No one writes about Chandi Dasa
Chandi Dasa, in my opinion, is quite a worthy place for an exceptionally relaxing holiday. Although, of course, not as hyped and popular as, for example, Kuta, but this is the merit of this place. Here you can see the ordinary life of ordinary Balinese, and not those who spend their whole lives pestering tourists. The Balinese, however, are not the poorest, but this is good. That is, quite prosperous people in quite prosperous traditional houses. In general, the originality of the inhabitants of Bali lies in a sincere, not ostentatious attachment to the traditional way of life, which was formed centuries ago. This distinguishes them from the inhabitants of other countries we have seen, and in the main territory of Indonesia (Java), people, I think, live a little differently. For example, we asked the guide if the Balinese go to discos. He replied that Denpasar APPEARS to have a discotheque. More than half of the men wear traditional skirt clothes. Every family has a house, and every house has a temple. If a family is so unlucky that it does not have a house, but an apartment (there are few apartment buildings in Bali, but there are not many apartment buildings at all), then the temple will be located on the roof. If the house does not have a plot, which is also rare, the temple is again on the roof. The main thing is that each family has its own temple. How beautiful and unique it is - I can not convey. At the same time, there are also many public temples, the architecture is very specific, purely Balinese, in a word, they even have Balinese roosters and cages for roosters are not the same as everywhere else.
I will return to Chandi Dasa. A nice little town with not at all small churches, a school and even a kindergarten. Shopping, however, is extremely poor, it is clear that it is not designed for tourists. Our stay coincided with a great temple festival of general Balinese significance, so that the process of the famous offerings to the gods was considered in detail. I will not describe the offerings themselves, watch TV, I will only say that, having a tradition of daily offerings to the gods in all possible places of flowers, rice, etc. in straw boxes, you should not rely only on stray dogs as garbage collectors. I won't say anything about the hotel. He is very good. Designed exclusively for Europeans. The Russians hardly know about him. Probably because it's inexpensive. If you ask a company for an inexpensive hotel in Chandi Das, they mainly offer Rama Chandi Das. We went there. It is not bad, but clearly lower quality than our Chandi Dasa cottage - and the territory, and the pool, and the restaurant. Everything about our hotel was great. The territory is very beautiful, well-groomed, with rare trees and flowers and a palm grove, with two pools with a giant hydromassage in each. Both the houses and the restaurant are very stylish (national style combined with high-quality European amenities). The rooms are clean, well maintained and beautiful, there are always flowers in the corridors. The lobby is nice too, although small.
There are two drawbacks - the restaurant is very expensive - it is not clear why pay fifty dollars for a room for three and spend at least $ 25 for dinner for each. This problem is easily solved. A taxi to the city center costs a penny (walking too long), there are a lot of restaurants where food is three times cheaper, and the same restaurant level. A taxi from the restaurant will take you back for free, and if you like it, then next time call from the hotel to the same restaurant (do not forget to take a booklet with a phone there) and a taxi will take you to dinner again for free. So we had dinner for the first three days, then we found a restaurant located close to our hotel, but you can’t see it from the main entrance, you can only see it from the beach, so you can go through the beach, but you can also from the main entrance - it’s easy to figure it out on the spot, the main thing - if you look at the main entrance, this restaurant is on the right. The first turn and to the end, that is, to the sea. The second drawback matters only if you are relaxing with the three of you, no matter in what composition. In this case, do not take a separate cottage. From Moscow it may seem that it is cool - a separate house, but it is small to the point of ridiculousness and the third bed is close to the first two, between which, in turn, there is no space either. The rest of the space is also kept to a minimum. No, there is enough space for two beds, but for the third. . . I was shocked and asked to be relocated. Moved to the building. There was a lot more room. That is, the difference is only in size, the rest is the same - plumbing, air conditioning, and a terrace (in the building on the second floor, of course - a balcony). In addition, the houses are incredibly close to each other, so you will not get the expected privacy. Leaving the hotel, you find yourself directly in the town, but far from the center. You can go down the street to the left, then the town will end pretty soon and you will find yourself in the local jungle with a river and interesting trees. If you go straight, you will soon find yourself in a city square with a school and a serious temple, and when you cross the square, you will find yourself on a large and beautiful, very colorful street. If you cross it, you can go to the mountains and walk up the paved roads on your own. We climbed one of the mountains to a tiny village, were on mountain pastures, wonderful views opened from the slopes, the inhabitants of the village roasted a pig on a spit, obviously on the occasion of a holiday - you must agree, such a walk is worth any excursion. In general, if you want to see how the Balinese live, come to Chandi Dasa!
Finally, about the weather. There is no dry season in Bali. Travel agencies assured us that it was completely dry there in the summer, but we realized that this was impossible in principle. The fact that it is not hot is yes. No stuffiness, quite comfortable, but drizzling rain is not uncommon, although more often, of course, there was wonderful sunny weather. Yes, I forgot to mention the beach. You may have heard of the tidal problem for vacationers in Bali. So, in Chandi Das we did not feel it due to the very competent arrangement of the beach - swimming at low tide was even more comfortable than at high tide. Well, it seems that everything, have a good rest! (If you want to read about excursions, see the review of the Bali Spirit Hotel).
