My kind of Bali

Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya is the Chairman of Bali Tourism Board. He tells Gulf News the lushly forested Menjangan Island (Deer Island) in north-west Bali is his favourite holiday spot.

Technically a part of the Indonesian archipelago, it is assigned to the Javanese administrative district. A part of Bali Barat National Park, the island derives its name from the wild deer herds seen swimming to the island every spring.

A virtually uninhabited place, the reef on the beach slopes out gently before a dramatic vertical drop, and is considered a great destination for scuba diving. Its marine fauna incorporates one of the best-preserved coral reefs in Bali.

Tourist footfall

According to the Indonesian Tourist Board, about 80 per cent of the nearly 10 million annual tourists to the country visit only Bali.

The author Lionel Shriver found in Bali an island with an “unhurried” soul. Heston Blumenthal — arguably one of the world’s best chefs – says he had one of his most memorable meals on the beaches of Bali: a chicken wrapped in banana leaf with a salt-crust pastry with black volcanic sand. It’s an island with a long history of embracing tourists.