Bali Slow Travel
I’m planning to share stories and tips from my recent two-month Bali trip. The reason that I didn’t start writing as soon as I got back is that I wanted to download VSCO Pro on my desktop for editing photos and I had some technical issues while trying to download the app.
So for today’s post, I’m sharing the raw photos as I took them with my iPhone’s camera. And to be honest, they are beautiful as they are since they capture the vivid colors of the Balinese Canang Sari.
So stay tuned and sign up to the blog for exciting Bali travel stories and new tips for what to do and where to go.
Canang Sari Making at The Laguna Luxury Collection Resort and Spa
I’ll start by saying that I prefer staying at small luxury hotels or luxury boutique hotels than big, chain ones.
But I once had one of my credit cards blocked by my bank because of unauthorized payments that happened during my six-month Bali trip in 2023. Since then, I’m very careful of where I use my credit cards and especially online.
That’s why, for my last Bali trip (and the one last summer), I chose big name hotels to book instead of smaller, boutique ones. Mainly, because the websites for these big hotels are more secure than others.
After staying at three, top Marriott properties in different areas of the island in my two-month trip, I made a note in my phone to not stay at big, chain hotels next time I go to Bali! LOL
There are many reasons for this decision. But I’ll leave this topic for another blog post.
For the first ten days of my two-month trip, I stayed at The Laguna Luxury Collection Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua. A classy Marriott property along the ocean with a private beach and seven swimming pools.
I spent most of my days there walking! The hotel location is perfect for going for nice long walks in the nearby Peninsula Island and all around the hotels and resorts that line up the beach. I’ll share more about the walking route and how I realized that this is the best place for walking near Uluwatu.
The Laguna hotel had a couple of activities for guests. I think I only joined the Canang Sari Making and hotel temple visit.
Canang Sari is the name for the Balinese sacred offerings that you see all around the island. The Balinese use the offerings to pray to the Gods and ask for protection from evil and for blessings.
The offerings include flowers and other things like cigarettes and candy, because they believe that the Gods are like humans in that sense.
During the Canang Sari activity, we learned that the arrangement of the flowers has to follow the direction of the wind. And that there are certain rules for the flower colors to include in the offering.
After we created our individual offerings, we visited the hotel temple and our guide, Arik, explained about the statues and other main elements found in all Balinese temples.
We placed our freshly made Canang offerings in the right place in the temple and took turns to pray (there were only two of us really).
I think you already know what I prayed for and I’ll end the post here.
Did you ever join a Canang Sari making activity while on holiday in Bali? If so, where was it? Did you learn all the Canang-making rules or forgot most of the explanation like I did?! Let me know in the comments!
Love,
Leela
