Plan your trip to Bali

Uluwatu Temple in Bali feels close to paradise. Pavel Mitrofanov/iStockphoto.com

Featured in our 2010 Wish List forthcoming in the December 2009 issue of ISLANDS magazine (on newsstands November 16), the largely Hindu island of Bali in largely Muslim Indonesia serves a sensory feast — incense, jungle giving way to beach, gamelan music celebrating the spirit.

FLY Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong to Denpasar, Bali. From there hire a taxi for the day and you’ve got your own chauffeur. It’s a short drive north to Ubud, center of the arts for centuries.

STAY at any of the Alam Indah hotels of Ubud. Bali hotels like the Samaya in Seminyak sometimes feel like temples themselves, the seas they sit on like holy water.

EAT traditional homestyle Balinese food at Bumbu Bali Restaurant & Cooking School, run by Swiss-born chef and Balinese cuisine convert Heinz von Holzen, author of Bali Unveiled: The Secrets of Balinese Cuisine and other Bali food books. “Bumbu” is the spice blend used in all Balinese cooking, and the school will teach you to make it and use it.

PRAY at innumerable temples, including Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple (featured in the 2010 ISLANDS Calendar), an exquisite manmade structure in a stunning natural setting, or Uluwatu Temple pictured above. These places create a mood of reverence regardless your faith.

LOVE at your own discretion. This part is up to you, but be careful whom you travel with. Bali makes it easy.

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