"Is it really Bali?" you will ask yourself as you browse many of the photos in this book, photos of places you never knew existed.
But, yes, it is really Bali but not the Bali of the southern tourist strip and not the Bali of Majapahit Ubud but the Bali of the island's first explorers and settlers, their footprints still visible after centuries and even millennia.
This book tells the story of Bali's hunting and gathering cave men below Uluwatu Temple in Badung Regency (some of their caves now a favourite haunt of tourists and the sea that brought them now a surfer's paradise); the story of Bali's first ancestor worshippers living along Bali's north coast in Buleleng Regency and Jembrana Regency and along the banks of the Pakerisan and Petanu Rivers in Gianyar Regency and Bangli Regency (now part of Bali's UNESCO World Heritage Landscape); finally, it tells the story of the waves of Bali Aga immigrants who followed an 8th century Hindu holy man to settle in Bali from East Java, building their distinctive villages in a cascade close to the great inland lake water sources of Batur, Tamblingan and Buyan.
Almost all other English language books concentrate on the story of Bali from the time when this book ends. 'Bali's First People: The Untold Story' opens up whole new worlds of interest and fascination at the same time pointing up the exciting possibility of seeing the heart of Bali by car, by trekking or by biking.