We visited the Indonesian Islands of Bali and Lembongan in August 2023. This certainly has been one of my favourite destinations that i have visited thus far. The islands are beautiful, the culture amazing but its the people that really make this special.

The trip consisted of three parts. The first, we were staying in a typical beach resort, and although we ventured out to some other sights this is really the type of holiday where you swim, drink cocktails and lounge around. Nice for a day or two, but not my type of holiday. Thank fully there was a small wetland park within walking distance and some good birding there.

The second part was into the interior of the island to Ubud, which is much more nature driven and more commercially driven with many larger markets.  We stayed in a stunning villa on the edge of a green ravine, with stunning views. Initially we visited a number of the “must see spots” but soon realized that these has become very commercialized, sadly.  Tegallalang Rice terraces is a good example where the actual attraction of the rice terraces and how they are irrigated is now second to the “Instagram activities” such as swings, bike cable rides, bottomless floors and swimming pools. Its an amusement park and not an attraction. But in my walks around Ubud I traversed other rice paddies, and had fantastic conversations with the local farmers and other people living there around their culture and life style. Ubud also provided me with one of my huge wish list birds, the Green Junglefowl. Easy to hear, difficult to see in the lush forest, but we did get some good views for a few minutes.

The last part of our stay was Lembongan, reached by ferry. This small island and its neighbour, Ceningan, is best explored by renting a scooter, and by far the best part of our trip. The freedom to be able to travel on your own on the island from one stunning beach to the next, passing by coffee shops, little bars and restaurants and having a host of massages was just the highlight of the time spent in Bali.  Our host, Yoni, at Dini D’nusa was unbelievable in helping us organise everything we wanted, from scooters, various snorkel dives, and restaurants, not effort was too much.   Another fantastic islander that we met was Rai from https://www.raiartspace.org/. Not only was his art inspirational, but he as a person gave me much food for thought on how we live our lives.

Naturally I spent some time out looking for birds 79 species of which 35 were new to my world list and some nice sighting of other creatures, including crabs, butterflies and dragonflies.