12 minute read
Bali: Island of a Thousand Temples
Spectacular Waterfalls,
Golden Sandy Beaches, and Wide Rice Terraces
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Written by Cami Ismanova
One Bali Island is located in the heart of the Indonesian archipelago, surrounded by the warm Indian Ocean to the south and the turquoise Bali Sea to the north. It consists of several small towns and beach resort areas around the island. It looks small on a map, but it is gigantic in reality.
There are many touristic places to stay at, like Kuta and Ubud. Although they are a bit too crowded, they are better connected to the must-visit landmarks of Bali. On the other hand, if you prefer to spend your vacation by staying somewhere quieter, Sanur would be a suitable option.
When it comes to transportation, I strongly recommend renting a scooter while visiting the island because there is frequent traffic congestion. You might need to provide your international driving license to get yourself one. While there, you will see and join thousands of people, both locals and tourists, driving scooters of their own. It is also more convenient to move from one destination to another by scooter than by car, but it is obviously not a good option for a family trip with kids.
Broken Beach in Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia.
religion, so you will find thousands of Hindu temples around the island. In fact, each and every Balinese family will have one either in their houses or somewhere close by. The wealthier the family is, the bigger and more beautiful the temple. Bali is full of famous temples like Uluwatu Temple, where you can watch traditional Balinese Kecak dances, which tell the story of the Hindu gods, and enjoy the sunset.
Another interesting experience is paying a visit to the “Cat Poo Chino” coffee plantation. You could say it is like a cappuccino. There are various types of coffee and tea to sample and buy. The most popular one is “kopi luwak.” “Kopi” means “coffee” and “luwak” is translated from Indonesian as “Asian palm civet,” a cat-like animal that originated on Sumatra Island. Civets are known to roam freely on plantations, as they come to select the best coffee cherries, mostly Arabica beans. Their digestive process allows them to improve the flavor of the beans through fermentation. These coffee beans are later excreted, collected by farmers, cleaned countless times, roasted, and finally ground up. Kopi luwak is a delicacy and the second most expensive coffee in the region. The prices reach up to $700 per kilogram and $80 per cup (both in USD). If you book a tour via Airbnb, you will get a tour around the plantation with an English-speaking
Astonishing beauty of the ocean at Nusa Penida Island.
staffer on the plantation offering a detailed presentation and a tasting session of more than 30 types of tea! You can purchase the teas you like later at their shop.
The gem of Bali is a small island called Nusa Penida. Transparent, crystal-clear waters and golden beaches will enchant your heart forever. A variety of fun water activities on offer include sunbathing, scuba diving, snorkeling, and surfing. My favorite places are Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach. As a true fan of the ocean, I appreciated the most beautiful turquoise color of the water. It was like the scene at the beginning of the Disney cartoon “Moana.” I advise that you go for a locally guided tour around the hot spots. Usually, it only requires a daytrip, but even if you spend a few days there, it is definitely worth the visit!
Bali is an amazing place to spend a vacation, but it requires thorough preparation. Book your tours in advance via different platforms. There are a lot of locally guided tours in English. I found it to be the most convenient way to travel in Bali. But if you want to explore on your own, then the idea to rent a scooter would better suit your needs.
Bali is incredibly beautiful in terms of nature, services are fairly good, and prices are very affordable. You can enjoy a meal for less than $3, and the average price for a tour starts from just $15.
I hope that you can visit Bali once the world has succeeded in dealing with the ongoing pandemic and that you are able to do it in an eco-friendly manner. Stay safe and healthy, Gwangju! The Author Cami Ismanova is a student at Chonnam National University majoring in economics. She enjoys listening to jazz, reading popular science, writing, and traveling around. She is a devoted lover of ocean waves and cheese tteokbokki. Instagram: @camidisman.
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Awesome Autumn in Jeju
Written and photographed by Maiya Kabyltayeva
“Since life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” — Simon Raven
My name is Maiya and I currently stay in South Korea to study for a master’s degree. In 2017, when I came to South Korea for the first time, I totally fell in love with this country. I liked absolutely everything here, from Korean culture to Korean food, even despite the fact that the latter has a very specific taste and may not suit everyone. But as for me, I liked it from my childhood and can enjoy it any day.
When going abroad, probably everyone has their own “must-do” and “must-try” lists. So, the same applies to me. I had a lot of dreams related to Korea. My list included eating real Korean ramen, fresh kimbap, flavored samgyeopsal, and, of course, visiting well-known Jeju Island.
As you all know, Jeju Island is the most popular and largest island in South Korea. My first trip there was last year, and that trip was very spontaneous. One of my friends suggested that I go with her just one week before the trip. My friend started searching for information about Jeju, which we previously had seen in a lot of Korean shows and dramas. As you may know, autumn is the cheapest season of the year for traveling to Jeju; also, it was the end of the semester, so our trip fit in very well. Even though it gets cold there in autumn, the island is generally still very beautiful and, as a bonus, it is the tangerine season! Besides, for me it was the best way to end midterm week. Usually, you can buy a roundtrip ticket for $50 or even $20, so we bought a ticket and took a 50-minute flight – no more. It was the shortest plane trip that I have ever taken. By the way, we got our tickets for about $20, and as you know, finding cheap ways to travel for students is crucial.
