Bali Rewind

View Larger Map (me playing with maps as a header – how would it look at the top of the page, I wonder?)

It’s a few weeks late, I know, but I thought I would never the less get down to writing a few words about Bali in Indonesia.

This was the holiday that was in my targets for a very long time, and nothing was going to stop me going over there and maximising on my first two week holiday (outside of the UK) in a long time. All in all, it totally exceeded my expectations – I expected a Thao-style holiday island, but it blew me away with its multi-layered culture and religion, soaring mountain peaks, perfect waves and fantastic, fantastic food.

Villa Klarissa, where I was able to splish into the pool as soon as I woke up. Yum!

My sunset account is certainly in the red

I packed my bike, flip flops and a couple of books, and let the rest look after itself. Fortunately, I was lucky enough that Rich from Taiwan moved there six months ago or so, so I was exceedingly well set up with awesome places to stay and a group of people to guide me around the back lanes – of which there were many.

The highlight of the fortnight with Rich was stepping out for a three-day road trip around the volcanoes and lakes of the island – really very special. And this is where I turned 29 years old – staying by a lake in the centre of a volcano.

Chips

Chips (at 2000m wrapped up a bit warmer)

Refuelling … chip oil?

The island of Bali is a lush paradise. The abundance of rich, arable soil and temperate climate creates an economy that can afford to support a lavish offshoot of Hinduism, which effectively every house on the island integrates a temple. The local ‘Animism’ worships every object, so there were some pretty esoteric places of worship – I even heard of places to respect the gods of television, though this may be purely anecdotal. None the less, climbing up into the clouds, I was never anything less than impressed by the amount of effort put into their built environment.

When stepping into the foreigner-dominated areas to the south, this care and attention on the one hand is lost, but on the other hand there is the ‘Bali Style’ architecture found in the villas, hotels and restaurants that are mimicked around the world.

One of the many gods.