About Bali - an ancient world

Bali – one of thousands of South East Asian islands, between Singapore and Australia, or, if you wish to include the Pacific Ocean –to the west coast of South America. A relatively small island (5500 square meter, or 120 by 80 km), but known worldwide.  

What is her uniqueness? What her exceptional status within a tight organized Republic of Indonesia, with its 30 000 islands? Already as soon as 1920, this small island has been regularly visited by “tourists”, artists and noblesse, ethnologists and adventurers of the “rolling twenties”. Some of them arrived in white linen with tropic helms and wooden suitcases – and stayed on, living in small villages, wearing Sarong and Sandals for the rest of their life. Bali, as seen from the perspective of travel magazines and catalogs, is “a beautiful, peaceful, smiling island of the gods”. And there is something to it: you can see people smile (at you), worship their gods amidst the beautiful lush, tropical scenery on a daily base. And, there is more to the island then picturesque rice terraces. Bali has a way to integrate the dark side, the demons, the social conflicts and individual aggressions in the open, in daily life. The traditions lift these often split off issues into collective consciousness, by means of arts. That gives Bali her unique touch. This one out off 27 provinces is a Hindu culture. Amidst 26 provinces of mainly Moslems, and mixtures of Christian, Animistic and Islam cultures, Bali keeps a Hindu culture alive, with all its rituals and ceremonies, that enter daily life. 

Far away from being that soft, ever smiling beautiful flower girl, that you see on posters at your local travel agent (that, by the way, has been promoting Bali already in the 1930, which in return stigmatized Bali), Bali’s people have been a rough folk. Rough amongst themselves, in endless local wars with clubs and “Kris”, the traditional stagger, and rough on invaders, like the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Japanese. 

But their human roughness and aggressions are channeled into the sacred ceremonies with dances that include fights for the good, in music and painting, and into wood carvings, that show demons and hungry spirits, far away from the topless flower girl of the old time pictures

Bali’s NATURE is an exceptional big variety of climates, sceneries, flora within one island. Along Bali’s length, from west to east, draws a chain of volcanic mountains, that sustain Bali from the ocean floor. On these mountain slopes is where Bali lives.  Generation after generation has carved and dug out from the slanted ground a watering system, that gives life to thousands of rice terraces and fruit trees, and has developed into a sophisticated irrigation system, collectively used, called “Subak”. With no one owner, but the whole social group of one area, making use of the constant flow of water through countless channels and ditches, on its way to the salty ocean. The highest level from 2500 to 1500 m above sea level, is partly alpine, with conifer trees, pines, oaks, bamboo groves, and is used for its grass and wood. Part of these forests is original rain forest, never cut, never planted. The next level around 1000 m above sea is used for extensive agricultural gardening, such as vegetables, flowers (for the always present temple ceremonies), and animal farming (chicken and cows). Some areas, particularly on the mountain slopes towards the north coast, this level is densely forested with clove trees, coffee and cacao plantations, fruit trees, such as Mango, Rambutan (lychees) , Avocado, Durian, Mangosteen, Jackfruit, Mandarines and Limes. Below 500 m above sea level we find mainly paddies. Water irrigated rice fields. And near the coast there is a belt of coconut trees, all the way down to the beaches.

A day tour around Bali could take you through all these levels two or three times. There are several passes, that cut from south to north through the volcanic chain, and open up a splendid view of either the northern “Bali Sea”, or the southern sea with two islands in sight: Nusa Penida and Lembongan. Beaches in Bali are not that great. Or, let’s say, not according to the concept of a South Pacific island with white sand and turquoise waters. Most of the beaches consist of grinded down lava from the rocks and pebble that water brings down from the mountains. Lava is black. That makes the beaches sand grayish brown to black. Except a few beaches in the south, near Kuta and Sanur, where the sand stems from grinded down corals, most of Bali’s beaches are dark pebbles or sand. Once you let go off the image of a white sand beach, you start to enjoy the many trees along the shore, the clear waters, and the tranquil ocean in the north, that allows non swimmers (or children) to play at the beach without any danger of under currents or sudden drops. The ocean swells that hit Bali from the south, have traveled a long way: from a vast open ocean that has no land in between Bali and the south pole. Similar to Hawaii, Bali is “out in the open”, hence it gets vast breakers and long lines of waves, highly appreciated by surfers. Since surfers aren’t looking for beaches, but for “pipes” and “rip curls”, that geological condition has turned Bali, among other issues, into a surfer’s paradise. Kuta (and Legian) have raised from a sleepy fishermen’s hut compound to a busy Hotel and nightlife domain, with an international amusement clientele. As soon as you get out off the agglomeration “Denpasar” (that also have not been more than a “pasar”, meaning market, some decades ago), you are – in nature. From the rice farmer to the fishermen, craftsmen and mountain people, you will encounter natural rural life styles, and outstanding natural sceneries. Bali Nature Tours takes you into the depth of this rich nature and its people, right into the ‘SPIRIT OF BALI”.