Bali

On the first evening we went to Pura Luhur Uluwatu, the Uluwatu Temple. It stands on the very edge of a cliff about 70 metres above the Indian Ocean, and it's one of Bali's six great directional temples, the ones believed to guard the island. This one watches the southwest, and it is said to protect Bali from the evil spirits of the sea. A first shrine was built here around the 11th century. In the 16th century the Javanese priest Dang Hyang Nirartha, who shaped a lot of Balinese Hinduism, rebuilt it, and the story goes that he reached enlightenment on this cliff. Visitors can't go into the inner courtyard, which is kept for prayer, but the path along the cliff is where the view is anyway. You wear a sarong, and they lend you one at the entrance.

Watch out for the monkeys. They are... bold, let's say. They'll take your sunglasses or your phone the second you stop paying attention. The one thing we missed was the Kecak fire dance, performed at the temple every evening at sunset. It runs at fixed times, we hadn't planned for it, and by the time we thought about it the seats were gone.

The next morning we went down to Padang Padang. I'll be honest, the beaches around Uluwatu are not my favourite in Bali. The coastline is something else, though. Tall limestone cliffs, and surfers in every bay. To reach Padang Padang you take a staircase that squeezes down through a crack in the rock, and suddenly there's a small curve of sand. If it looks familiar, that's because Julia Roberts was here: Eat Pray Love filmed some of its Bali scenes on this beach in 2010, and people still call it the Eat Pray Love beach. My friend spent most of the morning in the water. I stayed on the sand and watched the surfers, which is a sport in itself. If you want to try, there are surf schools all along this coast, and some do lessons for complete beginners.

That evening we went down to Sundays Beach Club, which sits right at the bottom of the cliff. You ride down in a little cable car. There are cabanas and beanbags on the sand, and when the sun went down they lit a fire. The next morning we drove to Sanur for the boat.

The boat scared me a bit. Worth it. On the island we hired a local guide with a car, and he planned our days around the light and the crowds. Kelingking first thing in the morning, all the way down to the beach. Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong, which sit side by side on the west coast. Diamond Beach on the east, where the water is so blue it looks edited. In the evenings, dinner with live music and very dusty legs.

The next day we walked down to the Sacred Monkey Forest. Moss on everything, old stone temples, banyan roots hanging over the paths. Same story as Uluwatu with the monkeys, though. Keep your bag zipped and don't walk around with food in your hand.

Later that afternoon we drove out to the Tegallalang rice terraces, about 20 minutes north. We got there around half past four, when the light starts getting softer.

That evening, finally, the Kecak and fire dance. Kecak has no instruments. The music is the dancers themselves: a circle of dozens of bare-chested men in checked sarongs, chanting "cak-cak-cak" in overlapping rhythms, sometimes so fast it sounds like one big machine. In the middle of the circle they act out a piece of the Ramayana, the Hindu epic, where Prince Rama sets out to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Rawana, helped by Hanuman and his army of monkeys. The chanting men are that monkey army. Kecak grew out of an old trance ritual called sanghyang, used to drive away sickness and bad spirits, and in the 1930s it was shaped into the show you see today. The ending comes from the same ritual. A man in trance, riding a little wooden horse, kicks his way through a pile of burning coconut husks, barefoot. After missing it in Uluwatu, I loved every minute.

We went looking for a water temple the next day and ended up at Pura Tirta Empul, in Tampaksiring, about 20 minutes from Tegallalang. It was built in the 10th century around a spring, and the Balinese believe the god Indra made that spring so his army could drink and heal. The water still bubbles up into a clear pool in the inner courtyard. Next to it is a long stone bath with a row of spouts, and people wade in up to their waist and move from one spout to the next, praying and letting the water run over their head. It's a purification ritual called melukat, and locals come for it before ceremonies or when they want a fresh start. You need a sarong to go in, and they're lent at the entrance.

On our last full day we went back into the rice fields, to Cretya Ubud. It's a day club built into the terraces at Tegallalang, with pools and daybeds looking straight out over the paddies. Very pretty. Also very touristy, and quite pricey for Bali, so go knowing that. Yes, I did the swings and the photos, I'm not going to pretend I didn't. Then we had lunch at a table facing the terraces.

One morning we walked the Campuhan Ridge Walk. It starts on the west side of town, down by the bridge where two rivers meet (that's what campuhan means), next to the little temple of Pura Gunung Lebah. From there a narrow paved path climbs onto a ridge covered in tall grass, with the jungle dropping away into the valleys on both sides. It's about 2 km, free, and easy enough for anyone. Go early, before the sun gets strong, because there's almost no shade.

Afterwards we booked massages, and here's my small warning: a Balinese massage can be really strong. If it hurts, just say "softer, please". They won't mind at all.

We were there in September, which is ceremony season, and one day we came across a ceremony at a temple in Ubud. Seeing it felt really special. Then it was time for the mountains.

Munduk is waterfall country. The village sits about 1,000 metres up in the cool highlands of Buleleng, in the north of Bali, and the streams coming off the hills drop through clove and coffee plantations one fall after another. Most of them are a short hike down from the road. We went to Munduk Waterfall, the one the village is named for. A stepped trail takes you down through shaded plantations, and then there it is, pouring down a mossy gorge into a natural pool where people were swimming. If you have more time, you can link it with the other falls nearby, or drive on to the twin lakes of Buyan and Tamblingan.

On the way back down, our driver stopped at Ulun Danu Beratan, the temple on the lake. It was built in the 17th century for Dewi Danu, the goddess of the lake, and when the water is high the shrines really look like they're floating.

We also stopped at the Jatiluwih rice terraces, and at a coffee plantation. The plantation was interesting, but we didn't feel good about the civets they keep for kopi luwak. We weren't convinced they were treated well, so I'm not sure about that part. Then it was the long drive down to Canggu.

We still made the most of it. In the evenings we went to the beach at Batu Bolong to watch the sunset. The waves there are small and slow, so it's where people go for their first surf lesson, if you've been watching surfers since Uluwatu and want a go. We also went to the beach clubs. There's live music, people dancing on the sand. If that's what you're into, you'll have fun. For us it wasn't as special as the quieter parts of Bali.

One day we drove out to Tanah Lot, the temple on a rock in the sea, about 20 to 30 minutes away. We also took the little back roads through the rice fields, which is how you dodge some of the traffic.