The more stars the better. Copyright 1994-1998, Wayne Reid Take a look at the weather forecast in Bali this week. Rain may occur even during the dry season, and the humidity is generally high year-round, although it is very high during the hot wet season. The most holy of trees, the banyan, grows to a massive size, and may have hundreds of creepers hanging from its branches. They grow in many of the lowland rainforests, and are a feature of most temples.
Palm trees line the beaches, yielding fruit such as coconuts as well as sugar, fibre, oil and fuel.
In Bali, the coconut palm is said to be the most useful of all trees, providing food, drink, firewood, timber and leaves suitable for making a shelter. The heady smell of frangipani flowers make up for all of the less favorable odours that are typically experienced in Asian cities, and the shady frangipani trees are grown almost everywhere in Bali. Bamboo, bananas, hibiscus, bougainvillea, oleander, jasmine, water-lilies and lotus may be seen growing wild, as well as in plantations and gardens throughout the island. Rice fields dominate the landscape, especially in the lower foothills south of the central mountains, and provide spectacular and scenic views when seen from the winding mountain roads. The first animal that is sighted by any visitor to Bali is invariably a dog of the local variety, usually seen carrying out one of its ritual practices of sniffing piles of rubbish, marking its territory or lying down in the centre of the footpath.