The fishing village of Jimbaran straddles the road running south from close by the airport to Uluwatu. It is not itself remarkable, but just after you pass the stalls of the village market a road leaves off to the right where some very tall kepuh trees mark the site of a cemetery where bodies awaiting cremation are buried.

After a few hundred meters you arrive at Jimbaran Bay. This is a most attractive white-sand beach 2 km (1 ¼ miles) wide. At the northern (right hand) end, the airport runway can be seen, with the planes standing silhouetted against the sky. Between you and the airport a couple of dozen fishing boats will almost certainly be pulled up on the beach. The sands run away again to the left until they reach a green headland, while immediately on your left is the hotel.

From Jimbaran the road, after crossing level country, begins to climb up onto the limestone plateau itself, and before long there is a fine view backwards over the airport and southern Bali. Immediately piles of white stone, destined for the most part for roadworks, can be seen at the side of the road. With its dry stone walls and scanty vegetation, the landscape looks like what geographers refer to as karsts scenery anywhere in the world. Underground there may be secret rivers and caverns measureless to man, but here on the surface the soft dry contours present a terser, tighter-lipped picture. In place of lush rice terraces and coconut palms is a waterless landscape more reminiscent, with its chirping crickets and scent of herbs, of the south of France than the tropics.

The red-tiled buildings you pass on the left are the new premises of the Denpasar University, Universitas Udayana. Two kilometers (1 ¼ miles) further on, ignore a left turn at a small junction with a statue if your destination is Uluwatu, the road to which rises and falls, offering beautiful glimpses of the sea ahead, until finally it arrives, 21 km (14 miles) from Kuta, at its destination.