Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, calls it her favourite hotel in Bali, but it's not exactly what you'd expect.
In fact, it's more Fawlty Towers than five star.
Meditasi Bungalow in Amed, on Bali's east coast, is a small rustic hotel overlooking the water.
Your balcony is divided from your bedroom by a sliding bamboo door, where there's a day bed, perfect for lying and watching the fishermen preparing their boats or bringing in their catch or the full moon rising across the ocean.
The owner, who calls himself The Smiling Buddha, is wearing white cotton Thailand pants and sitting cross-legged on a day bed in the restaurant drinking coffee, reading the paper and smoking. He asks me when we arrive if I want to do a yoga class.
"Yes, sure," I say.
"Needs at least two to go ahead," he says. "The teacher is a guru, a famed and extremely experienced yoga teacher."
The next day he announces another guest, a German woman, also wants to do yoga so the class is on.
When it begins on the lawn in between the restaurant and the rocky beach we discover the yoga guru is actually The Smiling Buddha's sister, whose usual spot is at the tiny reception area.
"Fawlty Towers," I whisper to my fellow yogi but she isn't sure what I'm talking about.
Amed is really a string of fishing villages on half-moon bays, stretching along the coastline; its clear waters and black-sand beaches attracting tourists keen to snorkel and dive or just hang out.
Meditasi is at the southern end of the village of Aas where the road gets rougher and there's no mobile phone coverage and also no internet. (There are internet cafes a few kilometres away closer to the Amed centre, if you get desperate.)
It's a total contrast to the busy west coast tourist strip running from Nusa Dua through Kuta to Seminyak and Canggu, the favourite surfing spot which is now dotted with villas and restaurants.
In fact, the two- to three-hour drive from there to Amed is like going from concrete to real jungle.
Bali is not all about being stuck in traffic for hours, shopping `til you drop, or bar-hopping all night. And even if you combine the busy and the quiet, the rural areas offer the chance to see country people living the sort of life they mostly have for centuries, particularly when it comes to their Hindu rituals and ceremonies.
But you can still groove with the locals. On Saturday nights in Amed there's a reggae band at Wawa Wewe Two (there are three resorts named one, two and three). There's also a reasonable range of restaurants to choose from, but we found the healthy Balinese food and juices at Meditasi excellent.
Hurry, though. Some say already Amed's growth has meant the pristine coral is beginning to disappear.
A completely different scene is Kintamani in the central north of the island, accessed from Amed by winding roads through farms and small villages or if coming from the Kuta area via Ubud.
Mount Batur is the second holiest mountain in Bali after Mount Gunung and at 1717 metres towers over Lake Batur, the remnants of a volcanic crater.
We wake to the sight of this misty mountain as Lakeview Hotel is positioned on the rim of the ancient caldera. Bring a jumper, this area's a good deal colder than other parts of Bali.
Manager Kadek Krishna Adidharma's great-grandmother moved here in the 1940s and started a dynasty, furthered by his New Zealander mother who met his father here in the 1960s.
He explains that around this time tourism was developing in Bali and people were coming in hordes to watch the mountain erupt.
"We're the first corner where you can see the view," he says over Balinese tapas and a glass of wine in front of the fire.
"So my grandfather started offering fried bananas and coffee in front of the family home.
"He bought some boats and started ferrying people across the lake to visit Trunyan."
Trunyan is a village of Bali Aga or indigenous people, descendants of the original residents.
But Kintamani became the place that tourists visit on a day tour and find themselves at the attention of souvenir sellers and eating buffet food at exorbitant prices.
He and his siblings decided to transform the place, so that people would want to stay a night or longer and experience all the activities the area has to offer.
"(We went) more a la carte, better service, simpler menu to get some fresh energy. I brought in some artists in residence to get some art on the wall."
Even though more people are now coming to stay the night and climb the mountain to see the spectacular sunrise, he suggests they stay longer.
"There's so many beautiful paths in the forest, around the lake, across to east Bali, across to north Bali," says Kadek.
"People used to walk all over the island. My great-grandmother used to sell batik she bought in Singaraja to Denpasar to Klungkung; she carried baskets on her head across the island."
He now runs walks known as "traverse Bali" from central to north Bail as well as treks to the east coast, which I did on my last morning there, leaving the cooler fog-shrouded lake to head over the mountain and down to the coast on the other side.
While there are trucks carrying volcanic rock up from the lake's edge to building sites around Bali all day, it can be a bit noisy - but strangely it's part of Kintamani's charm.
The hotel also hosts workshops and courses including a creative writing one run by Australian Jan Cornall, called Backstage Bali.
As Kadek is also a keen writer and columnist, he joins in this one and takes participants to temples, villages and sites representing different points of the Balinese compass each day.
Another trek that is becoming popular is the sunset walk to the top of Mt Batur, where dinner and champagne is served, ending with a soak in the hot springs on the way home.
"If you do it at full moon it's magical," Kadek says.
Source: AAP
