General Information

• General Information
• Short History
• The Balinese
• Religion
• Etiquette

Bali Overview
Bali, one of some 13,000 islands comprising the Indonesian Archipelago, had an auspicious start. According to legend, when the world was formed Bali was put afloat on the back of a giant sea turtle with fragrant skies above. 

The gods have been generous ever since. 

East to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (69 mi) north to south; its land area is 5,632 km² (2,175 square miles). To put this into perspective, Bali is just a bit over three and one-half times the size of the island of Oahu, Hawaii at 607 square miles. 

Be advised that the time in Bali is GMT + 8 hours. 

General Information
Bali has approximately 3,500,000 inhabitants of which probably 80% are Hindu Balinese. The remaining having come from neighboring islands of Java, Lombok, Madura in search of employment.

Bali lies just 8.67° (965 km) south of the equator. As such the weather is tropical - consistently hot and sunny. Days are almost universally 12 hours long with sunrise is approximately 6:10 a.m.; sunset at 6:30 p.m. depending on the time of year. The daytime temperature averages between 27° C to 32° C (80° F to 90° F) in the southern lowlands (the main tourist venues). Humidity is quite high - a sticky 75% so often times it feels much hotter. Average temperature in the mountains is between 20° C to 25° C (70° F to 80° F). At night the mountains can get downright chilly - so bring a sweater if you plan to overnight there.

Bali’s tropical monsoon climate has two distinct seasons; dry (May to September) and wet (October to April). Monsoon refers to the wind, not the rain. However even in the wet monsoon there’s a better than even chance that it will be sunny for a good part of the day. Weather wise May, June and July are generally considered the best.