Does anywhere on earth sound more exotic? Or does the name, Bali, evoke an image, long since passe, of a Mecca for artists in the 1930s and hippies in the 1960s? Does it offer adventure, romance, peace and quiet, spiritual rejuvenation? Well, um, yes.
Bali has volcanoes, jungle, elephants, wild monkeys, amazing birds, vistas of rice paddies, azure seas, gleaming sands, colourful culture, captivating music and dance. It also has bungee jumping, go-karting, paragliding, white-water rafting, paint-balling, and an Internet cafe - this latter lot are present because Bali is to Australians what Torremolinos is to British and Irish people. Decades of tourism have left Bali far from unspoilt - and the political realities of the modern world have changed the place too. Nowadays, the only bare-breasted maidens are the Europeans on the beach. But, for the prospective holidaymaker, Bali is still a very attractive proposition - a tropical island 90 miles long, 600 miles south of the equator. With a mixture of the wild and natural alongside the artificial and organised, Bali can be as cheap or expensive as you choose.
The island is off the eastern end of Java and is part of Indonesia. It has long been very different from the surrounding islands, with a heavily Hindu culture. It was influenced by the Dutch and also by the British, although it was never part of the Empire. Bali even drives on the left.
The political upheavals in Jakarta last year left Bali untouched, apart from one incident in December in the far north of the island. However, tourist business did drop off sharply and is only just starting to recover.
The international airport is at Denpasar in the south, a town that oddly enough reminds me of Kilkenny. It's around here that the less expensive hotels and tourist attractions are concentrated. The Aussies tend to congregate in the seaside town of Kuta, which is handy whether you want to meet them or avoid them. To reach the volcanoes, lakes and jungles of the north you need to take an excursion, of which there are many.
When the sun is shining Bali is hot and muggy. Some would find it unpleasantly so. November to April is the rainy season and it can rain for days on end.
Drizzle alternated with downpour the afternoon I visited the Elephant Safari Park. Capes were provided, so it was a comparatively dry journey, but calling the woods we rode through "jungle" was stretching it a bit.
Southern Bali is crowded. The streets teem with mopeds and the pavements are crammed with children in school uniforms, looking like something out of an old British film if they weren't so clean and tidy.
Everywhere you turn there is religion: Hindu temples, statues, ornamental gateways, carved pylons. Young women ride their mopeds wearing gorgeous brocade dresses. It isn't that they cannot bear to change their clothes - the dresses count as religious festival costumes and exempt the rider from having to wear a crash helmet.
Shopping can be eye-opening. An omelette for lunch can cost about 40 pence. In the countless souvenir shops an elaborate kite in the shape of a sailing ship with brilliantly coloured sails and hull costs £2. Charming silver earrings of a fisherman complete with rod, line and fish are £6. A neatly laser-printed sign stuck to a telephone pole advertises: "So-and-So's Bar: Laserdisc. Woody Allen's Everybody Says I Love You." There is no need to go to such places for entertainment, because Balinese music and dancing are everywhere, and it's eye-opening to see 35 instrumentalists accompanying a dancer when in Europe there would be one man at a keyboard if you are lucky.
Balinese food combines Far Eastern with Indian, so there is a lot on offer. If your taste is for the highly spiced and exotic, you will be in heaven; however, succulent dishes for those with blander palates can also be found.
Balinese high life is to be found in the south, notably at the Four Seasons resort overlooking Jimbaran Bay. Each hotel room is a separate walled villa, built in native stone, timber and thatch and aged to make it feel authentically Balinese. Inside are all the trappings of a five-star hotel: air conditioning, plunge pool, luxurious bathrooms, terrace for breakfast. The price is appropriately five-star: £360 a night. At that price it's a little surprising to see small ants on the floor of the bedroom, but this is the Tropics and there weren't many of them.
Four Seasons has just opened a second resort further inland at Sayan, near the town of Ubud, which has become known as an artists' colony. The hotel is built on the side of a small gorge and is entered at the top. The British architect, John Heah, built the hotel upside down, with a lotus pond on the roof, the lobby beneath that, the restaurant another floor down and so on.
The views of the jungle and rice paddies opposite are luscious. At night the sound of the stream at the bottom of the gorge and the clatter of insects provide an auditory environment just as compelling.
Comfortable and secluded accommodation in Bali doesn't have to be nearly so pricy. Waka di Ume is a small resort also near Ubud, and is set on a hillock among the rice paddies. There are stunning views for miles around, even as far as the ocean. The rooms, simple but nicely fitted out, start at £85 a night for a double. There is a two-level pool set in a forest glade, and even a meditation room. Regular shuttle cars will take you in to the fleshpots of Ubud should you wish.
Plenty of tours will take you on a boat to a desert island, or by Land Rover to a distant temple, jungle or bird park. In any of these places you will come across the monkeys. As well as being charming, they are adept pickpockets, but can usually be bribed with food to return whatever they have purloined. Who is to say whether or not the nearby vendors who sell you the titbits of food are in league with the monkeys?
For the romantically inclined the hotels will provide a wedding package. Pay no attention to Mick Jagger's claim that his Balinese wedding was invalid. The formalities are attended to with utmost care. And the surroundings? Unforgettable.