As I grow older, I find my idea of a great holiday is increasingly about finding the right balance. The balance between running around to do things and slowing down to do as little as humanly possible. Bali offers that balance in spades.

You can spend time in nature, hike up a volcano or walk through rice terraces; you can immerse yourself in Balinese culture and nose around Hindu temples and art museums; or slow down the pace completely to do some gentle yoga stretches, let the vibrations of a gong sound bath wash over you and nap away the hot afternoons amidst an ambient tropical soundscape of crickets and geckos…The only downside is you will feel well and truly depressed at the thought of flying back home at the end of your trip, and wonder more than once if its not too late to renounce your bourgeois existence and the evils of late-stage capitalism and move to Bali to become a professional yogi.

Bali Travel Diary Part 1: The Yoga Barn

I stayed at the Yoga Barn in Ubud, a bustling village in central Bali, and promptly fell in love with the place. This yoga retreat is set amidst lush greenery, has traditional Balinese wooden and earthen architecture, serves up delicious and healthy vegan food at its onsite cafe which is supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables grown on its own plantations in North Bali, has an onsite spa and a jam-packed daily schedule of classes (Tibetan bowl sound meditation anyone?) – I mean what more could you possibly ask for. The classes are also very affordable by London standards – IDR 150k or about £8 per class.

Hinduism in Bali

Hinduism came to Bali around the 1st century via Indian sea traders and has somehow survived into the 21st century, even as other parts of Indonesia and Southeast Asia saw the ascendancy of Islam and Buddhism. In fact outside of India, Bali and Nepal are probably the only two places which still have a majority Hindu population. According to Edhi, the cheerful local driver who ferried me around the island, the reason was that Hinduism in Bali fused with indigenous traditions of animistic and ancestral worship and became firmly embedded into the rituals of daily life. I was fascinated by the colossal white and gold statues of Arjun and Saraswati (and even relatively minor characters from the Hindu epic Mahabharata like the half-demon Ghatotkacha) at traffic roundabouts. Similar to some (but not all) temples in South India, Balinese temples require visitors to wrap a sarong-like cloth around themselves before entering, and pointedly ask female visitors if they are menstruating before permitting them entry (this shunning of a woman on her period as being “impure” annoys me greatly, but perhaps that is a rant for another time). The other ubiquitous symbol of Hinduism in Bali is the “canang sari” – little woven bamboo baskets filled with rice, flowers, sandalwood paste, fruits, incense – that are littered everywhere and I mean everywhere on the island, on boundary walls and pavements and near doorways of houses and office buildings and shops and of course temples. The Balinese prepare them every morning and lay them out as offerings to local deities and ancestral spirits.

Hinduism in Bali is distinct from the practices in India in several ways. For example, temples in Bali venerate the trinity of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, while in India Brahma is rarely if ever worshipped in temples. Major Indian festivals like Diwali, Dussehra and Holi are not celebrated in Bali. Instead they have their own festivals like Galungan and the intriguing Nyepi or Hindu Day of Silence which marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year in Bali and is celebrated by doing as little as possible – everyone stays at home, there is no cooking, very little talking, the time is meant to be spent in quiet contemplation in the company of your loved ones. I was somewhat relieved to find out I had arrived just after this holiday, as life on the island grinds to a halt and even tourists are expected to stay in their hotels all day.

Similar to India, there is a profusion of temples in Bali – over 20,000 are believed to exist across the island. There are larger public temples, smaller community temples (where only residents of the local community are allowed to worship) and most families have their own small family temples within their residential compounds. According to Edhi, it’s common for large families to live together – multiple generations in houses clustered together with a common kitchen and courtyard, which is also common particularly in rural parts of India. The public temples in Bali are large open-air walled compounds, which have several pavilions and Meru towers with multiple tiers of thatched roofs that diminish in size. They seem simpler, particularly when compared to the profusion of sculptures and carvings that adorn the walls of temples in India and Cambodia. Another unique feature of Balinese temples is the Candi bentar or split gateway at the entrance to the compound – where it is common to see a patient little queue of giggly Instagrammers forming at all hours of the day.

Bali Travel Diary Part 2: East Bali

Edhi recommended an early start for our visit to the Lempuyang temple – famed for its “Gate of Heaven”, which on a clear morning is framed in the background by the majestic chocolate-hued Mount Agung. This split gateway went viral on Instagram a few years ago and the temple administration has come up with an impressive system to manage the daily flood of iPhone-clutching tourists that has followed since. When you arrive you are handed a queue number. You are then free to wander about, get a local Indonesian breakfast of aromatic Balinese black coffee and bundles of sticky white rice with banana tightly wrapped in bamboo leaves. When your number is called (which in my case was after about 1.5 hours, even though I reached at 7 am!), you get a few minutes to strike poses at the gateway while designated members of the temple staff take your pics, using a small handheld mirror to create a symmetric reflection as if there is a pool of water in front of the gate (which there isn’t)! It’s a system that works like clockwork all day, everyday.

Very close to Lempuyang is Taman Tirta Gangga, a decorative garden with koi-filled ponds, sculptures and fountains built for the pleasure of the royal family in the 1940s.

