Bali island in Indonesia is renowned for its natural beauty and as a fabulous tourist attraction. However, the island is also known for its terrorist attacks in recent years. Since then, the people of Bali have recovered and the island is now a hotspot for tourists from all over the world once again.

The island's ecology and geography are greatly influenced by the towering mountain range of volcanoes that dominate the island. These majestic volcanoes created Bali's stunning mountainous landscape and they occasionally regenerate its soils and help produce heavy rains that provide this resort island with precious fresh water.

The Balinese considered the island's many volcanoes, lakes and spring as sacred and treat them with respect and awe. If you are a tourist traveling to Bali for your holiday vacation, you will be awestruck with the sheer majesty of the volcanoes. These natural landscapes are major tourist attractions and many tourist go sightseeing the volcanoes on helicopter tours so that they can view the volcanoes in all its splendor and take awesome pictures. The island is still continually being formed by volcanic activities.

Bali is located over a major fault zone where the Indo-Australian plate collides with the Sunda plate. In 1963, a violent eruption on Mount Agung killed thousands of people and utterly destroyed many rice fields and irrigation network.

The dramatic lava flows on the north eastern faces of Mt Agung is the newest landforms, showing what the island may look like in ancient pre-historic time. It is a fascinating sightseeing experience, almost like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

Perhaps, the most popular volcano for tourists to visit and go sightseeing is Mount Batur. This grand old dame of a volcano sits in a giant caldera that contains a lake that is a few miles long and over a mile wide. Mount Batur is actually a very active volcano and can erupt moment as it erupted with great frequency but the eruptions are less violent these days except in a giant eruption in 1917 which claimed thousands of lives and destroyed hundreds of temples and villages.

Hiking up Mount Batur in the wee small hours of the the morning has become something of a "must do" thing for many tourists in Bali. You will need to bring along a sweater as it can get a little chilly at the volcano summit.

There is also a little coffee shop at the rim selling drinks for thirsty hikers and many children and women in flip flops balancing buckets of soft drinks on their heads scampering around trying to earn your tourist dollar. As the sun rises, you will get a picturesque view of Lombok and other surrounding islands.

One very interesting hike on Mt Batur is the climb down the inside of the crater from Penelokan to Kedisan. There are boats at Toya Bungkah Lake to take you across the lake to a village called Trunyan. This village is notorious for its mortuary traditions because instead of cremating or burying their deceased, the Trunyan villagers leave dead human bodies to decompose naturally in a designated cemetery.

Although Bali is known for rice cultivation, its volcanic soil is actually not well suited for such activities. The soil is finely textured and well drained, so water soaks through the soil rapidly and thus precious water is wasted. The solution therefore lies in repeated and vigorous ploughing which make the soil less permeable.

So if you are visiting Bali for your holiday vacations, do not miss out a sightseeing trip to view Bali's majestic volcanoes, better yet, take a helicopter tour of this spectacular tourist attraction.