If it's August, it's high season in Bali. Parties are cranking into gear and though for some that means running for the hills, for others it's time to glam up and get out of the hotel.

Travelfish.org knows all the coolest party venues that nobody else has ever heard of.

Seminyak is party central with the main spots for grooving being sunset institution KuDeTa, old-hand Hu'u and audacious newcomers Potato Head and Cocoon. The season tends to be called "summer", though in actual fact it's winter in Bali -- we're in the southern hemisphere, folks.

Here's the August calendar for some of the larger venues:

Thursday August 11 (postponed from yesterday due to a plane diversion): Ed Banger Party at Potato Head Beach Club. French electronic music label Ed Banger presents DJs Mehdi, Busy P and BreakBot.

Friday August 12: F Vodka Launch Party at Hu'u. Fashion TV presents the official F Vodka launch with a Casino Royale party.
AND
Wild Party at Cocoon, with DJ Mr V flying from the USA to spin the night away with entertainers.

Cocoon or Cocooo? Look again.

Saturday August 13:  Ku De Ta's 11th birthday party. Japanese-inspired cuisine will be served before a backdrop of red lanterns, Zen fountains, kimono-clad entertainers and Sumo wrestlers. Dance music legend Todd “The God” Terry spins house music and Ku De Ta's DonniOne and Supercozi will round out the musical offerings. A share of the proceeds going towards the survivors of Japan's recent disasters.

Slumming it at Ku De Ta.

Friday August 19: Summer Syndrome's Strictly Costume Party at Potato Head Beach Club. Come in your most elaborate or simple costume -- they don't give any suggestion to a theme beyond that -- to see Empire of the Sun perform at Potato Head's main summer event.
AND
Hu'u's Red Party, celebrating Independence Day.
AND
Vegas Showtime at Cocoon, XPRESS @ is spinning the beats with Vegas showgirls on hand as well.

I promise this is the last time that I use this photo from Potato Head.

Saturday August 20: Ku De Ta's Hello Sailor-themed White party. Indonesia's 22-piece Pitelas Big Band will perform plus Djs Spen and Karizma.

Friday August 26: Hu'u's 24 karat Super Solid Gold party with DJ Golddigger.

It's also worth checking out whether anything is on at Nammos during your Bali holiday -- they have some great parties and often provide a shuttle service down to their beautiful beach on the Bukit. Their emails were bouncing in the leadup to writing this post.

Ku De Ta
Jalan Kayu Aya 9
T: (0361) 736 969
www.kudeta.net
info@kudeta.net

Potato Head Beach Club
Jalan Petitenget, Seminyak
T: (0361) 473 79 79
reservations@ptthead.com

Hu'u
Jalan Petitenget, Seminyak
T: (0361) 736 443
www.huubali.com
info@huubali.com

Cocoon
Jalan Double Six, Blue Ocean Boulevard, Seminyak
T: (0361) 731 266
www.cocoon-beach.com
info@cocoon-beach.com

Nammos at Karma Kandara
Jalan Villa Kandara, Banjar Wijaya Kusuma, Ungasan
T: (0361) 848 2200
www.karmaresorts.com/

Hands up if you stuffed up your new year's resolutions? Did you try again at lunar new year and still kind of not stay true? Never fear! This Saturday, the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox, is the first day of the Balinese New Year -- so you can give it another whirl.

Ogoh ogoh in Sanur, Bali

Bali's Nyepi period really begins with Melasti, which occurred on Wednesday of this week, when Balinese Hindus flocked from their temples to the beaches for a purification ritual. Then on Friday evening, competitive parades of ogoh-ogoh, frightening looking papier-mache effigies that represent evil spirits, are set to take place. Lots of noise made by the crowds turning out to see the often spectacularly ugly monsters is supposed to help rid the island of the spirits.

Then Nyepi day itself -- Saturday -- is supposed to be spent in complete silence and contemplation. All traffic (bar emergency vehicles) is banned from the streets from sunrise on Saturday March 5 (this year) through to Sunday sunrise; TV and radio stations have been asked to cease broadcasts. During this period one is not supposed to turn on any lights, do any work, leave the home or engage in anything pleasurable (presumably that means no post-Nyepi baby boom 9 months down the track).

Traditional Balinese security guards, or pecalang, patrol the streets to make sure everyone behaves, and at night you might have them tapping on your door asking you to turn off any lights they can see from the street. A few years ago I spent Nyepi at a guesthouse in Balian beach with a two-month-old baby and was asked to cover up the clock lights on my DVD player by the patrol. It is amazing how much light a powerpoint or a fridge button can actually cast when everything else is turned off. Last year I remember carefully turning off or covering absolutely everything, only to get into bed and wonder where a very bright flourescent light was coming from. It was our neighbour's garden light -- it was on, and they had gone away. Clearly the pecalang in our area mustn't be that strict (or it was far away enough from the street), for nothing happened.

Tourists are definitely not permitted to leave their hotels -- that includes for swimming on beaches -- but some leniency is granted and depending on their location, guests may swim in pools and take part in some outdoor activities. But at night, curtains are drawn and lights are not at full glare.

Travellers beware: if you arrive late at the airport on Thursday night, you may have trouble getting transport to get you to your hotel, so do plan in advance with a transfer if possible. Planes are stopped from landing on the island for the full Nyepi day; I do remember reading somewhere once that Ngurah Rai airport is the only international airport in the world shut for a religious holiday. Airport service staff must remain within the airport compound for the period.

The day after Nyepi? That's when the Balinese tend to visit their friends and relatives. And non-Balinese vow that we'll keep this particular new year's resolutions a little longer. (If you must know, Islamic New Year is in November this year...)

Rio Helmi is one of Indonesia's best photographers – his work was mentioned in this month's Bali travel piece in the New York Times – and he currently has a sale on his prints at his gallery on Jalan Suweta in Ubud. His sumptuous prints chronicle lives around Asia in places as diverse as Bali, Papua, Kerala, Thailand and Cambodia.

Canoes tied up over the seaweed farms between Nusa Penida and Lembongan off the coast of Bali

"These are mostly prints that I've done for different exhibitions," he told me, adding that both works done on assignment and his personal work are in the mix. "Some of the images go back 20 to 30 years, but the prints are probably five years old, with some newer."

Many of the images, which are mostly discounted by 20-30%, are "artist's proofs". Why are these so special? "When an artist or a photographer pulls the first print, it's like the proof of what you're going to do," Rio says. "In terms of collectors, those are usually considered the most valuable because it's the first print that was ever made of that image."

The sale will go for another month or so, Rio says. Why the purge of beautiful works from his possession?

"The reason I'm selling those prints is that I have so many prints in my studio and gallery right now that I'd rather move them than let them stay and get damaged because it's so crowded in there."

Check out Rio's Facebook page to see the prints on sale. But please don't look at this one – we want it!!

If a print's out of your budget, you could consider buying his new book Memories of the Sacred. The book, published in October, looks back across three decades of rituals in Bali.

Rio Helmi Gallery
Jl. Suweta 5, Ubud
T: (0361) 972 304
http://www.riohelmi.com/

Cremation ceremony in Ubud

Photojournalist John Stanmeyer, who lived in Bali from 2003 to 2008, has an exhibition at the Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort on Jimbaran, the Wall Street Journal reports. The exhibition, "A View of Balinese Rituals",  supports his recent book  Island of the Spirits, which was itself a result of his concerns about the loss of Balinese culture in the face of rapid development.

He says "The pressure on Bali is unbelieveable given the development that is going on. The local culture is fast-disappearing and I wanted to look at that."

The exhibition runs till January 3, 2011.

Tags: jimbaran, photography