You can breathe Bali in, as much as you can walk on its earth. The spirit of Balinese culture is so distinctly sweet, I had to bring fragments of it home in my pockets. Of course, some of Bali’s magic still slipped through my fingers and for those moments, there are photographs…

Truthfully, I couldn’t help but see Bali through a camera lens… When every turn looks like a storybook, it’s too sugary to resist. Since I have so many photographs and words to spill from Bali, there will be a whole series coming – starting with, of course, this photo diary, or, highlight reel. (Believe me, while Bali was dripping with magic, it definitely also had a sting in its tail – but more on that later)

I honestly don’t believe I have taken this many photographs on my travels yet, but when a story opens on The Jungle Book and turns to Island life on the lick of the next page, the shifting worlds have to be captured, before the page gets turns again.

We spend just two weeks in Bali and the nearby islands, dragging our backpacks to a new home every one or sometimes two nights, and oh my, did we stay in some fairy-tale worlds. There were outdoor baths shared with dusty pink petals and dancing geckos and even huts without walls. Actually, we stayed mostly in places that lacked the traditional four walls in favour of soaking in jungle sounds, scents and sights, day and night.

Very much an eclectic trip, we spend our days dancing to reggae at Bestival before biking around nearby islands, and swinging off cliffs above the deep jungle. Of course, there was a lot of chasing waterfalls too – as it turns out, our favourite waterfall on this blue planet so far was only a muddy and wet hike away, near a rupturing volcano.

Oh my, was it worth it though…