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It may be a bit of a bumpy ride, but exploring the island in a Land Cruiser will take you along those paths not usually chosen. Land Cruisers are recreational tanks, no landscape is too harsh to be crossed and a day out in one allows you to see parts of the island that could never be reached, except perhaps on foot. WAKALOUKA There are two tour companies in Bali; that offer land cruiser day trips: Wakalouka and Bali Safari Rafting. Wakalouka features the Land Rover, the legendary safari vehicle used to cross deserts and mountains. The Land Rover is a sturdy beast, yet this trip through rice valleys, rain forests and bamboo groves certainly puts it to the test. Leaving from Denpasar in the early morning, Wakalouka follows back roads northwards for about an hour before taking a stop at Tegal Jadi Village, a stone quarry where guests are invited to descend into the hand-hewn depths to examine the ancient methods of quarrying the stones used for building the island’s temples and shri...

The chain of steps, cutting a narrow band through the damp green forest, rose above me. Sweat dripped from the tip of my nose; rustling and chattering in the undergrowth hinted at unseen monkeys and a cool, cloying mist rose from the rice terraces below. It was not long after dawn, and I was picking my way up the pilgrimage route to the highest station of the complex of temples known as Pura Lempuyang that stud the green flanks of the fractured volcano standing sentinel on Bali’s eastern promontory. Somewhere ahead of me, on the very pinnacle of the peak, was Pura Lempuyang Luhur, 1,060 meters above sea level and the eastern directional anchor of the Balinese compass. Some 1,700 steps lead to the temple, but I had long since lost count of how many I had still to climb. Pura Lempuyang Bali My first view of the mountain had come in the lavender light of the previous evening. Traveling north by motorbike from Amlapura, the administrative capital of Karangasem , Bali’s most easterly...