Literary Digest LITERARY DIGEST MAY 2020 | Page 10

The
eternal charm of
BALI
hat would one say
Wabout being in a
place where each
morning one wakes up to the
deep blue sea turning into a
deeper blue in the heat of
the mid-day sun and
thereafter into silver in the
moonlight! The Indian
Ocean has held everybody in
awe for times immemorial. It
is on the shores of this ocean
that one finds an amazing
and awe-inspiring
juxtaposition of the
sleepiness (associated with
all beach towns) with the
most happening night life in
Asia.
This beautiful exotic
destination, totally barren as
far as the influx of the
Indians landing there is
concerned, is called Bali. As
one walks out of the Ngurah
Rai International Airport and
on to the streets, one gets
the feel of a developed
country as it exudes
opulence in each way, be it
the brand of cars, quality of
streets, beautifully
landscaped by-streets and
the number of westerners
that one accosts on the
roads.
Surprisingly, the
island has no railway lines
just winding and coastal
roads as this enchanting
little town has a mix of both
– the beaches as well as the
mountains. Surrounded by
coral reefs, Bali has some
beaches that have white sand
and an equal amount of
beaches that have black
sand. But if one were to
reach the beach town of
Padangbai, one would find
both white and black sand
co-existing on its beaches in
This Indonesian island, with its
capital at Denpasar and home to
Indonesia's small Hindu minority,
is the largest tourist destination in
the country and is renowned the
world over for its highly developed
arts, including dance, cane
furniture sculpture, painting,
leather, metalworking, woodcarving
and music all strongly influenced by
Indian, and particularly Sanskrit
culture. Resultantly, most of the
population here adheres to Balinese
Hinduism and Balinese and
Indonesian are the most widely
spoken languages. As Tourism is
now the largest single industry in
this country, English is a common
third language and Bali
Indonesia's wealthiest region.