Bali

Discover the beauty of Bali

Love bites and love potions

If you like your food highly spiced and exotic then Balinese cuisine, a mixture of Far Eastern and Indian, is bound to delight. Share plates of steamed fragrant rice and fried fish on rickety stools at a street stall (warung), or head to Jimbaran Bay on the south coast. Here, the beachside is transformed into a fish market/barbecue every evening and you can eat the freshest squid as the sun goes down.

The Ketupat restaurant in Kuta does wonderful curries in an upmarket setting, and for real top-notch cuisine head to any of the exclusive hotels that have a famous international chef in residence. Most of these hotels will arrange private picnics in secluded locations for honeymoon couples!

Propose here

If you can afford to stay at Begawan Giri, the Tirta Ening villa has an outdoor six-tonne rock bath. Fill it with bubbles and pop the question to the sound of belching frogs and assorted jungle noises.

To get you in the mood

To sample some genuine Balinese sounds, try Traditional Musicians -- A Suite of Tropical Sounds (CD from World Network, Germany) or Music for the Gods, available from the American label Rykodisc. For reading matter, a great place to start would be the OUP Asia compilation, Travelling to Bali: 400 years of Journeys, which contains travellers' tales from early Dutch and British adventurers up to the present day.

Then there's Michael Wiese's On the Edge of Darkness (MW Productions), the story of two Americans who settle in an island village and slowly get drawn into its spirit world and black magic.

Language of love

Selamat hari ulang tahun = happy anniversary

Saya cinta kamu = I love you

Sudah kawin = are you married?

Stags and hens

The area around Kuta Beach on the south coast is a mecca for Australian people who want to party, making this former fishing village Bali's unofficial clubland. Impromptu beach parties and raves happen most nights, so there are no excuses for not getting stuck into the local Bintang beer. For something a little more civilised, go for cocktails at the Macaroni club. There's a big surfing culture in the daytime, so if your board action is not up to scratch you might want to enrol for lessons at one of the surfing schools.

For up-to-date advice on travelling safely to Bali, visit the Foreign Office Website: www.fco.gov.uk.

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