Life is very full of coincidence as we all know, and this last month as I was in Sanur around the Bali Beach Hotel doing some media preparation for the Rusty Rumble in Da Jungle surf competition, a very interesting one happened to pop up. It was while myself and Lorca Lueras were searching for a good high-ground vantage point for a few photos and some video footage when he remembered that on top floor of the Bali Beach Hotel was a conference room with windows that we could shoot from...more

The small boat rocked precariously as I stepped onto a rickety wooden landing stage and walked the few metres to the entrance of the tiny cemetery. Shrouded by the broad canopy and trailing branches of a towering tree, the stone steps and narrow split gate were almost hidden from sight. A pair of green-painted statues, the cemetery guardians, surveyed me silently as I entered their domain. The air was clammy, and the atmosphere heavy and eerie...more

Faces Restaurant sits majestically on the side of a hill sheltered by The Balé (T: 0361 775 111) white tiled walls and complemented by the natural colour of thatched roofs, salak wood and the lively orange of blossoming trees. The resort is home to 29 idyllic pavilions on 1.7 hectares of land, leaving room for unreserved privacy and solitude...more

The men are squatting, huddled against each other. Several keep their arms stretched in front of them, while others hold on tightly to fighting cocks. They stare blankly at your passing car. You gaze back, no less awed and empty-eyed. Body language is one of the less well known, although most obvious, aspects of cultural encounters. There are few instances where differences between a Westerner and a Balinese are more distinctly mirrored...more

The void between heading into the Balinese hills on your own bike, never to be seen again, and following a train of day-trippers freewheel downhill to the next cold towel stop has recently been filled. Over the past four years a small mountain biking outfit, Bali Trail Blazers, has been developing trails across the island's mountainous heart, aimed at the more serious off-road biker who doesn't mind the odd calf-swelling ascent or two...more

The intriguing proposition of a massage performed in a mango tree easily prompted my visions: an elaborate system of roped walkways, giving way to precipitous drops; intricately fashioned and strategically placed platforms resting precariously on fruit-heavy branches; and finally, disconcertingly, a dizzying ladder climb on the way up and scraped knees on the way down...more