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Varsha Seshan

Au revoir, Bali!

May 1, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

There’s so much I could write about Bali, but pictures would work better to convey much of what we saw. Statues towered over junctions, gateways reached up to the sky. Art hid in little corners surrounded by every shade of green. We had only two proper days to explore Bali, so there was so much […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, signs

A Balinese Home

April 30, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It was only after the visit to the coffee plantation that our cycling tour actually began. There was supposed to be a quick stop at Kintamani to see the volcano, but our guide Nyoman learned that there was too much traffic en route, so we skipped that and went straight to the place where we […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, cycle, tradition

Indonesian Coffee Plantation

April 29, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Have you heard of Luwak coffee? I had heard of it before visiting Bali, but hadn’t yet made the connection between two. Luwak coffee is the most expensive coffee in the world and is euphemistically described as ‘part-digested’. Honey is pre-digested too, isn’t it, so why should coffee be so different? I won’t get into […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, coffee, cycling tour, Green Bike, luwak coffee

Cycling Tour

April 28, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I was nervous about doing a cycling tour. Everyone we spoke to, from hotel receptionists to travel agents, said that it would be ‘mostly downhill’. To me, that was a euphemistic way of saying there would be some rough uphill stretches. I don’t cycle regularly. Riding 25 km all of a sudden? I wasn’t sure […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, cycling, Green Bike, top experience

Shopping in Bali

April 26, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Sure, shopping is fun in Bali. When we spoke about our top experiences there, shopping featured in the top three of many. Here’s a sample of how it works. “It’s a good sarong – 3 metres, Batik print on both sides.” “How much?” “Very good print, it–” “How much?” “400,000.” (Quick calculations. How much is […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, shopping

Monkey Forest, Ubud

April 23, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’m an Indian tourist. Monkeys aren’t new to me. We see them along railway lines, on walls, trying to get into houses … I’ve written about Matheran too, where a monkey came into the room, picked up a packet of milk powder, and then calmly looked around, trying to figure out what else to take. […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali, Monkey Forest, monkeys

Taxis in Bali

April 20, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When you read about the public transport system in Bali, you learn about bemos that are too crowded to use and Bluebird taxis that are reliable and reputable. I still don’t know what a bemo is. We saw bus stops that seemed impossibly high, and I never saw a bus stopping at any of them. […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Bali

Back from Bali

April 19, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Today, I finally finished writing my travelogue, which is over 50 pages long. I needed to get that done quickly before I forgot all the details! And now, I can leisurely write my blog, bit by bit, with one exciting detail after another. We were a group of ten dancers, and we were put up […]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Alam Puri, art, Bali, Bharatanatyam, culture, Puri Maharani