bali

The four of us decamped to Bali to celebrate Ian’s 50th birthday. He had organised an amazing villa with its own pool and private garden not far from the beach the perfect place to relax after a frenetic new year’s partying. The beach itself was pleasant with some days some huge waves, and we watched some fantastic sunsets. The weather all the time we were there was just about perfect.
One day we got a guide to take us round the hot spots of the island, the temples, the palace, the huge lake filled caldera at the centre of the island. The constant sun, frequent rain and volcanic soil make this a very fertile land, and some areas produce 3 crops of rice a year. Almost every square foot of the land is terraced into rice paddies, now just planted and full of regular rows of bright green shoots.
The religious culture is nominally Hindu (elsewhere in Indonesia overtaken by Islam) but the earlier pagan ancestor worship still shines through. Every house has its group of thatched shrines for the ancestors, often more elaborate and bigger than the houses themselves. Outside every house and shop little leaf-bowls of offerings are left every day.
The island is heavily populated and every road is lined with houses and shops and temples, with the land behind all rice-fields. Most of the s hops and now some of the temples are now devoted to the tourist trade and it feels a little bit over developed because of this.