Bali Volcanoes and Lakes

Island of Bali in Indonesia is renowned for its natural beauty and as a fabulous tourist attraction. However, the island is also famous for its terrorist attacks in recent years. Since then, the native people of Bali have recovered and the island is now a hotspot for tourists from all over the world once again, especially for its beach hotels and villas also volcano helicopter tours.

The island's ecology and geography are influenced by the high mountain range of volcanoes that dominate the island. These great volcanoes created Bali's stunning mountainous landscape and they occasionally regenerate its soils and help produce heavy rains that provide this tropical paradise island with precious fresh water.

The Balinese considered the island's many volcanoes, lakes and spring as sacred and treat them with respect and awe. If you are a tourist traveling to Bali for your vacation, you will be awestruck with the sheer majesty of the volcanoes. These natural landscapes are some of tourist attractions and many people go to see the volcanoes on helicopter tours so that they can view the volcanoes and all it splendor and take some pictures. The island is still continually being formed by volcanic activities.

Bali is situated over a major fault zone where the Indo-Australian plate collides with the Sunda plate. In 1963, the eruption on Mount Agung killed thousands of people and utterly destroyed many rice fields and irrigation network.

The dramatic lava flows on the north eastern faces of Mount Agung is the newest landforms, showing what the island may look like in ancient pre-historic time. It is a fascinating sightseeing experience, almost like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

Perhaps, the most popular volcano for tourists to visit and go sightseeing is Mount Batur. This grand old dame of a volcano sits in a giant caldera that contains a lake that is a few miles long and over a mile wide. Mount Batur is actually a very active volcano and can erupt moment as it erupted with great frequency but the eruptions are less violent these days except in a giant eruption in 1917 which claimed thousands of lives and destroyed hundreds of temples and villages.

Hiking up Mount Batur in the wee small hours of the morning has become something of a "must do" thing for many tourists in Bali. Sometimes is essential to bring along a sweater as it can get a little chilly at the volcano summit.

There is also some coffee shop at the rim selling drinks for thirsty hikers and many children and women in flip flops balancing buckets of soft drinks on their heads scampering around trying to earn your money. As the sun rises, you will get a great view of Lombok and other surrounding islands.

One very interesting hike on Mt Batur is the climb down the inside of the crater from Penelokan to Kedisan. There are boats at Toya Bungkah Lake to take you across the lake to a village called Trunyan. This village is famous for its rare traditions. Instead of cremating or burying their deceased, the Trunyan villagers leave dead human bodies to decompose naturally in a designated cemetery.

Although Bali is known for rice farming, its volcanic soil is actually not well suited for such activities. The soil is finely textured and well drained, so water soaks through the soil quickly and thus precious water is wasted. Therefore the solution is repeated ploughing which make the soil less permeable.

So if you go to Bali for your holiday vacation, do not forget to have a sightseeing trip to view Bali's towering volcanoes, better yet, take a helicopter tour of this spectacular tourist attraction.