Black sand that has healing power, why you should not whistle while strolling down a beach at night, Bali's most beautiful and least-visited rice terraces, a very special gift to take home from Bali, a workshop where Batiks are created with unique natural dyes, a place to petition the spirits for a baby, the flute-playing pigeons of Ubud, an enchanting village of traditionally styled bamboo roofs, a haunting reunion of some of Bali's most outrageous demons, one of the world's best unofficial streetart exhibitions, a tree it is impossible to plant, an ancient fertility statue with "more than the usual quota of penises", a mysterious breed of cattle, a village of the deaf, a miniature version of Java's Unesco-listed Borobudur, fantastic tranced bull races, the world's most spectacular traditional fishing craft, an architectural wonder of Bali's Christian heartland, Bali's only colonial-era rubber plantation ... Bali offers countless opportunities to step off the beaten path and is home to any number of well-hidden treasures that are revealed only to residents and travelers who are ready to explore. Secret Bali - An unusual guide is an indispensable resource for those who think they already know Bali or would like to discover its hidden places, taking you far from the crowds and the usual clichés.
About the Author: Six nerve-wracking hours dangling from a frayed cable in a Venezuelan cable-car sent Mark Eveleigh into free-fall on a career as travel writer, specialising in adventure. He taught himself Indonesian in preparation for an expedition he led into Central Borneo's "valley of the spirit world" (which became the subject for his first book, Fever Trees of Borneo). Mark fell in love with Bali when he spent a year living with a Balinese family in 2003 and for more than five years now his writing base has been in the island's "wild west". Although he's covered assignments in more than 100 Indonesian islands (for BBC, CNN, Esquire, National Geographic Traveller and others), Mark still describes the remoter parts of Bali as "a forgotten paradise". Narina Exelby is a freelance writer and editor who swopped stability in Cape Town and 15 years in the international magazine industry for freedom and life on the road. Her default setting has always been to seek out quiet spaces, which is one of the reasons Narina's base for the past few years has been the far west coast of Bali, four hours away from the crowds. She travels frequently - mostly around South East Asia, Southern Africa and Europe - and when she leaves her treehouse sanctuary for a city, she revels in the chance to drink good wine and indulge in cheese... and is often surprised by the delight she finds in the rhythm of big city l