Travel Destinations - Indonesia

Lombok: Beyond Bali

Miles from the madding crowds of Indonesia's biggest tourist trap, Caroline Cooper discovers somewhere a little more secluded

Brahamin, our guide to the Lombok Straits, weaves coconut frond bracelets for extra money. He has a large, toothy grin and like many Indonesians goes by only one name.

"My children are nine and five years old," he explains as he steers his wooden boat through calm blue waters. "They [ read more ]

Yogyakarta: Chime Immemorial

Traditional Javanese face mask
Keith Mundy finds that the gamelan of Java is more than an orchestra or a performance: it's an endless story

"Gamelan is comparable to only two things: moonlight and flowing water. It is pure and mysterious like moonlight, it is always the same and always changing like flowing water. It forms for our ears no song, this music, it is a state of being, such as moonlight itself which lies [ read more ]

Bali: Lap It Up

Fancy foie gras from the Legian
Elderberry cocktail in one hand and fat cigar in the other, Graham Bond swans about Indonesia's poshest playground and gets a taste of Seminyak's spoils

There are, I'm told, limits to indulgence. But sitting here on the balcony of the Paparazzi Lounge – a warm wind whistling over the rim of my cocktail glass – I can't seem to remember what they are.

Tonight there were plates of foie gras and Beluga caviar at the [ read more ]

Bali: Live It, Breathe It, Buy It

The art colony of Ubud has long been a Mecca for stressed-out painters, musicians and showbiz stars in search of a slice of primitive paradise. Graham Bond digs out his crusty Crayolas and makes the pilgrimage to the highlands of Bali

Agung Rai is standing out ut in the paddy fields of Peliatan. It's nearing 30 degrees in the Balinese highlands but he's wearing a woolly hat and jacket. He's not here to tend the crops. He's waiting for me to catch up because he has something joyful to [ read more ]

Bali: A New Dawn

Three years after the bombing, Bali is back. Mark Eveleigh says it's better than ever and the only thing missing are the crowds.

It is eighty years since the owners of Dutch KPM Packet Line had the bright idea of replacing the cargo of pigs they shipped to Singapore with a new wave of culture-seeking tourists who had heard tantalising reports of the wonders of Bali. The old steamers docked on the north [ read more ]