Situated smack in the middle of the world’s largest Muslim country is an island whose population is 95% Hindu!

Welcome to BALI, welcome to paradise. Friendly, hospitable people combined with a magnificently visual culture infused with spirituality and spectacular beaches with great surfing and diving have made Bali Indonesia’s greatest tourist attraction. Many international visitors to Indonesia visit Bali and Bali alone.    

It is also renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting and performing arts. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese dances portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce batik and ikat clothing, wood and stone carvings and silverware.

Peopled by Austronesians (from Taiwan!) from about 2000 BCE and influenced by the Hindu empires from the 1^st century AD, Bali had its first European contact when the Portuguese foundered in 1585. The Dutch followed and ruled in the 19^th century. Imperial Japan occupied during WWII and the Dutch returned with the end of the war in 1945. Indonesia became independent in 1949.

The island’s varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides provide a picturesque backdrop to the colourful and deeply spiritual culture of this ‘Island of The Gods’. There are an estimated 20,000 temples (pura) on the island, each of which holds festivals (odalan) at least twice a year and there are many other auspicious days throughout the year, meaning that there are always festivities you can observe or even engage in.

Kuta is the surfer central, by far the most heavily developed bit of Bali with lots of shopping and night-life, and the center of party culture on Bali. Uluwatu beach is one of the island’s greatest, located at the other end of an amazing cave. For an enclave of expensive high-end resorts go to Nusa Dua.

Ubud is the center of art and dance in the foothills, with an interesting small palace, monkey forest, and lots of arts and crafts shops. On the eve of Nyepi, the Hindu New Year, large, colorful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits, an amazing sight not to be missed.

Bali is always warm, humid and tropical, remaining around 30C to 35C all year round. The April-October dry season and November-March rainy seasons are only relative, with plenty of rainfall around the year, but the Balinese winter is cloudier, more humid and with a higher chance of thunderstorms.

A more important consideration is the tourist season, as Bali can get packed in July-August and again around Christmas and New Year’s. Australians also visit during school holidays in early April, late June and late September, while Indonesians visit during national holidays. If you visit outside these peaks, good discounts on accommodation are often available and Bali can be surprisingly quiet…

And remember: Eat, shake hands, receive things, pay money, and finally wave goodbye with your right hand – never your left!

Wishing you an enjoyable and memorable stay in the Island of the Gods!!!