Bali

On Bali, ceremony, dance, color, arts and crafts continue as they have for centuries, an enclave of the Hindu culture that was widespread in Indonesia until the fall of the Majapahit Kingdom in Java in the 16th Century. Now this vibrant culture can only be seen elsewhere in Indonesia in the palaces of Jogjakarta and the temple complex of Prambanam, Java.

We have a tour to Bali and Komodo in February 2008. Click to our Bali Komodo Tour pages for more information.

For the biologically inclined, Bali is the eastern end of Asia. A scant 20 miles across the Lombok Straight the island of Lombok marks the start of Australasia. Figuratively speaking tigers looked from to Bali across to Lombok, where cockatoos looked back at them; they never met. As you travel further west throught the archipelago from Lombok - Sumbawa, isolated Sumba, Komodo, Rinca, Flores and on to Timor and a scattering of smaller islands Asia fades further into the distance, and Australasian influences become stronger. Wallace first noticed this change, and suggested a line of demarcation that ran from between Sulawesi and Borneo down between Bali and Lombok; this today is known as Wallace's Line, although a more nodern interpretation is to admit that there is a reasonable amount of overlap, and call the islands and seas of the region Wallacea. This is pretty much everywhere south of the Phillipines and west of Bali, including Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara (the island chain from Lombok to Flores), Timor, Halmahera, Ceram and Tanimbar islands. New Guinea and Aru mark the beginning of Australasia, also called once islands to the northeast of Australia are included, Oceania.

In addition to the differences in wildlife there's also a corresponding change in vegetation. The wet closed forests of Southeast Asia give way to the sclerophyll dominated open forests, woodlands and savannahs of Nusa Tenggara. While this is in part climatic, once wet forests re-appear in Australia they are not the dipterocarp forests of Southeast Asia, but forests with dirrent trees from often very ancient families such as Proteaceae. A few Asian repersentatives make it all the way to Australia, such as Vanda orchids and Nipa Palms, but typically Australian genera such as Eucalyptus don't make it to Bali's shores (unlike thousands of Australia's human population each year).

You can find our information about traveling to and within Bali, including immigration, visas, getting about, dining, money and lots more on our Indonesia Information pages here.

Our NBG tour can be found here

Video of arrival at Denpasar Airport including Visa on Arrival, immigration and customs.