This tiny island of nearly three million Bali Hindus, surrounded by a sea of well over 200 million Muslims, is just a few km from the far eastern tip of Java. 

When the first Dutch war-yacht pulled into Bali on 22 February 1597, they found a heaven on earth. Bali was really put on the map back in the 1930s when several popular documentaries were made of this paradise-like island.

Known as "Anthropology's Shakespeare," Bali's unbelievably complex and durable social and religious fabric is known the world over, but the island offers so much more: orange and gold tropical sunsets, one of Asia's great shopping emporiums, the smiles of the children, the sound of the palms, long stretches of unpeopled beaches, world-caliber coral dive sites. 

Although Bali is only 135 km long by 90 km at its widest, you can still get as lost as you want. There are hundreds of villages that haven't changed in 50 years. 

You don't need directions; just head for the hills.... 

Bali is one big sculpture. Every earthen step is manicured and polished, every field and niche carved by hand. Once a geographic extension of Java, Bali still resembles Java, mountains and all, sharing much the same climate, flora, and fauna as its mother island to the west. There are few flat areas; hills and mountains are everywhere. 

The island's surface is marked by deep ravines, fast-flowing rivers, and, in northern Bali, a west-to-east volcanic chain 1,500-3,000 meters high, an extension of Java's central range.  

On the plains of southern Bali are rice fields exquisitely carved out of hills and valleys, sparkling with water of vivid green. As you head north, the landscape changes from tiers of rice to gardens of onions, cabbages, and papayas. 

A satellite view of southern Bali. 

Clearly visible the strip of the Ngurah Rai International Airport

Bali's western tip, Pulaki, is the island's unspoiled, uninhabited wilderness. Legend has it Bali's first inhabitants originated here in a lost, invisible city....