While not an exact match, these two pictures do give a sense of the magnitude of Mount Batur.  The black on the slopes of the mountain is the lava flow from the 1994 eruption.  (We did some quick correlation and found the volcano erupted shortly before Evan was born..coincidence...we think not?)  There are currently three active vents on Mount Batur.  Our guide told us that even today smoke can occassionally be seen rising from one or two of the vents.  The town which was destroyed sat in the middle of the lava flow.  Notice the sides of the mountain are beginning to return to a green color as small scrub brush begin to take hold.  The hills in the background actually form a complete circle around the current chimney and the lake.  We were standing on the southwestern edge of the circle.  The circle is what remains of the ancient volcano after a massive eruption and collapse of the chimney.  The lake has formed in the crater as a result of eons of rain and seepage of water from underground resevoirs deep in the mountain.

No, its not a set from a movie. All of Bali's countryside is covered with terraced rice paddies.  Our hotel was located out of the main tourist areas so we had the opportunity to see farmers working in the fields using methods which have remained unchanged for thousands of years.

The Countryside

There are three distinct areas to Bali's landscape - the mountains, the coastal lowlands, and the limestone fringes.  The mountains are dominated by Mount Agung and its neighbors, Mount batur and Mount Abang.  Massive lava flows on the northeast slopes of Mount Agung are Bali's newest land mass.  They are a good example of what the entire island looked like around a million years ago.  The western mountains lie within an area designated as a national wildlife reserve.  

The southern lowlands formed the cradle of Balinese civilization.  In this area it is possible to grow two or more irrigated rice crops each year.  Here  eight small kingdoms arose along each of the river valleys running from the mountains to the sea.  The northern lowlands were home to a single kingdom.

The southern limestone fringes stand in complete contrast to the rest of Bali.  Nusa Penida is a dry limestone island with shallow soils and scrubby vegetation.  The limestone cliffs are pock marked with still active caves.

By itself, the rainfall in the lowlands is not enough to support rice cultivation.  In other parts of Indonesia, the people have built small damns to catch the runoff of the rainstorms.  However, the Balinese countryside does not lend itself to constructing damns.  Instead, they have devised an ingenious and complex system of irrigation over the centuries.  

Bali's volcanic soils are not very well suited to wet rice cultivation.  The soils are deep, very fine in texture, and drain very well.  The solution to this problem is to continuously plow the fields.  This makes the soil less permeable and more suited to wet rice cultivation.  In addition, just about the entire countryside has been terraced.  this further enhances the ability of the soil to hold the water and allows for multiple rice crops in a single year.

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