I think we were surprised to learn that Bali was not typically Indonesian but an unusual island with a mixture of Hindi and indigenous culture. Bali is an anomaly – not only is it the only Hindu enclave in the world’s biggest Muslim nation, but the Hinduism practised here would be unrecognisable in India, flavoured as it is by Buddhism and, more significantly, animism. The people of Bali worship the big things - the trees, rocks and, most importantly, the mountain. We left the boat by tender and landed at a resort village where we were greeted by an extremely friendly reception organised by the ship's agents, but also to unbelievable levels of hassle by local sales people, of which more later. We were herded onto the coach for the tour (we had used some more
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