It was our first trip to Jeju. How surprised and astonished we were by everything. In retrospect, when I went to Jeju the second time, I did not really notice such details and felt somewhat jealous looking at tourists who were visiting not only Jeju but Korea for the first time and were even surprised by the toilet buttons and the non-existence of rubbish bins on the streets. hotel was located in Seogwipo. It was a really nice hotel and the service was next level. The most important thing was that it was near the tangerine gardens and the sea. The second hotel was located in the center of Jeju City; we chose this hotel because we were not renting a car, so it was important for us to stay near the airport.
In short, Jeju is a magical island. There is nothing that special about it, but the atmosphere feels like you are in another world. It is a totally different Korea, which reminds visitors of neither Busan nor Seoul. There is something soulful about the place, and at the same time, it is comfortable, cozy, and beautiful. Everything there makes you want to fall in love with the island and come back again. Moreover, there are so many delicious foods in Jeju, such as barbequed black pork and tasty fruit like tangerines and hallabong (한라봉, seedless mandarin oranges). The highest and most famous mountain in
South Korea, Halla Mountain, is also in Jeju. The only thing that needs improvement there is transportation. You have to rent a car for some real fun.
The first place we visited after arriving on Jeju Island was a tangerine garden. We chose the Seogwipo district because there are huge tangerine gardens there that are not so crowded and that allow you to enjoy picking the mouthwatering tangerines that are specialties of Jeju Island. On the tangerine farm, you can pick locally grown fresh tangerines and take them home after the tangerine picking experience is over or send them to any address in Korea. By the way, tangerine picking is available also on the island during winter. It was an unusual but interesting
33 experience for me. The next place that we visited was Sanbang Mountain, which, though not very high, has an interesting and distinguishable shape. It is about an hour west of Seogwipo by bus, and the bus stops conveniently right in front of the mountain. If you go there, it allows you to capture a nice view of the open sea. There is only a temple at the top of the track, and when we went there it was closed. In my opinion, the climb to the temple and cave was not worth our time. Nature-lovers find this to be a peaceful and relaxing place, though. You can spend hours without seeing anyone. If that is your thing, then go and feel the nature.
When choosing Jeju as a destination for your trip, you must include at least two or three cafés to see, as they are just unreal there. Here, I would like to say that there is one special but simple drink that I used to see often
in Korean dramas when I was a teenager: banana milk. Maybe you will ask, “What is so special about this milk?” I can say there is no secret; this milk is just very tasty, fatfree, convenient, and best of all, not sugary, so you can just stick in a straw and enjoy. I tried it once and loved it so much that banana milk became my favorite drink; I used to have it every day.
As for cafés in Jeju, I would like to talk about one particular place that we visited. I found an extraordinary café named Yellow Café, and as you might have guessed,
this café is dedicated to banana milk. Despite all our plans to visit popular sites and historical places, we went to this café instead. Yellow Café is also located in the Seogwipo area. I liked its interior; the concept is unusual. As banana milk is taken as the basis of the interior’s design, you can see a huge banana milk illustration at the entrance. The café has an open-space lounge zone with many guest tables, then some mini cabins similar to the shape of banana milk cartons. We chose the latter zone to comfortably hang out. By the way, regarding the café menu, there is a large selection of banana-flavored drinks. All drinks look very appetizing, and I wanted to try them all. Surprisingly, the price of the drinks is not as expensive as we expected, and most importantly, the taste was delicious.
As it turned out, this is not just a café, because if you go even further inside, you can find a small gift shop with various souvenirs and stylish things for sale. We next found an unusual photo zone, where you can take cool photos in front of a background with the inscription “Hello, Jeju.” In yet another photo zone, you can type your name on a keyboard and wait – your name will appear on the screen, but hurry up, as you have only 15 seconds to take a photo. I think active SNS users probably catch my drift. With so many photo zones and banana milk options
to choose from, if you have a chance to visit Jeju someday, I highly recommend Yellow Café’s cozy atmosphere. Once again, I would like to express my admiration for Korean society. After all, only Koreans can make a cultlike trend out of ordinary things like banana milk. Here I described some unique places that we visited in Jeju, though these are not all the places we visited. There are so many reasons to return. I recommend everyone visit this magical island – I promise you will not regret it. After all, every journey leaves in our memory only good memories and indelible impressions.
The Author
Maiya Kabyltayeva is from Kazakhstan and has liked learning foreign languages since childhood. She thinks everyone has a dream in life, and hers was to start learning Korean in 2015 and come to South Korea. Now an MA student at Chonnam National University, she enjoys traveling in her spare time and the independence and confidence it inspires. Instagram: @maiyusha777.
