Bali: still as beautiful as ever

West Bali

Martin Morrell

Snorkelling at Menjangan Resort, Bali

To see Bali as it was, not just 12 years but 12 centuries ago, I drove out to West Bali National Park, which occupies most of the island's western bulge, across a strait from Java's eastern tip. Bali's only national park, it comprises nearly 20,000 hectares of forest, with an additional 50,000 hectares protected from development. The original forest here isn't tropical rainforest as in the national parks of Java, but coastal savannah, with deciduous trees and thick underbrush. With not a coconut palm or a banana tree in sight, it doesn't look like the Bali of brochures. You might think you were in rural Alabama or Sweden were it not for the monkeys, iguanas and pythons, and the gentle herds of russet-coloured mouse deer and muntjak which run throughout the park.