10 Unusual Sights in Bali Explained

Bali has a wealth of unusual sights and events that you’ll encounter on your first, or even next, visit to this culturally-rich island. It’s Bali’s rich and vibrant culture that’s responsible for the island’s uniqueness, which is deeply rooted in the main religion known as Balinese Hinduism.

Rituals and ceremonies take place almost daily, within everywhere from the smallest household to the most majestic temples. You can also witness many different aspects of the culture through objects and items, some so ubiquitous that they’re found almost everywhere you look. These will surely draw your curiosity, so here we try to explain the most unusual things you’re likely to see in Bali.

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1. Offerings, anywhere, anytime

Food and flowers to please the spirits

Good for: Unusual

Balinese Hindus make offerings daily, as a gesture of gratitude and blessing. In the mornings, members of the household place small pinches of rice and the morning’s cooking on square-cut banana leaves, even if it’s just a tiny bit of salad and meat. It’s then places at temple shrines for higher deities, or on the ground and at intersections for “lower” spirits.

These small food offerings are often accompanied by colorful “canang” (flower offerings), placed within trays woven from coconut leaves. Each tray is sprinkled with holy water and accompanied by a burning incense stick. You’ll come across these canang placed on the beachfront by the owners of seaside cafes, so watch your step.

2. Penjor bamboo poles

Bamboo poles to celebrate nature’s bounty

Good for: Photo, Unusual

Galungan and Kuningan are among the island’s most festive days when almost all streets in Bali are lined with “penjor” bamboo poles decorated with coconut leaf ornaments. Naturally curved at the top, these towering bamboo poles feature the harvest items of rural Bali, such as rice stalks, fruits, coconuts, and coconut leaves.

With every household voluntarily erecting a penjor in front of their house and by the roadside, the result is a long dreamlike archway. Besides being a gesture of gratitude towards nature for the “fruits of the earth,” a penjor at the time of Galungan also symbolizes the triumph of good (dharma) over evil (adharma).

3. Chequered cloths

Representing the balance of opposite forces

Good for: Photo, Unusual

Black-and-white cloths can be seen draped around the trunks of large roadside trees, statues, and even art performers and temple officials. It’s one of the ubiquitous color schemes on the island. Referred to locally as “saput poleng,” the color combination symbolizes the harmonious balance between 2 of the most omnipresent and eternal opposites, good and evil.

Harmony and balance are highly regarded and goodness is considered just as naturally occurring as evil. When you see a statue, stone, or large tree draped in this cloth, they’re most likely deemed to have a life force or deity attached. Locals show respect when they pass these sites, for instance, honking their horns at intersections where a tree in “poleng” stands.

4. Elaborate coffins and festive funerals

A send-off to behold

Good for: History, Unusual

Cremations are truly memorable occasions in Bali, referred to locally as either “ngaben” or “pelebon”. They’re usually loud, festive sights complete with processions and rhythmic gamelan accompaniment on the way to the pyre. The coffins are also sights to behold, being ornate, particularly tall, and carried by a troupe of male villagers. The forms and heights of the coffins, or “bade” in Balinese, depends on the social class of the deceased.

Members of the royal family tend to have higher pagoda-like coffins (up to 32 feet tall), meticulously constructed by the village craftspeople and decorated with flowers, masks, and colorful ornaments. Funerals of important figures can become spectacles of epic proportions, with visitors flying in to see the rare sight.

5. Flying giants

Vast kites fill the skies

Good for: Budget, Families, Unusual

The windy season in Bali is when the blue skies are speckled with soaring giants, locally known as “layangan” or “layang-layang”. It’s when the Bali Kite Festival starts gearing up, with dates confirmed at the last minute due to the patient wait for the most favorable weather. If you happen to be in Bali during this time of the year, the kites flown by just about every kid and village troupe create an incredible free show.

Transporting massive flying works of art by truck, kite teams often require escorts to get them through the already jam-packed traffic. Successful take-offs are dramatic, complete with gamelan accompaniment to hype up spirits.

6. Parading giants

Paper-mache beasts take over the streets

Good for: Adventure, Families, Unusual

Nothing really happens on the actual Saka New Year celebration as the whole island literally shuts down for one whole day. However, the celebrations on the previous day are filled with noisy firecrackers, torches, and monstrous papier-mache figures parading around village streets.

These effigies are called “ogoh-ogoh” and their forms get more creative, sophisticated, and stunning each year. Communal halls and roadsides become showcases of ogoh-ogoh of various sizes, built in the weeks leading up to the Saka New Year’s Eve. Youth groups brainstorm, raise funds, and build their mythic figures from scratch using intricately woven bamboo frameworks, adding several different mediums to create their most impressive artworks to date.

7. Splashes and smooches

A crazy and soggy scene

Good for: Unusual

The day after Nyepi (Saka New Year), one of the most peculiar Bali festivals takes place. On one of the roads in the village of Sesetan in south Denpasar, the whole community descends to cheer on participating youths who get in line for “omed-omedan”, roughly translated as “pull and tugs”, or even loosely, the “Kissing Ritual”.

The village festival is a localized event, undertaken only by youths of the Banjar Kaja community of the Sesetan village. As boys get in one line and girls in another, elders armed with buckets and hoses douse them with water, and a tug-of-war-like scene ensues. The scene gets crazier as the participants and road become drenched, with the elders seemingly enjoying their role.

8. Ancient and bloody battles

Young gladiators come to blows

Good for: History, Unusual

The male youths of the Tenganan village, a few miles north of Candidasa, take to a raised platform arena for a coming-of-age ceremony around June or July each year. They engage in friendly bouts using tied bundles of thorny pandan leaves as weapons and woven rattan shields that interestingly don’t seem to get used that often.

The result? Garish slashed backs of manly gladiators who show no sign of pain. These friendly (if bloody) matches, known as “perang pandan” (or pandan battles), take place during the 5th full moon of the indigenous Tenganan calendar, and are held over several days each year.

9. The Balinese alphabet

Bali’s beautiful and ancient text

Good for: Photo, Unusual

Temple plaques and signs, and some road signs, in Bali are subtitled with Balinese script known as the Aksara Bali or Anacaraka. The alphabet originates from the Brahmi script, which has much in common with many scripts you’ll encounter throughout Southeast Asia. Bali’s own is quite elaborate and prevails in religious texts, especially in the well-preserved ancient lontar palm leaf manuscripts.

To save the heritage script from waning, movements have called for its preservation, and the provincial government requires all public signs to feature the script, hence the subtitles you’ll encounter. Go ahead and ask a local to help you read the signs and decipher them for you. It can be fun.

10. Balinese fashion

Vibrant sarongs and headdresses

Good for: History, Luxury, Unusual

Traditional Balinese attire is unique and colorful. The male costume consists of a headdress known as an “udeng” or “destar”, originally folded from a single piece of square batik cloth. Open-ended batik sarongs, or “kamen”, are wrapped around the waist to form a pleated front called a “kancut”. An outer “saput” wrap completes the male garment.

For the ladies, headgear only comes in the form of optional faux-silver or golden flower hairpins called “sanggul” worn in their bun-tied hair. Embroidered long-sleeved “kebaya” come in all sorts of patterns, colors, and styles; all tight-fitting, enhancing the feminine figure. Whenever you come across a procession or a ceremony, you can enjoy the unique fashion show.

This article includes opinions of the Go Guides editorial team. Hotels.com compensates authors for their writing appearing on this site; such compensation may include travel and other costs.