Word: balies
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...time a travel warning for Indonesia arrives, I hear a collective murmur from my multinational friends here, whose ranks include indigenous Balinese villagers increasingly dependent on tourism, Chinese-Balinese businesspeople and American and European expats working in the large tourist hotels. The murmur is always the same. "Tell them Bali is different?" they urge me. "Tell them Bali is safe, even happy...
...Bali is an island in the nation of Indonesia, which itself is composed of 13,000 islands straddling the equator, in roughly the same time zone as Hong Kong and Vietnam. Bali is about the size of Delaware, with a population of 3 million exuberant Hindus. To the west of Bali, separated by a strait of just several hundred yards, is the island of Java, which is about the size of California, with a population of 100 million Muslims. Stretching east is an archipelago with hundreds of small to medium-sized islands, islands with names like Sumba, Sumbawa, Lombok, Flores...
...tiny speck right in the middle of the incredible rainbow of cultural diversity that is Indonesia, Bali has a happy role as the tourism center of Indonesia. Traditionally an isolated society of fierce warriors, Balinese culture was shaped by a wave of kings and princes who crossed from Java to Bali about 700 years ago to escape the invading Muslims. They set up their kingdoms in Bali and then defended their turf so fiercely that even the Dutch did not bother to subjugate them until the 20th century...
...clue can be found in the tens of thousands of oiled Westerners squeezing onto the beaches a few score kilometers to the west. By comparison with Bali, Lombok's white sands and mountain hikes are gloriously empty. So steep has the decline in tourism been that industry workers like Roy are back tending fields and renting rooms to refugees from East Timor. Of course, with visitor numbers down, Lombok is also very good value. But, more importantly, islanders swear they have learned their lesson. The Muslim militias blamed for much of last year's troubles also suffered in the downturn...
...Lombok never lost out to Bali because of a lack of attractions. Pristine beaches ring the island and many, particularly in the southeast, remain untouched. Snorkeling, diving and surfing can be world-class, and new sites are being discovered all the time. Climbing the active 3,726-m-high volcano Rinjani (see Detour) offers some of the more spectacular and secluded hiking in the whole of Southeast Asia. Even those who want little more than a spot to sunbathe should take time to explore central Lombok and the lush rice terraces contouring the fertile lower crater slopes...