At the Beach

How to be mindful of beauty and foulness?

Near Bali, Indonesia (a formerly Buddhist country), there is a place called Nusa Penida Island. It is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, in the archipelago-studded waters of the Java Sea, north of Australia. Though this chain is indeed smaller than the Greater Sunda Islands -- which include such big names as Java, Sumatra, and Borneo -- the Lesser Sundas include a number of well-known places. Bali is among them, as are Lombok and Timor. One of the archipelago’s smaller islands, Komodo, may also ring a bell because of its murderous dragons or supersized lizards which roam around their hunting ground breathing fire (septic saliva) and swim from place to place. In this image we’re high above the shore of Nusa Penida Island, another small member of the archipelago. It may be relatively tiny compared to nearby Bali, but it attracts an outsized share of attention due to its growing eco-tourist and scuba trades.