For years we’ve been waiting patiently. We have groped our way through Bali’s countryside, attempting to take shortcuts down the back alleys of Legian or Singaraja, or have parked at remote intersections waiting for inspiration on which road to take.
Nelles Verlag, Travel Treasuries and APA all made admirable attempts to chart the island, but their maps were not all-encompassing. Pathfinder’s thematic fold-out map of Bali, published in Ubud, was a charming and artistic homespun effort, but lacked the detail and precision of vectorized computer-drawn cartography, grid sequencing, zoomed down-scaling, multi-level road and street classifications.
We have waited stoically. Now the wait is over. Just this month the very first atlas ever produced of Bali was brought out by Periplus of Singapore. This ground-breaking publishing achievement has eluded cartographers for over 20 years. Long have the island’s residents and visitors alike dreamed of a definitive atlas that accurately plots Bali’s maddening and ever burgeoning road system.
As a bonus to being first over the finish line to publish an all-inclusive compendium of Bali’s roads, the Periplus has also done a first-class job. Designed with the end-user in mind, the maps are clear, logical, reliable and informative. So much so that this bound magazine-sized book is the equal of the venerable Falk Verlag atlas of JABOTEK that has served Jakartans for over 10 years.
The atlas is the ideal size for Bali, providing coverage of entire areas quickly at a glance. It even has my tiny village (population 341) in the foothills of the Batukaru, the first place I looked up.
Maps are in three scales, each with its own distinctive color scheme. Large scale Finder Maps at 1:200,000 scale show all of Bali in just six facing pages. Finder Maps show every major road and most minor ones in every corner of Bali, including jalan putih (limestone roads yet to be surfaced) and new “Bypass” roads that utterly lack sidewalks, signals or curbs.
For example, most of the wide naked band of asphalt that cuts a swath from Kerobokan through the rice fields all the way to Jalan Imam Bonjol is here. At ground level, drivers know they have found it and left it because two giant power poles are situated in the exact middle of the road at either
end. Whether it be a wanna-be road or a well-established thoroughfare, they’re all here.
Critical towns and tourist areas are shown in the detailed scale of 1:15,000. No other map gives as comprehensive coverage of these areas – with important streets and buildings, tourist sites, as well as many hotels, shops and restaurants are clearly shown.
Other features include a key in the front of the book to locate the area you wish to look at; easy-to-read page numbers; arrows around map edge guiding the user to the correct map; index indicating both page number and grid reference; standard and easy to understand transport, recreational and general features legends.
The most important tool in any atlas is the index and this atlas doesn’t disappoint with its comprehensive two-part index divided into Streets and Places, each section clearly labeled for easy reference. The up-to-date and immensely useful Places Index is further divided into Buildings, Accommodation & Dining, Health, Leisure Amenities, Shopping, and so forth.
Somewhat bewilderingly, if the reader just wanted to look up “Kuta,” he would have to know which kabupaten it was in (Badung), otherwise he would not find it listed alphabetically. But this is nitpicking as the Kuta can be easily located by referring to the contents page under “Southern Bali,” in the Places of Interest index under “Beaches,” or its cross-reference page number on the map of Bali in the front pages of the book, enabling you to get to this famous beach - and anywhere else on Bali - in a flash.
Bali Street Atlas: 2003-2004 Edition by Periplus Editions, Singapore 2003, ISBN 0-7946-0088-3.
Available for Rp165,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galeria in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport and in Gramedia bookstores in the Matahari in Kuta Square.
For comments and suggestions, please write : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2003 PakBill