Nestled on the slopes of Mount Agung is the “Mother Temple” of Bali – Pura Besakih. The vast complex dates back a thousand years (or more) and has a series of 22 temples built on six stepped terraces rising up the mountainside. It is very much a “working” temple with throngs of local Balinese in colourful sarongs and crisp white shirts climbing up the terraces, chattering away and carrying various votive offerings.

There are many waterfalls in Bali and we stopped by Kanto Lampo on our way back, which has also become “Insta-famous” of late.

Bali Travel Diary Part 3: Mount Batur

Thanks to crushing jet lag, I woke up fairly easily in the middle of the night to drive to the base of Mount Batur for a sunrise hike. The hike is short but painfully steep and as you near the top, there is no path and a lot of scrambling over volcanic rock and gravel. It is also pitch black on the way up and the guide hands you a small torch to tie around your forehead or wrist – all in all it is not a hike for the faint-hearted or weak of knee! We reached around half past five and had just under an hour to have breakfast near the summit before sunrise – eggs hard-boiled in the hot steam rising up from vents in the the mountainside, banana sandwiches, and sweet and sour Mangosteen fruit along with a steaming cup of black coffee. The views from the top of the mountain make all the huffing and puffing and almost dying on the hike up worthwhile. The morning I was there, the landscape was almost completely shrouded under a blanket of clouds, and it was quite magical watching the ghostly wisps of steam rising up from the mountainside being slowly suffused with the first golden rays of the rising sun.

Bali Travel Diary Part 4: Ubud

On my third day I rented a scooter (very cheap, IDR 90k or £5 for the day) to explore Ubud a bit more. The Campuhan Ridge walk is a somewhat short but scenic walk that starts from a parking lot near the Ibah resort.

For a taste of twentieth century Balinese art, the Puri Lukisan museum is a laidback way to spend an afternoon. I found the paintings to be very “busy” – there is a lot going on in each one, either scenes of village life chock-a-block with men, women, children, animals and birds; or scenes from Hindu mythology with frequent appearances by hairy, fanged, round-eyed demons and demonesses.

The Sacred Monkey forest held less fascination for me (you cannot convince someone born and raised in India that monkeys are anything but a nuisance) but I did love the ancient banyan tree near the Holy Spring temple with its mystical canopy of aerial roots that shrouds a small water tank and a stairway guarded by stone dragons.

Bali Travel Diary Part 5: North Bali

On my last day I ventured north, stopping first at the peaceful Taman Ayun temple. The complex is surrounded by a moat and tourists walk on a raised pathway alongside the moat, with entry into the inner compound reserved for locals who come to pray.

One of the temple pavilions has a wonderful costume for the traditional Barong dance, decorated with rice seeds, corn kernels and sea shells.

The dance, performed by local artists during festivals, represents the mythical battle between Barong, a lion-like figure representing dharma, and Rangda, a demon-widow-witch representing adharma. There isn’t always a clear winner or loser in the battle apparently, the emphasis being on the delicate balance that exists between good and evil in the world and within every soul. The temple complex also has a lovely white and gold statue of Sri Devi (the Balinese version of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi) atop a bed of rice symbolising fertility and prosperity.

There is also a small art museum with large photographs of the local Mengwi royal family as well some colourful artwork of dancers and the battle of Barong-Rangda.

The temple is part of an area covering 19,500 hectares made up of complex irrigation systems, rice terraces and water temples, known as subak which was recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2012. The subak reflects the philosophical concept of Tri Hita Karana, which promotes harmony between the spiritual world (the water temples and associated religious ceremonies), the human world (the farming communities and settlements) and nature (the agricultural land and water resources). This democratically managed system of subak dates back to the 9th century, and seeks to ensure the continuance of sustainable and traditional farming practices and preservation of the ecological balance.

A short distance away from the Taman Ayun temple are the Jatiluwih rice terraces which have walking paths of varying lengths, offering tourists the chance to spend some time exploring the terraces without disturbing the local farming communities.

Further north is the Ulan Danu temple on the banks of Lake Beratan. Unfortunately the main shrine, which is on a small island in the lake, was covered with scaffolding when I visited. I found this temple a bit too overrun with tourists jostling for the perfect photo-op amidst its manicured gardens, compared to Taman Ayun which mostly had local community volunteers cooking and cleaning and bustling about the complex.

Gili Air

I topped off my week in Ubud with a weekend in Gili Air, a tiny island that you can explore only on foot or horseback, which is a couple of hours away by ferry from Bali. There is very little to do except chill poolside, soak in the stunning sunsets and go on snorkelling boat trips. Sadly the coral reefs around the island have died and it is difficult to walk around many of the beaches barefoot as they are littered with sharp pieces of dead coral. Popular snorkelling spots tend to be very busy and you end up feeling a little sorry for the turtles being mobbed by so many tourists. Be aware the beaches are too shallow to swim in, at most you can bob around like a cork, which admittedly can be very nice, especially around sunset. The beach in front of Mowie’s Bar in the southwest of the island is probably your best bet in terms of having soft white sand to sit on (instead of dead coral).