DESTINATIONS CAMBODIA & BALI | ASIA
FROM FAR LEFT: Street display at S’Art Urban Art Festival, Battambang (top); Subak Uma Lambing farm, Bali; weaving demonstration at Satcha, Siem Reap; Living Seas Foundation volunteers prepare to install coral reef stars in Bali PAGE 41: S’Art Urban Art Festival PICTURES: Tui Care Foundation; Shaoyi Zhang
Seas Foundation, established to restore and expand coral reefs and to raise awareness of the need to do the same around the world. Putu, an original fellow of the Tui Care Foundation, tells me she was headhunted for her English and swimming skills and, though she now works as a chef, she still volunteers for Living Seas in her free time. Salma, 23, gained a degree in marine science, and learnt about science diving with help from the Coral Catch restoration scholarship programme, which empowers Indonesian women to pursue a career in marine conservation. We join in with their work one sunny morning, heading out to a floating pontoon to make reef stars out of coral fragments, which are then added to the growing reef below. Visitors can dive down to help attach them or watch from above while snorkelling, and see how turtles and other marine species have proliferated as the ecosystem re-establishes itself around the reef. Tui Musement visits the project on its Bali Coral
travelweekly.co.uk
Restoration Snorkelling Tour with Lunch, from £31, or £88 with guide and hotel transfer.
FAIRER FARMING We also visit Subak Uma Lambing farm, part of the Astungkara Way regenerative movement, which combines sustainable farming with travel experiences. The aim is to “make farming sexy again”, according to 30-year-old trail operations manager Oka Dewani. “That is, instruct the younger generation in organic and traditional non-chemical farming methods so as to restore Bali’s soil and ecosystems and reconnect people with food sources and nature in general,” she says. “Bali has lost 40% of its agricultural land in the last few decades, partly due to tourism.” Subak Uma Lambing is the base for a coast-to-coast trail via nine villages, camping at various regenerative farms along the way, including one in a jungle and one on a coffee plantation. Visits include planting veg or flowers for canang sari (local offerings), learning to make
rice farming more sustainable through traditional techniques, watching compost being made using banana trunks and gamal leaves, or learning the art of yoga nidra followed by lunch from female chef Ni Luh. As an unforgettable ending to our Bali adventure, we head to Besikalung on the slopes of Mount Batukaru, surrounded by wild coffee and cacao plants, to release a pair of critically endangered Bali myna birds into the wild. The wildlife sanctuary here is managed by Friends of Nature, People and Forests, a local NGO and Tui Care Foundation partner. It is working to develop
trekking routes that pass through villages, taking visitors beyond the better-known areas, such as the Unesco-listed Jatiluwih Rice Terraces nearby, and giving rise to activities such as river tubing. It’s a far cry from the Instagram version of Bali’s travel scene, offering hope that the income – and the benefits – of tourism can reach beyond the hotspots to support the communities that contribute the most.
TW BOOK IT
Tui offers a seven- night holiday to Bali, Indonesia, staying at Tui Blue Berawa Hotel and Villas on a bed-and- breakfast basis, from £1,105 per person, based on two sharing a Deluxe Double Room with Courtyard View, including flights from Heathrow on November 16, with luggage and transfers.
tui.co.uk
A seven-night stay at Tui BlueAngkor Grace in Cambodia starts from £655 per person, based on two sharing a One Bedroom Suite on a bed-and- breakfast basis, for a September 21 arrival. Flights not included.
tui-blue.com
13 AUGUST 2026 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
