Taking nature's way around paradise island

Taking nature's way around paradise island

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There is the inevitable risk that a guidebook is dated as soon
as it reaches bookstands. One only has to flip through the most
recent edition of Lonely Planet's guide to Indonesia, with its
eerie description of the sleepy towns of Aceh's west coast and
pristine beaches, for sad evidence of this.

But the best guidebooks -- well-written, informative, packed
with cultural curiosities, travel tidbits and helpful hints --
remain faithful friends on one's journeys long after a particular
restaurant has closed its doors or a once-favored hotel has
slipped into disrepair.

Bill Dalton's Indonesia Handbook falls into the above category
-- devotees still hang on to precious copies, despite the huge
changes in the country's map in recent years -- and The Natural
Guide to Bali seems sure to follow in its footsteps.

The guide is a travel book specifically for today's
environmentally fragile world, in which tourism has also been
blamed for environmental degradation and the assault on
traditional culture.

It provides guidelines on places that are not only friendly to
the environment, but also to the community and to travelers who
pass their way. A system of "hearts" -- one for favorites, two
for outstanding favorites -- identifies those establishments,
ranging from hotels and restaurants to shops selling eco-friendly
gifts or produce, judged worthy of its hall of merit.

The book passes the "flip" test: Turn to any of its pages, and
there is bound to be a fascinating vignette about how a business
got started, or a side-bar of cultural information that is worth
reading about, even if the place in question is not part of your
travel plans.

It's chock-full of information without being self-consciously
pedantic, the failing of lesser guides that instead descend into
torpid, showy cultural treatises or glossy say-nothing
advertorials. Credit for the guide's success on this front must
go to its contributors, who know the ins and outs of the subject
at hand.

While some guidebooks dispatch writers from their headquarters
to scour distant lands, giving a "new" perspective but inevitably
losing something along the line in the translation, Equinox and
Gouyon have assembled a top-notch and knowledgeable group,
especially the formidable Degung Santikarma and Leslie Dwyer of
Latitude magazine.

Some of the more thought-provoking essays include explorations
of the history of tourism in Bali, the role of cremation
ceremonies and also the island's less savory reputation for "sex
'n' sand" tourism.

Gorgeously illustrated, beautifully written and replete with
maps for each area, The Natural Guide to Bali is exactly what one
would expect from Equinox, a publisher whose collection of
Indonesia-focused works shows style and substance.

The guide deserves a place on any bookshelf, for not only is
it invaluable for those of us concerned about our declining
planet and those who make frequent trips to Bali, it is, simply,
a fascinating read.

The Natural Guide to Bali

Edited by Anne Gouyon

Equinox Publishing

447 pp