Just before Bali closed its borders, Narina Exelby returned to her home in a coastal village for a lockdown like no other
Just before the sun's rays first touch the earth in my Bali garden, they create a magnificent scene. The air, you see, is so softly hazed with wood smoke from neighbourhood kitchens that sunlight is broken into radiant strands as it stretches down through the palm trees and mango branches.
A tall hedge of gardenia, banana, jasmine, bougainvillea and heliconia leaves blocks out much of the light but the foliage has become a kaleidoscopic riot of luminescent greens.
I have had the privilege of watching days begin this way since mid-March, when my life of regular travel skidded into an unusual stillness because of the worldwide coronavirus crisis. A week before Indonesia closed its borders completely, I returned to my home in the coastal village of Pekutatan, among the trees of west Bali in Indonesia, where life unfolds in much the same way as it has for generations.
Out here we are at least two hours' drive — and a world away — from the usually busy (and more familiar) tourist haunts such as Canggu, Kuta, Seminyak, Nusa Dua and Ubud. As the streets in these prominent holiday areas emptied and Bali shut down to tourism, many islanders returned to their villages.
Although those I have spoken to say they lament the lack of income from foreign travellers — there are usually more than six million a year — they, as I, are grateful to have returned to a place of such nurturing resources and natural beauty.