From the rim of Gunung Batur volcano, across shimmering rice terraces, jade lakes and a distant lacy petticoat of platinum sand and surf, Bali's wild island territory holds a full hand of discoveries. The island is no stranger to tourism, but still it manages to enrapture every visitor looking for his or her private slice of paradise.
For some, paradise is a breakfast of star fruit, rambutan, and papaya, followed by a lazy morning of swimming, catnapping, reading and speculating on what's on the lunchtime menu. Others get their utopian kicks from a brisk stroll up a volcano, a white-water tussle with a dinghy, and an afternoon of reef diving and shark watching.
Come nightfall, those seeking culture and arts head to Ubud for an evening show of the sweetly hypnotic Gamelan music and mask dances, while travelers on a purely hedonistic trip might try the pulsing party scene at Kuta.
Bali's natural charms are complemented by an almost audible hum of local activity. The individual threads of religion, art, music and commerce continuously cross over to make even the most mundane daily habit or gesture a thing of fascination and beauty to the outsider.
Food is also a cherished part of local life, and chilli, coconut milk, ginger, tamarind and shrimp purée make recurring appearances in a cast of mouthwatering ingredients too long for Western taste buds to fathom.
With so much going on you could easily miss out on Bali's temples - if the island wasn't littered with them. The population is principally Hindu, and an appetite for lavish places of worship is interwoven with veneration for nature. So it's not surprising that Bali's religious monuments are located in the most sensational settings: next to volcanoes, deep in forests and, in the case of the ephemeral Tanah Lot, rising straight out of the ocean, just like the island itself.
Print >