesitate to ask our staff, they will provide you the Balinese clothes. It would be a memorable holiday you can tell your family and friends when you get back to your country.

Banyuwedang hots pring is about 10 minutes from the villa. This in the middle of mangrove hot spring contain sulphur, the average temperature is around 40 C. This hots spring believed able to cure a lot of disease. At Mimpi Resort, they have a hot spring there and the water quality is checked every day. You can go there and pay for day use including locker, bathroom, and changing rooms.

Once a month, mostly in the full moon period the sea turtles swim to the beach, finding the best place for its eggs and lay them. Often, the eggs that laid by the mother of the sea turtle are eaten by the birds, dogs or by the locals itself. Together with Darling, a local community small group in the village that concern about the environmental issue, we support the endangered turtle sea to protect its eggs in a most natural way as much as possible and release them once they are ready to swim back to the ocean. We always well inform in advance so the guest can participate in releasing the baby turtle.

The Buffalo races is held every October and November in Baluk Rening, within 30 minutes from the villa. You have to go early in the morning around 6.30 as the buffalo race will be ended around 10.00am.

Sangkaragung Village is about 20 minutes from the villa where you will find a typical of Jembrana bamboo gamelan orchestra “Jegog”. In Japan, they perform at least 3 times per year. Should you wish to watch it, the performance in the village is every Thursday and Sunday in their studio Sanggar Jegog Suar Agung. You will be able to play with them as well.

Pemuteran is home to the largest artificial biorock reef project in the world and there is a real spirit of marine conservation effort in this area. Sculpted into fantastic shapes and figures have been placed in the bay and the order ones are now covered in beautiful hard coral. Diver can watch the staff of Karang Lestari at work, maintaining the structures and even make donation and have their name made out of wire and added to a structure along with a baby coral colony.

Bunut is located in Manggisari village, Pekutatan (about 50 km from the villa). Bunut is a name of a huge/giant tree and bolong means hole. Bunut bolong has a big hole in the middle of its roots on the street, where a car can pass under that tree. In the area there is “Bujangga Sakti” temple and a waterfall.

The dam served as flood control, irrigation, fishing and recreation. Surrounded by the protected forest which has beautiful view and a cool climate. Canoe recreation is possible to rent directly on the site. The dam is about 15 minutes from the villa by bike or car.

An adventure to see the most exotic side of Bali, explore the beautiful countryside of Bali using 4WD vehicle which are designed with openable roof, so then it is easier for you to stand up and take pictures along the tours. Most of the tours combined with jungle trekking, terraced rice fields trekking, volcano climbing, country side cycling tour, ATV or Quad bike ride and fun off road.