Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to Bali and Lombok

This Rough Guide is one of a new generation of informative and easy-to-use travel-guide ebooks that guarantees you make the most of your trip. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travel companion when youre on the road.

From the section.

Detailed area maps feature in the guide chapters and are also listed in the , accessible from the table of contents. Depending on your hardware, you can double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions, or select different scales. There are also thumbnails below more detailed maps in these cases, you can opt to zoom left/top or zoom right/bottom or view the full map. The screen-lock function on your device is recommended when viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates, too.

Throughout the guide, weve flagged up our favourite places a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric caf, a special restaurant with the author pick icon . You can select your own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking the sights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickest possible access to everything youll need for your time away.

Part of the Indonesian archipelago, Bali and Lombok boast dramatically rugged coastlines, gloriously sandy beaches and world-class surf. Both islands are small Bali extends less than 150km at its widest point, Lombok a mere 80km and dramatically volcanic, graced with swathes of extremely fertile land, much of it sculpted into elegantly terraced rice paddies. Culturally, however, they could hardly be more different. Bali is Southeast Asias only Hindu society, and religious observance permeates every aspect of life here; the Sasak people of Lombok, on the other hand, are Muslim, like the vast majority of Indonesians.

Bali landed on the tourist map over ninety years ago and is today an incredibly popular destination, drawing everyone from backpackers to high-end travellers, divers to sun-worshippers, package groups to people seeking spiritual healing. Visitor numbers plunged after the terrorist attacks of 2002 and 2005 but they have boomed in recent years, fuelled by a huge increase in Asian tourists, particularly from China. The island boasts stunning hotels, amazing restaurants and world-class spas but lacks the infrastructure to cope with this new influx, and traffic congestion and commercialization have affected swathes of Southern Bali.

That said, the islands original charm is still very much in evidence once you leave the densely populated southern strip, with evocative temples and vibrant festivals set off by the verdant landscapes of the interior. Just to the east of Bali, Lombok plays host to far fewer foreign travellers, but numbers are steadily increasing thanks to the islands many unspoilt beaches, terrific surf and forested mountain slopes. Blessed with such natural beauty, the island has a burgeoning reputation as a more adventurous destination than its illustrious neighbour.

Until the nineteenth century, both Bali and Lombok were divided into small kingdoms , each ruled by a succession of rajas whose territories fluctuated so much that, at times, parts of eastern Bali and western Lombok were joined under a single ruler. More recently, both of the islands have endured years of colonial rule under the Dutch East Indies government, which only ended when hard-won independence was granted to Indonesia in 1949. The Jakarta-based government has since tried hard to foster a sense of national identity among its vast array of extraordinarily diverse islands and peoples, both by implementing a unifying five-point political philosophy, the Pancasila, and through the mandatory introduction of Bahasa Indonesia, now the lingua franca across the whole archipelago. Politically, Bali is administered as a province in its own right, while Lombok is the main island in West Nusa Tenggara.

TRADITIONAL DRESS

It is customary for Balinese men and women to wear traditional dress to attend temple festivals, cremations, weddings, birth rites and other important rituals; men also wear temple dress if playing in a gamelan orchestra and occasionally for banjar (neighbourhood) meetings too.

Many women wear a vividly coloured bustier under the kebaya (blouse), and some don flamboyant hair accessories as well. For big festivals, women from the same community will all wear the same-coloured kebaya to give their group a recognizable identity.

Men also wear a type of sarong ( kamben sarung ), a knee-length hip-cloth ( saput ) and a formal, collared shirt (generally white but sometimes batik) or a starched jacket-like shirt. The distinctive headcloth ( udeng ) can be tied according to personal taste, but generally with a triangular crest on top (shops sell ready-tied udeng ). As with the sash, the udeng symbolically concentrates the mental energies and directs the thoughts heavenwards via the perky cockscomb at the front.

BALINESE FAMILY IN TRADITIONAL DRESS