More than just sun 'n' sand in detailed Bali guide

More than just sun 'n' sand in detailed Bali guide

By Bruce Emond

JAKARTA (JP): Travel guides often fall into one of two categories. They are either weighty picture books, crammed with luscious images but short on information, or seriously interesting bits of travel scholarship, fit to be thumbed through and returned to long after the vacation has ended.

Few authors can find a harmonious marriage of the two, particularly when it comes to a daunting subject like Bali. Feted and sacrificed on the altar of every anthropologist wishing to head out to sample its legendary charms, the island has been picked apart and analyzed to no end.

Somber warnings that the real Bali is on the way out, its beauty trashed by the legions of package tourists setting up camp on the beaches and the attendant "massage, mister" sullying of Balinese ways, have been made for years. Still, the flock of visitors, not just the Kuta crowd with its uniform of tie-dyes and beads, keeps coming back.

Bali -- A Traveller's Companion is a richly illustrated mine of information about what the famed "island of the gods" has to offer. First published in 1995, but making its debut in 2000 in a large-format edition, it covers almost every base, plus a few that would not concern those travelers only interested in taking in a little sun and sand on the island's famed beaches.

Its 16 sections examine flora and fauna, the island's history, arts and traditions, architecture, Bali as viewed by painters and writers and the sights to be taken in around the island -- Ubud and its surroundings, Batur, East Bali, North, "the wild west" (West Bali National Park and Menjangan island) and South Bali.

Style

It is set out in a simple style of several illustrations and photographs, with concise explanatory text, on each page. A guide at the front of the book helpfully explains the various symbols used at the top of each page to classify the subject under one of four parts: Natural environment, understanding Bali, itineraries and practical information.

There are also cross-references, and a star symbol signifies that a particular site has been singled out by the editors for its special beauty, atmosphere or cultural interest.

With such a format, there is always the risk of the pages appearing "busy", overloaded with too many images. However, the design works in Companion. For examples, the page on "rites of passage" provides brief but well-written and interesting paragraphs on infant gods, reincarnation, tooth filing and the cremation ceremony, the latter broken down into sections on the sarcophagus, "collecting the ashes" and "returning home".

The book takes the reader off the beaten path of places to visit on the island, explaining that "there is no such thing as a single 'real Bali' ... but the first time you leave the beaches of Sanur and Kuta behind and turn off the bypass and Tohpati onto the busy road toward Gianyar, it is easy to feel that you are entering a different and more entrancing Bali".

The sections on artists and writers put the island in a fascinating historical perspective. The views of the writers, in particular, provide a curious window into how much has changed, and remained the same, in Western views of Bali (there is a separate section about the perspectives of Indonesian writers).

The comprehensive quality of the work is understandable from the stellar lineup of editors and writers. They include Adrian Vickers, who wrote the section on Balinese history and coauthored the chapter on writers, and Made Wijaya, himself a famed architect who penned the section on the island's distinctive architecture. Rio Helmi, the photographer, is responsible for most of the stunning images.

It is plainly evident that the team knows the island's ins and outs from firsthand experience. Yet the book's great attention to detail and exploration of many aspects of Balinese life undetected by visitors only passing through make it much more than a travel guide (by its very size, it is more suited to be placed on a coffee table than squeezed into a large knapsack for travel).

The book is marred somewhat by the inclusion of advertisements for hotels, restaurants, golf clubs, spas and even a brand of mineral water. Still, it is an excusable failing when it is more than made up for by the excellence of the rest of the book.

Bali -- A Traveller's Companion is probably not for tourists whose interest in Bali is limited to a brief stopover for a little bit of R & R. Their needs are amply provided for in the many other guides on Indonesia and Bali itself. The same is true of those earnest visitors who want to plumb the soul of the island to find out if its cultural greatness is headed into oblivion.

The book is more suitable for longtime expatriate residents of Indonesia and those who have developed an enduring love affair with the island. With its considerable treasure of information, Bali -- A Traveller's Companion is bound to provide something new of interest to readers already familiar with its attractions. They are likely to discover something new to whet their appetites for another trip down Bali way.