Photos: Keeping Bali a paradise

A Bali trash walk is not for the faint of heart. Kathleen Morrison, with a pointed stick for spearing trash, makes her way along the Ayung River on a trek that will go through rice paddies and villages in the Bali uplands near Ubud. Behind her, Claire Traub grasps a guide wire to maneuver past a gap on the bank.

At Bambu Indah hotel, a Balinese woman comes each day to make offerings of flowers and woven bamboo to the spirits that are an integral part of daily life on Bali.

Below the main Bambu Indah grounds, swimming pools are accessible by a bamboo elevator, spiral staircase and bamboo bridge. At an evening cocktail party, Cynthia Hardy, in orange, steps off a revolving mandala of flower petals. Flaming bamboo torches add to the magical feeling. Day passes are available to visitors who are not hotel guests.

“Lost Soles,” a sculpture made of cast off, color-coordinated rubber flip-flops welcomes guests to Potato Head, a popular beach club at the Katamama Hotel in Seminyak. The club’s exterior wall is made of reclaimed wooden shutters.

A mangosteen, one of the delicious fruits of Indonesia, tastes like a mix of pineapple, banana and grape.

The long house at Rob Cohen’s Villa Campuhan in Karangasem. The roofline evokes the horns of water buffalo, and is a feature of the traditional architecture of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra.

During a morning rice paddy trek near Karangasem, led by Emerald Starr, an American expat who founded Sorga, an organic chocolate company, we encountered a local farmer planting his crop in the calf-deep water.

A walkway on the campus of Green School, perched on the Ayung River. One-third of the students are Indonesian; the rest come from 42 countries. Tours are available daily.

Portraits of aged Balinese people on the sports field at Green School, a private nonprofit “school without walls” founded by John and Cynthia Hardy in 2009. It is based on the principles of respect for the environment, sustainability and positive change.

The hand-hammered copper bathtub in the bathroom of the Africa cottage at Bambu Indah, in Ubud, Bali. The bathroom floors are wood slats, with inch-wide gaps, which can be slightly disconcerting at first.

Inside Afrika House, a 150-year old bridal cottage transported from the island of Java by John and Cynthia Hardy, who own Bambu Indah, an eco-resort in Ubud. The room’s décor comes from the Hardys’ travels in Africa.